Rethinking speech sound disorder (SSD) in non-syndromic cleft lip and palate: The importance of recognizing phonological and language difficulties.

Background: Children born with cleft palate ± lip (CP ± L) are at risk of speech sound disorder (SSD). Up to 40% continue to have SSD at age 5-6 years. These difficulties are typically described as articulatory in nature and often include cleft speech characteristics (CSC) hypothesized to result from structural differences.

Piloting building early sentences therapy for pre-school children with low language abilities: An examination of efficacy and the role of sign as an active ingredient.

Background: Early intervention is recommended for pre-school children with low language. However, few robustly evaluated language interventions for young children exist. Furthermore, in many interventions the theoretical underpinnings are underspecified and the 'active ingredients' of the interventions not tested.

The development and productivity of a measure for identifying low language abilities in children aged 24-36 months.

Background: Accurate early identification of children with low language ability is important but existing measures generally have low sensitivity. This remains an area of concern for preventive and public health services. This study aimed to create and evaluate a measure of child language, communication and related risks which can be used by community health nurses to accurately identify children with low language aged 24-30 months.

Ensuring treatment fidelity in intervention studies: Developing a checklist and scoring system within a behaviour change paradigm.

Background: Treatment fidelity refers to the degree to which an intervention is implemented as intended. Promoting treatment fidelity is important to achieve a valid comparison in intervention research. However, it is often underreported: few studies detail the use and development of fidelity measures.

How reliable is assessment of children's sentence comprehension using a self-directed app? A comparison of supported versus independent use.

This study reports on the feasibility of using the Test of Complex Syntax- Electronic (TECS-E), as a self-directed app, to measure sentence comprehension in children aged 4 to 5 ½ years old; how testing apps might be adapted for effective independent use; and agreement levels between face-to-face supported computerized and independent computerized testing with this cohort. A pilot phase was completed with 4 to 4;06-year-old children, to determine the appropriate functional app features required to facilitate independent test completion. Following the integration of identified features, children completed the app independently or with adult support (4-4;05 (n = 22) 4;06-4;11 months (n = 55) and 5 to 5;05 ( = 113)) and test re-test reliability was examined.

Creating the conditions for robust early language development for all-Part 1: Evidence-informed child language surveillance in the early years.

Background: The emergence of language in the early years is a major developmental accomplishment that underpins learning, enables social interaction and, later, is an indicator of well-being. Learning language is an effortless process for most, but can be challenging for others. There is a need to act early.

Creating the conditions for robust early language development for all: Part two: Evidence informed public health framework for child language in the early years.

Background: One of the most significant developmental accomplishments is the emergence of language in early childhood. Whilst this process is effortless for most children, others can face significant hurdles. Identifying, in the early years, which children will go on to have developmental language disorder is, however, fraught with several well-documented challenges.

The development of a digital story-retell elicitation and analysis tool through citizen science data collection, software development and machine learning.

Background: In order to leverage the potential benefits of technology to speech and language therapy language assessment processes, large samples of naturalistic language data must be collected and analysed. These samples enable the development and testing of novel software applications with data relevant to their intended clinical application. However, the collection and analysis of such data can be costly and time-consuming.

Bidirectional associations between mental health problems and language ability across 8 years of childhood.

Research examining the development of behavior, emotions and language, and their intertwining is limited as only few studies had a longitudinal design, mostly with a short follow-up period. Moreover, most studies did not evaluate whether internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms are independently associated with language ability. This study examines bidirectional associations between internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and language ability in childhood in a large, population-based cohort.

Associations between responsive parental behaviours in infancy and toddlerhood, and language outcomes at age 7 years in a population-based sample.

Background: A wealth of evidence supports the important role high-quality parent-child interactions play in children's early language acquisition. However, the impact on later language outcomes remains unclear.

Aims: To examine the associations between responsive parental behaviours across the early years and child language outcomes at age 7 years with families from an Australian longitudinal cohort study (N = 1148, 50% female).

Promoting early language development in the Arab world and Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 10 and 17.

Purpose: This commentary describes a multi-national project which addresses gaps in the design and delivery of health and education services in Arabic-speaking countries in relation to early language development, with a focus on Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. This includes: (1) co-production with early years professionals and NGOs of approaches to support early language development; (2) development and standardisation of tools to identify monolingual and multilingual Arabic-speaking children at risk of poor language development; and (3) examination of language development in refugee communities.

Result: The importance of inter-professional partnership and the inclusion of families in planning support for oral language development is highlighted.

Editorial Perspective: Maximising the benefits of intervention research for children and young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) - a call for international consensus on standards of reporting in intervention studies for children with and at risk for DLD.

Current methods for reporting interventions do not allow key questions of importance to practitioners, service providers, policy-makers and people with DLD to be answered, and hence limit the implementation of effective interventions in the real world. To extend the existing EQUATOR guidelines to the context of speech language therapy/pathology for children with language disorder and to provide more specific guidance on participants, interventions and outcomes within the CONSORT checklist (used to improve the reporting of randomised controlled trials) and TIDieR (Template for Intervention Description and Replication) to ensure consistency of reporting. We will develop a core team to include representatives from each of the key groups who will either use or be influenced by the final reporting guidance across different countries.

