Using a self-guided app to provide communication strategies for caregivers of young children with developmental disorders

One important evidence-based component of early communication interventions in high-income countries is teaching parents and other primary caregivers to provide communication opportunities in daily activities to stimulate the development of beginning communication skills. To address some of the barriers to communication interventions for children with developmental disorders (DD) in rural South Africa, we developed a prototype Web-based selfguided app for caregivers to use at home with their children with DD who were at the beginning stages of communication development. The purpose of this study is to examine how this app intervention functioned for caregivers and its secondary effects on their children. Fifty-one caregiver-child dyads were randomly assigned to either a typical care intervention group (a 30- minute hospital-based intervention once a month) or the self-guided mobile health technology (MHT) app plus the typical care intervention. We assessed both the caregivers and their children. The majority of the 27 caregiver-child dyads (81%) assigned to the app group used the app and completed a mean of 35.8 sessions across the 48 sessions (mean range = 5.08–15.75). Eighty percent of these caregivers employed the “help” function of the app (M per caregiver = 9.89). The caregivers who completed 44–48 sessions reported that more than half of the children moved from pre-symbolic forms of communication (e.g., crying) to symbolic forms of communication (e.g., words) by the end of the intervention. Compared to the typical care group, the caregivers perceived that their children's success increased even though their difficulties remained stable. The app group showed a very modest gain in expressive language while the typical care group did not. The findings suggest that the self-guided app framework shows promise as a supplement to traditional monthly speechlanguage intervention in South Africa.The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the NIH Fogarty International Center.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17411130am2024Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC)SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

EVIDENCE OF A NEW STATE AT SIMILAR-TO-1660-MEV/C(2) OBSERVED IN NP-ANNIHILATIONS

A study of up in-night annihilations is presented. The 4 pi invariant mass spectrum resulting from the analysis of the five-prong exclusive events, following the annihilation of similar to(100-297) MeV/c ($) over bar n, reveals, besides a large structure centred at similar to 1500 MeV/c(2), some evidences for a new state around 1660 MeV/c(2). RI Galli, Domenico/A-1606-2012; Iazzi, Felice/F-4490-2012; Botta, Elena/G-9742-2012; Villa, Mauro/C-9883-2009; Fontana, Andrea/I-4375-2012; Filippi, Alessandra/I-9530-201

MESON SPECTROSCOPY WITH S-WAVE AND P-WAVE DOMINANT INITIAL-STATE SELECTION IN (P)OVER-BAR-P-ANNIHILATION

The possibility of selecting the initial angular-momentum state from which antiproton-proton annihilation at rest can occur can be a fundamental tool in meson spectroscopy. With the OBELIX detector different target systems have been employed, ranging from S-wave to P-wave dominance. The preliminary results both on meson spectroscopy and branching ratio measurements are discussed. RI Galli, Domenico/A-1606-2012; Iazzi, Felice/F-4490-2012; Botta, Elena/G-9742-2012; Villa, Mauro/C-9883-2009; Fontana, Andrea/I-4375-2012; Filippi, Alessandra/I-9530-201