Evaluating 'E-PLAYS' for children with social communication impairment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic Language skills for Young children with Social communication impairment’ (E-PLAYS): A feasibility study
IRAS ID
227864
Contact name
Suzanne Murphy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
North-East London Foundation NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 0 days
Research summary
There is a group of children who experience difficulties with communication particularly for social purposes. These impairments have been shown to have detrimental effects on children’s social development and mental health, and are associated with rejection and bullying by peers, school exclusion and mental health problems.
Few evidence-based interventions targeting social communication difficulties exist. A limited number of computer games have been designed to support collaboration between children with communication difficulties and their peers. However, none have yet been rigorously tested or produced games ready for evaluation on a large-scale. Previously the research team for this project here developed a computer game to support young children with social communication impairments to collaborate ‘Enhancing Pragmatic LAnguage skills for Young children with Social communication impairment’ (E-PLAYS). Our pilot studies showed that when E-PLAYS was delivered by research assistants, children’s communication and enjoyment of interaction showed significant improvements.
We now wish to test the implementation of E-PLAYS in the NHS, delivered by teaching assistants and NHS speech and language therapists working together. We are proposing to undertake a feasibility study to assess whether we could run a future full-scale trial.
Children aged 4-7 years-old with communication impairments as identified by speech and language therapists from the North-East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) will take part. They will receive six sessions of E-PLAYS over six weeks, we will test children at baseline and 3 months after they have finished E-PLAYS to see if their communication has improved. The study will last 18 months and is being funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0320
Date of REC Opinion
4 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion