The relationship between multiple birth children's early phonological skills and later literacy

Previous studies have shown that multiple ; birth children (MBC) are prone to early phonological ;difficulties and later literacy problems. However, to date, ;there has been no systematic long-term follow-up of MBC with phonological difficulties in the preschool years to determine whether these difficulties predict later literacy problems. In this study, 20 MBC whose early speech and language skills had been previously documented were compared to normative data and 20 singleton controls on tasks assessing phonological ; processing and literacy. The major findings indicated that MBC performed significantly more poorly on some tasks :df phonological processing than singleton controls did. Further, the early phonological skills of MBC (i.e., the number of inappropriate phonological processes used) correlated with poor performance on visual rhyme recognition, word repetition, and phoneme detection tasks 5 years later. There was no significant relationship between early biological factors (birth weight and gestation period) and performance on the phonological processing and literacy-related subtests. These results cl-support the hypothesis that MBC's early speech and language difficulties are not merely a transient phase;of; development, but a real disorder, with consequences for later academic achievement.

The Modified Card Sorting Test: Test-retest stability and relationships with demographic variables in a healthy older adult sample

Objectives. To investigate the test-retest stability of a standardized version of Nelson's (1976) Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST) and its relationships with demographic variables in a sample of healthy older adults. Design. A standard card order and administration were devised for the MCST and administered to participants at an initial assessment, and again at a second session conducted a minimum of six months later in order to examine its test-retest stability. Participants were also administered the WAIS-R at initial assessment in order to provide a measure of psychometric intelligence. Methods. Thirty-six (24 female, 12 male) healthy older adults aged 52 to 77 years with mean education 12.42 years (SD = 3.53) completed the MCST on two occasions approximately 7.5 months (SD = 1.61) apart. Stability coefficients and test-retest differences were calculated for the range of scores. The effect of gender on MCST performance was examined. Correlations between MCST scores and age, education and WAIS-R IQs were also determined. Results. Stability coefficients ranged from .26 for the percent perseverative errors measure to .49 for the failure to maintain set measure. Several measures were significantly correlated with age, education and WAIS-R IQs, although no effect of gender on MCST performance was found. Conclusions. None of the stability coefficients reached the level required for clinical decision making. The results indicate that participants' age, education, and intelligence need to be considered when interpreting MCST performance. Normative studies of MCST performance as well as further studies with patients with executive dysfunction are needed.

Boston naming test results for healthy older Australians: A longitudinal and cross-sectional study

This study reports on a sample of normal Australian elderly who were assessed for naming ability using the Boston Naming Test (BNT). The study aimed to examine and compare the changes in naming ability, using both longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis, and determine the relationships between naming ability and age, educational level, visual acuity and gender and cultural relevance. Contradictory findings were produced regarding age and were dependent on the research design. Longitudinal analysis showed no age-related change in naming ability in subjects over a four-period. In contrast, cross-sectional analysis showed a weak but significant correlation between age and naming ability. Educational level, visual acuity and gender were unrelated to changes in naming ability over time, and unrelated to naming ability across the cohort of elderly. The Australian elderly performed better on the modified Australian version of the BNT than on the original American version. Thus, clinicians need to be cautious when interpreting the results of the BNT for elderly and for populations outside North America. The results of this study also indicate a need for further longitudinal research of a greater duration to establish age-related decline in naming ability.

Volunteer decision making by older people: A test of a revised theory of planned behavior

This study was designed to test the utility of a revised theory of planned behavior in the prediction of intentions to volunteer among older people. Such a perspective allowed for the consideration of a broader range of social and contextual factors than has been examined in previous research on volunteer decision making among older people. The article reports the findings from a study that investigated volunteer intentions and behavior in a random sample of older people aged 65 to 74 years living in an Australian capital city. Results showed that, as predicted by the revised theory of planned behavior, intention to volunteer predicted subsequent reported volunteer behavior. Intention was, in turn, predicted by social norms (both subjective and behavioral), perceived behavioral control, and moral obligation, with the effect of attitude being mediated through moral obligation.

Supervision and career counsellors: A little-explored practice with an uncertain future

While the supervision of counsellors has received much attention in the literature, there is a dearth of empirical and conceptual literature about the supervision of career counsellors. Career counselling has not to date followed other helping professions towards increased requirements for supervision or compulsory supervision. Recently there has been slight evidence of change and some advocacy of supervision for career counsellors in the literature. However, no previous studies related to supervision and career counsellors have been conducted. The Australian study reported here gathered information from members of a professional career counselling association about supervision through survey and focus group interviews. The findings revealed that supervision is not widely practised and that there are varying levels of understanding of and commitment to supervision.

