Background: Despite a large body of evidence regarding reliable indicators of language deficits in young children, there has not been a standardized, quick screen for language impairment. The Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test was therefore designed as a short, reliable assessment of young children's language abilities. Aims: GAPS was designed to provide a quick screening test to assess whether pre-and early school entry children have the necessary grammar and prereading phonological skills needed for education and social development. This paper reports the theoretical background to the test, the pilot study and reliability, and the standardization. Methods: This 10-min test comprises 11 test sentences and eight test nonsense words for direct imitation and is designed to highlight significant markers of language impairment and reading difficulties. To standardize the GAPS, 668 children aged 3.4-6.6 were tested across the UK, taking into account population distribution and socio-economic status. The test was carried out by a range of health and education professionals as well as by students and carers using only simple, written instructions. Results: GAPS is effective in detecting a range of children in need of further indepth assessment or monitoring for language difficulties. The results concur
This paper describes the pilot of an interactional training programme designed for speech and language therapists to use with school support assistants, students and parents to enhance their implementation of therapy for children with speech sound difficulties. Collaborative therapy sessions in a school setting were videoed to encourage reflection on the participants' interaction using guided observation. Selected aspects of adult/child interaction were subjected to detailed conversation analysis and this showed that training resulted in positive changes in the therapy interactions including evidence of improved response outcomes for the children. The paper focuses on sequences where adult responses give the child further information about a prior attempt ('try') at a word as well as those that direct the child towards self-correction.
Common symptoms at the end of life include pain, breathlessness, anxiety, respiratory secretions and nausea. National end-of-life care strategies advocate anticipatory prescribing for timely management of these symptoms to enhance patient care by preventing unnecessary distress. This study investigated the extent to which residents in eight Lothian care homes had anticipatory medications prescribed prior to death. Data were collected as part of a service development project to improve palliative care in nursing care homes in Edinburgh. Of the 77 residents who died in the care homes, 54% had anticipatory medicines prescribed. Only 15% had prescriptions for all four nationally recommended anticipatory medications. Many care home residents do not have the recommended anticipatory medications in place in the last days of life and thus may experience inadequate symptom control. Interventions that increase the availability of anticipatory medicines to manage common symptoms at the end of life for care home residents are required.
There is a rapidly increasing range of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems available for children who cannot communicate orally. Finding the best system for any one user is a challenge for the professionals and carers involved. As yet the use of portable, tablet forms of communication aid has been little researched, despite the rapid growth in their popularity. This article seeks to establish how a tablet form of AAC is exploited in day-to-day domestic interactions between a parent and a child where the child has a severe physical disability and complex communication needs. The study utilises conversation analysis (CA) as the methodology and looks in detail at sequential components of the interaction and the salience of certain interactional moves to both adult and child participants. The mother chose when and where the iPad or other forms of AAC were utilised within the day. Extracts were selected from the available data to exemplify the types of typical exchange that occurred and some key features of the iPad enhanced interaction. The analysis describes how turns are designed incorporating the iPad and discusses what is added to the communication toolkit. Asymmetries in this mother-child interaction are observed and discussed. The child typically remains a respondent to initiations by the caregiver, who in this scenario necessarily remains in control of the iPad symbol display. However, the child uses eye-gaze strategies to indicate interests that lie both within and external to those on offer on the iPad. The article reflects on the child's agency in initiating a possible novel topic in this way.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.