Pamela Claire Snow

• PhD
• Professor at La Trobe University

Remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity for parents of early years students to gain insights into instructional methods used to teach reading and spelling. We used this opportunity to seek parents’ perspectives about the instructional content and materials provided during periods of remote teaching in Australia. N...

Purpose We report the qualitative findings from a survey of elementary teachers regarding reading instruction. The purpose is to extend on quantitative findings in a previously described survey to gain a more in-depth understanding of Australian elementary teachers' approaches to the literacy block in their schools: how this is used, who makes inst...

Introduction Strong oral language and reading skills are important for child development. The response to intervention (RTI) framework supports schools to apply evidence-based practices and interventions to proactively meet the learning needs of all students and identify and support students at risk of learning difficulties. Getting it Right from t...

Reading comprehension is contingent on both oral language comprehension and word-level reading ability, skills that are thought to be intrinsically related in the early school years. However, while previous studies examining bidirectional relationships among oral vocabulary and reading development have generally found an association between word re...

Purpose We report findings from a survey of elementary teachers regarding reading instruction. The purpose was to examine teachers' beliefs about how children in the first 7 years of schooling develop reading comprehension skills and to characterize the self-reported practices and strategies they use to support children to comprehend connected text...

Children need rich language learning experiences in school to build language and reading skills. Research suggests that various effective ways to support teacher provision of these experiences. The Classroom Promotion of Oral Language cluster randomized controlled trial ( n = 1,360 students; 687 intervention, 673 control) examined whether a teacher...

We explored the perspectives of school-based educators located in Victoria, Australia, regarding their support of students who have reading difficulties. An anonymous survey was completed by 523 participants, including educators, educational leaders and Student Support Services staff. Results revealed multiple areas of concern related to their capa...

There is a dearth of research on the undergraduate research training provided to pharmacy students. We aimed to identify and provide examples of effective pedagogy in teaching research and evidence-based practice (EBP) to undergraduate pharmacy students. In conjunction with the professional competency standards for pharmacists, a review of the phar...

Teacher classroom instructional practice can be a powerful influence on student learning. The Classroom Promotion of Oral Language randomized controlled trial tested whether teacher professional learning focused on promoting oral language in classrooms could improve teacher knowledge and classroom instruction. This study focuses on evaluating the i...

Shared book reading in preschool settings plays an influential role in supporting children’s oral language and emergent literacy skills. Early childhood teachers can provide high-quality shared book reading experiences using extratextual utterances (reading beyond the story text) to maximise these learning outcomes. We report on the development and...

To determine the influence background knowledge has on the reading comprehension of primary school-aged children, a critical review was conducted. Twenty-one studies were identified according to pre-determined criteria that focused on the link between background knowledge and reading comprehension of children in the mid to late primary years. The r...

In this longitudinal study, the word-level reading trajectories of 118 children were tracked alongside teachers’ reported concerns and types of support provided through Grades 1, 2 and 3. Results show a significant decline in composite scores relative to age norms over time, with children achieving significantly lower in phonemic decoding than word...

Background Adolescents in contact with youth justice are a vulnerable and marginalized group at high risk of developmental language disorder (DLD) and other communication difficulties. Though preliminary studies have demonstrated the benefits of speech and language therapy (SLT) services in youth justice, limited research has empirically tested the...

Teacher knowledge is a critical factor in student success. In the Classroom Promotion of Oral Language cluster randomized controlled trial, we aimed to determine whether a teacher professional learning intervention focused on promoting oral language led to improved teacher knowledge. We report a study of the impact of professional learning on teach...

Purpose: Access to flexible learning programmes (FLPs) for students who have been excluded or diverted from mainstream school settings is increasing internationally. While still technically “engaged with education” such students face long-term vulnerability with respect to acquiring marketable employment skills post-school. Language and literacy sk...

Purpose: Children’s narrative accounts of their experiences are central to the prosecution of perpetrators of alleged maltreatment. We describe the narrative language skills of children who were placed in out-of-home care (OOHC) following substantiated maltreatment. It was hypothesised that (i) children with such histories would display narrative l...

Teachers in the early years of primary school play an important role in supporting students’ oral language skills; however, there is evidence to suggest many Australian teachers are not adequately prepared to provide systematic, evidence-based instruction in oral language and early literacy. The aim of this study was to describe the observed and se...

Purpose This article is concerned with the growing body of international evidence indicating that adolescents in contact with the youth justice system are likely to have severely compromised oral language skills, receptively and expressively. A smaller, but persuasive, literature also points to poor literacy skills in this population. Language and...

We administered the GSS-2, a standardised measure of suggestibility, to 5- to 12-year-old children to ascertain whether neglected children's responses to leading questions distinguish them from those of their non-neglected counterparts. Neglected children (n = 75) were more likely than an age-matched sample of non-neglected children (n = 75) to yie...

Introduction Oral language and literacy competence are major influences on children’s developmental pathways and life success. Children who do not develop the necessary language and literacy skills in the early years of school then go on to face long-term difficulties. Improving teacher effectiveness may be a critical step in lifting oral language...

This study examined the extent to which maltreatment history and the characteristics of out-of-home care correlated with the language and social skills of maltreated children. Participants in this study were 82 maltreated children aged between 5 and 12 years of age. All children were residing with state-designated carers in out-of-home-care. The ch...

Appendix S2. Background document, with the statements for round 2.

Appendix S1. Background document, with the statements for round 1.

Appendix S4. Report showing quantitative and qualitative responses to Round 1 statements.

Appendix S3. Relationship between Round 2 statements and final statements reported in Results section.

Appendix S5. Report showing quantitative and qualitative responses to Round 2 statements.

There are disproportionately higher and inconsistently distributed rates of recorded suicides in rural areas. Patterns of rural suicide are well documented, but they remain poorly understood. Geographic variations in physical and mental health can be understood through the combination of compositional, contextual, and collective factors pertaining...

Purpose: Young people in youth justice (YJ) settings face high-risk for unidentified language disorder, however, speech-language pathology (SLP) services are not routinely offered in such settings. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions and experiences of YJ staff in a custodial centre of the utility of having a speech-l...

This chapter considers the everyday psychological and social costs attached to having pragmatic language difficulties. We briefly review key terminology concerning pragmatic language functions, before summarizing features of pragmatic language difficulties that occur in both the developmental period (e.g. associated with language impairment, autism...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of interventions for medical students that aim to improve interpersonal communication in medical consultations.

Purpose: Although a number of studies have described high rates of wide-ranging language difficulties in youth offender samples, minimal intervention research has been conducted with this population. The aim of this study was to implement a small-scale speech-language pathology (SLP) intervention study in a secure youth justice facility and to ide...

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptua...

Purpose Return to competitive employment presents a major challenge to adults who survive traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was undertaken to better understand factors that shape employment outcome by comparing the communication profiles and self-awareness of communication deficits of adults who return to and maintain employment with those w...

Low levels of verbal intelligence have long been associated with risk for early onset antisocial behavior, however considerably less is known about the deficits in specific language skills that may characterize antisocial youth. Youth offenders represent a particularly high priority group for research into such deficits, as the juvenile justice sys...

This paper is concerned with the fundamental and intrinsic links between early receptive and expressive oral language competence on the one hand and the transition to literacy in the early school years and achievement of academic (and life) success on the other. Consequently, it also concerns the professional knowledge base of two key disciplines w...

This paper provides interview strategies for teachers who talk to children about serious events, including bullying, truancy, and suspected maltreatment. With regard to the latter, teachers are among the largest group of professionals reporting child abuse, but also tend to evince low substantiation rates. We review research on best practice interv...