'You can criticise because you care': Identification, constructiveness, and the intergroup sensitivity effect

Group criticisms judged to be reasonable in the mouth of an ingroup member are aggressively rejected when they stem from an outgroup member (the intergroup sensitivity effect). Mediational analyses suggest that this phenomenon is underpinned by an attributional bias; criticisms from insiders are more likely to be perceived as being motivated for constructive reasons than are criticisms from outsiders, thus arousing lower levels of defensiveness. But what if group members were to receive information that called into question the ingroup critic's commitment to the group? For example, if the ingroup critic was known to be a low identifier with their group, or used language to suggest that they were psychologically distancing themselves from their group, we might expect that ingroup critics will be downgraded as strongly as outgroup critics. Furthermore, it might be possible for people to turn an outgroup criticism into an ingroup criticism by making salient their shared identity at the superordinate level. Three experiments are described that provide support for each of these propositions.

Nominal versus indexed debt: A quantitative horse race

The main arguments in favor and against nominal and indexed debts are the incentive to default through inflation versus hedging against unforeseen shocks. We model and calibrate these arguments to assess their quantitative importance. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortion, government outlays uncertainty, and contingent-debt service. Our framework also recognizes that contingent debt can be associated with incentive problems and lack of commitment. Thus, the benefits of unexpected inflation are tempered by higher interest rates. We obtain that costs from inflation more than offset the benefits from reducing tax distortions. We further discuss sustainability of nominal debt in developing (volatile) countries. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'We're not going to take it!' - Academics on the rampage

What are the social factors that can change apathy to action? Two survey-based field studies were conducted with National Tertiary Education Union members, to investigate the interplay between individual and group-based psychological processes in union support. The first study was conducted in an industrially calm context and the second, following a national strike in the Australian university sector. Drawing on social identity theory, the studies investigated both individual and group-related factors including: (a) instrumental and ideological attitudes; (b) employee identity; (c) perceptions of employment-related threat, and of relations with management; and (d) normative support for the union amongst fellow employees. Consistent with predictions, groupbased factors (i.e., perceived context and normative support) moderated the role of instrumental and ideological beliefs in the behavioural expression of union support. A subset of participants, who responded at both times, provided additional evidence for the importance of contextually activated group-processes to changes in union behaviour.

Teen Triple P: A universal approach to reducing risk factors for behavioural and emotional problems in adolescents at the transition to high school

Teen Triple P is a multilevel system of intervention that is designed to provide parents with specific strategies to promote the positive development of their teenage children as they make the transition into high school and through puberty. The program is based on a combination of education about the developmental needs of adolescents, skills training to improve communication and problem-solving, plus specific modules to deal with common problems encountered by parents and adolescents that can escalate into major conflict and violence. It is designed to increase the engagement of parents of adolescent and pre-adolescent children by providing them with easy access to evidencebased parenting advice and support. This paper presents data collected as part of a survey of over 1400 students in first year high school at 9 Brisbane schools. The survey instrument was constructed to obtain students' reports about behaviour which is known to be associated with their health and wellbeing, and also on the extent to which their parents promoted or discouraged such behaviour at home, at school, and in their social and recreational activities in the wider community. Selected data from the survey were extracted and presented to parents at a series of parenting seminars held at the schools to promote appropriate parenting of teenagers. The objectives were to provide parents with accurate data about teenagers' behaviour, and about teenagers' reports of how they perceived their parents' behaviour. Normative data on parent and teenager behaviour will be presented from the survey as well as psychometric data relating to the reliability and validity of this new measure. Implications of this strategy for increasing parent engagement in parenting programs that aim to reduce behavioural and emotional problems in adolescents will be discussed.

