The process of language acquisition requires an individual to organize the world through a system of symbols and referents. For children with severe intellectual disabilities and language delays, the ability to link a symbol to its referent may be a difficult task. In addition to the intervention strategy, issues such as the visual complexity and iconicity of a symbol arise when deciding what to select as a medium to teach language. This study explored the ability of four pre-school age children with developmental and language delays to acquire the meanings of Blissymbols and lexigrams using an observational experiential language intervention. In production, all four of the participants demonstrated symbol-referent relationships, while in comprehension, three of the four participants demonstrated at least emerging symbol-referent relationships. Although the number of symbols learned across participants varied, there were no differences between the learning of arbitrary and comparatively iconic symbols. The participants' comprehension skills appeared to influence their performance.
Healthcare professionals are increasingly expected to work in interprofessional teams. Students therefore need opportunities to learn and practise skills that will allow them to be effective team members when they enter the workforce. This article summarises an interprofessional learning experience for 289 undergraduate and graduate students representing 13 programmes in a College of Health Professions (CHP) at a US public university. The half-day workshop provided an opportunity for participants with no prior interprofessional education to collaborate in a problem-solving case study and to inform students of other professions about their professions. Faculty members from all CHP programmes collaborated in writing the case study and facilitating student discussions during the event. Attitudes related to interprofessional collaboration and professional roles were assessed prior to and after workshop participation. A paired t test showed a statistically significant difference in four attitude questions. Participants reported a significant increase in understanding the roles of other professionals in healthcare and community situations. They also reported an increased understanding of the benefits and challenges of working in interprofessional teams. This event successfully introduced participants to interprofessional collaboration and provided them the opportunity to share their professional expertise and understand the expertise of others.
Traditional didactic instruction is not an effective means to provide the interprofessional education that health and human services professional students need. This paper describes a college event aimed at engaging undergraduate and graduate students from several academic departments in interprofessional collaboration. Participants toured and interacted in academic spaces of other professional disciplines to gain an understanding of these professional roles. Interprofessional collaboration was demonstrated and experienced in these spaces and in the group discussions that followed these activities. A series of micro-vignettes, questions, and road blocks provided problems for participants to solve in interprofessional groups. Pre-post comparison surveys indicated that participants increased in their understanding of their professional role and the role of others in health care and community settings. An improved understanding of the benefits and challenges of interprofessional teams was achieved and participants felt more confident in their ability to work in these teams at job or internship sites.
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