Murphy, Suzanne and Joffe, Victoria and Donald, Louisa and Radley, Jessica and Sunthararajah, Sailaa and Welch, Charlie and Bell, Kerry and Messer, David and Crafter, Sarah and Fairhurst, Caroline and Corbacho, Belen and Rodgers, Sara and Torgerson, David (2021) Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic Language skills for Young children with Social communication impairments’ (E-PLAYS): a feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 7 (1). 5-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00724-9
Murphy, Suzanne and Joffe, Victoria and Donald, Louisa and Radley, Jessica and Sunthararajah, Sailaa and Welch, Charlie and Bell, Kerry and Messer, David and Crafter, Sarah and Fairhurst, Caroline and Corbacho, Belen and Rodgers, Sara and Torgerson, David (2021) Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic Language skills for Young children with Social communication impairments’ (E-PLAYS): a feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 7 (1). 5-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00724-9
Murphy, Suzanne and Joffe, Victoria and Donald, Louisa and Radley, Jessica and Sunthararajah, Sailaa and Welch, Charlie and Bell, Kerry and Messer, David and Crafter, Sarah and Fairhurst, Caroline and Corbacho, Belen and Rodgers, Sara and Torgerson, David (2021) Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic Language skills for Young children with Social communication impairments’ (E-PLAYS): a feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 7 (1). 5-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00724-9
Abstract
Background This article reports the results from a feasibility study of an intervention (‘E-PLAYS’) aimed at supporting children who experience difficulties with social communication. E-PLAYS is based around a dyadic computer game, which aims to develop collaborative and communication skills. A pilot study found that when E-PLAYS was delivered by researchers, improvements on communication test scores and on collaborative behaviours were observed. The aim of this study was to ascertain the feasibility of running a full-scale trial to test the effectiveness of E-PLAYS in a National Health Service (NHS) setting with delivery by speech and language therapists and teaching assistants. Methods The study was a two-arm feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial of the E-PLAYS intervention with a treatment as usual control arm. Data relating to recruitment and retention, treatment fidelity, acceptability to participants, suitability of outcomes and feasibility of collecting health economic measures and of determining cost-effectiveness were collected. Speech and language therapists selected suitable children (ages 4–7 years old) from their caseload. E-PLAYS intervention (experimental group) was then delivered by teaching assistants overseen by speech and language therapists. The control group received usual care. Assessments included blinded language measures and observations, non-blinded teacher-reported measures of peer relations and classroom behaviour and non-blinded parent-reported use of health and education resources and quality of life. Results Planned recruitment was for 70 children, in the event, 50 children were recruited which was sufficient for feasibility purposes. E-PLAYS was very highly rated by children, teaching assistants and speech and language therapists and treatment fidelity did not pose any issues. We were able to collect health economic data which suggests that E-PLAYS would be a low-cost intervention. Conclusion Based on recruitment, retention and adherence rates and our outcome measures, a full-scale randomised controlled trial estimated appears feasible and warranted to assess the effectiveness of E-PLAYS for use by the NHS and schools. Trial registration ISRCTN 14818949 (retrospectively registered).
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Social communication; Pragmatic language; Randomised controlled trial; Feasibility study; Young children; Peer collaboration; Communication impairment; Computer game |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Health and Social Care, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 07 Apr 2021 09:31 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 16:25 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/30140 |
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Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0