Children with a disability (neurodevelopmental and/or mental health condition) are over-represented in state care populations. Care leavers with a disability have particular needs, and face additional barriers compared to other care leavers in terms of accessing assistance with education, employment, health, housing, emotional and social connection...

A significant proportion of young people leaving out-of-home care (OHC) experience involvement with the Youth Justice system, exposing them to further risks and reducing their likelihood of full social and economic engagement in mainstream society. However, little is known about the experiences of this dual order client group as they transition fro...

Purpose: Previous studies describe high rates of language impairment in young offenders; however, important correlates such as mental health status and alexithymia have received little attention. Method: This study describes a cross-sectional study of the language, emotion recognition and mental health of 100 young people completing custodial sente...

This study sought to investigate the level of knowledge of language constructs in a cohort of Australian teachers and to examine their self-rated ability and confidence in that knowledge. Seventy-eight teachers from schools across the Australian state of Victoria completed a questionnaire which included items from existing measures, as well as newl...

Purpose In this review article, meta-analysis was used to summarize research investigating language skills in maltreated children. Method A systematic search of published studies was undertaken. Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they investigated language skills in groups comprising maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Studies were s...

No abstract is available for this article.

Young people leaving state out-of-home care are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young Australians, and a substantial proportion experience mental health issues. This article reviews the literature relating to the mental health of care leavers, highlighting the gaps in the current Australian research base. Available studies indicate that...

Young people transitioning from out‐of‐home care are a particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged group. In recent years, there have been significant improvements in Victorian policy and legislation providing support to care leavers. However, these supports remain discretionary rather than mandatory, and many care leavers experience difficult transi...

Background Since July 2010, new reporting requirements have applied to registered Australian health practitioners who have a reasonable belief that a practitioner or student (of any registered discipline) is exhibiting “notifiable conduct”. A study of healthcare complaints reported that a small number of practitioners are over-represented in the ma...

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care placements (either home-based care or residential care in Australia) are a particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged group. This study reports on a research project based on a partnership between Monash University and seven non-government child and youth welfare agencies in the Australian State of Vi...

Background Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) are strongly overrepresented in young offender populations, and there is growing commitment internationally to ensuring access to speech–language therapy services for such young people. However there is currently no framework in which such interventions might be conceptualized, delivered an...

A significant proportion of young people leaving out-of-home care make their transition to independence via the youth justice system, exposing them to further risks and reducing their likelihood of full social and economic engagement in mainstream society. This article presents the initial findings of a research project based on a partnership betwe...

Background: Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a common genetic condition affecting one in 450 men, but is only diagnosed in fewer than half of those affected. Objective: To increase awareness among general practitioners of their role in the diagnosis and management of KS. Discussion: KS has a highly varied phenotype comprising a range of physical a...

Behavioural problems in childhood are common, with significant and wide-ranging implications for individuals, families and the community. There is some evidence that sensory processing difficulties are associated with behavioural problems in children with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity diso...

This paper considers some contentious ethical questions associated with researching young people transitioning from out-of home care. We consider the potential benefits and costs for care leavers of involvement in research, alongside managing limits to confidentiality, and the social, psychological, and legal harms that may arise from breaching con...

Oral language competence (skill in everyday talking and listening) is critical in the early years of school in two key respects: it underpins the transition to literacy in the early years, and is the means by which children form and maintain interpersonal relationships in the school setting. In this paper, the role of oral language competence with...

For nearly two decades, restorative justice responses to youth offending have been in place in all Australian states and territories. During this time, a vast amount of research on restorative justice processes and their impact on participants has amassed. Results consistently demonstrate that participants in restorative justice processes report po...

Evidence suggests young people leaving state care are at a greater risk of involvement with the Youth Justice system compared to young people in the general population. This report presents the results of the second phase of the Leaving Care and Youth Justice project which aimed to generate a more in depth understanding of the involvement of care l...

