Text structure and patterns of cohesion in narrative texts written by adults with a history of language impairment

This paper examines text structure and patterns of cohesion in stories written by a group of adults with a history of childhood language impairment. The study aimed to extend our knowledge of writing difficulties in this group by building upon a study that examined clause level phenomena (Smith-Lock, Nickels, & Mortensen, this issue). Ten adults with a history of Language Impairment and 30 control participants were asked to write the story of Cinderella. Stories were analyzed for their generic structure and cohesion resources, both of which contribute to the organization and coherence of a text. Results revealed that patterns of text organization at the level of generic structure and measures of cohesion did not distinguish the performance of writers with a history of Language Impairment from the comparison group. A wide range of lexico-grammatical skills was evident within the Language Impaired group, with few individuals with Language Impairment falling outside the normal range of performance. It is suggested that generic structure and cohesion are a relative strength in the writing of adults with Language Impairment, within the constraints of their lexical and grammatical skills.

Inviting Conversations? Dialogic difficulties in the corporate university

The paper experiments with, and reflects on, the limited possibilities for collaboration and communication across disparate groups within the university setting. The authors respond to the strong imperative to bring management, academics and support staff together, and so move beyond the entrenched positions and interests that those groups often display. They highlight the implications that this may have for collaborative academic publication. The text of the paper works as a research exercise in which each author's contribution constitutes data as well as providing reflections upon their own distinct identity and its consequences for communication in universities. The authors argue that attempts to enact ‘better communication’ is in many senses a failed project, but that it is this very fact which makes the experiment instructive. They conclude that calls to collaboration must acknowledge the fact that such relationships will always be relations of power, and are therefore not easily negotiated or understood.     

Injury rehabilitation: a qualitative follow-up study

The current qualitative follow-up study was conducted to enhance the interpretability and meaningfulness of the findings emerging from a 5-week goal-setting intervention study with injured athletes. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a sample of 9 injured athletes, 3 from each of the three intervention study groups (goal-setting, social support control, and control), and cross-case summaries were inductively derived. The study highlighted the importance of individual difference variables, and the interaction of person and situational variables, including support from coaches and club, inability to train, weight gain, slowness of progress, physiotherapist support, and the importance of long-term outcome goals. Possible mechanisms for the observed effects of the goal-setting intervention included the effects of goal-setting on self-efficacy, attributions, perceptions of control, and attention.     

Assessing adolescent mental health in war-affected societies: the significance of symptoms

OBJECTIVE: To compare the use of self-report symptom checklists with qualitative methods for assessing adolescent psychological well-being in a war-affected society. METHOD: A school-based sample of three hundred and thirty seven 13- to 15-year-olds from two communities on opposite sides of the Bosnian conflict (183 from Gorazde, 154 from Foca) completed the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. A gender balanced sub-sample of 40 adolescents was selected on the basis of their combined checklist scores, including equal numbers of high and low scorers from each side. Over the following 6 months this sub-sample was assessed (blind to checklist scores) with qualitative methods that included narrative interviews of child and parent, and participant observation. School marks were taken as a measure of social function. RESULTS: QUALITATIVE: Some children identified as "less well" by qualitative methods denied having symptoms. Some children identified as "well" had symptoms with no pathological significance for them. The lifeline revealed that feeling "less well" could be more related to post-war circumstances than war events. QUANTITATIVE: The two symptom checklist items have shown good internal consistency and discriminant validity. However, comparison with the overall well being revealed that still in 9/40 of cases the reported presence or absence of symptoms did not correspond to the well being of the child. Items of the two questionnaires did not discriminate reliably between children identified as "well" and "less well" by other means. CONCLUSIONS: Self-report checklists may be useful as a public health measure to assess the prevalence of psychological distress in war affected areas, but they are not an adequate means of clinical screening. Checklists used in combination with other qualitative approaches make it possible to identify those in need and avoid unnecessary pathologizing.     

The Air‐gap Phenomenon in Young Children's Pictures

In Experiment 1, 221 children aged 5;l‐10;2 were asked to crayon or paint an outdoor scene. The shift from leaving an air‐gap to filling in the sky occurred at approximately 8 years of age whether crayons or paint were used. In Experiment 2 four groups of children (mean age, 6;8) who normally left an air‐gap were asked to draw a photographic slide of an outdoor scene projected onto a screen. We manipulated the amount of exposure to the slide and also the information about it given by the experimenter. More children relinquished their air‐gap response when the experimenter had drawn their attention, verbally, to the full sky. When children received this information and were able to view the slide throughout the drawing session, there was also a tendency for more of them to draw the full sky and for those who left an air‐gap to draw the sky significantly deeper.