DISCOVERING HIDDEN ABILITIES (DHA): BUILDING ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR CHILDREN WITH ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Research question: What are the abilities of children with typical and atypical development that
emerge in naturalistic interactions and how can these inform the development of alternative
assessment frameworks?
Background and rationale for the study:
Assessments are a constant presence in the life of children with atypical development (AD), with
consequences in terms of provision of support, inclusion in mainstream schools, and evaluation of
their developmental progress. However, many limitations of standardised assessments have been
repeatedly pointed out, crucially the fact that by definition they cannot take into account atypical
children's different approaches to problem solving, language and communication. Naturalistic
studies of children's conduct on the other hand, provide compelling evidence of spontaneously
occurring linguistic, cognitive and social abilities through enriched, multimodal analyses of activitiesin-
context. These studies propose an alternative approach to conceptualising competences and skills.
The PhD project will be devoted to identifying enabling practices used by caregivers and children's
indicators of abilities occurring in everyday adult-child interactions and define principles which could
be used to develop new instruments complementing and supporting the work of practitioners. The
project will use a converging methods approach combining multiple research methods, such as
corpus analysis of existing and new data capturing interactions of both typically and atypically
developing children, a survey identifying practitioners' problems with existing assessments, and will
use the data obtained to develop guidelines for an alternative assessment framework.
emerge in naturalistic interactions and how can these inform the development of alternative
assessment frameworks?
Background and rationale for the study:
Assessments are a constant presence in the life of children with atypical development (AD), with
consequences in terms of provision of support, inclusion in mainstream schools, and evaluation of
their developmental progress. However, many limitations of standardised assessments have been
repeatedly pointed out, crucially the fact that by definition they cannot take into account atypical
children's different approaches to problem solving, language and communication. Naturalistic
studies of children's conduct on the other hand, provide compelling evidence of spontaneously
occurring linguistic, cognitive and social abilities through enriched, multimodal analyses of activitiesin-
context. These studies propose an alternative approach to conceptualising competences and skills.
The PhD project will be devoted to identifying enabling practices used by caregivers and children's
indicators of abilities occurring in everyday adult-child interactions and define principles which could
be used to develop new instruments complementing and supporting the work of practitioners. The
project will use a converging methods approach combining multiple research methods, such as
corpus analysis of existing and new data capturing interactions of both typically and atypically
developing children, a survey identifying practitioners' problems with existing assessments, and will
use the data obtained to develop guidelines for an alternative assessment framework.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Pauline Leonard (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Leanne Christostomou (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000673/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 1956714 | Studentship | ES/P000673/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/06/2023 | Leanne Christostomou |
| Description | Ongoing... Abstract: Children have to learn to do responding. This is a challenging task when they are required to respond to utterances that function as vehicles for other actions that achieve a social objective beyond the spoken word (Schegloff, 1984, 1995). Learning how to respond involves understanding the form of the utterance, the intended meaning of the utterance, learning about the types of responses that can be used and awareness of preferential orientation. Repetition is a recurrent way of responding in care-provider and child interactions and plays an even larger role in the speech of atypically developing children, yet not enough is known about how repetition demonstrates communicative competence. This study draws from one time point from a longitudinal corpus of play interactions between parents and their children with Down Syndrome (aged 05:05 - 08:11 years). Conversation Analysis [CA] was applied to explore the use of children's responses utilising repetition to a variety of suggestion formats proffered by parents. The results imply that children with Down Syndrome [DS] utilise repetition in response to suggestions when they are unsure on how to progress with the suggested action. Children use repetition to 1) demonstrate listenership, 2) display preferential alignment with the parent's utterance by exploiting the iconic property of resemblance when a simple 'Yes/No' response would have sufficed, and 3) pass the conversational floor back to the parent to elicit further information from the parent on how to complete the suggested action. |
