Training Caregivers of Young Children Who Are Deaf / Hard of Hearing To Implement Communication Facilitation Strategies

Caregiver-implemented communication intervention can result in increased communication skills in young children. Parents/caregivers are the first teachers of their children and are in natural positions to provide naturalistic communication intervention throughout their child’s daily life within their home. Professionals who work with young children with communication delays can coach parents in strategies to help facilitate increased communication skills in their children and help incorporate therapeutic techniques into the family’s regular routines. The current study examined the impact of training and coaching on caregivers’ implementation of naturalistic language facilitation strategies with their children who are deaf or hard of hearing using a single case experimental multiple probe design. Two caregivers and their children who are hard of hearing participated in this study. The caregivers each received a training session and one caregiver received a coaching session, all via videoconferencing. Results indicated a potential relationship between training and the caregivers’ use of the naturalistic language facilitation strategies as evidenced by caregivers showing increased ability to use a target skill - reciprocity. In addition, participants stated overall positive perceptions toward their participation in the study, both pre- and post-participation. Discussion of the study’s key findings, limitations, future research, and practical implications is included.KEYWORDS: deaf/hard of hearing, preschool, early childhood, early intervention, communication facilitation, language strategies, language development, vocabulary, speech-language pathology, deaf education, parent coachin

Directing rural cooperatives in uncertain environments

Data were gathered as a part of an applied research project addressing problems of board decision making and cooperative autonomy in an environment increasingly dominated by external forces. The research focused on perceptions of uncertainty by directors of rural cooperatives, sources of uncertainty, and organizational strategies for coping with uncertainty. Boards were viewed as informal boundary spanning units. The decision making and resource dependence perspectives were the source of most hypotheses. A third perspective, population ecology, was introduced as a means of interpreting cooperative literature and improving future theory and empirical research on cooperatives;Two measures of uncertainty were used. Data supported an initial assumption that the most salient sources of uncertainty--government regulations and legislation, national economic conditions, transportation and energy shortages--are largely beyond the control of the local organization. Relationships between the measures of uncertainty and measures of linkages, traditionalism, and cooperative competition and size were examined. Both uncertainty measures were positively associated with director organizational linkages, but negatively, and more weakly, associated with traditionalism;Relationships were also examined between three measures of organizational linkages (board linkages, cooperative external linkages, and cooperative organizational linkages) and six organizational variables: annual dollar volume of business, number of members, age of cooperative, size of cooperative, tenure of manager, and number of competitors. The strongest correlations were obtained between the number of cooperative organizational linkages and tenure of cooperative manager;Moderate support was found for both the decision making and resource dependence perspectives. Tentative strategies were suggested for coping with uncertainty. First, directors should engage in boundary spanning activities such as organizational memberships and director training programs. Second, cooperatives should establish organizational linkages. Finally, directors should be aware of the necessity of carefully considering manager selection and evaluation and of the implications of a traditional ideology for cooperative survival

Using Social Media for Parental Support in Raising a Child with a Disability: A Critical Analysis of Facebook Postings

Using Social Media for Parental Support in Raising a Child with a Disability: A Critical Analysis of Facebook Posting

Integrated Academic Planning: Developing an Intentional Path Forward

This presentation will focus on successful completion of Phases 1–3 of an integrated academic planning process, with engagement of 180+ degree programs and four extraordinary education task forces. Presenters will discuss successful and provocative elements, including consensus building, community involvement, data utilization, shared governance, and transparency

Integrated Academic Planning: Developing an Intentional Path Forward

This presentation will focus on successful completion of Phases 1–3 of an integrated academic planning process, with engagement of 180+ degree programs and four extraordinary education task forces. Presenters will discuss successful and provocative elements, including consensus building, community involvement, data utilization, shared governance, and transparency

Association of professional identity, gender, team understanding, anxiety and workplace learning alignment with burnout in junior doctors: a longitudinal cohort study

Objectives To examine how burnout across medical student to junior doctor transition relates to: measures of professional identity, team understanding, anxiety, gender, age and workplace learning (assistantship) alignment to first post. Design A longitudinal 1-year cohort design. Two groups of final-year medical students: (1) those undertaking end-of-year assistantships aligned in location and specialty with their first post and (2) those undertaking assistantships non-aligned. An online questionnaire included: Professional Identity Scale, Team Understanding Scale, modified Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and modified Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Data were collected on four occasions: (T1) prior to graduation; (T2) 1 month post-transition; (T3) 6 months post-transition and (T4) 10 months post-transition. Questionnaires were analysed individually and using linear mixed-effect models. Setting Medical schools and postgraduate training in one UK country. Participants All aligned assistantship (n=182) and non-aligned assistantship students (n=319) were contacted; n=281 (56%) responded: 68% (n=183) females, 73% (n=206) 22–30 years, 46% aligned (n=129). Completion rates: aligned 72% (93/129) and non-aligned 64% (98/152). Results Analyses of individual scales revealed that self-reported anxiety, professional identity and patient-related burnout were stable, while team understanding, personal and work-related burnout increased, all irrespective of alignment. Three linear mixed-effect models (personal, patient-related and work-related burnout as outcome measures; age and gender as confounding variables) found that males self-reported significantly lower personal, but higher patient-related burnout, than females. Age and team understanding had no effect. Anxiety was significantly positively related and professional identity was significantly negatively related to burnout. Participants experiencing non-aligned assistantships reported higher personal and work-related burnout over time. Conclusions Implications for practice include medical schools’ consideration of an end-of-year workplace alignment with first-post before graduation or an extended shadowing period immediately postgraduation. How best to support undergraduate students’ early professional identity development should be examined. Support systems should be in place across the transition for individuals with a predisposition for anxiety

"He's going to be a doctor in August": A narrative interview study of medical students' and their educators' experiences of aligned and misaligned assistantships

Objective To explore final-year students’ and clinical supervisors’ experiences of alignment and misalignment with future Foundation Year 1 (F1) posts in an assistantship programme in the UK. Setting Assistantships are clinical placements in which students assist junior doctors by undertaking similar duties under supervision. Models of assistantship programmes vary across curricula. Some actively seek to align with students’ initial postgraduate F1 post. To date, no research has examined the implications of this association for teaching and learning. Qualitative individual and group narrative interviews were conducted with students and supervisors of 2 Welsh medical schools to address: RQ1: How do students and supervisors understand the purpose of the longitudinal assistantship? RQ2: Does alignment/misalignment of the assistantship with students’ initial F1 post influence students’ and supervisors’ teaching and learning experiences? Audio-recordings of interviews were transcribed, participants anonymised and framework analysis was used. Participants A convenience sample of 4 participant groups comprised (1) final-year medical students whose assistantship and F1 post were aligned (n=27), (2) final-year medical students whose assistantship and F1 post were misaligned (n=18) and (3) supervisors (n=10, junior doctors; n=11, consultants). Results All participant groups highlighted increased student confidence in undertaking the duties of an F1 doctor arising from their assistantship period. Learning transferable skills was also highlighted. Many students considered themselves to be team members, ‘learning the trade’ as they shadowed their F1. Opportunities for caring for acutely unwell patients were scarce. The evidence shows enhanced engagement for students aligned to their first F1 post with greater opportunities for workplace acclimatisation. Those who were misaligned were perceived as being disadvantaged. Conclusions Our findings suggest that alignment with students’ first F1 post enhances the assistantship experience. Further longitudinal assessment is required to examine whether and how this translates into improvement