Stuttering severity and educational attainment

Purpose

This study investigated the relationship between self-reported stuttering severity ratings and educational attainment.

Method

Participants were 147 adults seeking treatment for stuttering. At pretreatment assessment, each participant reported the highest educational level they had attained and rated their typical and worst stuttering severity on a 9-point scale for a range of speaking situations. These included: (1) talking with a family member, (2) talking with a familiar person, not a family member, (3) talking in a group of people, (4) talking with a stranger, (5) talking with an authority figure such as a work manager or teacher, (6) talking on the telephone, (7) ordering food or drink, and (8) giving their name and address.

Results

There was a significant negative relationship between highest educational achievement and mean self-reported stuttering severity rating for the eight situations.

Conclusions

Future research is needed to investigate how this result should be addressed in educational institutions.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe the negative effects of stuttering through childhood to adulthood; (2) identify some of the negative consequences associated with stuttering on peer and teacher relationships, and academic performance at school; and (3) summarise the relationship between stuttering severity and educational attainment.     

Maternal attachment representations after very preterm birth and the effect of early intervention

Objective

For very preterm infants the mother-infant relationship may be compromised. Maternal attachment representations 18 (corrected) months after very preterm birth and the effect of the post-discharge Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) were studied. The IBAIP is designed to assist parents to support and enhance their infant's regulatory competence and development. The intervention consisted of 6-8 home visits during the first 8 months after birth.

Method

Seventy-eight mothers of very preterm infants (<32 weeks and/or <1500 g) were interviewed, who participated in a randomized controlled trial: 41 from the intervention group and 37 from the control group. Maternal attachment representations were assessed with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI). The interviews resulted in a classification of the attachment representations into balanced or non-balanced.

Results

30% of the mothers had non-balanced attachment representations. Qualitative content analysis of the answers showed that negative feelings when first seeing their baby and negative or ambivalent feelings in the first weeks at home with their baby are related to non-balanced attachment representations. The WMCI revealed no differences between the intervention and control group.

Conclusion

Early support for mothers of very preterm born infants to develop a healthy mother-infant relationship is recommended especially for mothers who report negative first experiences.     

Towards international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education

This article calls for international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education (RE). To this end, it provides a rationale for focusing upon the concept of professionalisation and a theoretical justification for international comparative research, particularly identifying its significance in terms of the development of RE in England and Germany. The article outlines a methodology for exploring the concepts of professional knowledge, professional self-organisation and politics and professional development. The proposed methodology involves a systematic analysis of primary documentary sources including: (1) academic and professional journal articles and textbooks; (2) the archives of relevant institutions and organisations; and (3) external evidence, such as inspection and research reports. An analytical case study of two leading journals in each national context, Religion in Education in England and Der Evangelische Erzieher in Germany, in the immediate post-war era is appended to illustrate the benefits of implementing such a methodology across national boundaries.     

Identifying and preventing disordered eating among athletes: Perceptions of track and field coaches

ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify the strategies employed by coaches when identifying disordered eating (DE) among track and field athletes.DesignThis was a qualitative study and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted.MethodSemi structured interviews were conducted with eleven track and field coaches, with experience of coaching at national and international level. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysis was conducted.ResultsTrack and field coaches reported using physical, social and performance indicators to identify disordered eating in their athletes. Coaches also monitored their athletes' eating attitudes and behaviors. Weight loss (both observed and objectively monitored) was considered to be a key indicator of disordered eating. Coaches placed a high level of importance on weight for performance, and an “ideal” female athlete body. Previous experiences of detecting disordered eating and a close relationship with the athlete facilitated the identification of disordered eating. Athlete secrecy and masking behaviors, difficulties in communication and coaches' stereotypical beliefs were found to complicate the identification process.ConclusionsThis study highlights the need for additional information, advice and guidance for track and field coaches to improve their knowledge and confidence in identifying disordered eating among their athletes.     

Situational information and the design of representative learning tasks: What impact does a scoreboard have on expert taekwondo fighters' behaviour and affective-cognitive responses?

Designing representative learning tasks is one means to enhance sports practice. Recent work has highlighted how the presence of situational information could help the design of these tasks by shaping intentions and enhancing the affective demands of practice, however this has yet to be empirically tested. This study tested this hypothesis by manipulating the presence of a scoreboard featuring time and score situational information as expert taekwondo athletes fought in practice. Nine taekwondo fighters fought with and without situational information in a counterbalanced order. Behaviour was assessed by tracking fighters' location coordinates to assess fighter-fighter dyad coordination and through notational analysis of attacking actions. Affect and cognition were assessed with mixed-methods that included perceptual scales measuring anxiety, arousal, mental effort, score perception, and post-fight video-facilitated confrontational interviews to explore how conditions differed. The results revealed that the presence of the situational information had significant effects on taekwondo players. When present, fighters reported greater cognitive anxiety (d = 0.39, p < 0.05), somatic anxiety (d = 1.11, p < 0.05) and emotion intensity (d = 0.33, p < 0.05). The enhanced affective demands were associated with behaviour changes that included fighters preferring to spend time at closer distances (d = 0.25, p < 0.05), and more predictable technique selection (d = 1.04, p < 0.05). Qualitative data supported these findings. Players also reported their intentions were coupled to the context of scoreboard. This study reveals that situational information changes the affective and behavioural demands of practice to be more like competition. Further, situational sampling affords performers the opportunity to practice attuning to the relevant affordances for a specific context.     

