Speech and language therapy provision for children using augmentative and alternative communication systems

A proportion of children with physical impairments experience significant difficulties in communicating with others and may be recommended augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems such as speech synthesizers and symbol charts to support ‘natural’ communication skills. However, AAC systems are often under-utilized. Parents have identified barriers to AAC system use to include the organization of speech and language therapy. Speech and language therapists are developing services to school-aged children in response to changes in education, health reforms and models of speech and language development. However, there is little evidence for commissioners of children's services about what constitutes ‘enough’ or ‘good’ speech and language therapy. This paper examines speech and language therapy provision to 23 children using AAC systems in six London authorities. Research strategies include documenting the amount, type, organization and objectives of provision. Evidence for collaboration between school staff and therapists is explored, analysis is made of child characteristics associated with provision and criteria for decision-making documented through interviews with therapists. However, little conjunction exists between what therapists said guided their decision-making concerning provision and observed provision. For the children surveyed in this study it seems that that provision in amount of therapy is related to educational placement rather than individual needs.     

Assisting children and families who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices: Best practices for school psychologists

In developing individual education plans for children who need assistive technology devices, school psychologists will increasingly be called upon to assist in the decision making process regarding electronic augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. A thorough assessment is required to select a device that is most appropriate for the child and their family. Assessment factors which must be considered within five domains (child, AAC device, service system, family, culture) are reviewed. A self-checklist is provided to help school psychologists develop and conduct thorough “best practice” assessments for the target population. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Residential special education for children with severely challenging behaviours: the views of parents

Information was collected, through follow-up interviews with parents, on the impact of residential special education on forty-four children who attended a behaviourally-oriented school for children with severe learning disabilities and severely challenging behaviours. Parents noted significant improvements in self care and communication skills and reductions in challenging behaviour during their stay at the school. The majority also noted positive changes since their child left the school, although one in five parents noted a deterioration in challenging behaviour since placement ended. Postiive change at the school was attributed to behavioural programmes, staffing ratios and skills, consistency and intensity. However, since leaving, positive changes were attributed by parents to maturity. Accounts of parents are used to illustrate the variable patterns of overall change seen in the forty-four children.     

Development and factor structure of a self-report measure for assessing internalizing symptoms of elementary-age children

The development and factor structure of the Internalizing Symptoms Scale for Children (ISSC), a new self-report measure for assessing internalizing symptomatology in children, is detailed. Development of the ISSC was driven by the lack of a children's self-report instrument designed specifically to assess the broad domain of internalizing symptomatology, as well as research findings showing a high degree of comorbidity among internalizing syndromes (e.g., depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, social withdrawal). Thorough and methodologically rigorous procedures were employed during the development of the ISSC to ensure strong content validity as well as clinical utility. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures were utilized on the 54-item ISSC research protocol, resulting in a strong two factor solution for the 48 items retained. Factor 1, Negative Affect/General Distress, includes items that indicate the presence of internalizing symptoms, or in some cases, the absence of optimistic or functional emotional states. Factor 2, Positive Affect, includes items describing positive affect incompatible with internalizing symptoms, or in some cases, items that reflect the absence of internalizing symptoms. Results of the factor analyses are discussed in terms of previous research on affectivity and specific internalizing syndromes or disorders. Potential uses of the ISSC, as well as further research needed, are described. Implications of the present investigation for future assessment and classification studies in the area of child psychopathology are reviewed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The development of two observational tools for assessing metacognition and self-regulated learning in young children

This paper reports on observational approaches developed within a UK study to the identification and assessment of metacognition and self-regulation in young children in the 3–5 year age range. It is argued that the development of observational tools, although containing methodological difficulties, allows us to make more valid assessments of children’s metacognitive and self-regulatory abilities in this age group. The analysis of 582 metacognitive or self-regulatory videotaped ‘events’ is described, including the development of a coding framework identifying verbal and non-verbal indicators. The construction of an observational instrument, the Children’s Independent Learning Development (CHILD 3–5) checklist, is also reported together with evidence of the reliability with which it can be used by classroom teachers and early indications of its external validity as a measure of metacognition and self-regulation in young children. Given the educational significance of children’s development of metacognitive and self-regulatory skills, it is argued that the development of such an instrument is potentially highly beneficial. The establishment of the metacognitive and self-regulatory capabilities of young children by means of the kinds of observational tools developed within this study also has clear and significant implications for models and theories of metacognition and self-regulation. The paper concludes with a discussion of these implications.

