CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet thereis little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments inchildren. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicineand the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them.Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possibleto achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying childrenwho might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representingten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatricsand child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland,New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing onthis topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpointscale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the firsttwo authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus.The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation(round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percentfor 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their responsewith written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resultingconsensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and aconcluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.</p

Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology.

Background: Lack of agreement about criteria and terminology for children’s language problems affects access to services as well as hindering research and practice. We report the second phase of a study using an online Delphi method to address these issues. In the first phase, we focused on criteria for language disorder. Here we consider terminology.Methods: The Delphi method is an iterative process in which an initial set of statements is rated by a panel of experts, who then have the opportunity to view anonymised ratings from other panel members. On this basis they can either revise their views or make a case for their position. The statements are then revised based on panel feedback, and again rated by and commented on by the panel. In this study, feedback from a second round was used to prepare a final set of statements in narrative form. The panel included 57 individuals representing a range of professions and nationalities. Results: We achieved at least 78% agreement for 19 of 21 statements within two rounds of ratings. These were collapsed into 12 statements for the final consensus reported here. The term ‘Language Disorder’ is recommended to refer to a profile of difficulties that causes functional impairment in everyday life and is associated with poor prognosis. The term, ‘Developmental Language Disorder’ (DLD) was endorsed for use when the language disorder was not associated with a known biomedical aetiology. It was also agreed that (a) presence of risk factors (neurobiological or environmental) does not preclude a diagnosis of DLD, (b) DLD can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD) and (c) DLD does not require a mismatch between verbal and nonverbal ability. Conclusions: This Delphi exercise highlights reasons for disagreements about terminology for language disorders and proposes standard definitions and nomenclature. </p

An Integrative Literature Review of Responsible Leadership: Knowns, Unknowns, and Implications

This article aims to understand what we do and do not know concerning the construct of Responsible Leadership plus address directions for the future. Since the development of the Responsible Leadership for Performance theory (Lynham, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004), consistent description of Responsible Leadership has lacked, creating tension between increasing interest in Responsible Leadership without a common framework to guide inquiry. Through an integrative literature review we offer descriptive themes of Responsible Leadership from literature including why and how people have written about the construct, as well as unaddressed questions and implications for research, theory, and practice

The Lived Experience of Responsible Leadership: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study of Five Middle School Teachers

Limited research exists at the intersection of Responsible Leadership (RL) and education organizations. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the essence of a Responsible Leadership experience from the perspective of middle school teachers in the western United States. Five participants who were all active middle school educators participated in in-depth interviews about their experiences based on the 3Es of Responsible Leadership: effectiveness, ethics, and endurance. Ten shared textural descriptions of experience were constructed from the data: diligence; open RL to more people; dedication to development; take ownership; genuine care for teachers; consistency; fortitude; guided by vision and values; and desirable outcomes of RL for teachers. Implications for future research and practice are addressed

Training evaluation with 360-degree feedback

Training evaluation is an important issue in many organizations. Even though organizations are becoming more interested to measure the effects of their training investments, organizations often lack the tools for the measurement of training effects, especially at the level of changed behavior. This paper will focus on the use of 360-degree feedback for evaluation of changed behavior as a result of training. The results of an experimental study in a large Dutch hospital will be described and discussed