This study examined the impact of teacher professional development aimed at improving the capacity of primary teachers in disadvantaged schools to strengthen children's expressive and receptive oral language skills and early literacy success in the first 2 years of school. Fourteen low-SES schools in Victoria, Australia were randomly allocated to a...

Historically speech and language therapy services for children have been framed within a rehabilitative framework with explicit assumptions made about providing therapy to individuals. While this is clearly important in many cases, we argue that this model needs revisiting for a number of reasons. First, our understanding of the nature of disabilit...

Let's consider the known risk factors for involvement in youth crime – male gender, early maltreatment, being raised in a low socio-economic status community, chaotic and/or coercive parenting, learning and/or behaviour difficulties at school, school exclusion and early school departure, being raised in single-parent households, and parental mental...

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a common genetic condition that is currently under-diagnosed. The phenotype is broad, with physical, medical and psychosocial features ranging from mild to severe. When a child is diagnosed with KS, the parents may spend months to years searching for a diagnosis. This study used a qualitative methods approach to explore...

This study explored the reactions of 44 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to Response to Intervention (RTI) in secondary settings. Respondents were part of a random sample of SLPs from across the US. A mixed-methods approach included quantitative data from a questionnaire containing 47 Likert-type items and qualitative findings from responses to...

Background: The etiology of motor impairments in preterm infants is multifactorial and incompletely understood. Whether corpus callosum development is related to impaired motor function is unclear. Potential associations between motor-related measures and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the corpus callosum in preterm infants were explored. Meth...

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care are one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. Those with disabilities have particular and complex needs, and face additional barriers compared to other care leavers in terms of accessing assistance. As a result, they are a high risk group for poor outcomes. This qualitative stud...

This article reviews the literature concerning barriers in making a diagnosis of dementia in general practice and examines these from a rural perspective. It is proposed that the increasing prevalence of dementia in coming years in Australia will be felt most keenly in rural communities where there are already shortages of GPs and dementia-specific...

Research into the rehabilitation of individuals following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the past 15 years has resulted in greater understanding of the condition. The second edition of this book provides an updated guide for health professionals working with individuals recovering from TBI.

Purpose This paper highlights the forensic implications of language impairment in 2 key (and overlapping) groups of young people: identified victims of maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect) and young offenders. Method Two lines of research pertaining to oral language competence and young people’s interface with the law are considered: 1 regarding in...

 The objective of this study is to measure the impact of a five-step implementation process for an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) clinical pathway (CPW) on thrombolytic administration in rural emergency departments.  Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting:  Six rural Victorian emergency departments participated. Intervention:  The five-ste...

Youth offenders are complex and challenging for policymakers and practitioners alike and face high risks for long-term disadvantage and social marginalisation. In many cases, this marginalisation from the mainstream begins in early life, particularly in the classroom, where they have difficulty both with language/literacy tasks and with the interpe...

Objectives This study investigated the potential for fFN to predict PTB in high-risk asymptomatic women from 18 weeks gestation, earlier than fFN has been previously used clinically. Study design A prospective observational study of 113 high-risk asymptomatic participants that were recruited through St. Thomas' hospital high-risk antenatal clinics,...

Qualitative methods were used to explore reactions of 300 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) on Response to Intervention (RTI). RTI is a system approach to serving struggling learners. This study was part of a larger research project that surveyed 2000 SLPs across the U.S. on their opinions about RTI. From 583 questionnaires returned, 300 (51.46%)...

Previous research in Australia and overseas has shown that young offenders serving community-based orders are at high-risk for undetected but clinically significant oral language difficulties. However, this phenomenon has received little attention in incarcerated samples, and links with offending severity, mental health, and other markers of early...

This paper is a summary version of the previously published Cochrane review. It may increase the reach of the topic to health researchers and practitioners and encourage further discussion. The systematic review aims to summarize the evidence and assess the effect of clinical pathways on professional practice, patient outcomes, length of hospital s...

