Background: Children with Down syndrome have speech and language difficulties that are disproportionate to their overall intellectual ability and relative strengths in the use of gesture. Shared book reading between parents and their children provides an effective context in which language development can be facilitated. However, children with Down syndrome often take a passive role in shared book reading and the use of key word signing (KWS) as a shared book reading technique has never been investigated. Aims: This study aimed to compare children with Down syndrome's participation and use of KWS across two methods of shared book reading -one in which a book had key-word sign prompts embedded (signed condition) and the other in which a book was read as normal (unsigned condition). Measures of child and parent communicative behaviour were taken in each condition to establish if differences emerged. Methods & Procedures:A total of 36 children with Down syndrome (aged between 18 and 61 months) and their mothers took part in the study. Parentchild dyads were videoed at home reading two books, one in a signed and one in an unsigned condition. Child measures included total number of signs produced in each condition and levels of attention and initiation as measured by the Pivotal Behaviour Rating Scale. Parent measures included total number of utterances, mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes and vocabulary diversity (VOCD). Parental measures were transcribed using the Codes for Human Analysis Transcripts (CHAT) software and analysed by the Computerised Language Analysis software (CLAN). Contrasts in outcomes between the signed and unsigned conditions were estimated using Poisson and linear mixed-effects models, determined by the type of data.

Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. Collaboration between teachers and OTs improves student performance and promotes positive student outcomes in school-based OT (Kennedy & Stewart, 2012). Collaboration with OTs was valued by 85.1% of respondents, and 62% of respondents considered OT's goal in the schools to be focused on fine motor skills. This survey shows that general education teachers value collaboration with OTs but do not fully understand the role of OT, which may limit the effectiveness of collaboration. Primary Author and Speaker: Erin E. Bradley Contributing Authors: Elizabeth Hassett, Antonio Mazza, and Gifty Abraham

Date Presented 03/27/20 Collaboration between teachers and OTs improves student performance and promotes positive student outcomes in school-based OT (Kennedy and Stewart, 2012). Collaboration with OTs was valued by 85.1% of respondents, and 62% of respondents considered OT’s goal in the schools to be focused on fine motor skills. This survey shows that general education teachers value collaboration with OTs but do not fully understand the role of OT, which may limit the effectiveness of collaboration. Primary Author and Speaker: Erin Bradley Contributing Authors: Elizabeth Hassett, Antonio Mazza, Gifty Abraham