The adoption of tablets by young children has raised enthusiasm and concern among speech and language pathologists. This study investigated whether tablet games can be used as effectively as real play objects in vocabulary intervention for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). A randomized, controlled non-inferiority trial was conducted with 70 3-year-old children with DLD. The novel intervention group (n = 35) received 12 10-min scripted intervention sessions with symbolic play using a tablet game spread out over 8–9 weeks. The standard intervention group (n = 35) received the same amount of intervention with real objects using the same vocabulary scripts. In each session, children were exposed to 22 target words. The primary outcome was the number of new target words learned. This was measured using a picture selection task including 22 target words and 22 control words at 3 time intervals: before the intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 5 weeks later. In both intervention groups, the children learned significantly more target words than control words. No significant differences in gains between the two intervention conditions were found. This study provides evidence that vocabulary intervention for toddlers with DLD using a tablet game is equally as effective as an intervention using real objects.
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Preschool children's vocabulary mainly develops verbal through interaction. Therefore, the technology-enhanced storytelling (TES) activity Jeffy's Journey is developed to support parent–child interaction and vocabulary in preschool children. TES entails shared verbal storytelling supported by a story structure and real-time visual, auditory and textual prompts on a tablet computer. In this exploratory study, we investigated how TES influenced parent–child interaction and vocabulary. An experimental pretest-intervention-posttest design was followed with 44 3-year-old children and their parents in the experimental group and 27 peers in the control group. Results revealed that TES stimulated active child involvement and generated parent–child interaction, yet a great variety in TES characteristics both in time spent and usage of prompts was found among participants. Dyads that spent more time on story phases showed more and higher quality parent–child interaction. The usage of prompts was associated with improved parent–child interaction quality. Finally, an effect of TES was evidenced on children's productive vocabulary knowledge. To conclude, this study demonstrates that TES can be considered as a promising context for fostering parent–child interaction and children's vocabulary development.
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Abstract Primary healthcare professionals face an increasing number of geriatrics patients, and patient care often involves different disciplines. eHealth offers opportunities to support interprofessional collaboration (IPC). This exploratory study aimed to gain insight in 1) IPC in community-based rehabilitation, 2) facilitators and barriers for technology-based IPC and 3) technological IPC solutions envisioned by the primary healthcare professionals An focus group with six primary healthcare professionals and a design thinking session with four participants were conducted. Data analysis was based upon an IPC model. Results indicate that facilitators and barriers for IPC can be clustered in three categories: human, organization and technology, and provide some requirements to develop suitable IPC technological solutions Primary healthcare professionals recognise the urgency of working collaboratively. Current barriers are understanding each other’s professional vocabulary, engaging the older adults, and using technology within the patient’s environment. Further research is needed to integrate IPC components in a technological solution
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Teacher education enables students to grow from ‘novice’ into ‘starting expert’ teachers. In this study, students’ textual peer feedback on video recordings of their teaching practice was analysed to determine the growth of their expertise in relation to blended curriculum design. The degree to which curriculum and literature influenced their feedback was assessed by semantic network analysis of prominent words from the literature that was studied, as well as the lexical richness andsemantic cohesion of students’ peer feedback and reflections. The lexical richness and the semantic cohesion increased significantly by the end of the semester. This means that students incorporated new vocabulary and maintained semantic consistency while using the new words. Regarding the semantic network analysis, we found stronger connections between the topics being discussed by the students at the end of the semester. Active use of video and peer feedback enhances students’ activeknowledge base, thus furthering effective teaching.
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Social work is a profession that is very much part of and contributes to an ever changing and evolving society. It is therefore essential that social work is able to respond to the diverse and dynamic demands that it may encounter in that society and in the future. The critique of social work is, however, present and growing. The profession can no longer deny or ignore the need to legitimize its value and effectiveness. In this article, a research project – entitled Procivi – aimed at developing a method of legitimizing social work is presented. The method developed in Procivi proposes a way of legitimizing social work through the development of reflective professionals. The method teaches professionals to take a research frame of mind towards their own practice and helps them develop a vocabulary to describe their work to different audiences. The paper discusses whether and how this method forms a viable way of legitimizing social work and as such could be an alternative for the growing demand for social work based on scientific evidence (evidencebased practice, EBP).
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This article aims to explore the moral ideas and experiences that students at Dutch universities of applied sciences (UAS) have of being a professional with an ‘ethical compass.’Semi-structured interviews were held with 36 fourth-year Bachelor students divided over four institutions and three different programmes: Initial Teacher Educa- tion, Business Services and Information and Communication Technology. Findings show that students say they strive to be(come) moral professionals, but that they have difficulties recognising and articulating the moral aspects of their professional roles. They seem to lack a moral vocabulary and the moral knowledge to verbalise their aspirations and to provide arguments to explicate or legitimise their moral behaviour. While most students were critical of the support they received from their universities, they indicated that various other role models and (work) experiences did have a strong and positive influence on their moral development. In this article, we reflect on the findings in relation to international empirical research on students’ moral development and highlight the characteristics of UAS students.
