Publications by authors named "J C de Villiers"
Language interventions may yield greater benefits for younger children than their older counterparts, making it critical to evaluate children's language skills as early as possible. Yet, assessing young children's language presents many challenges, such as limited attention spans, low expressive language, and hesitancy to speak with an unfamiliar examiner. To address these challenges, the Quick Interactive Language Screener for Toddlers (QUILS:TOD; for children 24- to 36-months of age) was developed as a quick, tablet-based language screener capable of assessing children's vocabulary, syntax, and word learning skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The Department of Health and Social Care released a report in November 2023, highlighting the negative impacts of solitary confinement on people with learning disabilities and autism, but the recommendations are largely not supported by evidence-based practices.
- The report raises issues regarding the terminology used, such as "solitary confinement," assumptions about long-term segregation, and unfairly placing responsibility on clinicians for situations outside their control.
- A critical appraisal of the report aims to summarize its potential benefits while pointing out specific concerns and advocating for best practices in mental health care.
Background: Violence in inpatient settings is recognised as a worldwide issue, with inpatient intellectual disability services having higher rates than other mental health settings. Violence results in injury and illness, lack of confidence in the organisation and staff burnout. These combined effects have a negative impact on the ability of services to provide therapeutic environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly screening for language problems is a priority given the importance of language for success in school and interpersonal relationships. The paucity of reliable behavioral instruments for this age group prompted the development of a new touchscreen language screener for 2-year-olds that relies on language comprehension. Developmental literature guided selection of age-appropriate markers of language disorder risk that are culturally and dialectally neutral and could be reliably assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a condition that significantly affects children's achievement but has been understudied. We aim to estimate the prevalence of DLD in Shanghai, compare the co-occurrence of difficulties between children with DLD and those with typical development (TD), and investigate the early risk factors for DLD.
Methods: We estimated DLD prevalence using data from a population-based survey with a cluster random sampling design in Shanghai, China.