Working memory, attention and language difficulties in children Not Applicable Working memory, attention and language difficulties in children
Conditions
Interventions
Current:
Randomisation is at the school (cluster) level. The six schools will be randomised to each arm of the trial: 2 will receive RECALL, 2 will receive the active control intervent
Sponsors
Ulster University
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Schools: 1. Situated in areas of low socio-economic status 2. Requested support from school-based therapy teams in relation to children’s attention and language skills Education staff (teachers and classroom assistants): 1. Work with year one classes (4-5 year olds) in a school that meets the above criteria. Health professionals: 1. Work in school-based teams in the two participating HSCT areas 2. Speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, or behaviour specialists with experience in delivering whole-class programmes Children: 1. Be in a year one class, aged 4–5 years, in a school that meets the above criteria. They may have diagnosed or undiagnosed learning or developmental difficulties.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Schools: 1. No separate year one class i.e. if all year one children are taught within a composite class with older/younger children Education staff (teachers and classroom assistants): 1. Previously accessed the active control intervention Health professionals: 1. Work in a team that was involved in the co-production of RECALL Children: 1. English is not their first language
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Acceptability of RECALL in the school setting and feasibility of the trial processes, gathered throughout the trial and analysed in a process evaluation at the end of the study: 1. Compliance, assessed using implementation logs of the frequency and duration of programme delivery and recording of any reasons for non-delivery or modifications 2. Fidelity, assessed using 3 RECALL sessions in each school (1 delivered by the health professional team and 2 by the teacher), which will be observed by the first author. One of the health professional sessions and one of the teacher-delivered sessions will be observed simultaneously by a second member of the research team who will independently rate the delivery. Agreement between the raters will be checked by a third member of the team. 3. Acceptability, assessed using qualitative data on the health professionals' and teachers' experience of delivering RECALL, obtained in semi-structured interviews at the end of the study 4. Recruitment, consent and sampling procedures, assessed using the following: 4.1. Number and proportion of schools that meet the eligibility criteria 4.2. Number of schools approached 4.3. Number of schools where consent is obtained from principals and teachers 4.4. Number and proportion of children identified by teachers in each of the 3 sub-groups 4.5. Number and proportion of parents who consent 5. Attendance levels and loss to follow-up, assessed using the following: 5.1. Number of completed interventions 5.2. Number of completed standardised assessments, teacher rating scales and parent rating scales at post-intervention and three-month follow-up. 6. Acceptability of randomisation, assessed using the following: 6.1. Consent rates 6.2. Reasons given for participatio | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Current: Children’s working memory, attention and language skills, assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention and at the 3 month follow-up) using the following: 1. Standardised assessments administered directly with the children by a trained research assistant (RA) who will be blinded to group allocation. The children will be withdrawn individually from their classroom for approximately 1 hour at each time point to complete the following three standardised assessments: 1.1. The Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), used to assess working memory 1.2. NEPSY – A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY), used to assess attention 1.3. The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS), used to assess language skills 2. A teacher rating scale of the child’s attention in the classroom, assessed using the The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) 3. A parent rating scale of the child’s language and communication skills at home, assessed using the The Focus on Communication Outcomes Under Six (FOCUS) 4. Weekly monitoring of the child's performance on the trained tasks by the health professionals using a pro-forma provided by the research team Previous: Children’s working memory, attention and language skills, assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention and at the 3 month follow-up) using the following: 1. Standardised assessments administered directly with the children by a trained research assistant (RA) who will be blinded to group allocation. The children will be withdrawn individually from their classroom for approximately 1 hour at each time point to complete the following three standardised assessments: 1.1. The Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), used to assess working memory 1.2. NEPSY – A Deve | — |
Countries
United Kingdom
Contacts
Public ContactAnita Rowe
Outcome results
None listed