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The current study investigated how individual differences among children affect the added value of social robots for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary to young children. Specifically, we investigated the moderating role of three individual child characteristics deemed relevant for language learning: first language (L1) vocabulary knowledge, phonological memory, and selective attention. We expected children low in these abilities to particularly benefit from being assisted by a robot in a vocabulary training. An L2 English vocabulary training intervention consisting of seven sessions was administered to 193 monolingual Dutch five-year-old children over a three- to four-week period. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) a tablet only, 2) a tablet and a robot that used deictic (pointing) gestures (the no-iconic-gestures condition), or 3) a tablet and a robot that used both deictic and iconic gestures (i.e., gestures depicting the target word; the iconic-gestures condition). There also was a control condition in which children did not receive a vocabulary training, but played dancing games with the robot. L2 word knowledge was measured directly after the training and two to four weeks later. In these post-tests, children in the experimental conditions outperformed children in the control condition on word knowledge, but there were no differences between the three experimental conditions. Several moderation effects were found. The robot's presence particularly benefited children with larger L1 vocabularies or poorer phonological memory, while children with smaller L1 vocabularies or better phonological memory performed better in the tablet-only condition. Children with larger L1 vocabularies and better phonological memory performed better in the no-iconic-gestures condition than in the iconic-gestures condition, while children with better selective attention performed better in the iconic-gestures condition than the no-iconic-gestures condition. Together, the results showed that the effects of the robot and its gestures differ across children, which should be taken into account when designing and evaluating robot-assisted L2 teaching interventions.
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Background: An adaptation of multisystemic therapy (MST) was piloted to find out whether it would yield better outcomes than standard MST in families where the adolescent not only shows antisocial or delinquent behaviour, but also has an intellectual disability. Method: To establish the comparative effectiveness of MST‐ID (n = 55) versus standard MST (n = 73), treatment outcomes were compared at the end of treatment and at 6‐month follow‐up. Pre‐treatment differences were controlled for using the propensity score method. Results: Multisystemic therapy‐ID resulted in reduced police contact and reduced rule breaking behaviour that lasted up to 6 months post‐treatment. Compared to standard MST, MST‐ID more frequently resulted in improvements in parenting skills, family relations, social support, involvement with pro‐social peers and sustained positive behavioural changes. At follow‐up, more adolescents who had received MST‐ID were still living at home. Conclusions: These results support further development of and research into the MST‐ID adaptation.
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Although empathy is an essential aspect of co-design, the design community lacks a systematic overview of the key dimensions and elements that foster empathy in design. This paper introduces an empathic formation compass, based on a comparison of existing relevant frameworks. Empathic formation is defined here as the formative process of becoming an empathic design professional who knows which attitude, skills and knowledge are applicable in a co-design process. The empathic formation compass provides designers with a vocabulary that helps them understand what kind of key dimensions and elements influence empathic formation in co-design and how that informs designers’ role and design decisions. In addition, the empathic formation compass aims to support reflection and to evaluate co-design projects beyond the mere reliance on methods. In this way, empathic design can be made into a conscious activity in which designers regulate and include their own feelings and experiences (first-person perspective), and decrease empathic bias. We identify four important intersecting dimensions that empathy is comprised of in design and describe their dynamic relations. The first two opposing dimensions are denoted by empathy and differentiate between cognitive design processes and affective design experiences, and between self-and other orientation. The other two dimensions are defined by design research and differentiate between an expert and a participatory mindset, and research-and design-led techniques. The empathic formation compass strengthens and enriches our earlier work on mixed perspectives with these specific dimensions and describes the factors that foster empathy in design from a more contextual position. We expect the empathic formation compass—combined with the mixed perspectives framework—to enhance future research by bringing about a deeper understanding of designers’ empathic and collaborative design practice.
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The definition of ‘Assistive Technology’ (AT) includes both assistive products and the services or actions necessary for safe and effective provision of the assistive products to people who need them. International standards and product specifications exist for assistive products. Despite huge unmet need for effective AT provision, a variety of service delivery models across different countries, and a shortage of personnel trained in this field, nowidely useable and accepted AT service provision guidelines currently exist. Aligned with contemporary global initiatives to improve access to AT, a scoping review was commissioned to inform the development of globally useable provision guidance. The aim was to deliver a rapid scoping review of the literature regarding quality guidelines for AT service provision. Method: The rapid scoping review utilised a two-tiered approach to identifying relevant publications: 1) systematic search of academic databases; 2) consultation with assistive technology organisations. The review was conducted in March 2023 across four databases (Medline, CINAHL, SCOPUS and Google Scholar) with no date limitations. Systematic outreach to international and global AT networks was used to access expert informants. Non-English publications were included utilizing Google Translate and support from expert informants to verify content. Analysis was guided by the body of work on quality AT provision and service delivery processes in Europe, as well as the World Health Organization-GATE 5P framework for strengthening access to AT. Results: The search strategies yielded 41 publications from diverse countries, and directed at differing assistive products, personnel and provision contexts. Results are reported from the charted data through to the data extraction framework, including type of publication, study design, audience and reach. We report on the type of AT and the AT provision ecosystem elements discussed, and service delivery process or steps and quality criteria service delivery. Conclusion: This review did not find established guidelines or standards for service provision, but it did identify key service delivery steps which may form part of such guidelines, and many of the 3 publications included mentioned the need for practice guidelines. Despite different contexts such as type of assistive product, recipient of the guidance, language, location and authorship, core elements of AT provision including service delivery steps can be identified. Consideration regarding the nuances of vocabulary, of process, and of enabling flexible foci, is recommended in systematizing globally applicable guidance. This review offers a strong starting point for developing guidance for assistive technology provision to meet global need.
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