This meta-analysis is centred on very preterm birth and three cognitive domains. The three critical cognitive domains are intelligence, executive functioning, and processing speed.

BackgroundMost babies are born healthy and grow and develop normally through childhood. There are, however, clearly identifiable high-risk groups of survivors, such as those born preterm or with ill-health, who are destined to have higher than expected rates of health or developmental problems, and for whom more structured and specialised follow-up programs are warranted.DiscussionThis paper presents the results of a two-day workshop held in Melbourne, Australia, to discuss neonatal populations in need of more structured follow-up and why, in addition to how, such a follow-up programme might be structured. Issues discussed included the ages of follow-up, and the personnel and assessment tools that might be required. Challenges for translating results into both clinical practice and research were identified. Further issues covered included information sharing, best practice for families and research gaps.SummaryA substantial minority of high-risk children has long-term medical, developmental and psychological adverse outcomes and will consume extensive health and education services as they grow older. Early intervention to prevent adverse outcomes and the effective integration of services once problems are identified may reduce the prevalence and severity of certain outcomes, and will contribute to an efficient and effective use of health resources. The shared long-term goal for families and professionals is to work toward ensuring that high risk children maximise their potential and become productive and valued members of society.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2431-14-279) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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A new performance appraisal system, developed for promotions in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police non-commissioned officer ranks, fairly differentiated among candidates. Members (N = 6,571) illustrated their performance on core competencies with behavioral examples. Supervisors and then review boards used a BARS procedure to reliably rate performance. Both candidates and supervisors supported the system. The performance appraisal scores predicted career advancement in the organization.The advantages and disadvantages of using performance assessment in making employment decisions are well documented (e.g., Murphy & Cleveland, 1995). The limitations of performance assessment, such as inflated ratings, lack of consistency, and the politics of assessment (Tziner, Latham, Price, & Haccoun, 1996), often lead to their abandonment. Managers responsible for delivering performance reviews who are uncomfortable with the performance rating system may give uniformly high ratings that do not discriminate between ratees. Poor ratings detract from organizational uses and increase employee mistrust in the performance appraisal system (Tziner & Murphy, 1999). Employees on the receiving end of the appraisal often express dissatisfaction with both the decisions made as a result of performance assessment and the process of performance assessment (Milliman, Nason, Zhu, & De Cieri, 2002), which may have longitudinal effects on overall job satisfaction (Blau, 1999) and commitmentWe thank all the members and staff of the RCMP who participated in this project and contributed to its success. We also thank the external reviewers and the editor for their comments and suggestions.Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Victor M. Catano,

(2012) The Kids' Empathic Development Scale (KEDS): A multi-dimensional measure of empathy in primary school-aged children.

While theories of the deficit dominate the literature they appear to play a relatively small part in the eclectic practice of speech and language therapists. Theories of therapy may develop relatively independent of theories of deficit. While this may not present a problem for the practitioner, whose principal focus is remediation, it may present a problem for the researcher developing intervention efficacy studies, where the theory of the deficit will need to be well-defined in order to describe both the subgroup of children under investigation and the parameters of the deficit to be targeted in intervention.

This special edition on 'Understanding and Challenging Stigma' seeks to further our understandings of the types of representations and practices through which stigma is perpetuated, the social contexts within which they are produced and reproduced, and the possibilities for agency, resistance and

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