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Children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are multimodal communicators. However, in classroom interactions involving children and staff, achieving mutual understanding and accomplishing task-oriented goals by attending to the child's unaided AAC can be challenging. This study draws on excerpts of video recordings of interactions in a classroom for 6–9-year-old children who used AAC to explore how three child participants used the range of multimodal resources available to them – vocal, movement-based, and gestural, technological, temporal – to shape (and to some degree, co-control) classroom interactions. Our research was concerned with examining achievements and problems in establishing a sense of common ground and the realization of child agency. Through detailed multimodal analysis, this paper renders visible different types of practices rejecting a request for clarification, drawing new parties into a conversation, disrupting whole-class teacher talk-through which the children in the study voiced themselves in persuasive ways. It concludes by suggesting that multimodal accounts paint a more nuanced picture of children's resourcefulness and conversational asymmetry that highlights children's agency amidst material, semiotic, and institutional constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether a structured history-taking tool yields useful descriptions of children's looking skills. Parents of 32 children referred to a specialist communication clinic reported their child's looking skills using the Functional Vision for Communication Questionnaire (FVC-Q), providing descriptions of single object fixation, fixation shifts between objects and fixation shifts from object to person. Descriptions were compared with clinical assessment. 24/32 children were reported to have some limitation in fixation. Limitation was subsequently seen in 30/32 children. Parental report and assessment agreed fully in 23/32 (72%). The largest area of discrepancy was object-person fixation shifts, with five children not observed to show this behavior despite its being reported. Findings indicate a structured questionnaire yields description of fixations, which correspond well with clinical assessment. Descriptions supported discussion between parents and clinicians. It is proposed that the FVC-Q is a valuable tool in supporting clinicians in eliciting information about fixation skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing the exchange of speakers from one person to another effectively is a key issue for participants in everyday conversational interaction. Speakers use a range of resources to indicate, in advance, when their turn will come to an end, and listeners attend to such signals in order to know when they might legitimately speak. Using the principles and findings from conversation analysis, this paper examines features of speaker transfer in a conversation between a boy with cerebral palsy who has been provided with a voice-output communication aid (VOCA), and a peer without physical or communication difficulties. Specifically, the analysis focuses on turn exchange, where a VOCA-mediated contribution approach completion, and the child without communication needs is due to speak next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the use and practices of handwriting-in-interaction by people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease (ALS/MND). Handwriting has previously been described as a viable and practical means of augmentative and alternative communication, particularly for adults with acquired progressive dysarthria and intact upper limb control. To date, however, there is extremely limited evidence documenting how handwriting is used within a conversational context. The analysis in this paper features data from two people with ALS/MND in conversation at home with their spouses. It is shown how recipient animation of an authored written contribution is an important element of handwriting-in-interaction, particularly in how the recipient reveals his or her stance or reaction to whatever has been written. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine variation in the frequency of children's participation in out-of-school activities as a function of speech intelligibility, perceived effectiveness of the child's communication aid, and age. Sixty-nine caregivers of children with complex communication needs provided with communication aids completed a questionnaire survey. Rate of participation was higher for younger than for older children, particularly in recreational activities. Younger children with partial intelligibility participated more frequently in recreational and social activities than both younger children without speech and older children. Results and limitations are discussed within the context of participation research in childhood disability, highlighting the impact of communicative resources and maturation on everyday participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, the UK government deployed forces into Helmand as part of the ISAF expansion into southern Afghanistan. It did so with limited force levels; a strategic choice that was further criticised when the move 'up the valley' into the north of the province left UK forces thinly spread acrossa large and dangerous region. Helmand operations have cost over 360 lives, but there have been stabilisation gains. Nevertheless, important lessons remain to be learned about Britain's strategic policy-making from the decisions of 2005-06. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five years since the 7/7 London bomb attacks and almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the jihadist terror threat from violent extremists has evolved in significant ways, particularly as it affects the United Kingdom. Research indicates that one wave of terrorism directed at the UK has more or less run its course. But there is powerful circumstantial evidence to indicate that another phase may soon emerge and that it may be quite different from before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a significant number of terrorist plotters convicted in the UK. Few have successfully carried out their tasks. But their deadly intentions threaten the nation's security. The aftermath of these cases allows some conclusions to be drawn as to how potential operatives are radicalised, recruited and trained, and what this means for the British security forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the defence reviews in Great Britain and discusses their advantage and disadvantages. It states that defence reviews aid strategic decisions and clarify assumptions and they can also be used in political party maneuvering. The task to maintain an honest process is delegated to the defense analyst. Politico-military questions for a defence review are discussed.

The article takes a look at Great Britain security policy and poses such questions as what actually needs to be secured. The author cites Former Great Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair for having made a significant impact on the security policy of the nation, saying Blair strengthened its image as a bridge across the Atlantic, a feat the author finds harder to sustain in the future. He believes the country should now see itself as a center of developed world diplomacy and as a consensus-builder among the progressive security players in the world.

Examines the role of Great Britain in progressing the security and development agenda. Diplomatic role of the country within the United Nations; Political benefits of Prime Minister Tony Blair's commitment to Africa; Effect of the country's leadership on the security and development agenda on Africa's development future.

The article examines the two sides of arguments concerning the elected special-purpose authorities in Great Britain. It provides a historical background on the elected ad hoc authorities in the country. It explores the case for and against elected special-purpose authorities. It discusses the book "Local Government Finance in a Unitary State," where C. D. Foster and colleagues argued in favor of small authorities on such grounds as better reflection of local preferences, closer control between decisions on expenditure and revenue and greater degree of electoral control. It also considers the arguments by those who oppose the creation of such special-purpose bodies.

A new government will find a major agenda of issues if trust between local and central government is to be re-built and the place of local government re-established. There will be challenges for both sides, but Ministers will need to take initiative in signing the European Charter for Self-Government, developing a concordat, being clear about roles and doing something about finance. Local political management and democracy and the policy process also need attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]