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Biomedical subjects

A Salvin

Publications and source records attributed to A Salvin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Prevention of unexpected infant death. Evaluation of the first seven years of the Sheffield Intervention Programme.

In the years 1973-79, 39452 infants born to parents resident in Sheffield were scored at birth for risk of unexpected infant death. Before 1973 post-perinatal mortality in Sheffield was on average 11.5% above the rate for England and Wales. Since 1973 it has only once exceeded the rate for England and Wales. "Possibly preventable" deaths have fallen from 5.2 to 1.9 per 1000. 12% of this decline is associated with a rise in the average age of the mother and a fall in the number of pregnancies, 9% with a reduction in precipitate deliveries, 24% with an increase in breastfeeding, 18% with extra care given by health visitors to high-risk infants, and 36% with other factors. The reduction in mortality attributed directly to the effect of increased visiting of high-risk infants is numerically similar to the number of lives saved by treating cancers of children. This suggests that home visiting by health visitors is highly cost-effective.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

Acquisition of modified American sign language by a mute autistic child.

An attempt was made to teach a modified version of American Sign Language to mute 5-year-old boy who had been diagnosed autistic and who had a Merrill-Palmer IQ of 65. Previous attempts to teach imitative spoken language had failed, and baseline data indicated that the child's signing vocabulary was also nonexistent. Data were collected during 20 structured sessions involving presentation of stimuli, prompting and manual guidance when necessary, and reinforcement. Continuous use of signs as communication in class and at home was emphasized. The child had mastered 12 signs at the end of the study. Spontaneous signing frequency as recorded by parents and teachers during several 48 hour periods rose from 15 to 42 emitted signs over the 3 months of the study. The child made 6 months' developmental progress during this time, as measured by a sign-language adaptation of the Alpern-Boll Communication Scale. However, the child made no apparent progress in acquiring spoken language.

Autistic Disorder↗