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Maltreated youth have a high prevalence of acute and chronic mental and physical health problems, but it is not clear whether these problems are related to maltreatment or to a disadvantaged environment. To compare health status and health care use of maltreated youth receiving child protective services to comparison youth living in the same community, we conducted a secondary analysis of caregiver reports for 207 maltreated adolescents (mean age 11.9 years) and 142 comparison adolescents (mean age 12.3 years) living in urban Los Angeles, using questionnaire data from a larger longitudinal study framed in a socio-ecological model. Caregivers included biological parents, relatives, and unrelated caregivers. Analyses included t-test, MANOVA, chi-square, and multivariable logistic regression. Caregivers reported similar rates of physical health problems but more mental health problems and psychotropic medicine use in maltreated youth than in the comparison youth, suggesting that maltreated youths’ higher rates of mental health problems could not be attributed to the disadvantaged environment. Although there were no differences in health insurance coverage, maltreated youth received preventive medical care more often than comparison youth. For all youth, having Medicaid improved their odds of receiving preventive health and dental care. Attention to mental health issues in adolescents receiving child welfare services remains important. Acceptance of Medicaid by neighborhood-based and/or school-based services in low-income communities may reduce barriers to preventive care.

The number of students accessing Alternative Provision (AP) in the UK is growing and the ways in which such provision is facilitated is evolving with the use of EdTech. However, there is very little evidence of such provisions being evaluated in terms of their educational impact nor regarding the way in which students engage with them. This results in the voices of students participating in AP being further marginalised by being out of mainstream education, as they fail to be heard by their educators, schools or local authorities. Within this exploratory paper digital data collection methods are shown to offer a solution to this problem and reveal student voice insights into how they engage with and experience one specific form of synchronistic online AP. This study provides evidence of how student voice can effectively be collated in order to provide an opportunity for marginalised student voices to be heard. What is already known about this topic Student voice is a critical tool in both engaging students and student engagement. There is a preference in students to give anonymous feedback and this facilitates more honest, open responses. AP uptake is increasing. There has been little evidence of any effort to obtain student voice from students in AP. What this paper adds Gathering student voice from students in AP is critical to assess how students view and respond to their provision. Digital data collection facilitates AP student voice; students both younger and potentially more vulnerable to disengagement can have their voices heard more easily. A substantial majority of students in AP who have left mainstream education perceive online learning delivery methods to have positive impacts. Implications for practice/pedagogy Practitioners should strive to ensure AP students have avenues through which they may have their student voices heard to gain insights into the effectiveness of the provision from a student perspective. Anonymous feedback, which enables students to be confident in expressing their views, even when verbally expressed, can be facilitated through digital data collection methods. Use of live, online interactive lessons are a valuable form of AP worthy of further exploration.

We recently reported an unusual audiometric configuration in a woman misdiagnosed as having “an hysterical hearing loss” in which she detected 12 000 Hz signals at 45 dB SPL. In a series of tests, we uncovered a sizeable percentage of deaf people who have better hearing above than below 8000 Hz. Virtually all these people have unusually good speech considering the amount of loss in the so-called speech frequencies. We will present speech samples with audiograms and postulate the following: (1) Zero dB HL for 12 kHz is approximately 25 dB SPL; (2) an audiometric configuration such as demonstrated by these patients permits (a) a modicum of sensitivity to transients in the field (but not from frequency limited hearing aids); (b) time-code perception for broadband signals, and (3) may give-the patient considerable access to temporal monitoring of speech especially with sibilants and plosives. At present we have no idea of the etiology of these hearing losses; a companion paper will describe a translating hearing aid we built for two patients and discuss some of our experiences with the aids. [Supported by NIH, DRF, and The Kresge Foundation.]

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