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Publication Where phonology meets morphology in the context of rapid language change and universal bilingualism: Irish initial mutations in child language(Taylor & Francis, 2018-11-16) Müller, Nicole; Muckley, Sarah-Ann; Antonijevic-Elliott, Stanislava; An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG)As one of the Celtic languages, Irish is among the few languages in the world that employ word initial mutations (IMs) in order to express grammatical functions. IMs express grammatical information by a way of systematic alternation of minimal phonological contrasts, which closely links segmental phonology to grammatical morphology (Irish also employs final consonant palatalization as a grammatical marker, but this will not be the focus of our paper). The overwhelming majority of Irish speakers are bilingual (with English), and virtually all Irish-speaking children grow up with varying degrees of exposure to and use of English in the home. Irish is undergoing rapid language change at present, and the system of IM is affected by this process of shift such that many fluent Irish speakers show inconsistent use of IM in their spoken language. Given inconsistency in the use of a grammatical system in the adult language, the question arises whether it will be possible to identify developmental norms for the use of IM in child language. This in turn has clinical implications, in terms of the presence (or absence) of clinical markers of language delay or disorder. The data we report on consist of narrative samples from typically developing children (aged between 3 and 6) and a group of parents, who completed the same task (telling a story from a wordless picture book). We plot consistency and accuracy IM use in the language of children and parents. A key finding is that inconsistent IM use by parents is mirrored by inconsistent use by children. We discuss clinical implications for language sampling for diagnostic purposes, and the importance of individualized assessment.Publication ‘Just trying to talk to people … It’s the hardest’: Perspectives of adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder on their social communication skills(SAGE Publications, 2018-10-14) Kelly, Rachel; O'Malley, Mary-Pat; Antonijevic, StanislavaDifficulty with social communication is the most pervasive difficulty experienced by individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD). Communication difficulties are often magnified in adolescence as social demands become more intricate. This puts adolescents with HF-ASD at increased risk of social isolation and depression, as they have difficulty developing positive social identity. Yet, there is a dearth of literature addressing the communication issues of this population and even fewer studies including the voice of adolescents with HF-ASD themselves. This study aimed to: 1) Explore the perspectives of adolescents with HF-ASD as to their social communication skills, 2) Explore what (if any) difficulties they perceive themselves as having when talking with their peers, 3) Explore if they would like help with social communication skills and 4) Determine what kind of help they think may be useful to them and establish if they already use self-initiated strategies. This study was qualitative in nature, using thematic analysis to analyse data collected from 10 semi-structured interviews with 5 adolescents with HF-ASD. Three themes emerged revealing the participants perceptions of their difficulties communicating, challenging feelings that they experience about communication, and their perspectives about the support for developing communication skills. The participants indicated a need for support to aid their desire to improve communication skills and interactions with typically developing peers. In educational settings, adolescents with HF-ASD may benefit from a peer mentor system to give them opportunities to practice social communication skills with typically developing peers and to encourage inclusion amongst their classmates.Publication How subject animacy constrains motion event descriptions: Evidence from sequential and simultaneous bilinguals in French and English(John Benjamins Publishing, 2017-08-09) Berthaud, Sarah; Antonijević, StanislavaResearch has indicated that during sentence processing, French native speakers predominantly rely upon lexico-semantic cues (i.e., animacy) while native speakers of English rely upon syntactic cues (i.e., word order). The present study examined sentence production in L1 French L2 English and L1 English L2 French, all sequential bilinguals. Participants depicted animate and inanimate entities as sentence subjects while describing motion events represented by static pictures. Sentence production was compared against that of simultaneous bilinguals. To test gradual change in animacy cue weighting in second-language (L2) sequential bilinguals with different proficiency levels were included. The results indicated an overall preference for the use of animate subjects for both languages at all proficiency levels. The effect of animacy was stronger for English L2 than French L2 while it did not differ between languages in simultaneous bilinguals. Evidence for potential change in the animacy-cue weighting was only observed for English L2.Publication Communication as a human right: Citizenship, politics and the role of the speech-language pathologist(Taylor & Francis, 2017-12-01) Murphy, Declan; Lyons, Rena; Carroll, Clare; Caulfield, Mari; de Paor, GráinneAccording to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate communication as a human right in the life of a young man called Declan who has Down syndrome. This commentary paper is co-written by Declan, his sister who is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with an advocacy role, his SLP, and academics. Declan discusses, in his own words, what makes communication hard, what helps communication, his experiences of speech-language