Population approaches to identification, prediction and outcomes of children with lasting language impairment

The Bristol Speech& Language Therapy Research Unit are pleased to welcome Dr Penny Levickis on Thursday 9th April from 3.00 to 5.00 pm to speak on:

Population approaches to identification, prediction and outcomes of children with lasting language impairment

Penny Levickis is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Centre of Research Excellence in Child Language at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.   After developing a novel mechanism for the rigorous coding of a large number of parent-child interactions as part of her PhD, she demonstrated that specific maternal linguistic behaviours predict preschool language outcomes in a community-based sample of slow-to-talk toddlers. She is now extending this work to examine the extent to which maternal responsive behaviours may be measured in addition to the traditional use of low language status in the early years to identify those children most at risk of persistent language impairment. Penny and colleagues are also following up a large community-based cohort of children as they turn 9 years of age to develop a risk chart for health professionals to use as a method of predicting absolute risk of lasting language impairment.

During the afternoon other members of the team at BSLTRU will present other ongoing research about Parent-Child Interaction Therapy.

Venue: Bristol Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit, Frenchay Hospital (Yes  -this will be one of the last events in the research unit) Bristol BS16 1LE.

There will be a small charge of £10, payable on arrival to support our costs. Please contact Fay.Smith@speech-therapy.org.uk for further details and register here.

Details of presentations below.

Dr Penny Levickis

Population approaches to identification, prediction and outcomes of children with lasting language impairment

Penny Levickis is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Centre of Research Excellence in Child Language (CRE-CL) at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.  After developing a novel mechanism for the rigorous coding of a large number of parent-child interactions as part of her PhD, she demonstrated that specific maternal linguistic behaviours predict preschool language outcomes in a community-based sample of slow-to-talk toddlers. She is now extending this work to examine the extent to which maternal responsive behaviours may be measured in addition to the traditional use of low language status in the early years to identify those children most at risk of persistent language impairment. Penny and colleagues are also following up a large community-based cohort of children as they turn 9 years of age to develop a risk chart for health professionals to use as a method of predicting absolute risk of lasting language impairment. 

Inge Klatte

An examination of parent-child interaction therapy in practice

Inge is a Dutch Speech & language therapist completing a three month internship at the Bristol Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit (BSLTRU). For her Master’s degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences her thesis is about Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).

There is a lot of variation in PCIT approaches: between the original interventions, in the way they have been examined, and, in the way speech and language therapists (SLTs) deliver the intervention. This study aims to find the overlapping, critical components of the PCIT interventions, according to the manuals of the existing approaches, the literature and the SLTs. Also, via interviews Inge will explore the rationales SLTs give for the way they structure their interventions.

    

Dr Yvonne Wren.

Using LENA to explore parent-child interaction

Yvonne is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Institute of Health Research and member of the research team at BSLTRU. As part of the research for her fellowship, Yvonne is exploring the use of LENA, a device for recording and analysing the speech environment of children from 2 months of age upwards. The audio recording device is worn by the child within a t-shirt or similar and records the child’s speech and their environment for 16 continuous hours. Yvonne will share some pilot data on using LENA.

  

Prof Sue Roulstone

Understanding the effectiveness of adult-child interactions as a component of intervention in pre-school children with primary speech and language impairments

Sue is Professor Emeritus at the University of the West of England and a member of the team at BSLTRU. Over the last few years, Sue has led a programme of research called Child Talk which has examined current clinical practice for pre-school children with primary speech and language impairments, identifying the various components of intervention and the related evidence. This presentation will examine the facilitation of adult-child interactions in therapy in relation to other components of intervention and in terms of the underpinning evidence. As well as presenting findings from Child Talk, Sue will present some ideas that are being worked up as bids for further research funding.