A clinical rationale for assessing rapid automatized naming in children with language disorders

Three continuous rapid naming tasks (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995) were administered to 2,450 American, English-speaking, academically achieving individuals with typical language development and intellectual ability (ages 6 to 21 years) and 136 individuals with primary language disorders (LD; ages 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15-16). Naming time in seconds differed significantly (p < .01) between the groups for color naming (Task 1) at age 12, shape naming (Task 2) at age 6, and color-shape naming (Task 3) at ages 6, 7, 9, and 12. Naming accuracy did not differ significantly (p > .01) between groups at the majority of the age levels compared. In the normative group, naming speed increased with age in a monotonic progression. The developmental trajectory in the LD group was essentially parallel, but elevated. The percentages of individuals who failed the naming-time criteria for Task 3 (color-shape naming) differed significantly in the two groups at all ages compared (p < .05). These findings indicate that the requirements for two-dimensional, continuous naming (Task 3 color-shape naming) resulted in reduced naming speed (longer total times) and interference with fluency in language production in about half of the clinical sample.     

Rationalizing teacher roles in developing and assessing physical literacy in children

PROSPECTS - Physical literacy serves as the foundation for several skills or attributes needed for lifelong physical activity participation. Based on its connection to physical activity, physical...     

Perceptual discriminability and communication performance in preschool children.

The ability of preschool children to discriminate perceptually among novel forms frequently employed in referential communication tasks is examined. Results suggest that preschool children who are able to discriminate among the forms nevertheless perform poorly on a referential communication task involving these same forms. Asking children to provide names for the forms enhanced their discrimination performance but not their communication performance.     

Initial insights into phoneme awareness intervention for children with complex communication needs

This study provides insights into the benefits of phoneme awareness intervention for children with complex communication needs (CCN). The specific aims of the study were: (1) to determine whether phoneme awareness skills can be successfully trained in children with CCN; and (2) to observe any transfer effects to phoneme awareness tasks not directly targeted during intervention, and to the encoding and decoding of printed words. Two children participated in the study: Scott, aged 7 and Anna, aged 10. Prior to intervention, both children exhibited poor phoneme awareness knowledge and severely delayed written language skills. Scott received 7 hours of intervention that focused on improving his phoneme identity skills and his letter‐sound knowledge. Anna received 11 hours of intervention that focused on improving her phoneme segmentation and manipulation skills. Results indicated that both children responded favourably to the phoneme awareness intervention, demonstrating improved performance on trained tasks compared with untrained control measures. Anna generalised phoneme segmentation skills to novel words. Both children, however, demonstrated little or no generalisation to different versions of the same tasks or to other phoneme awareness and literacy tasks. Further research is required to ascertain the extent of generalisation that is possible for children with CCN.     

以礼相待,用心沟通——浅谈家访的策略及应用

中学教育与家庭教育和社会教育密不可分。家访是老师和家长相互沟通的桥梁。老师家访要讲究沟通策略,和家长建立互信关系,才能达到全面了解学生学习与思想状况、针对性的制定教育措施、提高学生学业和思想水平的目的。     

Two alternative roles for the school psychologist in the treatment of emotionally disturbed and autistic children

This paper will describe two alternative roles for the school psychologist working with programs for autistic children or programs for emotionally disturbed children. The first approach is concerned with behavior management of children either by consultation to program staff or by direct work with the child, as well as support of staff through continuous feedback of classroom behavior management techniques. The second approach encompasses all of the first approach, in addition to the psychologist serving as corrdinator for the program and thereby assuming greater responsibility for cooperation between the school and the home, as well as for ongoing program development. A major difference in these two roles of the school psychologist, compared to the traditional role, is an intense involvement with a small number of children and a high level of input into the management, structure, and techniques used in a small number of classrooms. The paper will present a model for both of the two alternative approaches for the school psychologist. The model will include: a format for ongoing behavior assessment, suggestions for the structure of teacher-psychologist feedback sessions, methods of school and home cooperation, and a proposal for a horizontal administrative structure of programs for emotionally disturbed and for autistic children. The concept that is advocated is a team of professionals (teacher and psychologist) planning for the holistic development of the child.     

Facilitating communication between education and health services: the provision for children with speech and language needs

In this article, James Law, Marie Gascoigne and Nina Soloff, of the Department of Language and Communication Science at City University, London; Geoff Lindsay and Sue Band, of the Institute of Education, University of Warwick; and Nick Peacey and Julie Radford, of the Institute of Education, University of London, explore provision for children with speech and language needs. The authors report the outcomes of Government-funded research into the provision of speech and language therapy services and identify 13 key themes which emerge from a review of these findings. They proceed to make a series of important and challenging recommendations, many of which focus on the need for enhanced collaboration at a range of levels.