pathology, and what he knows about human rights. He also discusses his passion for politics, his right to be an active citizen and participate in the political process. This paper also focuses on the role of speech-language pathology in supporting and partnering with people with communication disabilities to have their voices heard and exercise their human rights.Publication Communication as a human right: Citizenship, politics and the role of the speech-language pathologist(Taylor & Francis, 2017-12-01) Murphy, Declan; Lyons, Rena; Carroll, Clare; Caulfield, Mari; De Paor, GráinneAccording to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate communication as a human right in the life of a young man called Declan who has Down syndrome. This commentary paper is co-written by Declan, his sister who is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with an advocacy role, his SLP, and academics. Declan discusses, in his own words, what makes communication hard, what helps communication, his experiences of speech-language pathology, and what he knows about human rights. He also discusses his passion for politics, his right to be an active citizen and participate in the political process. This paper also focuses on the role of speech-language pathology in supporting and partnering with people with communication disabilities to have their voices heard and exercise their human rights.Publication Well-being and resilience in children with speech and language disorders(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2018-01-25) Lyons, Rena; Roulstone, SuePurpose Children with speech and language disorders are at risk in relation to psychological and social well-being. The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of these children from their own perspectives focusing on risks to their well-being and protective indicators that may promote resilience. Method Eleven 9- to 12-year-old children (4 boys and 7 girls) were recruited using purposeful sampling. One participant presented with a speech sound disorder, 1 presented with both a speech and language disorder, and 9 with language disorders. All were receiving additional educational supports. Narrative inquiry, a qualitative design, was employed. Data were generated in home and school settings using multiple semi-structured interviews with each child over a 6-month period. A total of 59 interviews were conducted. The data were analyzed to identify themes in relation to potential risk factors to well-being and protective strategies. Results Potential risk factors in relation to well-being were communication impairment and disability, difficulties with relationships, and concern about academic achievement. Potential protective strategies were hope, agency, and positive relationships. Conclusion This study highlights the importance of listening to children's narratives so that those at risk in relation to well-being can be identified. Conceptualization of well-being and resilience within an ecological framework may enable identification of protective strategies at both individual and environmental levels that can be strengthened to mitigate negative experiences.Publication A qualitative exploration of maternal perspectives on the impact of stuttering on the lives of six to ten year old children(Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists, 2014) Armstrong, Elizabeth; O’Malley Keighran, Mary-Pat; Collins, Patricia; Carroll, Clare; |~|Objective: Th e study aimed to explore maternal perspectives of the impact of stuttering on the lives of 6–10-year-old children’s relationships, self-identity, and academic development. Method: A qualitative design was used: fi ve semi-structured interviews were conducted with mothers of children aged 6–10 years who stutter. Th e data was analyzed using thematic network analysis. Main results: While participants diff ered in their perceptions of the extent to which stuttering infl uenced their child’s life, all fi ve discussed aspects of how their child’s relationships, self-identity and academic development had been impacted. Mothers described their child’s personal characteristics, their school environment, how their child communicated with family members and peers and how others related to their child. Conclusion: Th e fi ndings indicate that, when developing goals for therapy, speech and language therapists should consider how stuttering may be aff ecting a child in all areas of his/her life. An unexpected fi nding related to maternal stress levels associated with their child’s stuttering which may be an important variable to consider in treatment. Th e fi ndings can inform clinical decision-making regarding treatment goals for children who stutter and their parents.Publication Language performance of sequential bilinguals on an Irish and English sentence repetition task(John Benjamins Publishing, 2017-04-05) Antonijevic, Stanislava; Durham, Ruth; Ní Chonghaile, ÍdeCurrently there are no standardized language assessments for English-Irish bilingual school age children that would test languages in comparable way. There are also no standardized language assessments of Irish for this age group. The current study aimed to design comparable language assessments in both languages targeting structures known to be challenging for children with language impairments. A sentence repetition (SRep) task equivalent to the English SRep task (Marinis, Chiat, Armon-Lotem, Piper, & Roy, 2011) was designed for Irish. Twenty-four typically developing, sequential bilingual children immersed in Irish in the educational setting performed better on the English SRep task than on the Irish SRep task. Different patterns were observed in language performance across sentence types with performance on relative clauses being particularly poor in Irish. Similarly, differences were observed in error patterns with the highest number of errors of omission in Irish, and the highest number of substitution errors in English.Publication Exploring