Daylong Mobile Audio Recordings Reveal Multitimescale Dynamics in Infants’ Vocal Productions and Auditory Experiences

The sounds of human infancy—baby babbling, adult talking, lullaby singing, and more—fluctuate over time. Infant-friendly wearable audio recorders can now capture very large quantities of these sounds throughout infants’ everyday lives at home. Here, we review recent discoveries about how infants’ soundscapes are organized over the course of a day. Analyses designed to detect patterns in infants’ daylong audio at multiple timescales have revealed that everyday vocalizations are clustered hierarchically in time, that vocal explorations are consistent with foraging dynamics, and that some musical tunes occur for much longer cumulative durations than others. This approach focusing on the multiscale distributions of sounds heard and produced by infants is providing new, fundamental insights on human communication development from a complex-systems perspective.

Communication and literacy development for adolescents with deafblindness: Teacher beliefs, learning outcomes, and instructional strategies

For individuals with deafblindness a strong relationship exists between communication and literacy, making these critical areas of development. Definitions of literacy for this population must extend beyond traditional notions of reading and writing text to better support communication development. The beliefs teachers maintain, the learning outcomes they set, and the instructional strategies they employ might greatly impact student learning related to communication and literacy. Shared reading could provide a context where communication and literacy skills may be developed for learners with deafblindness. This qualitative study investigated how teachers used shared reading to support communication and literacy development for adolescents with congenital deafblindness. It explored how teacher beliefs about communication and literacy development influenced the learning outcomes they established and the instructional strategies they utilized during shared reading. Data were collected in three secondary classrooms through observations, interviews, and field notes. Thematic analysis was conducted for each individual case and then across cases using a cross-case analysis. For individual cases, themes related to teacher beliefs included connection between communication and literacy, and a comprehensive understanding of deafblindness. Themes related to instructional strategies included communication across multiple forms, focus on the communication process, and systematic instruction. In the discussion of the results, the instructional strategies of the Tri-Focus Framework were used to identify how communication development was supported during the literacy lessons observed. In addition, the use of systematic instruction and formative assessment provided a comprehensive approach to supporting communication and literacy skills during shared reading. Meaningful literacy activities, such as shared reading, have the potential to support communication development for individuals with congenital deafblindness. Teachers require a comprehensive understanding of the nature of deafblindness in order to effectively support an individual’s communication and literacy development.

Влияние системнoгo недoразвития речи у детей с расстрoйствами аутистическoгo спектра на прoявление дезадаптивных видoв пoведения

The article shows empirical research on the impact of systemic language undevelopment in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the manifestation of different forms of maladaptive behaviour. As a result of scientific research, the hypothesis was confirmed: the level of language and communication development is higher in connection with the low level of maladaptive behaviour and the low level of language and communication development facilitates the emergence of different forms of maladaptive behaviour. A psychological intervention program based on applied behavioural analysis was developed. The effectiveness of the developed program was confirmed.

Relationship of Communication Competence with Caring Behavior in Clinical Nurses: The Mediating Effect of Compassion Competence

Purpose: This study was done to identify the mediating effect of compassion competence on the relationship between communication competence and caring behavior in clinical nurses.Methods: A structured self-report questionnaire was used to measure caring behavior, communication competence, and compassion competence. During September 2019, data were collected from 170 nurses working at general hospitals. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple linear regression with SPSS for Windows version 23.0 and Hayes's SPSS process macro (version 3.5).Results: Communication skills (β=.52) and compassion ability (β=.77) were identified as important predictors of nurses’ caring behavior. These variables explained approximately 54% of the variance in nurses’ caring behavior. Compassion competence also had a total mediating effect on the relationship between communication competence and caring behavior.Conclusion: In order to enhance the caring behavior of clinical nurses, enhancing compassion competence by strengthening communication development should be considered as a strategy.

Parent-mediated social communication therapy for young children at risk for neurodevelopmental difficulties living in poverty in Brazil: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Exposure to adverse environments such as socioeconomic disadvantage and psychosocial deprivation are risk-factors for neurodevelopmental problems in childhood. Children exposed to such environments may benefit from interventions that target social-communication abilities, since these are protective factors for healthy neurodevelopment in vulnerable children. One intervention that has shown efficacy in improving early social-communication development is Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy (PACT). However, the efficacy of PACT has not been tested for vulnerable children exposed to environmental risk-factors in Latin American countries. This randomized controlled trial will test the efficacy of PACT in improving social-communication development in young children at risk for neurodevelopmental difficulties living in poverty in Brazil.Methods: Participants will be 160 children aged 2 years 0 months to 4 years 11 months with low social-communication abilities and their primary caregivers. Child-caregiver dyads will be recruited from public early childhood education centers in impoverished urban regions of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Low social-communication abilities will be defined by Standard Scores <84 on the Socialization and/or Communication domains of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Child-caregiver dyads will be randomized to receive 12 sessions (five months) of the PACT intervention (N=80) or five months of community support as usual plus psychoeducation (N=80). The primary outcome (parent-child interaction) and secondary outcomes (parent-reported social-communication abilities, neurophysiological activity during a live social interaction) will be measured pre- and post-intervention. Discussion: This study may lead to new interventions for vulnerable young children in Brazil and better understanding of the neural mechanisms of PACT.

The Childhood Trauma and Attachment Gap in Speech-Language Pathology: Practitioner's Knowledge, Practice, and Needs

Purpose: Previous research demonstrates the relevance of childhood trauma and attachment to communication development. This study aimed to understand speech-language pathology (SLP) practitioners' knowledge, beliefs, training, and current practices regarding developmental trauma and attachment. Method: An online survey was administered to SLP practitioners ( N = 97) who work primarily with children from birth to age 6 years in Canada. Quantitative (univariate and bivariate) analysis was performed with SPSS. Qualitative responses were coded by two reviewers using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Results: SLP practitioners are working with children who have experienced trauma and adapt their practice when they are aware of this history. Practitioners also indicated, however, that they lack training with respect to trauma and attachment, their understanding of the concepts is narrow, they do not have standardized practices for obtaining trauma history, and they do not adapt their practice in consistent ways. The results show there is interest in understanding how trauma affects communication development, the relevance to their work, and that additional training is needed to support practitioners to identify and respond to trauma in early childhood. Conclusions: Findings from this study support SLP practitioners' involvement in early identification of trauma and the development of best practices regarding trauma-informed SLP assessment and intervention. The results also inform how systems and areas of service need to be adjusted to be more accessible, flexible, and collaborative in order to support children and families whose lives have been impacted by trauma and indicate additional areas of research in the area. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16968097

The Impact and Importance of Communication Within the Agricultural Units in Romania in the Digital Era

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the degree of importance that the staff carrying out their activity within agricultural units in Romania gives to both internal and external organizational communication, and the impact, along with the implementations made, of the transition to the digital age. The research was quantitative, in the form of an online questionnaire, placed in a crowdsourcing system, distributed to the staff operating in agricultural units, holding both execution and management positions. It was filled in by 996 people, and the research started from the main idea that at local level, as well as institutional (ministry) level, there is still no concern for improving and enhancing professionalism and communication development, both externally as well as internally, in the context of the digital age we are experiencing. For an accuracy of the information, our analysis was based on 3 hypotheses. Testing the hypotheses based on obtained results led to the validation thereof and allowed us to draw up appropriate conclusions.