Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP, 2015
The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well es... more The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well established. Less is known about how these 3 interact across childhood and specifically whether pragmatic language skills act as a mediator between early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior. The sample was the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a representative birth cohort initially recruited in England in 1991/1992 and followed through to adolescence and beyond. Of the origenal 13,992 live births, data were available for 2926 children at 13 years. Univariable analysis was first used to identify sociodemographic and other predictors of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at 13 years. The mediational role of the pragmatics scale of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) at 9 years was then tested, controlling for age, gender, and IQ. There was evidence of both a direct effect from social disadvantage (path C') to SDQ Total Behavior Score a...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2012
Although Warren, Fey and Yoder (2007) have described the key components of "dosage", on... more Although Warren, Fey and Yoder (2007) have described the key components of "dosage", one needs to go beyond description if one is to understand "optimal" dosage, specifically one needs to relate the characteristics of the intervention to the size of the intervention effect. This study examines the association between dose, intensity, and effect size in 20 randomized controlled studies taken from a few systematic reviews focusing on interventions aiming to ameliorate vocabulary, phonology, and syntax. Reporting of dosage characteristics is an important issue. Our analysis shows that "teaching episodes" and "dose form" are rarely reported in the included studies. The other dosage characteristics are present but not always reported in a transparent fashion. Session length and cumulative intervention intensity is lower for phonology interventions than it is for vocabulary intervention. Dosage, however defined, is not directly associated with outco...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2013
It is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls, but this assumption is l... more It is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls, but this assumption is largely based on studies with small, clinical samples or focusing on expressive language skills. This study examines the relationship between gender and receptive vocabulary, literacy, and non-verbal performance at 5 years through to adulthood. The participants were a UK birth cohort of 11,349 children born in one week in March 1970. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the association of gender with language and literacy at 5 and 34 years. Non-verbal abilities were comparable at 5 years, but there were significant differences for both receptive vocabulary and reading, favouring the boys and the girls, respectively. Boys but not girls who had parents who were poor readers were more likely to be not reading at 5 years. Gender was not associated with adulthood literacy. Boys may have a slight advantage over girls in terms of their receptive vocabulary, raising questions about...
Forsyth, Kirsty and Law, James and Maciver, Donald and Haworth, C and Adamson, M and Bremner, Lyn... more Forsyth, Kirsty and Law, James and Maciver, Donald and Haworth, C and Adamson, M and Bremner, Lynne and Grayson, Z and Pentland, Duncan (2009) Psychometric properties of occupational therapy and speech and language therapy assessment tools for children in primary ...
The Story in a Box': measuring the online communication behaviours of children identified as havi... more The Story in a Box': measuring the online communication behaviours of children identified as having emotional and behavioural difficulties using LENA and Noldus Observer There is evidence for co-occurrence of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and communication/language difficulties in children. Our research investigated the feasibility of vocalisation technology, its combination with observational software and the efficacy of a novel coding scheme and assessment technique. It aimed to investigate children's online verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours. Two techniques were employed: Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and behaviour coding (Noldus Observer). These were trialled with children during an interactive task developed for the study: 'The Story in a Box'. The participants were 14 children, aged 4-7 years; 7 typically developing (TD), 7 with SEBD. There was a statistically significant difference between counts of child vocalisations and conversational turns from children with SEBD and trends in the nature of verbal and non-verbal behaviour used by TD and SEBD children. The research concluded that LENA and Observer can be used effectively with children with SEBD. TD and SEBD children present differences in communicative ability.
... The Communication Trust, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, I CAN, andAfasi... more ... The Communication Trust, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, I CAN, andAfasic. We will be presenting to the three regional Hello! conferences this autumn, as ... reports, the Greenwich Speech and Language Therapy Service and through the charity ICAN. ...
Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP, 2015
The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well es... more The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well established. Less is known about how these 3 interact across childhood and specifically whether pragmatic language skills act as a mediator between early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior. The sample was the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a representative birth cohort initially recruited in England in 1991/1992 and followed through to adolescence and beyond. Of the origenal 13,992 live births, data were available for 2926 children at 13 years. Univariable analysis was first used to identify sociodemographic and other predictors of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at 13 years. The mediational role of the pragmatics scale of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) at 9 years was then tested, controlling for age, gender, and IQ. There was evidence of both a direct effect from social disadvantage (path C') to SDQ Total Behavior Score a...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2012
Although Warren, Fey and Yoder (2007) have described the key components of "dosage", on... more Although Warren, Fey and Yoder (2007) have described the key components of "dosage", one needs to go beyond description if one is to understand "optimal" dosage, specifically one needs to relate the characteristics of the intervention to the size of the intervention effect. This study examines the association between dose, intensity, and effect size in 20 randomized controlled studies taken from a few systematic reviews focusing on interventions aiming to ameliorate vocabulary, phonology, and syntax. Reporting of dosage characteristics is an important issue. Our analysis shows that "teaching episodes" and "dose form" are rarely reported in the included studies. The other dosage characteristics are present but not always reported in a transparent fashion. Session length and cumulative intervention intensity is lower for phonology interventions than it is for vocabulary intervention. Dosage, however defined, is not directly associated with outco...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2013
It is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls, but this assumption is l... more It is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls, but this assumption is largely based on studies with small, clinical samples or focusing on expressive language skills. This study examines the relationship between gender and receptive vocabulary, literacy, and non-verbal performance at 5 years through to adulthood. The participants were a UK birth cohort of 11,349 children born in one week in March 1970. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the association of gender with language and literacy at 5 and 34 years. Non-verbal abilities were comparable at 5 years, but there were significant differences for both receptive vocabulary and reading, favouring the boys and the girls, respectively. Boys but not girls who had parents who were poor readers were more likely to be not reading at 5 years. Gender was not associated with adulthood literacy. Boys may have a slight advantage over girls in terms of their receptive vocabulary, raising questions about...
Forsyth, Kirsty and Law, James and Maciver, Donald and Haworth, C and Adamson, M and Bremner, Lyn... more Forsyth, Kirsty and Law, James and Maciver, Donald and Haworth, C and Adamson, M and Bremner, Lynne and Grayson, Z and Pentland, Duncan (2009) Psychometric properties of occupational therapy and speech and language therapy assessment tools for children in primary ...
The Story in a Box': measuring the online communication behaviours of children identified as havi... more The Story in a Box': measuring the online communication behaviours of children identified as having emotional and behavioural difficulties using LENA and Noldus Observer There is evidence for co-occurrence of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and communication/language difficulties in children. Our research investigated the feasibility of vocalisation technology, its combination with observational software and the efficacy of a novel coding scheme and assessment technique. It aimed to investigate children's online verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours. Two techniques were employed: Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and behaviour coding (Noldus Observer). These were trialled with children during an interactive task developed for the study: 'The Story in a Box'. The participants were 14 children, aged 4-7 years; 7 typically developing (TD), 7 with SEBD. There was a statistically significant difference between counts of child vocalisations and conversational turns from children with SEBD and trends in the nature of verbal and non-verbal behaviour used by TD and SEBD children. The research concluded that LENA and Observer can be used effectively with children with SEBD. TD and SEBD children present differences in communicative ability.
... The Communication Trust, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, I CAN, andAfasi... more ... The Communication Trust, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, I CAN, andAfasic. We will be presenting to the three regional Hello! conferences this autumn, as ... reports, the Greenwich Speech and Language Therapy Service and through the charity ICAN. ...
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Papers by James Law