Listening to Jamaican preschoolers’ voices: Exploring relationships between child- and proxy-based measures of communication experiences

The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child recognises the importance of including children's voices in matters that concern them. Traditionally, parent-reported measures like the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) have successfully been used to evaluate children's communication experiences through proxy means. However, available tools like the Speech Participation and Activity Assessment of Children (SPAA-C) and drawings remain underutilised as ways of listening to children's voices. This study explored whether relationships existed between tools designed to gather information about the child (i.e. proxy measurement) and activities designed to capture information with the child. Parents of 37 typically developing 4- to 6-year-old Jamaican Creole (JamC)-Jamaican English (JamE)-speaking children completed the FOCUS in English only, in keeping with previous work in the Jamaican context. Children completed the SPAA-C and drawings in both languages. Pearson correlations were used to describe relationships between the FOCUS and the SPAA-C. Children's drawings were analysed for themes and SPAA-C responses were categorised as positive, neutral, or negative. A Fisher's Exact Test explored associations between themes in children's drawings and SPAA-C responses. No significant correlations were observed between FOCUS scores, which are proxy-based and scores on the SPAA-C, which directly gather children's responses about their communication experiences. However, statistically significant associations were observed between SPAA-C responses and themes coded in children's drawings. These findings highlight the importance of extending beyond traditional proxy means of informing young Jamaican children's communication experiences by listening to children's voices directly.