This paper presents examples of consonant‐vowel interactions collected from a group of Edinburgh children presenting with developmental phonological disorder. Three types of interaction are described: vowel conditioning of consonant production, consonant conditioning of vowel production and use of consonantal material to maintain vowel contrasts. Evidence of context conditioning in both consonant and vowel error patterns highlights the potential importance of assessing the child's sound system as a whole. It also raises the question of how far coarticulatory constraints play a role in phonological disorder. In this paper, the data are interpreted, where possible, in terms of production constraints and the degree of compatibility between consonant and vowel gestures. This approach represents one particular perspective and is not intended to preclude other perceptual and/or phonological accounts of the data.

Background: NHS case note data is a potential source of practice-based evidence which could be used to investigate effectiveness of different interventions for individuals with a range of speech, language and communication needs. Consistency in pre-and post-intervention data as well as collection of relevant variables would need to be demonstrated as a precursor to adopting this approach in future investigations of SLT intervention.Aims: The aim of this paper is to explore whether routine clinical data collection for children with speech sound disorder (SSD) could be a potential source for examining the effectiveness of intervention(s). Methods and Procedures:We examined case notes from three UK NHS services, reviewing 174 sets of case notes and 234 blocks of therapy provided for school-age children with SSD.Main contribution: We found there was significant variation in pre-and post-intervention data and variables collected by the services. The assessment data available in the case notes across all sites were insufficient to be used to compare the effectiveness of different interventions.Specific issues included lack of consistent reporting of pre-and post-intervention data, and use of a variety of both formal and informal assessment tools. Conclusions and implications:The case notes reviewed were from three sites and may not represent wider clinical practice nevertheless the findings suggest, the sample explored indicates the need for more consistent and contemporaneous collection of data for children with SSD, to facilitate investigation of different interventions in practice. Researchers should work with the clinical community to determine a minimal dataset that includes a core outcome set and potential variables. This should be feasible to collect in clinical practice and provide a dataset for future investigations of clinically relevant research questions. This would provide an invaluable resource to the clinical academic and research communities enabling research questions to be addressed that have the potential to lead to improved outcomes and more cost-effective services.

In initiating the Unidata Program, scientists hoped to meet common needs for accessing and using atmospheric data in education and research using state-of-the-art technology. As communications technologies have advanced, Unidata has increasingly become a "virtual community" in which participants cooperate, collaborate, and share a variety of resources, including data. The Unidata experience-how it resembles and differs from other concepts of locationindependent collaborations-may serve as a model for building and supporting communities of researchers and educators with common needs for data and the tools to use them.

Accuracy of phonetic transcription is a core skill for speech and language therapists (SLTs) worldwide (Howard & Heselwood, 2002). The current study investigates the value of weekly independent online phonetic transcription tasks to support development of this skill in year one SLT students. Using a mixed methods observational design, students enrolled in a year one phonetics module completed 10 weekly homework activities in phonetic transcription on a stand-alone tutorial site (WebFon (Bates, Matthews & Eagles, 2010)) and 5 weekly online quizzes (the 'Ulster Set' (Titterington, unpublished)). Student engagement with WebFon was measured in terms of the number of responses made to 'sparks' on the University's Virtual Learning Environment Discussion Board. Measures of phonetic transcription accuracy were obtained for the 'Ulster Set' and for a stand-alone piece of coursework at the end of the module. Qualitative feedback about experience with the online learning was gathered via questionnaire. A positive significant association was found between student engagement with WebFon and performance in the 'Ulster Set', and between performance in the 'Ulster Set' and final coursework. Students valued both online independent learning resources as each supported different learning needs. However, student compliance with WebFon was significantly lower than with the 'Ulster Set'. Motivators and inhibitors to engagement with the online resources were investigated identifying what best maximised engagement. These results indicate that while 'independent' online learning can support development of phonetic transcription skills, the activities must be carefully managed and constructively aligned to assessment providing the level of valance necessary to ensure effective engagement.

The paper explores the syllabic and segmental dimensions of phonological vowel disorder. The independence of the two dimensions is illustrated by the case study of an English-speaking child presenting with an impairment which can be shown to have a specifically syllabic basis. His production of adult long vowels displays three main patterns of deviance – shortening, bisyllabification and the hardening of a target off-glide to a stop. Viewed phonemically, these patterns appear as unconnected substitutions and distortions. Viewed syllabically, however, they can be traced to a single underlying deficit, namely a failure to secure the complex nuclear structure necessary for the coding of vowel length contrasts.