The commentary provided by Vanhaecht et al. from the European Pathways Association (EPA) questions whether conclusions derived from the review of effects of clinical pathways in hospitals are appropriate. They provide some methodological discussion that indicates a poor appreciation of the detailed content of the review as published in the Cochrane...

Restorative Justice is an approach to responding to youth offending that aims to be collaborative and conciliatory rather than adversarial. In this respect, it is a welcome innovation in justice, welfare, and educational settings, and is gaining favour around the world. To date, however, the Restorative Justice literature has not considered the pos...

Purpose. This research provided a detailed analysis of the types of questions and verbal strategies used by police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities about events. Method. Twenty eight children aged 9 to 13 years with a mild or moderate intellectual disability participated in a staged event at their sc...

The aim was to determine the extent to which parent and adolescent characteristics and patterns of alcohol use influence parents' plans to supply their adolescent aged 14-16 years with full serves of alcohol (i.e. not necessarily initiation) in the next 6 months. A cross-sectional sample of parents from Victoria, Australia, completed an online surv...

The majority of parents report that they believe they have an important role in shaping adolescents’ values and behaviours in relation to drinking, but they also report that they need more support in this area. Education, welfare, health, youth and other professionals have an important role in providing services to young people and/or their familie...

This paper describes the narrative discourse abilities of a group of severely traumatically brain injured (TBI) speakers at two intervals post-injury. At initial assessment (between 3 and 6 months post-injury) a group of 26 TBI speakers were assessed using a picture description task. The performance of two control groups was also examined. The firs...

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which parent and adolescent characteristics predict parental supply of full serves of alcohol (i.e. not simply sips) to their adolescent aged 14-16 years. In 2009, a cross-sectional sample of 388 parents from Victoria, Australia was surveyed. Of the 70% of parents who believed that their adolesce...

While the first 3 years of formal schooling have obvious importance for the transition to literacy, it must be remembered that learning to read is a linguistically-based task that draws heavily on mastery of key oral-language skills such as phonemic and morphological awareness, vocabulary development, and early syntax. In order to support the trans...

Clinical pathways are tools used to guide evidence-based healthcare that have been implemented internationally since the 1980s. However, there is widespread lack of agreement on the impact of clinical pathways on hospital resources and patient outcomes. This can be partially attributed to the confusion for both researchers and healthcare workers re...

Many parents support the ‘supervised introduction’ of alcohol to children. While initiation to regular alcohol consumption in early adolescence has been linked with alcohol-related problems in adult life, the findings from these studies cannot be extrapolated to early childhood. The definition of initiation to alcohol in early childhood is often no...

This study compared the effects of open-ended versus specific questions, and various types of open-ended questions, in eliciting story-grammar detail in child abuse interviews. The sample included 34 police interviews with child witnesses aged 5-15 years (M age=9 years, 9 months). The interviewers' questions and their relative sub-types were classi...

Decision-making in hospitals has evolved from being opinion-based to being based on sound scientific evidence. This decision-making is recognised as evidence-based practice. Perpetual publication of new evidence combined with the demands of every-day practice makes it difficult for health professionals to keep up to date. Clinical pathways are docu...

Child maltreatment (neglect and abuse of various forms) is a serious global issue. Although Australia and New Zealand are both affluent, first world countries, child protection statistics indicate that much ground is yet to be covered with respect to ensuring that children are reared in environments that are safe and developmentally nourishing. Bot...

Within the multi-disciplinary team concerned with child and adolescent development, speech pathologists are uniquely positioned to understand the nature and overall developmental significance of language acquisition in childhood and adolescence. Other disciplines contribute valuable insights about psychosocial development during the childhood and a...

Investigative interviews with children about alleged abuse were analysed to determine the degree to which the child's responses adhered to a story grammar framework, and whether the presence of story grammar elements was associated with interviewers' adherence to best-practice (i.e. open-ended) questioning. The sample included 51 interviews with ch...