the facilitation of young children with disabilities in research about their early intervention service(SAGE Publications, 2016-04-11) Carroll, Clare; Sixsmith, Jane; |~|While participatory research approaches are being developed and applied within speech and language therapy practice it is not clear that all children are afforded the opportunity to participate in such activities. This study aimed to explore the involvement of young children, aged between two and four years, with developmental disabilities in the research process, focusing on early intervention disability services. Eight young children took part in this qualitative research. Clark and Moss s (2011) framework for listening was used to structure the multi-method data collection process. The design was iterative; the collection of data from each participant was followed by a review of theoretical ideas to support the emerging data. Findings suggest that the use of an asset based approach to participation in research, focusing on participants strengths through a variety of data collection tools, used by a skilled facilitator, supported by parental expertise enabled the children to be part of the data collection process. The research highlights that speech and language therapists can facilitate the inclusion of children with disabilities in research activities about their early intervention service they receive. As members of early intervention teams speech and language therapists need to promote their skills in facilitating the active engagement of children with developmental disabilities in research. Thus making their participation in early intervention research, a reality with potential to promote holistic practice.Publication Labels, identity and narratives in children with primary speech and language impairments.(Informa Healthcare, 2016-09-15) Lyons, Rena; Roulstone, Sue; |~|There has been debate about labels in relation to speech and language impairments. However, children's views are missing from this debate, which is risky considering that labels with negative associations may result in stigma. The aim of this study was to explore the range of identities which children with primary speech and language impairments presented in their narratives and to investigate their evaluations of these identities with a view to understanding the values they attach to labels. Eleven children aged 9-12 years with primary speech and language impairments were recruited to the study. Fifty nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with the aim of generating storied accounts of everyday experiences. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Two themes were identified in the data: desired identities and undesired identities. The findings suggest that the children were actively involved in identity construction and wanted to be seen in positive ways. They disliked labels assigned by others, which they considered portrayed them in negative ways. The debate about labels could be progressed by consulting with children themselves asking for their ideas in relation to labels in specialist education, and speech and language pathology.Publication Services for children with central auditory processing disorder in the Republic of Ireland: current and future service provision(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2011-06) Logue-Kennedy, Maria; Lyons, Rena; Carroll, Clare; Byrne, Mary; Dignan, Eilis; O'Hagan, Lucy; |~|Purpose: An interdisciplinary research group was established to investigate current and future service provision for children with central auditory processing disorder ([C]APD) in the Republic of Ireland. The aim of Phase 1 was to identify current awareness and knowledge of (C) APD among the relevant professionals in Ireland, including level of service provision, if any, available for children with (C) APD. The aim of Phase 2 was to explore the initial steps required to develop an integrated service for children presenting with (C) APD.Method: A quantitative design was used in Phase 1, and 520 surveys were distributed to speech and language therapists, audiologic scientists, and educational psychologists. A qualitative participative design was used in Phase 2.Results: There was a 53% response rate to the survey. The main findings from Phase 1 were that all professional groups considered themselves to be inadequately informed and lacking in skills for (C) APD assessment or intervention. In Phase 2, 98 participants with backgrounds in speech and language therapy, audiologic science, educational psychology, and occupational therapy engaged in interdisciplinary discussions to identify the first steps required to develop a (C) APD service.Conclusion: All professional groups considered that they were inadequately informed about (C) APD, and the first steps required to develop services in Ireland include the promotion and development of interdisciplinary teamwork and education, a need for additional resources, a clearer understanding of the definition of (C) APD, and evidence-based assessment and management of this condition.Publication A trajectory of relationship development for early intervention practice for children with developmental disabilities(Mark Allen Healthcare, 2016-03-03) Carroll, Clare; Sixsmith, Jane; |~|Collaboration, through multiple complex relationships between families and professionals, is integral to Early Intervention (EI) practice. