Views of educators working with pupils with Down syndrome on their roles and responsibilities and factors related to successful inclusion.

BACKGROUND: Whilst the majority of primary-school aged children with Down syndrome are educated in mainstream schools, little is known about the roles of Teachers and TAs in their education provision or their views on issues related to their effective inclusion. AIMS: This study explored the perceptions of Teachers and TAs working with pupils with Down syndrome in mainstream primary schools in the UK using an online survey. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Responses from 105 TAs and 94 Teachers were collected. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Teachers and TAs tended to view themselves as primarily responsible for a range of teaching and learning activities. TAs were more likely to have attended Down syndrome specific training and were frequently viewed as primarily responsible for delivering teaching, alongside other teaching and learning activities. TAs were less likely than Teachers to agree with statements relating to satisfaction with support from internal teaching staff and external agencies, and more likely to disagree with statements relating to sufficient time for planning and preparation. Both Teachers and TAs indicated positive attitudes to inclusion, though TAs felt more confident and competent in meeting the needs of pupils with Down syndrome. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Data suggest a lack of clarity and consistency in relation to the roles and responsibilities of Teachers and TAs supporting pupils with Down syndrome, and concerns relating to several factors associated with successful inclusion. These findings are discussed in relation to the Down Syndrome Act (2022) and guidance for educators working with pupils with Down syndrome. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: This paper reports the views of teachers and TAs working with pupils with Down syndrome in primary schools across the UK, including their satisfaction with factors which support successful inclusion, gathered through an online survey. The data demonstrates differences in teacher and TA views on who is primarily responsible for teaching and learning activities for pupils with Down syndrome. Factors associated with successful inclusion cover training and support, planning and preparation as well as attitudes, confidence and competence of educators. In general, educators reported the need for Down syndrome specific training and sufficient time to plan and prepare. Overall TAs reported higher levels of confidence, competence and ability to meet pupil's needs. Ultimately this paper highlights the views of those responsible for educating pupils with Down syndrome and the need for clear guidance around roles and responsibilities and training to ensure successful inclusion of pupils with Down syndrome in the UK.

Preschool children's use of meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.

In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers' (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018-2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with "I know"; the other with "I think". Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk ("She said she knows"). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because "I saw it move", "she moved it"). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.

Intention or Attention Before Pointing: Do Infants' Early Holdout Gestures Reflect Evidence of a Declarative Motive?

Gestures are the first signs of intentional communication within prelinguistic infants and can reflect various motives, including a declarative motive to share attention and interest. The ability to use gestures declaratively has been linked to later language development; therefore, it is important to understand the origins of this motive. Previous research has focused on the use of declarative pointing at around 12 months; however, other potential forms of declarative communication, such as holdout gestures, are yet to be studied in detail. The purpose of this study was to examine whether from 10 months, infants use holdouts declaratively. We elicited holdouts from 36 infants and then reacted to these gestures in four different conditions: (1) joint attention: shared interest; (2) infant attention: attended to infant; (3) toy attention: attended to toy; (4) ignore: gesture was not attended to. Infants' behavioral responses were recorded. When the experimenter engaged in joint attention, infants were significantly more likely to display a positive attitude and produced fewer re-engagement attempts. In contrast, the three non-joint attention conditions displayed significantly higher negative attitudes and attempts to re-engage the experimenter. We conclude that infants display declarative communication prior to 12 months, resetting the age at which these more complex skills emerge.

Exploring early communicative behaviours: A fine-grained analysis of infant shows and gives.

The ability to share and direct attention is a pre-requisite to later language development and has been predominantly studied through infant pointing. Precursors to pointing, such as showing and giving gestures, may display similar communication skills, yet these gestures are often overlooked. This may be due to difficulty in discerning these gestures in interaction. The current study had two aims; firstly, to identify the micro-behaviours associated with showing and giving gestures in infants under 12 months, in order to ascertain whether these form two discrete communicative behaviours. Secondly, to examine whether these micro-behaviours predicted caregiver responses to these gestures. Fine-grained coding of show and give gestures, their micro-behaviours and caregiver responses was conducted through secondary analysis of naturalistic, triadic interactions between 24 infants, caregivers and a selection of toys. Findings suggested that the micro-behaviours arm position, hand orientation and eye-gaze, were significant predictors of infant gesture type, however only arm positioning was a significant predictor of caregiver response. This suggests that early showing and giving gestures can be classified based on some associated micro-behaviours, however caregiver's responses may not be contingent on these same cues, potentially resulting in difficulty understanding infant gestures. Our findings enhance our understanding of infant communication before 12 months, provide guidance to both researchers and caregivers in the identification of infants' early shows and gives, and highlight the need for greater study of these early pre-linguistic behaviours.