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The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme is associated with lasting improvements in children's language and reading skills.
BACKGROUND: Oral language skills are a critical foundation for education and psychosocial development. Learning to read, in particular, depends heavily on oral language skills. The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) has been shown to improve the language of 4-5-year-old children entering school with language weaknesses in four robust trials. To date, however, there is limited evidence on the durability of the gains produced by the intervention, and some have argued that the effects of such educational interventions typically fade-out quite rapidly. METHODS: A large-scale effectiveness trial of the NELI intervention implemented under real-world conditions produced educationally meaningful improvements in children's language and reading abilities. Here, we report follow-up testing of children from this study conducted approximately 2 years after the completion of the intervention. RESULTS: At 2-year follow-up, children who had received NELI had better oral language (d = 0.22 or d = 0.33 for children with lower language ability), reading comprehension (d = 0.16 or d = 0.24 for children with lower language ability) and single-word reading skills (d = 0.16 or d = 0.22 for children with lower language ability) than the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that, although fade-out effects are common in educational research, a widely used language intervention produces durable improvements in language and reading skills, with educationally important effect sizes. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications.
Adopting Quality for School Readiness (AQSR): A Heuristic Framework using Recommended Practice and Professional Knowledge to Support Oral Language in Multilingual Classrooms
Quality oral language interventions support children’s readiness for formal literacy instruction and yet a framework for multilingual classrooms is not available. To address this gap, we drew on the empirical literature on linguistically diverse learners, classroom linguistic environments, and usage-based theories to identify principles for recommended pedagogical practices. We next examined how teachers explained their oral language teaching and what they said after delivering an intervention based on recommended practice. Using a reflexive approach to qualitative interview and questionnaire data, we found some convergence but also areas of limited overlap between recommended practice and teacher professional knowledge. Supporting child talk was seen to serve a motivational-affective purpose more than the cognitive-linguistic purposes implicit in research-informed recommended practices. Based on insights from specialized literature and distillations of professional knowledge, we propose a heuristic framework named Adopting Quality for School Readiness (AQSR). We also discuss uses for the AQSR framework and outstanding questions for future research.
Feasibility of an undergraduate academic fellowship in global health system development.
BACKGROUND: Despite increasing student interest in global health, undergraduate opportunities remain limited and often lack practical, multidisciplinary experiences. To address professional gaps for future healthcare professionals and global health workers, it is crucial to incorporate resource management, business practices, and leadership into undergraduate volunteer service-learning programs. METHODS: Lay First Responders (LFR) International's Fellowship Program in Emergency Medical Care and Innovation (ECMI) trains undergraduates to develop community-based emergency medical services in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on global capacity building, service leadership, and cultural competency. The year-long program guides fellows through a three-stage process of skill-development, design, and project implementation. The curriculum encompasses four main educational components: (1) professional development and networking, (2) global health education, (3) scientific research, and (4) internationally engaged collaboration. Program assessment was conducted through thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses from fellows at the beginning and end of their fellowship year. RESULTS: Since 2019, 22 fellows have completed the program, acquiring skills in research, teaching, and writing publications and grants. Surveys of the 2022 and 2023 cohorts revealed that all nine participants accomplished their intended goals during the fellowship, with over half expressing a desire to continue working with LFR International. The program's success is further evidenced by the fellows contributing to 17 academic outputs, securing $31,000 in funding, and their placement in advanced degree programs. CONCLUSIONS: The EMCI Fellowship has been well received and effective in addressing gaps in global health education. This model could be replicated by comparable global health non-governmental organizations to implement programs while immersing undergraduate students in hands-on international collaboration and operational management experiences. Future development should expand fellowship concentrations to additional global health fields and assess the long-term impacts of the program.
Quantifying CIE alpha-opic signals in the indoor built environment
As humans spend more time in mixed-illuminant “built” environments, it is important to quantify how light in indoor spaces differs from naturalistic scenes. Previous studies have quantified light across many natural environments and shown regularities in the chromatic variation across different seasons, times of day, and weather patterns. This study measures light in a typical mixed-illuminant office space in the northern hemisphere (51.76°N, −1.27∘W) and finds that it shares some regularities of chromatic variation with naturalistic scenes. In this dataset, such regularities are primarily conveyed through outdoor light entering through east- and north-facing windows and reflected by surfaces inside the office, rather than by light directly imaged through the north-facing window that was visible in the camera field-of-view. Built environments that combine natural daylight and artificial light to create mixed-illuminant spaces can share many of the statistical regularities that have been found in natural environments.
Inhibitory control development from infancy to early childhood: A longitudinal fNIRS study.
