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There is a PowerPoint file available to accompany this presentation. The BDA Conference 2001 CD-ROM contains 61 PowerPoint files. For details of how to obtain the CD-ROM, please contact the BDA.
Saturday stream 1 Session 11.35 - 12.50 Length 25 minutes
Roderick I. Nicolson, Angela J. Fawcett, Fiona Maclagan
Dept. of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TP R.Nicolson@shef.ac.uk
Abstract
It is evident in many areas of science and of medicine that in some cases yesterday's unorthodoxy becomes today's orthodoxy, whereas in other cases yesterday's unorthodoxy becomes discredited. One challenge for learning disabilities research is to establish an evidence-based methodology for evaluating novel methods of diagnosis and treatment that provides a relatively objective analysis of the role of treatment-specific effects versus general factors - such as motivation, self-belief, involvement, self-monitoring, placebo effects and the Hawthorne effect - for any given intervention. We use as an example a case study by Maclagan that showed impressive effects of balance training on reading performance, but also impressive effects for phonological training and mathematics training. We note the importance of identifying factors such as: the cost-effectiveness of treatment; the maintenance of improvement post-treatment; the specificity of effectiveness to different sub-types of difficulty; and 'client-therapist' interaction factors. We conclude by outlining principles for evidence-based evaluation, and offer a vision of a society where an optimal intervention may be identified, specific to each given individual with learning disabilities, and given, at the optimal time, by a suitably trained support team.
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