Publications by authors named "Carl Hughes"

Background: There is a paucity of research into interventions that help people with intellectual disabilities learn to read. This feasibility study examines whether an online reading programme, Headsprout, with additional support strategies and supervision (the intervention), can be delivered by support workers/family carers and the feasibility of conducting a later large-scale effectiveness trial.

Methods: The study used a 2-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) design with an embedded process evaluation using a mixed methods approach.

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Purpose: The term 'technoference' refers to habitual interferences and disruptions within interpersonal relationships or time spent together due to use of electronic devices. Emerging evidence suggests associations between parental technoference and young people's mental health and violent behaviours. This scoping review sought to summarise the existing literature.

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Background: Many individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have not learnt basic reading skills by the time that they reach adulthood, potentially limiting their access to critical information. READ-IT is an online reading programme developed from the Headsprout® Early Reading (HER®) intervention and supplemented by support strategies tailored for adults with ID. HER® has been successfully used to teach adults with ID to read in a forensic setting by trained staff.

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Emotional and behavioural problems occur more commonly in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to other children. Few studies have focused on these problems in children with ASD attending mainstream schools. We assessed via parent report the emotional and behavioural problems in 160 children aged 4-17years with ASD attending mainstream schools and investigated differences between the primary and secondary aged children.

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There is a distinct lack of research identifying the interventions used by parents for the support and education of children with autism in the UK. This internet-based survey is the first to report exclusively on data from a UK sample of 160 parents. We sought to identify and describe the interventions used currently and in the past, and explored associations between parent and child characteristics and interventions used.

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There is growing interest in supporting families during children's early years to encourage optimal infant development. The data were collected from an evaluation of the Incredible Years (IY) eight-week parenting group for parents and their babies. Feedback obtained from parents (n = 34) and leaders (n = 13) was positive.

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Although Discrete-trial Teaching (DTT) is effective in teaching a many skills to children with autism, its proper implementation requires rigorous staff training. This study used an interactive computer simulation program ("DTkid") to teach staff relevant DTT skills. Participants (N = 12) completed two sets of pre-tests either once (n = 7) or twice (n = 5) before brief DTkid training.

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The authors report 1-year outcomes for 11 children (3-7 years) with autism who attended an "Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) classroom" educational intervention in a mainstream school setting. The children learned new skills by the end of 1 year and learned additional skills during a 2nd year. Group analysis of standardized test outcomes (IQ and adaptive behavior) showed moderate to large effect size changes over 1 year, with further changes during a 2nd year.

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We evaluated outcomes for 31 children with autism (2-6 years of age at intake) who received behavioral intervention in mainstream pre-school settings and a comparison group of 12 children receiving treatment as usual. After 2 years, children receiving behavioral intervention had higher IQ scores (Hedges g = 1.03 (95% CI = .

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We gathered individual participant data from 16 group design studies on behavioral intervention for children with autism. In these studies, 309 children received behavioral intervention, 39 received comparison interventions, and 105 were in a control group. More children who underwent behavioral intervention achieved reliable change in IQ (29.

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Data from Norway were analyzed to evaluate early behavioral intervention for children with intellectual disabilities. The intervention group (n = 11) received approximately 10 hours per week of behavioral intervention; the eclectic comparison group (n = 14) received treatment as usual. After 1 year, changes in intelligence and adaptive behavior scores were statistically significant in favor of the behavioral intervention group (effect sizes of 1.

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A systematic literature search for studies reporting effects of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention identified 34 studies, 9 of which were controlled designs having either a comparison or a control group. We completed a meta-analysis yielding a standardized mean difference effect size for two available outcome measures: change in full-scale intelligence and/or adaptive behavior composite. Effect sizes were computed using Hedges's g.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study with 14 children aged 1 to 4 aimed to assess whether training them on arbitrary wooden shapes could teach them names for these shapes, resulting in categorized understanding.
  • 10 of the children successfully learned to name the shapes and demonstrated this understanding by transferring skills to new shapes, while 4 did not achieve this level of comprehension.
  • The findings suggest that training in naming is crucial for categorization skills, as only those who learned names could successfully categorize the shapes, supporting the idea that naming plays a key role in cognitive development.
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Article Synopsis
  • Ten children aged 1 to 4 underwent vocal tact training using pairs of arbitrary shapes, successfully learning to identify them as "zog" and "vek."
  • After initial training, children demonstrated consistent transfer of learned behaviors like clapping and waving to other stimuli.
  • The results highlight that even young children can use naming effectively to create new relationships between a variety of arbitrary stimuli.
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