Improving phonological awareness with Talking Tables in at-risk kindergarten readers.

Background: For young children experiencing phonological awareness (PA) difficulties, the need for early and targeted intervention to prevent reading disability is unequivocal. There are very few studies, however, on the efficacy of PA interventions delivered at school.

Aims: This study examined the impact of an early PA intervention embedded within an oral language program designed for at-risk kindergartners.

Does CBM maze assess reading comprehension in 8-9-year olds at-risk for dyslexia?

Recent research has reported the word-level, code-related focus of curriculum-based measures (CBM) of reading comprehension such as Maze (Muijselaar et al., 2017) with typically developing readers, but research has yet to examine whether this finding also applies to children at-risk for dyslexia. We administered a collection of cognitive, linguistic, CBM, and norm-referenced measures to children whose word reading and decoding fluency fell below the 25th percentile and were, therefore, considered at-risk readers.

Instrucciones de Alta por Video: Effectiveness of Video Discharge Instructions for Spanish-Speaking Caregivers in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

Introduction: Although evidence supports the addition of video discharge instructions to improve caregiver knowledge among English-speaking caregivers of children in the pediatric emergency department, there is no evidence about the effectiveness of videos for Spanish-speaking caregivers. The purpose of this study was to test whether Spanish video discharge instructions added to standard written and oral discharge instructions would result in improved knowledge and satisfaction among caregivers compared with written and oral instructions alone.

Methods: Spanish videos were created for fever, gastroenteritis, and bronchiolitis.

White matter capillaries in vascular and neurodegenerative dementias.

Previous studies suggest white matter (WM) integrity is vulnerable to chronic hypoperfusion during brain ageing. We assessed ~ 0.7 million capillary profiles in the frontal lobe WM across several dementias comprising Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease with dementia, vascular dementia, mixed dementias, post-stroke dementia as well as post-stroke no dementia and similar age ageing and young controls without significant brain pathology.

Creating a Sensory-Friendly Pediatric Emergency Department.

Introduction: For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sensory-processing disorder (SPD), an unexpected visit to the emergency department can be an overwhelming experience that creates intensifying behaviors and an unsafe clinical interaction for the child, nurses, and providers. Although resources exist to help nurses work with this specialized group, there are limited examples of the challenges and opportunities of modifying an emergency department to be a place where nurses can provide sensory-informed care.

Methods: Guided by Watson's Theory of Caring, nurses and child life specialists in our pediatric emergency department initiated a practice improvement (PI) project to create a sensory-friendly emergency department.

Evidence-Based Practice: Video-Discharge Instructions in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

Problem: While a high quality discharge from a Pediatric Emergency Department helps caregivers feel informed and prepared to care for their sick child at home, poor adherence to discharge instructions leads to unnecessary return visits, negative health outcomes, and decreased patient satisfaction. Nurses at the Inova Loudoun Pediatric ED utilized the Johns Hopkins Model of Evidence Based Practice to answer the following question: Among caregivers who have children discharged from the ED, does the addition of video discharge instructions (VDI) to standard written/verbal discharge instructions (SDI) result in improved knowledge about the child's diagnosis, treatment, illness duration, and when to seek further medical care?

Methods: A multidisciplinary team reviewed available evidence and created VDI for three common pediatric diagnoses: gastroenteritis, bronchiolitis, and fever. Knowledge assessments were collected before and after delivery of discharge instructions to caregivers for both the SDI and VDI groups.

Neuropsychological Profiles of Written Expression Learning Disabilities Determined by Concordance-Discordance Model Criteria.

Children with specific learning disabilities (SLD) have disparate neuropsychological processing deficits that interfere with academic achievement in spelling, writing fluency, and/or written expression (WE). Although there are multiple potential causes of WE SLD, there is a paucity of research exploring this critical academic skill from a neuropsychological perspective. This study examined the neuropsychological profiles of WE SLD subtypes defined using the concordance-discordance model (C-DM) of SLD identification.

Psychosocial and Adaptive Deficits Associated With Learning Disability Subtypes.

Children with specific learning disabilities (SLD) have deficits in the basic psychological processes that interfere with learning and academic achievement, and for some SLD subtypes, these deficits can also lead to emotional and/or behavior problems. This study examined psychosocial functioning in 123 students, aged 6 to 11, who underwent comprehensive evaluations for learning and/or behavior problems in two Pacific Northwest school districts. Using concordance-discordance model (C-DM) processing strengths and weaknesses SLD identification criteria, results revealed working memory SLD (n = 20), processing speed SLD (n = 30), executive SLD (n = 32), and no disability groups (n = 41).

A literature review of interprofessional working and intermediate care in the UK.

Aims And Objectives: This systematic literature review aimed at addressing two questions: first, what evidence exists regarding intermediate care in the UK; and what interventions have been used to develop interprofessional working in intermediate care in the UK? A systematic review of the literature from 2000-2006 resulted in a total of 104 full-text articles describing research into intermediate care in the UK.

Background: The review was the first stage of a large, national project evaluating and developing interprofessional working among health and social care staff, particularly in relation to the intermediate care of older people.

Design: Systematic literature review.

A comparison of the quality of blood specimens drawn in the field by EMS versus specimens obtained in the emergency department.

Introduction: Emergency Department (ED) acceptance of blood specimens drawn by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff is not a consistent standard of practice across hospitals. The literature does not address acceptance of pre-hospital phlebotomy specimens drawn by EMS staff. The purpose of this study was to compare specimen redraw rates and ED throughput times for specimens drawn by EMS versus ED staff.