Effect of sustained attention on Early Start Denver Model outcomes

Introduction: There is very little research on the use of sustained attention as an outcome predictor for the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). We hypothesized that a child’s level of sustained attention prior to therapy will correlate with positive ESDM outcomes. Methods: 10 pre-preschool age children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder received one year of ESDM therapy. A novel coding scheme was developed to evaluate each child’s pre-treatment level of sustained attention. Mullen Scales of Early Learning were evaluated prior to and after one year of ESDM. Pre-treatment levels of sustained attention were compared to pre-and post-treatment Mullen scores. Sustained attention was evaluated as an outcome predictor for ESDM. Results: Preliminary results identified a positive correlation between the duration of an episode of sustained attention and the pre- and post-treatment Mullen scores. A positive correlation was also identified between the functional use of an object during an episode of sustained attention and the pre- and post-treatment Mullen scores. Conclusion: Preliminary results support the hypothesis that a child’s level of sustained attention prior to therapy will correlate with positive ESDM outcomes. More participants are required to confirm the significance of the preliminary results

A Systematic Review of Osteoporosis Health Beliefs in Adult Men and Women

Osteoporosis is major public health concern affecting millions of older adults worldwide. A systematic review was carried out to identify the most common osteoporosis health beliefs in adult men and women from descriptive and intervention studies. The Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS) and Osteoporosis Self-efficacy Scale (OSES) evaluate osteoporosis health beliefs, including perceived susceptibility and seriousness, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy of calcium and exercise, and health motivation, and their relationship to preventive health behaviours. A comprehensive search of studies that included OHBS and OSES subscale scores as outcomes was performed. Fifty full-text articles for citations were reviewed based on inclusion criteria. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria. Greater perceived seriousness, benefits, self-efficacy, health motivation, and fewer barriers were the most common health-belief subscales in men and women. Few studies were interventions (n = 6) and addressed osteoporosis health beliefs in men (n = 8). Taking health beliefs into consideration when planning and conducting education interventions may be useful in both research and practice for osteoporosis prevention and management; however, more research in this area is needed

Daphne Marlatt reading “Lagoon” – Sir George Williams University, November 3, 1970

Daphne Marlatt starts her reading with poems from Vancouver Poems (1972), a deeply local collection that she had not yet published when this reading took place at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Montreal. She tells the audience that she will explain the local references as she goes along, starting with the first poem that refers to Lost Lagoon in Vancouver’s Stanley Park

Daryl Hine reading “The Trout” / James Wright reading “A Blessing” – Sir George Williams University, December 1, 1967 / December 13, 1968

When listening to one recording from the SGW Poetry Series (1966-1974), it can be hard to hear its place amid the reading series as a whole. One can visualize its place on a list or on a calendar but it can be harder to sonically hear the seriality itself, except when someone on the recording, most often the host, refers to the previous or following reading. For this Audio of the Week, McLeod selects two clips from December readings in which there are announcements for the next readings in January

Kaie Kellough – The Words & Music Show – November 20, 2016

As the first Audio of the Week to be selected from The Words & Music Show collection, this clip features poet Kaie Kellough. Kellough’s voice has been recorded many times throughout the past twenty years of Montreal’s Words & Music Show, a monthly cabaret of spoken word, poetry, music, and dance, established and organized by poet and musician Ian Ferrier. The recordings of these shows have now been digitized and catalogued by SpokenWeb researchers at Concordia University

Daryl Hine reading “Point Grey” – Sir George Williams University, 1967

Katherine McLeod selects a recording of Daryl Hine's "Point Grey" from the SGW Poetry Series as the current Audio of the Week

Gwendolyn MacEwen reading “I Should Have Predicted” – Sir George Williams University, November 18, 1966

In this Audio of the Week, you are listening to the voice of poet Gwendolyn MacEwen reading in Montreal on November 18, 1966. The reading took place at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) and it was a joint reading with Phyllis Webb. After an introduction by Roy Kiyooka (an excerpt of which is the first Audio of the Week) Webb reads, followed by MacEwen. Webb jokes that she has “the Toronto plague” (having travelled from Toronto for the reading) and MacEwen too starts her reading by wondering if her voice might “go out” during it and that, if that happens, they can put on the album that they have just recorded for CBC. Thankfully, her voice does not go out, or, as she says, “the voice is intact.” That phrase is the title of an episode about MacEwen on The SpokenWeb Podcast: “The Voice is Intact: Finding Gwendolyn MacEwen in the Archive.” Early on in this episode, producer Hannah McGregor and guest Jen Sookfong Lee listen together to MacEwen reading the poem “The Zoo” from this 1966 recording. As we listen to them listening on the podcast, we hear a gasp and even an exclamation: “Melodious!” What was it in her voice that they were responding to? To try to answer this question through your own experience of listening, this Audio of the Week selects another poem of MacEwen’s in this same 1966 recording: “I Should Have Predicted,” published in The Shadow Maker (1969)

Earle Birney asks George Bowering for a glass of water – Sir George Williams University, February 23, 1968

After reading for about eleven minutes, Earle Birney pauses to ask if there is any water to drink. There is a glass and a pitcher (audibly present) but nearly empty, and thus the evening’s host George Bowering heads out into the hallway to find Birney a cold beverage. This interlude of extra-poetic speech reveals that, despite it being mid-February, the room temperature feels more like summer and, more importantly, the humourous nature of the extra-poetic speech attunes the listener to the sociality as well as to the poetry

Dorothy Livesay introducing and reading “Bartok and the Geranium” – Sir George Williams University (Montreal), January 14, 1971

A previous Audio of the Week featured one of Livesay’s most song-like poems “The Unquiet Bed” and this Audio of the Week features another musical poem by Livesay from that same reading in Montreal on January 14, 1971. The poem is “Bartok and the Geranium,” a poem that is often anthologized and, in fact, you may have studied it in a course on Canadian poetry. But do you know how Livesay wrote it? In this Audio of the Week, along with hearing the poem, you will hear Livesay telling her own story of how the poem began