Publications by authors named "Natalie Kippin"

Early assessment and diagnosis of FASD are crucial in providing therapeutic interventions that aim to enhance meaningful participation and quality of life for individuals and their families, while reducing psychosocial difficulties that may arise during adolescence and adulthood. Individuals with lived experience of FASD have expertise based on their own lives and family needs. Their insights into the assessment and diagnostic process are valuable for improving service delivery and informing the provision of meaningful, person- and family-centered care.

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Article Synopsis
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from alcohol exposure during pregnancy, posing significant public health risks.
  • The FASD Research Australia Centre of Research Excellence is focused on preventing, diagnosing, and managing FASD and emphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement in their efforts.
  • The paper highlights successful policy and practice influences in FASD over five years and addresses ongoing challenges in effectively implementing research findings.
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Background: Screening facilitates the early identification of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and prevalence estimation of FASD for timely prevention, diagnostic, and management planning. However, little is known about FASD screening tools.

Aims: The aims of this systematic review are to identify FASD screening tools and examine their performance characteristics.

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Article Synopsis
  • Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is linked to growth and neurodevelopment issues, including difficulties in communication skills among affected adolescents.
  • A systematic review was conducted to evaluate the differences in oral and written communication abilities between adolescents with PAE/FASD and those without, utilizing a variety of research databases.
  • Findings indicated that adolescents with PAE generally displayed weaker communication skills compared to their peers, although inconsistencies across studies highlight the need for clearer definitions and methodology in research.
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Background: Unmet language and literacy needs are common among young people who are involved with youth justice systems. However, there is limited research regarding the functional text-level language skills of this population with regard to narrative macrostructure (story grammar) and microstructure (semantics and syntax) elements.

Methods: In this study, we examined macrostructure and microstructure elements in the oral and written narrative texts of 24 adolescent students of a youth detention centre.

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Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with life-long implications. Individuals with FASD can experience communication, cognitive, behavioural, social and emotional difficulties that impact their functional capacity. Due to these brain-based impairments, previous research suggests that individuals with FASD are over-represented in the justice system.

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Background: While studies confirm high prevalence of language disorder among justice-involved young people, little is known about the impact of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) on language among this population. It is also not clear how language skills vary according to language diversity in Australian youth justice settings, where a disproportionate number of justice-involved youth are Aboriginal and may not speak Standard Australian English (SAE) as their first language. Language skills are important to understand, as language disorder and language difference can lead to a mismatch between the communication skills of a young person and the communication skills of the justice workforce with whom they are communicating.

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Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) among young people in youth detention in Australia. Neurodevelopmental impairments due to FASD can predispose young people to engagement with the law. Canadian studies identified FASD in 11%-23% of young people in corrective services, but there are no data for Australia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Prenatal alcohol exposure can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), causing various lifelong disabilities and increased interaction with the justice system among affected youth.
  • This study investigates the prevalence of FASD among young people in detention in Western Australia and aims to create a screening tool to help manage and support these individuals effectively.
  • It engages a multidisciplinary team to assess young people using refined diagnostic tools, and findings will be ethically disseminated to inform future youth justice services and caregiver support.
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