Learning from parents' stories about what works in early intervention

Using a multiple case study approach, this ethnography examined the experiences of parents of children deemed at risk for developmental delays or disabilities who had received early intervention (EI) services (birth to age 3 years) in a large urban location in Western Canada. Participants (11 adult parents and 7 children) were drawn from six families. Methods of data collection included focus groups (FG), face‐to‐face interviews and file reviews. Member check and expert reviews were conducted throughout data collection and data analyses as part of the validation process in this ethnography. Qualitative content analyses followed by thematic analyses highlighted the implementation of family‐centred practices (FCP) as a main theme. Parents identified how EI professionals using FCP embraced collaborative practices. FCP resulted in parents leading the EI process for their children. More specifically, EI professionals shared strategies and information to support parents in gaining a deeper understanding of their children's individual developmental characteristics. Parents expressed how empowering this level of understanding was for them as they learned to articulate what were their children's needs for developmental, health and educational services. Recommendations for future research include inquiring about parents' experiences for families of diverse constellations and/or residing in smaller urban or rural communities.     

First symbols in a girl with Down syndrome: A longitudinal study from 12 to 18 months

Symbolic uses of objects originate in communicative and triadic contexts (adult–child-object). In this longitudinal study we explore the emergence and development of the first symbolic uses in triadic interaction contexts in a girl with Down syndrome between 12 and 18-months of age. We conducted five sessions of video recording, at 12, 13½, 15, 16½, and 18 months chronological age. At each session we videotaped the girl and her mother interacting with different objects. Data were coded in semiotic categories used in previous studies (Rodríguez & Moro, 1999) and a microgenetic analysis was conducted for each session. The first symbolic uses by the girl appeared at 13½ months. Symbols were of different types and levels of complexity, and the adult had an important role in facilitating the production of these symbols.     

Randomized controlled trial of parental responsiveness intervention for toddlers at high risk for autism

This study tested the effects of a parent-mediated intervention on parental responsiveness with their toddlers at high risk for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Participants included caregivers and their 66 toddlers at high risk for ASD. Caregivers were randomized to 12 sessions of an individualized parent education intervention aimed at improving parental responsiveness or to a monitoring control group involving 4 sessions of behavioral support. Parental responsiveness and child outcomes were measured at three time points: at beginning and end of the 3-month treatment and at 12-months post-study entry. Parental responsiveness improved significantly in the treatment group but not the control group. However, parental responsiveness was not fully maintained at follow up. There were no treatment effects on child outcomes of joint attention or language. Children in both groups made significant developmental gains in cognition and language skills over one year. These results support parental responsiveness as an important intervention target given its general association with child outcomes in the extant literature; however, additional supports are likely needed to fully maintain the treatment effect and to affect child outcomes.     

The cognitive impenetrability of the content of early vision is a necessary and sufficient condition for purely nonconceptual content

I elaborate on Pylyshyn's definition of the cognitive impenetrability (CI) of early vision, and draw on the role of concepts in perceptual processing, which links the problem of the CI or cognitive penetrability (CP) of early vision with the problem of the nonconceptual content (NCC) of perception. I explain, first, the sense in which the content of early vision is CI and I argue that if some content is CI, it is conceptually encapsulated, that is, it is NCC. Then, I examine the definitions of NCC and argue that they lead to the view that the NCC of perception is retrieved in a stage of visual processing that is CI. Thus, the CI of a state and content is a sufficient and necessary condition for the state and its content to be purely NCC, the CI?≡?NCC thesis. Since early vision is CI, the purely NCC of perception is formed in early vision. I defend the CI?≡?NCC thesis by arguing against objections raised against both the sufficient and the necessary part of the thesis.     

Traduction et adaptation du TEI-SF afin de documenter l’acceptabilité sociale de l’intervention comportementale intensive

Early intensive behavioral intervention is more widely used in large-scale community-based services in Autism Spectrum Disorder. There is an increased need to evaluate the social acceptability of these programs. The present study used a measure of social acceptability as part of a social validation procedure to evaluate a community-based EIBI offered in inclusive childcare, as well as two focused interventions associated with this program. To do so, the Treatment Evaluation Inventory Short-form (TEI-SF) questionnaire was adapted and translated to French. The validation results for the TEI-SF, as well as for the social acceptability of the EIBI programs and procedures, are presented. The results are the first evidence of the validity of the TEI-SF (adapted and translated to French), presenting scores of validity of intervention and a favourable perspective related to the early intensive behavioral intervention and opening the door to further research.