The developmental period from infancy to early childhood is one of substantial change - in advancements in cognitive skills, such as early executive functions, but also in the maturation of the prefrontal and parietal cortices that parallel such advances. The current study aims to investigate the emergence and development of inhibitory control, a core executive function, from infancy to early childhood. We collected longitudinal functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data from the same sample of participants at 10-months, 16-months, and 3½ years of age whilst they completed the Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task. In our previous publications, we reported that 10-month-old infants recruited right lateralised regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortex when inhibition was required. Despite no change in response inhibition performance, 16-month-olds recruited broader and bilateral regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortex. Results of the current study found that 3½-year-olds activated regions of the right inferior parietal cortex and the right inferior frontal gyrus when inhibition was required. Response inhibition performance was significantly improved by early childhood, yet there was commonality in the brain regions recruited at 16-months and 3½ years. This could suggest that these brain regions are fundamental neural indices of inhibitory control, even from toddlerhood.
Time on social networking sites is associated with impulsive decision-making
Almost five billion individuals worldwide use social networking sites (SNSs) such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and X (formerly known as Twitter). The social rewards obtained on these sites induce users to spend substantial durations of time on them. However, current research demonstrates mixed findings on whether greater time on SNSs is related to riskier decision-making and impulsive tendencies. To address these findings, we conducted an online study (n = 225) to assess how time across four SNSs relates to impulsive decision-making in the delay discounting task. We included each trial as an individual choice in a regression model predicting preference for the immediate reward, for a total of 20,265 choices. Greater average time across all SNSs was related with a higher likelihood of choosing the immediate, but smaller, reward. In other words, people who spent more time on SNSs also made more impulsive decisions. When including individual platforms, greater time on Instagram and X, but not Facebook or Snapchat, was related with a higher likelihood of choosing the immediate reward. These findings help clarify prior literature on the relationship between platform specific SNS use and impulsive decision-making. We discuss limitations, directions for future research, and broader implications for the field.
“You never know who you’re gonna speak to”: Exploring Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners' Experiences of Assessing Traumatic Events
Objectives: This study explored junior mental health workers' experiences of conducting assessments involving traumatic events. Method: Semi-structured interviews with eleven junior mental health workers from a UK primary care mental health service were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Participants discussed themes of ambiguity in distinguishing trauma and PTSD, high levels of pressure, management of personal distress, appropriate training, and personal support in-service. Conclusions: Findings corroborate previous research regarding challenges experienced by junior mental health workers and offer novel insight into the challenges faced when assessing service-users' experiences of traumatic events. Recommendations regarding future training, service design and emotional outlets for junior mental health workers are offered.
Memories or decisions? Bridging accounts of frontopolar function.
Frontopolar cortex (FPC), for a long time elusive to functional description, is now associated with a wide range of cognitive processes. Prominent accounts of FPC function emerged from studies of memory (e.g., episodic and prospective memory; EM and PM, respectively) and of executive function (e.g., planning, multi-tasking, relational reasoning, cognitive branching, etc). In recent years, FPC function has begun to be described within the context of value-based decision making in terms of monitoring the value of alternatives and optimizing cognitive resources to balance the explore/exploit dilemma in the face of volatile environments. In this perspective, we propose that the broad counterfactual inference and behavioural flexibility account can help re-interpret findings from EM and PM studies and offer an explanatory bridge between the memory and executive function accounts. More specifically, we propose that counterfactual value monitoring in FPC modulates the reallocation of cognitive resources between present and past information and contributes to efficient episodic and prospective retrieval by concurrently assessing the value of competing memories in relation to the decision at hand and proactively evaluating future potential scenarios to anticipate optimal engagement of intentions.
Who Tweets for the autistic community? A natural language processing–driven investigation
The formation of autism advocacy organisations led by family members of autistic individuals led to intense criticism from some parts of the autistic community. In response to what was perceived as a misrepresentation of their interests, autistic individuals formed autistic self-advocacy groups, adopting the philosophy that autism advocacy should be led ‘by’ autistic people ‘for’ autistic people. However, recent claims that self-advocacy organisations represent only a narrow subset of the autistic community have prompted renewed debate surrounding the role of organisations in autism advocacy. While many individuals and groups have outlined their views, the debate has yet to be studied through computational means. In this study, we apply machine learning and natural language processing techniques to a large-scale collection of Tweets from organisations and individuals in autism advocacy. We conduct a specification curve analysis on the similarity of language across organisations and individuals, and find evidence to support claims of partial representation relevant to both self-advocacy groups and organisations led by non-autistic people. In introducing a novel approach to studying the long-standing conflict between different groups in the autism advocacy community, we hope to provide both organisations and individuals with new tools to help ground discussions of representation in empirical insight. Lay Abstract Some autism advocacy organisations are run by family members of autistic people, and claim to speak on behalf of autistic people. These organisations have been criticised by autistic people, who feel like autism charities do not adequately represent their true interests. In response to these organisations, autistic people have come together to form autistic self-advocacy organisations, or groups in which activists can spread awareness of autism from an autistic point-of-view. However, some people say that autistic self-advocacy organisations do not sufficiently represent the needs of all autistic people. These tensions between organisations and individuals have made it difficult to determine which organisations can make the claim that they represent all autism advocates individuals equally, instead of showing preference to a sub-group within the autism community. In this study, we try to approach this issue using computational tools to see if, in their Twitter posts, both kinds of organisations show a preference for the interests of autistic people or parents of autistic children. We do so by comparing a large body of Tweets by organisations to Tweets by autistic people and parents of autistic children. We find that both kinds of organisations match the interests of one group of autism advocates better than the other. The insight we provide has the potential to inspire new conversations and solutions to a long-standing conflict in autism advocacy.