| Exploitation Route | Atypical development (AD) is an umbrella term which encapsulates all development which is outside of the norm or typical development (TD). AD begins in early childhood and ranges in severity between conditions and within conditions, in which the severity of symptoms decrease (i.e. developmental delay), remain consistent or change throughout life (Dahan-Oliel, Shikako-Thomas, & Majnemer, 2012). To date, the majority of research and measurements have focused on negative features associated with each condition, with limited attention being given to the abilities that children develop despite of, or as compensation for their difficulties. The outcome of deficit focused measurements has substantial implications for eligibility for early interventions, tailored programme development and evaluation, which will in turn, impact knowledge acquisition and wellbeing (Neisworth & Bagnato, 2004). Discovering hidden abilities (DHA) will develop a holistic understanding of the AD child which will, in turn, inform the required support to help the child capitalise on their capabilities. Consequently, this will facilitate the improvement of care, educational and therapeutic practices which will improve the quality of life of those with AD. To DHA, this research will adopt a naturalistic observational methodology which will be analysed utilising Conversation Analysis (CA). CA examines natural social interactions in everyday life and institutional environments, for example, education and therapy (O'Reilly, Lester & Muskett, 2016). This study will utilise CA to analyse recorded interactions between TD and AD children and their care-providers that occur across multiple different settings. Additionally, care-providers will complete the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA: Sigafoos et al, 2000) to identify known communication and behaviour styles. Furthermore, surveys will be administered to practitioners to determine the limitations of the mostly deployed assessments. Finally, flexible tools will be constructed to identify unique strengths, communication abilities and behaviours that are conveyed within different environments. Building sensitive assessment tools will provide the necessary knowledge to formulate successful interventions whilst consistently monitoring and adapting to changes in AD. Significance A substantial proportion of children atypically develop, and within this population, 14.4% of children with AD are documented to have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and 2.8% have a statement of SEND or an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) (Office for National Statistics, 2018). There are many professionals whom specialise in providing support and education for children with AD. To understand the emotional, physical and learning needs of these children, professionals rely on information provided by assessments. The initial assessments facilitate diagnoses and are utilised to construct EHCP's, Communication Passports and Health Care Passports. These official documents inform care practice, and educational and therapeutic interventions, and they have substantial implications for access to mainstream inclusion and academic support. However, it has been argued that children's deficits are inflated and strengths dampened in order to receive better provision for support in school and at home (BBC, 2011). Measurements for provision of care, education and intervention are dominated by standardised, norm-testing methodologies which have not been developed or validated for children with AD. Due to the heterogeneity of AD, researchers argue that independent standardised assessments are unable to fully capture the diverse abilities that can support children's further development (Bruce, 2011; Kasari, Brady, Lord & TagerFlusberg, 2013). For example, standardised language measurements are regarded as one of the most accurate ways of conveying abilities as they mirror a person's general intelligence quotient (IQ). However, there are many AD children that communicate non-verbally yet have strong performance IQ (e.g. Autism Spectrum Disorder) or very eloquent but have weak performance IQ (e.g. Williams Syndrome). Therefore, an AD child is likely to communicate in a way that does not reflect their overall IQ, and their alternative communication style may be misconstrued as problematic behaviour. For example, an observational study utilising CA revealed that what appeared to be repetitive randomised sounds and physical movements in a non-verbal boy with autism, were in fact a unique strategy adapted to communicate (Damico & Nelson, 2005). Bradly et al (2012) developed a flexible measurement of AD verbal and non-verbal communication styles and found that inter-rater reliability was high when compared to standardised measurements of language. However, due to the scarce exploration of abilities within this population, there has not been enough research on innovative and flexible measurements to power a movement away from rigid, standardised assessments. Research has found that utilising flexible measurements and natural environments will enable inference of the presence, absence and consistency of skill sets in AD. This was demonstrated in a large national survey of 7000 AD children whom were undergoing an assessment for early intervention eligibility. When adhering to restrictive standardised assessments, 250 psychologists could not extract the capabilities of the children, thus declaring 60% of the children untestable and unsuitable for the educational intervention. However, in a second round of unconventional testing in natural environments that were adapted to each child (e.g., care-provider involvement, observational assessment, etc.), the psychologists affirmed that 90% of the children met the minimum requirements and would benefit from the intervention. The researchers argued that the only way to holistically capture the AD child, is to abandon decontextualized assessment methodologies and instead allow a child to naturally explore a familiar environment in which they can freely display their capabilities (Bagnato & Neisworth, 1994). In light of the above, there is a significant need to explore familiar environments in which a fine-grained methodology such as CA will DHA. An accurate measurement of the child's communication style will facilitate a comprehensive understanding of what a child can do rather than what the child cannot do. In addition, this methodology will facilitate the construction of a new flexible assessment that is child-led and adaptable for a heterogeneous population (Nelson, van Dijk, McDonnell & Thompson, 2002) which will identify communication skills, pragmatic abilities and recurrent behaviours. Furthermore, CA research in childhood wellbeing has influenced national recommendations from Public Health England (Thompson, Blackshaw, Coulton, Albury & Tedstone, 2017), therefore with enough compelling and transparent real-life data from CA, this study has the potential to have substantial impact by influencing policy makers. Utilising qualitative methods such as CA can empower vulnerable and disadvantaged groups by providing a platform in which their voices can be heard (Peters, 2010). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |