This paper assess the impact of introducing inference training to skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Children aged between 6 years 6 months and 9 years 11 months, classified as skilled or less skilled comprehenders, were instructed on how to make inferences from and generate questions about a text over a period of six sessions. Comparison groups of skilled and less skilled comprehenders were trained in standard comprehension strategies. The less skilled group showed a significantly greater improvement than the skilled group, regardless of the training given, but inference training was significantly more effective than standard comprehension strategies in the less skilled group. Seven out of ten less skilled readers who were inference trained increased their performance sufficiently to become classified as skilled comprehenders, whilst four out of ten less skilled comprehenders taught standard comprehension strategies improved to the same level. It is concluded that the value of explicitly teaching children inferential skills is that the enjoyment of the task of reading is enhanced and is therefore more likely to be undertaken readily, even by pupils who may have initially found reading difficult.

ObjectivesTo determine whether psychosocial well-being is associated with the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people with Usher syndrome.SettingThe survey was advertised online and through deafblind-related charities, support groups and social groups throughout the UK.Participants90 people with Usher syndrome took part in the survey. Inclusion criteria are having a diagnosis of Usher syndrome, being 18 or older and being a UK resident.Primary and secondary outcome measuresAll participants took part in a survey that measured depressive symptoms, loneliness and social support (predictors) and their physical and mental HRQOL (outcomes). Measured confounders included age-related, sex-related and health-related characteristics. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses examined the association of each psychosocial well-being predictor with the physical and mental HRQOL outcomes while controlling for confounders in a stepwise manner.ResultsAfter adjusting for all confounders, psychosocial well-being was shown to predict physical and mental HRQOL in our population with Usher syndrome. Increasing depressive symptoms were predictive of poorer physical (β=−0.36, p<0.01) and mental (β=−0.60, p<0.001) HRQOL. Higher levels of loneliness predicted poorer mental HRQOL (β=−0.20, p<0.05). Finally, increasing levels of social support predicted better mental HRQOL (β=0.19, p<0.05).ConclusionsDepression, loneliness and social support all represent important issues that are linked with HRQOL in a UK population with Usher syndrome. Our results add to the growing body of evidence that psychosocial well-being is an important factor to consider in people with Usher syndrome alongside functional and physical impairment within research and clinical practice.

Adults automatically adjust their speech and actions in a way that may facilitate infants’ processing (e.g., Brand, Baldwin, & Ashburn, 2002). This research examined whether mothers’ use of repetition for infants depended on whether the object being demonstrated required a series of actions in sequence in order to reach a salient goal (called an “enabling” sequence). Mothers (n = 39) demonstrated six objects, three with an enabling sequence and three with an arbitrary sequence, to their 6- to 8- or 11- to 13-month-olds. As predicted, in demonstrations of objects with an enabling sequence, mothers were more likely to repeatseriesof actions, whereas for those without such structure, mothers were more likely to repeatindividual unitsof action. This may or may not have been deliberately pedagogical on mothers’ part, but nevertheless indicates another way in which input to infants is richly patterned to support their learning.

SUMMARY An investigative analysis was carried out of the neuromotor and cognitive findings in a population based study of low‐birthweight infants (< 17509) at 4 1/2 years of age to try to improve the understandïng of the neuropathological basis of their deficit,. Cluster analysis identified groups of children whose performance in the cognitive subscales of the British Ability Scales followed similar patterns and also differentiated between children in neuromotor competence. Cluster membership correlated highly with language attainment, ability to copy shapes behaviour as reported by parents, and parents, and examiners' perception of attention span. Children in poorer‐performing clusters were more likely to be born to mothers who had had a previous perinatal death, and were also more likely to have experienced septicaemia during the neonatal period. These findings are discussed in the light of evidence from the neuropathological and physiological literature. RÉSUMÉ Allure des fonctions neuropsychologies dons une population d'enfants a faible poids de naissance Une analyse exploratrice sur les données neuromotrices et cognitives à I'àge de quatre ans et demi d'entants de faible poids de naissance (< 1750g), a été entreprise pour essayer d'améliorer la compréhension des bases neuropathologiques de leurs déficiences. Une analyse de groupe a identifyé des groupes d'enfants dont les performances aux sous‐échelles cognitives des British Ability Scales présentaient des allures comparables, et a différenciéégalement les enfants sur le plan des compérences neuromotrices. L'appartenance à un groupe était haucement corrélée avec les performances en langage, la capacityéà copier des forms, le comportement rapporté par les parents, et la perception du temps d'attention, faite par les parents ou des examinateurs. Les enfants des groupes les moins performants avaient plus de chance d'être nés de méres ayant eu une expérience antérieure de décès périnatal, et plus de chance d'avoir présenté une septicémie durant la période néonatale. Ces données sont discutées à la lumière des évidences de la littéirature de neuropathology et physiologie. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Neuropsychologische Funktionmuster bei Kindern mit niedrigem Geburtsgewicht Es wurden die Befunde neuromotorischer und kognitiver Untersuchungen von 4 1/2‐jährigen Kindern mit niedrigem Geburtsgewicht (<1750g) analysiert, um die neuropathologischen Grundlagen für ihre Störungen besser zu verstehen. Durch Cluster Analyse wurden Gruppen von Kindern herausgefunden, deren Lösungen in den Untergruppen der kognitiven Tests der British Ability Scales ein ähnliches Muster aufwiesen, außerdem wurden die Kinder im neuromotorischen Bereich unterschieden. Es fand sich eine starke Korrelation von Cluster‐Zugehorigkeit und Sprachkenntnis, Fähigkeiten, Formen nachzuzeichnen, Verhalten nach Darstellung der Eltern und von Eltern und Untersuchern festgestellte Aufmerksamkeitsspanne. Kinder mit schlechteren Testergebnissen hatten mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit Mütter, die zuvor eine Totgeburt hatt...

Background to the projectThe aim of this project was to design a personal safety programme for those with severe learning difficulties. However, the difficulty faced by the researchers was how to describe potentially risky situations to these young people, some of whom did not use speech, in order that a response could be made. Current personal safety programmes have concentrated on teaching concepts through a variety of methods, from workshops and singing to behavioural skills training. Implicit in these methodologies is the reliance on a verbal mode of communication. For a mainstream child this type of medium will be more effective than for a child who has difficulty learning and using language, which requires understanding semantics, pragmatics and syntax. For a child with cognitive impairment, confusion may arise through the use of a complex and abstract system of communication; thus the child with language difficulties has to rely more on the multi-modal nature of language -the use of gestures, eye contact, expressions and the use of sign as well as speech (Light, 1988). A teaching programme for those with severe learning difficulties therefore needs to employ a variety of modes of communication in order to ensure effective translation of the concept as one communication mode is not always suitable for all those with language impairments (Light, Collier & Parnes, 1985).