Universal language development screening: comparative performance of two questionnaires.

Background And Objective: Low language ability in early childhood is a strong predictor of later psychopathology as well as reduced school readiness, lower educational attainment, employment problems and involvement with the criminal justice system. Assessment of early language development is universally offered in many countries, but there has been little evaluation of assessment tools. We planned to compare the screening performance of two commonly used language assessment instruments.

Using Theory to Drive Intervention Efficacy: The Role of Dose Form in Interventions for Children with DLD.

'Dose form' is a construct that has evolved over the last number of years and is central to treating childhood language disorders. In this commentary, we present a framework of dose form that includes techniques, procedures, manner of instruction, and intervention context. We present key findings from a systematic review exploring the impact of intervention dose form on oral language outcomes (specifically morphosyntax and vocabulary learning) in children with DLD.

Editorial Perspective: Speaking up for developmental language disorder - the top 10 priorities for research.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions, yet is chronically underserved, with far fewer children receiving clinical services than expected from prevalence estimates, and very little research attention relative to other neurodevelopmental conditions of similar prevalence and severity. This editorial describes a research priority-setting exercise undertaken by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, which aims to redress this imbalance. From consultations with researchers, practitioners and individuals with lived experience, 10 research priorities emerge.

Developing Preschool Language Surveillance Models - Cumulative and Clustering Patterns of Early Life Factors in the Early Language in Victoria Study Cohort.

Background: Screening and surveillance of development are integral to ensuring effective early identification and intervention strategies for children with vulnerabilities. However, not all developmental skills have reliable screening processes, such as early language ability.

Method: We describe how a set of early life factors used in a large, prospective community cohort from Australia are associated with language abilities across the preschool years, and determine if either an accumulation of risk factors or a clustering of risk factors provide a feasible approach to surveillance of language development in preschool children.

'Making the most of together time': development of a Health Visitor-led intervention to support children's early language and communication development at the 2-2½-year-old review.

Background: Early interventions to support young children's language development through responsive parent-child interaction have proven efficacy but are not currently delivered universally. A potential universal delivery platform is the Health Visitor (HV)-led 2-2½-year-old review in England's Healthy Child Programme. It is unclear if it is feasible to offer such interventions through this platform.

Allocation and funding of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Developmental Language Disorders across Europe and beyond.

Background: Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have a significant deficit in spoken language ability which affects their communication skills, education, mental health, employment and social inclusion.

Aim: The present study reports findings from a survey by EU network COST ACTION 1406 and aims to explore differences in service delivery and funding of SLT services for children with DLD across Europe and beyond.

Methods And Procedures: The survey was completed by 5024 European professionals.

The Role of Social and Emotional Adjustment in Mediating the Relationship Between Early Experiences and Different Language Outcomes.

Studies have highlighted the relationship between early childhood experiences and later language and communication skills on the one hand and social and emotional adjustment on the other. Less is known about this relationship between different types of early experiences and their relationship to different communication skills over time. Equally important is the extent to which the child's behaviour is related to later outcomes affecting the relationship between the child's environment and aspects of their communication development.

Economic evaluation of the Happy Talk pilot effectiveness trial: A targeted selective speech, language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage.

This study presents a cost-effectiveness analysis of a targeted selective pre-school intervention programme, "Happy Talk", which focuses on language development, by simultaneously enhancing parental interaction and the pre-school environment. Happy Talk (delivered to 77 children) is an add on intervention, and is compared to usual care, adopting a healthcare perspective. Cost-effectiveness analyses were carried out using the Pre-school Language Scale 5- Total (PLS-5) for baseline analysis and the Child Health Utility Instrument (CHU9D) in a secondary analysis.

Happy Talk: A pilot effectiveness study of a targeted-selective speech-language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage.

Background: Despite the public health implications of language difficulties associated with social disadvantage, there is a dearth of effectiveness studies investigating the effects of targeted speech and language programmes in this area.

Aims: To determine the effects of a targeted selective community-based child language intervention programme (Happy Talk), which simultaneously engaged with parents and early childhood educators, in the Republic of Ireland.

Methods & Procedures: A mixed methods methodology was applied with quantitative outcome and qualitative process data collected.

Early Communication Behaviors in Infants With Cleft Palate With and Without Robin Sequence: A Preliminary Study.

Objective: To investigate the early communication behaviors in infants with nonsyndromic isolated cleft palate (iCP) and Robin sequence (RS).

Design: Group comparison using parent report.

Participants: There were 106 participants included in this study.

The Impact of Intervention Dose Form on Oral Language Outcomes for Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose The aim of this study was to extract key learning from intervention studies in which qualitative aspects of dosage, , have been examined for children with developmental language disorder (DLD)-in vocabulary, morphosyntax, and phonology domains. This research paper emerged from a pair of systematic reviews, aiming to synthesize available evidence regarding qualitative and quantitative aspects of dosage. While quantitative aspects had been experimentally manipulated, the available evidence for (tasks or activities within which teaching episodes are delivered) was less definitive.

RETRACTED: Allocation and funding of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Developmental Language Disorders across Europe and beyond.

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