Investigating the impact of electroconvulsive therapy on brain networks and sleep: an observational study protocol.
INTRODUCTION: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a highly effective treatment for refractory depression, but it may also cause cognitive side effects. Despite decades of use, the mechanisms by which ECT exerts both its antidepressant and cognitive effects are still poorly understood, with the latter substantially limiting referral and adherence to therapy. ECT induces changes in correlated neural activity-functional connectivity-across various brain networks, which may underlie both its clinical efficacy and associated cognitive side effects. Electroencephalography (EEG) could address these knowledge gaps by identifying biomarkers that predict therapeutic outcomes or cognitive side effects. Such developments could ultimately improve patient selection and adherence. Such markers likely span large-scale functional brain networks or temporal dynamics of brain activity during sleep. We hypothesise that enhancement in slow wave sleep mediates the relationship between antidepressant effects and changes in functional connectivity throughout the course of ECT. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Disruptions of Brain Networks and Sleep by Electroconvulsive Therapy (DNS-ECT) is an ongoing observational study investigating the impact of ECT on large-scale brain functional networks and their relationships to sleep slow waves, an EEG marker linked to synaptic plasticity. The novelty of this study stems from our focus on the assessment of EEG markers during sleep, wakefulness and ECT-induced seizures over the course of therapy. Graph-based network analyses of high-density EEG signals allow characterisation of functional networks locally in specific subnetworks and globally over large-scale functional networks. Longitudinal assessments of EEG alongside clinical and cognitive outcomes provide a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the circuit mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive impairments and antidepressant effects incurred during ECT. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Recruitment for this 5-year study started in March 2023. Dissemination plans include presentations at scientific conferences and peer-reviewed publications. This study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov registry under identifier. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05905705.
Decision cost hypersensitivity underlies Huntington's disease apathy.
The neuropsychiatric syndrome of apathy is now recognized to be a common and disabling condition in Huntington's disease. However, the mechanisms underlying it are poorly understood. One way to investigate apathy is to use a theoretical framework of normal motivated behaviour, to determine where breakdown has occurred in people with this behavioural disruption. A fundamental computation underlying motivated, goal-directed behaviour across species is weighing up the costs and rewards associated with actions. Here, we asked whether people with apathy are more sensitive to costs of actions (physical effort and time delay), less sensitive to rewarding outcomes, or both. Based on the unique anatomical substrates associated with Huntington's disease pathology, we hypothesized that a general hypersensitivity to costs would underpin Huntington's disease apathy. Genetically confirmed carriers of the expanded Huntingtin gene (premanifest to mild motor manifest disease, n = 53) were compared to healthy controls (n = 38). Participants performed a physical effort-based decision-making task (Apple Gathering Task) and a delay discounting task (Money Choice Questionnaire). Choice data was analysed using linear regression and drift diffusion models that also accounted for the time taken to make decisions. Apathetic people with Huntington's disease accepted fewer offers overall on the Apple Gathering Task, specifically driven by increased sensitivity to physical effort costs, and not explained by motor severity, mood, cognition or medication. Drift diffusion modelling provided further evidence of effort hypersensitivity, with apathy associated with a faster drift rate towards rejecting offers as a function of varying effort. Increased delay sensitivity was also associated with apathy, both when analysing raw choice and drift rate, where there was moderate evidence of Huntington's disease apathy drifting faster towards the immediately available (low-cost) option. Furthermore, the effort and delay sensitivity parameters from these tasks were positively correlated. The results demonstrate a clear mechanism for apathy in Huntington's disease, cost hypersensitivity, which manifests in both the effort and time costs associated with actions towards rewarding goals. This suggests that Huntington's disease pathology may cause a domain-general disruption of cost processing, which is distinct from apathy occurrence in other brain disorders and may require different therapeutic approaches.
Correction to: From Intimate Exams to Ritual Nicking: Interpreting Nonconsensual Medicalized Genital Procedures as Sexual Boundary Violations (Current Sexual Health Reports, (2023), 15, 4, (291-300), 10.1007/s11930-023-00376-9)
The wrong Supplementary file was originally published with this article; it has now being removed. The original article has been corrected.
Hyperspectral characterization of natural lighting environments.
Lights are primary drivers of some crucial biological functions including vision and regulation of circadian rhythm. To understand the light exposure pattern that we experience in a daily life, many past studies measured the spectral composition of natural daylight and artificial lighting. The aim of this book chapter is to introduce a novel method to characterize directional spectral variation in natural lighting environments. An omnidirectional hyperspectral illumination map stores the spectra of lights coming from every direction toward a single point in a scene. Such illumination maps allow us to simulate a spatial light exposure pattern that reaches our eyes, providing useful resources to research areas such as chronobiology, vision science and any other fields which benefit from knowledge about the spectral nature of visual lighting environments.