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explain the processes involved in an early intervention team from the multiple perspectives of professionals and families. The sample included 5 young children with disabilities, 6 parents and 17 professionals from one EI team. 31 interviews were carried out, and through an iterative approach to data analysis, a core category of, synergistic interdependent relationships, emerged. This paper will discuss one of the predominant influences on these relationships that emerged from the data. This influence is how the process of the EI relationship happens through an overlapping five stage developmental trajectory. This developmental trajectory includes: 1) initiating stage, 2) experimenting stage, 3) intensifying stage, 4) integrating stage and 5) transitioning stage. Understanding the key factors, within each relationship stage, supports positive relationships between professionals, children and their families, thus positively influencing the outcome of EI practice.Publication The progression of early intervention disability services in Ireland(Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2013-01) Carroll, Clare; Murphy, Geraldine; Sixsmith, Jane; |~|The Republic of Ireland is an island situated in north-west Europe inhabited by 4.6 million people, with 2.8% between 0 and 4 years of age with a disability (Central Statistics Office, 2012). The Irish Government funds the Irish health services, which, in turn, directly and indirectly funds disability services. Education and Disability legislation have developed in parallel, with an apparent increasing congruence with both moving toward a rights-based approach. Today, early intervention disability services are delivered by both statutory and nongovernmental agencies with wide variation and no national consistency in service provision. Some components of the Developmental Systems Approach can be discerned in Irish service provision, and these include screening, access, comprehensive interdisciplinary assessment, and early childhood programs. However, assessment of families, development and implementation, monitoring and outcome evaluation, and transition planning are not as identifiable. Guided by legislation and organizational restructuring, early intervention provision in Ireland is in a state of flux with an emphasis on developing national uniformity of family-centered early intervention services.Publication Exploring parental perspectives of participation in children with Down Syndrome(SAGE Publications, 2015-02-08) Lyons, Rena; Brennan, Sara; Carroll, Clare; |~|The everyday lives of children with disabilities are not well understood, with few studies exploring how participation in everyday life is conceptualized and given meaning. The overall aims of this study were, first, to explore parental views of their children's participation and, second, to identify barriers and facilitators in relation to participation in everyday activities. A qualitative research strategy was adopted, whereby parents of children with Down syndrome (DS) aged 6-12 years were selected using purposive sampling. Five interviews with seven participants were audio-recorded and analysed using a framework approach whereby the overall research aims guided the analysis. Analysis of the data identified two main themes and seven sub-themes. The first theme was the value of participation. Parents reported that through participation in activities, their children developed skills that in turn enhanced their well-being and sense of belonging. The second theme was barriers and facilitators of participation, which included four subthemes: child factors, attitudes and views of others, modifications to the environment and logistical issues. Findings also illustrate how the child and his/her physical, social and attitudinal environments are inherently intertwined, with parents identifying the influence of several interacting factors on their child's participation in everyday activities. This study supports the view that while frameworks like the ICF have an important role in understanding disability, they need to be supplemented with personal experiences of children and others in their lives. Speech and language therapists need to consider activities and participation both from the perspective of factors within children themselves and also from the point of view of barriers and facilitators in the children's environment.Publication Who decides what criteria are important to consider in exploring the outcomes of Conversation Approaches? A Participatory Health Research Study.(Taylor & Francis, 2015-02-06) Mc Menamin, Ruth; Tierney, Edel; Mac Farlane, Anne; |~|Health Research Board|~|Approximately 176,000 new individuals in the United Kingdom and Ireland are diagnosed with stroke annually with up to one third experiencing aphasia. Qualitative research methods are increasingly used to capture the complexity of service users’ experiences of health and illness; however, the voice of service users with aphasia continues to be limited in published healthcare literature. This participatory research study included people with aphasia as co-researchers in the exploration of aphasia and a Conversation Partner Programme (CPP)Publication Addressing the long term impacts of aphasia: How far does the Conversation Partner Programme go?(Taylor & Francis, 2015-02-06) Mc Menamin, Ruth; Tierney, Edel; Mac Farlane, Anne; |~|Health Research Board|~|Approximately 176,000 new individuals in the United Kingdom and Ireland are diagnosed with stroke annually with up to one third experiencing aphasia. Qualitative research methods are increasingly used to capture the complexity of service users’ experiences of health and illness; however, the voice of service users with aphasia continues to be limited in published healthcare literature. This participatory research study included people with aphasia as co-researchers in the exploration of aphasia and a Conversation Partner Programme (CPP)Publication Training socially responsive healthcare graduates: Is Service Learning an effective educational approach?(Taylor & Francis, 2014-02-06) Mc Menamin, Ruth; Mc Grath, Margaret; Cantillon, Peter; MacFarlane, Anne; |~|Health care educators strive to train graduates who are socially responsive and can act as “change agents” for communities they serve. Service learning (SL) is increasingly being used to teach the social aspects of health care and develop students’ social responsiveness. However, the effectiveness of SL as an educational intervention has not been established.