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Background: Related to the target group of young children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay, the aims of this study were to obtain more insight into (the interrelations between) several characteristics of these children's expressive communicative behaviour and to explore associations between child behaviour, partner behaviour and contextual factors. Methods: A coding scheme was specifically developed and used to code observational data of 38 children. Three different communication‐eliciting situations were video recorded. Potential communicative acts were detected, described, coded and counted within various coding categories. Data analysis mainly involved chi‐square tests in combination with Cramer's V and Friedman's two‐way analysis of variance by ranks. Findings: Potential communicative acts of young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delay can be described in terms of focus, used modalities, level of initiative, communication complexity, signs of functionality and signs of emerging intentionality. The communicative focus of the children is mostly elicited by the prompt given by the communication partner and relates to certain behavioural modalities. Specific scaffolding behaviours of the partner are associated with the communication complexity of the children. Conclusion: This study provides some concrete suggestions on how to organise the interaction with these children. Accessible summary: This paper is about young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delays.The communication behaviours of this group seem all to alike.We took a closer look at these children's communication behaviours and how these relate to what other people do and the context of their interactions.We found that if you describe these children's low‐level communication behaviours in great detail, interesting differences can be seen, and other people can help the children to focus on specific objects or to shift attention from an object to person they are interacting with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary Older people with learning disabilities who develop memory problems are likely to feel sad., There is much information showing how people with learning disabilities can learn new behaviours which help them to think differently and feel better., This is the story of how I helped one older man with learning disabilities and memory problems to change how he was behaving and feel happier., Abstract Background: There is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that behavioural activation for depression is an equally effective but less complex treatment than cognitive behavioural therapy. It may therefore be more suitable for those who are cognitively impaired (i.e. early-stage dementia or mild cognitive impairment) or have a learning disability. Materials and Methods: A case study is presented that outlines how a behavioural approach was used to support an older adult with a learning disability and mild cognitive impairment who was depressed. It was delivered by the carer liaison practitioner employed by a memory service. Results: The client's score on the GDS- LD reduced from 23 to 5 and on the GAS- ID from 19 to 11 indicating a clinically significant improvement in his symptoms of depression and anxiety at post-treatment. Mood ratings on the Ottawa Mood Scales rose from 2/10 to 7/10. Increased engagement in activities and an improvement in the client's problem-solving abilities were evident. Conclusions: The case study demonstrates the clinical utility of behavioural activation as a treatment for depression in an older adult with a learning disability and mild cognitive impairment. This matches the findings of other studies of behavioural activation as an intervention to treat depression in older adults. However, the client did not have a formal diagnosis of learning disability and may therefore be atypical. More comprehensive studies, including randomised controlled trials, are needed to confirm these findings and more thoroughly test the effectiveness of behavioural interventions with this client group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]