ing children (ages 4–7 years old) with SCI as selected by SLTs ‘focal children’
Teaching assistants trained to use E-PLAYS by participating SLTs
Teachers who will complete pre-, post- and follow-up test measures relating to participating children
‘Partner’ children; classmates for the focal children for the E-PLAYS intervention who will play the dyadic collaborative computer games that comprise E-PLAYS with them.
Parents of the focal children who will complete post-test measures for health economics.
Selection, recruitment and consenting of participants
The procedure for distribution of information sheets and consent forms for the different kinds of participants is described below. In all cases, potential participants will be given at least 48 h in which to make a decision.
SLTs from NELFT
The research team will approach suitably employed paediatric SLTs, that is SLTs working with children aged 4- to 7-years-old attending mainstream (not special) schools. The SLTs will be invited to a presentation by the team, will have the opportunity to ask questions about the study and will be given information sheets and consent forms to take away to read. Consent forms can be returned by post, electronically or by hand to the research team. SLTs not responding within a week will be reminded and invited again by email once more only.
Participating children with social communication impairments (SCI) ‘focal children’.
SLTs will review their caseloads and identify suitable children using the Social Communication Behaviour Checklist devised by Adams et al. . The checklist requires the SLT to decide on the applicability of each of the following five statements to a given child:
The child has trouble understanding and interpreting the social context and friendship, e.g. social roles, emotions
The child has trouble understanding and/or using non-verbal aspects of communication, e.g. facial expression, intonation
The child has trouble with aspects of conversation, e.g. beginning and ending, taking turns, giving relevant and sufficient information
The child makes bizarre, tangential or inappropriate comments
The child has difficulty using and understanding non-literal language
Children who are judged as having at least two of the five statements applying to them will be considered eligible for inclusion in the study provided they also meet the following additional criteria:
Four- to seven-years-old at the time of the SLT’s assessment of eligibility
Have at least minimum levels of English (including any children with English as an additional language)
Not suffering with a hearing, visual or physical impairment severely affecting speech production
Once eligibility is confirmed, the research team will provide schools with participant information sheets to send to parents, one written for parents and one written in simpler terms for the child to share with their parent, as well as a consent form for parents to sign.
Teaching assistants trained to use E-PLAYS by participating SLTs
Once the children with SCI have been selected by SLTs and consent has been received from parents, the teaching assistants who are supporting these children will be invited to take part in the study and will receive written information sheets and consent forms at school from the research team.
Teachers who will complete pre-, post- and follow-up test measures relating to participating children
Teachers of recruited children will also be invited to take part in the study and will receive written information sheets and consent forms at school from the research team.
‘Partner children’ for focal children for the E-PLAYS intervention
‘Partner children’ will be suggested by teachers and teaching assistants in consultation with the relevant SLT. These children will be typically developing children without language disorders in the same class as the focal children. E-PLAYS comprises a series of dyadic computer games, some of which are played with an adult and some with the partner child. The importance of the role that peers can play in interventions has been the subject of a r