Article

In this paper the perceptions of three mentors and three mentees who
took part in a speech generating device (SGD) mentoring programme are presented.
The aims of the study were to investigate the participants' views on taking part
in the mentoring programme and their satisfaction with the outcomes. METHOD:
Information was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the six
mentoring programme participants. Interview data were analysed for content
themes. RESULTS: Thematic analysis revealed six themes. Of these themes, five
were identified in both the mentor and mentee's data. These themes were:
satisfaction with the SGD mentoring programme, mentee improvement in SGD use, the
importance of a role model of SGD use, the SGD mentoring relationship as a
helping relationship, and SGD mentoring contributes to mentor self-esteem. The
remaining theme, mentors who use an SGD learn from the mentoring experience, was
generated from the mentor's data only. CONCLUSIONS:
The results of this study
provide initial evidence in support of mentoring among people who use an SGD. A
total of five of the six participants perceived that people learning an SGD can
benefit from SGD mentoring by experienced users of SGDs and agreed on a need for
such mentoring programmes to improve SGD use.

Langue : ANGLAIS