Children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are multimodal communicators. However, in classroom interactions involving children and staff, achieving mutual understanding and accomplishing task-oriented goals by attending to the child's unaided AAC can be challenging. This study draws on excerpts of video recordings of…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic syndrome. As with all rare syndromes, obtaining adequately powered sample sizes is a challenge. Here we present legacy data from seven UK labs, enabling the characterisation of cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental trajectories of verbal and non-verbal development in the largest sample of…

Minimal expressions are at the heart of interaction: Interjections like "Huh?" and "Mhm" keep conversations flowing by establishing and reinforcing intersubjectivity among interlocutors. Crosslinguistic research has identified that similar interactional pressures can yield structurally similar words (e.g., to initiate repair…

This study examined whether set-shifting ability for children with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability would be affected differentially by verbal or nonverbal feedback as the outcome of previous research tentatively suggests that verbal feedback may lead to slower set-shifting. Overall, 56 children participated (42 male; 14…

This short report is a summary of the findings from "Storycraft: The Importance of Narrative and Narrative Skills in Business." This ground-breaking report reveals how prominent business leaders in the United Kingdom view and utilise narrative as an integral part of doing business. Based on extensive interviews with 34 business leaders,…

Narrative skills are fundamental and indispensable in business in the twenty-first century. The ability to devise, craft, and deliver a successful narrative is not only a pre-requisite for any Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or senior executive, but is also increasingly becoming necessary for employees in any organisation. This ground-breaking…

Babysign classes are increasingly popular across the UK. Benefits are said to include increasing child vocabulary, reducing frustration, and improving parent-child relations. A further relationship between the use of babysign and maternal mind-mindedness (MM) has been suggested. It was hypothesized here that parents choosing babysign classes would…

Younger and older adults differ in performance on a range of social-cognitive skills, with older adults having difficulties in decoding nonverbal cues to emotion and intentions. Such skills are likely to be important when deciding whether someone is being sarcastic. In the current study we investigated in a life span sample whether there are…

This paper reflects on a study that explores young people's engagement with the Art: a Resource for Reconciliation Over the World (ARROW) programme. The programme utilises the arts to promote critical dialogue amongst young people growing up in divided communities around the world. Dialogue has been criticised for its inability to tackle…

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…

Purportedly, there is a worldwide acceptance of diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); however, cultural differences in regards to what is considered normal development may affect the diagnosis despite the biological basis for the condition. The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in reports of symptoms of ASD…

This paper provides a description of the interactions between a nursery-aged prelingually deaf child and his specialist teacher recorded at four consecutive time points during the first year at school. The child comes from a hearing, Somali-speaking family where English is an additional language (EAL). Using Conversation Analysis procedures,…

The study investigated ten early childhood teachers' perceptions of their relationships with 120 children (mean age = 4 years 3 months), of whom 41 children spoke English as an additional language (EAL: mean age = 4 years 2 months). The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) was employed to elicit teachers' perceptions of their relationships in…

This ESRC-funded study explores how 3-year-old children use a range of "voices" during their first year in pre-school, investigating how they make and express meaning "multimodally" through combinations of talk, body movement, facial expression and gaze in the two different settings of home and playgroup. Using longitudinal…