Reserve price commitments in auctions

It is well known that the optimal auction-one that maximizes the seller's expected revenue-can be implemented using a standard auction format with a suitably chosen reserve price. This reserve price is above the seller's value of retaining the object and the mechanism requires a commitment not to sell the object below the reserve. This commitment is what makes the reserve valuable to the seller. However, in practice, a reserve price commits the seller to sell the object if the reserve is reached, but does not commit her to withhold the object from sale if bidding falls short of the reserve. In this note we investigate whether reserve prices remain valuable for the seller when she may negotiate with the highest bidder if the reserve is not met. We show that the value of the reserve price may be completely undermined if the seller is a sufficiently weak bargainer. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contextual politics of service delivery reforms: Lessons from Delhi, Mexico city and Sao Paulo comparison

Little attention has been given to the contextual politics of service delivery reforms. By focusing on cases of reform in the healthcare sector and, to a lesser extent, in the main policies in the social service sector in India, Mexico and Brazil, this article explores two dimensions of analysis which have enormous relevance in understanding the reach and effectiveness of service delivery reforms: (1) the historical timing of reforms and sectorial baselines, and (2) the degree and institutional locus of local discretion in policy. Findings show that depending on both dimensions, there is an extraordinary variation as to the degree, interests involved and meaning of changes which, in theory, correspond to these countries` commitment to the service delivery reforms, However, consideration of the contextual politics is relevant not for the sake of diversity but for the similarities that this diversity reveals, pointing to underlying analytic dimensions that receive attention in this article.

Speech disorder in preschool children exposed to Cantonese and English

Speech disorder in monolingual Cantonese- or English-speaking children has been well described in the literature. There appear to be no reports, however, that describe speech-disordered children who have been exposed to both languages. Here we report on the error patterns of two preschool speech-disordered children who were learning two languages. Both children's first language was Cantonese, but they were also exposed to English through the media and child care. Their disorders were of unknown aetiology. The following questions were asked of the data: (a) Do bilingual children, suspected of having speech problems, make errors in Cantonese and English that reflect delay or disorder when compared with normative data on monolingual speech development in each language? (b) How does the children's speech differ from other bilingual children from the same language learning background? (c) Are the children's speech difficulties apparent in both languages? (d) Is the pattern of errors the same in both languages or do language-specific processes operate? The results bear on theories of acquisition, disorder and bilingualism; they also have clinical implications for speech-language pathologists whose caseloads include bilingual preschool children.

Models of alcohol use by young adults: An examination of various attitude-behavior theories

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of various attitude-behavior theories in explaining alcohol use among young adults. The theory of reasoned action (TRA), the theory of planned behavior and an extension of the TRA that incorporates past behavior were compared by the method of maximum-likelihood estimation, as implemented in LISREL for Windows 8.12. Method: Respondents consisted of 122 university students (82 female) who were questioned about their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, past behavior and intentions relating to drinking behavior. Students received course credit for their participation in the research. Results: Overall, the results suggest that the extension of the theory of reasoned action which incorporates past behavior provides the best fit to the data. For these young adults, their intentions to drink alcohol were predicted by their past behavior as well as their perceptions of what important others think they should do (subjective norm). Conclusions: The main conclusions drawn from the research concern the importance of focusing on normative influences and past behavior in explaining young adult alcohol use. Issues regarding the relative merit of various alternative models and the need for greater clarity in the measure of attitudes are also discussed.

Tone-evoked ABR in full-term and preterm neonates with normal hearing

This study was designed to investigate the feasibility of applying tone-ABRs in the nursery and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and to provide normative tone-ABR data from neonates. Normative tone-ABR latency data were determined. The study obtained intensity series of tone-ABRs from thirty preterm neonates and twenty fullterm neonates who had confirmed normal peripheral auditory function after passing both an OAE and ABR screening examination. ABRs were collected in response to 500, 1500, and 4000 Hz tone bursts at 70, 50, 30, and 20 dB nHL. Mean wave V latencies were compared between groups, ears, and by gender. Responses to tone bursts of 20 and 30 dB nHL were detected in 97% and 100% of all ears respectively, in addition to responses to the higher-intensity stimuli. Preterm neonates` ABRs showed significantly longer latencies than those of the full-term infants. Tone-ABR evaluation was found to be both feasible and reliable as a measure of auditory function in neonates.

A comparison of the expressive communication skills of triplet, twin and singleton children

Few studies have focused on the language acquisition of higher multiple birth sets. In this study, the communication skills of 51 triplet children are described. The measures used were: mean length of utterance; type-token ratio; conversational nets; phoneme repertoire; and number of different types of phonological processes used. The data gained were used to compare the communication skills of triplets with those of twins, singletons and normative data available in the literature. Siblings within triplet sets were also compared using language samples obtained from adult-child interactions and when the three children were playing together. The results indicated that the triplets' early communication skills were different from those of both singletons and twins. The triplets' difficulties included delayed syntactic development, limited use of different language functions and delayed phonological development. In contrast, twins' communication profile is characterised by disordered phonological development.