BC HEALTH
Saved by @Alex1Powell

a little thread of stuff that has inspired my thinking this year. 1/

 This paper by Abenavoli was actually pub. in 2019, but I didn’t see it til Jan. My view is that improving outcomes for #devlangdis #DLD requires improved early years provision. However, even for the best programmes, positive effects fade out over time.
https://t.co/w3LClAhU9h
The paper provides a useful summary of why that might be and what we can do to address this – hint: we can’t just focus on early intervention, but need to know what comes next. 3/
This paper was written by some of my favourite people and SCALES collaborators. I like it because it is a rare paper that attempts to understand how differences in school placement might affect outcomes. https://t.co/qq1cWHwDA4 4/
I often get asked about this WRT #DLD, but it is hard to say b/c school places are not randomly allocated – they are influenced by child and family characteristics. Th paper by Simonoff et al. gives me some ideas of how we might approach similar questions in SCALES. 5/
This paper by the FAB @mcgregor_karla is a ‘call to arms’ about how we as professionals can work to raise awareness of DLD. Consistency in terminology and diagnosis is critical as is supporting parents and young people in advocacy. https://t.co/qFozhs3mSz
When I look at what @RADLDcam has achieved I’m immensely proud of how much progress we’ve made in raising awareness. My recent experiences with funders and journals tell me that we still have a long way to go! 7/
I could offer anything by the fab @lervag, but I chose this one b/c we often assume improving lang through intervention will have positive effects on other areas of develop, but few explicitly test this. This paper does so with interesting results 8/ https://t.co/9d6kYpVlde
the good news is that learned skills can transfer to unfamiliar items, but this appears to be fairly limited to similar items within the same domain. And reiterates just how hard it is to affect change in comprehension. Def one to ponder over a minced pie... 9/
Many people see language screening as an unmitigated force for good in tackling #devlangdis. Rarely do we consider or discuss potential neg consequences & it is important to do so, esp given the poor accuracy of currently avail measures. 10/
This paper by @mgtmccartney is not about #DLD, but does raise critical issues re: screening & case finding that are applicable. At the very least, investment in screening should be accompanied by increased investment in clinical & education services 11/
https://t.co/TXkepMesrF
Sometimes a paper doesn’t present new information but packages what we know in such a clear way that it is both a pleasure to read and a useful resource for parents and allied professionals. Few people do this better than @PamelaSnow2 12/
Her paper on the science of language and reading is a joy. The Language House is a smart infographic that I now regularly use in teaching and I’m sure will resonate with many. 13/
https://t.co/ahsq7YWpoW
One challenge for #DLD is the persistent public (& often gen academic) view that lang deficits are caused by ‘environmental influences,’ esp diffs in quantity & quality of parent talk. For sure parent talk assocs w/ child lang, but causal connects btwn them are very complex. 14/
This is eloquently explained by @saraannhart @drElsje & ends w/ a call to take nature more seriously in dev research. I can see import imps for understanding response to treatment & adapting our approach to the needs of parents, as much as the child. 15/
https://t.co/QlJhyVfeWg
A great intervention trial here. The participants are dual language learners, but the prog could be readily adapted for monolinguals with #DLD. 16/
https://t.co/oRadEelHQ2
I really like that it focuses on both language structure, AND broader perspective taking, to enhance social/emotional competence. And uses shared book reading to bridge home and classroom learning. Nicely designed and clearly reported. We need more this. 17/
The next paper has only just come out but many of the thoughts within it have been rattling around my head for some time. I’m hugely interested in whether or not the timing of intervention matters for long term language growth... 18/
...here @rogierK eloquently explains not only why it should, but how one could test this statistically. We are currently looking at our longitudinal data through this theoretical lens and finally submitting this work will be a joyous start to 2021.
https://t.co/YspH80QEbA
apart from @josaul14 becoming DR Jo Saul, the best thing out of the @PALS_SCALES lab this year was this video, co-designed by SCALES participants & featuring insights & words from @julietwri, a young person with lived-experience of #DLD. 20/ https://t.co/qtcXyfYPVA
it is based on papers led by @SarahGriff90 & Dr Shaun Goh & has been viewed 8600 times since Feb. demonstrating importance to young people & families affected by #DLD. It saddens me that funders, editors & policy makers don’t seem to be listening, but we will keep trying! 21/
Finally, I'm not all work & no play - . I love to spend time in the kitchen and I’ve been doing much more of that since lockdown in March. 22/
It was a tough choice, but my fav cookbook of the year is this one. It has it all – bread, cake, mains, salads -all delicious, and the chocolate, banana and date loaf is esp good for fuelling those long cycle rides. 23/ https://t.co/lKGfUTkeCP
So thank you all for feeding my brain & for taking time to cheer me up along the way (I'm looking at you @ReadOxford @Kathy_Rastle @mggaskell & @L_M_Henderson) and huge thanks to my fabulous @PALS_SCALES team - what a year! Enjoy the holidays! END/

More from Health

Eric Feigl-Ding
Eric Feigl-Ding
@DrEricDing
NEW—CDC was truly suffocated by Trump WH at every turn. Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at CDC, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, witnessed WH dismissal of science, WH’s slow suffocation of CDC’s voice, meddling in messages & siphoning of CDC budget.
https://t.co/HeuNbUggiw


2) ““Everyone wants to describe the day that the light switch flipped—It didn’t happen that way—more of like a hand grasping something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until you realize that, middle of the summer, it has a complete grasp on everything at the CDC”

3) “Mr. McGowan and Ms. Campbell, both 34, say they tried to protect their colleagues against political meddling from WH and HHS but was largely stifled by the Trump administration.

4) “The White House insisted on reviewing — and often softening — the C.D.C.’s closely guarded coronavirus guidance documents, the most prominent public expression of its latest research and scientific consensus on the spread of the virus.”

5) “The documents were vetted not only by the White House’s coronavirus task force but by what felt to the agency’s employees like an endless loop of political appointees across Washington.
Mr. McGowan recalled a White House fixated on the economic implications of public health.
HEALTH
Southern Anti-Racist | Abolition Now
Southern Anti-Racist |...
@antiracistsouth
While #Tulane school of medicine is rightfully being exposed for its contemporary racism towards faculty, staff, students (and patients) due to the racist firing of Dr. Princess Dennar, it’s important to call out the deeply anti-Black history of this school, specifically... 1/

The way #Tulane became a private institution (originally was a public university) at the end of Reconstruction to avoid having to desegregate. The school charter says it was founded for “white men” only... but there’s more (much more) to this story... 2/

cw: medical racism

Tulane’s school of medicine rose to national prominence for its collection of human “specimens” in their anatomy museum “rivaled only by Harvard”. How did it acquire these “specimens” you might ask?

The collection was “curated” by a Dr. Edward Souchon... 3/

Dr. Souchon was mentored by the late James Marion Sims, the “father of modern gynecology”, who himself had started collecting body parts, organs, and skeletal remains from enslaved Black people during slavery. Souchon continued “curating” his own collection in horrific ways. 4/

The Souchon Collection grew over several decades, eventually touring the state as a traveling “public health” exhibit- nearly all of the body parts stolen, harvested and illicitly acquired from formerly enslaved and poor Black people via Charity Hospital. 5/
HEALTH
Advertisement
Thane Black
Thane Black
@thane_black
A week ago I voluntarily admitted myself to the hospital to get help bc I am losing weight as a result of increased food intolerances, secondary to my very severe #MECFS. A psychiatrist here decided that im mentally ill, 1/

purely on the basis that the medical workup was unable to explain my food intolerance. My psych eval only found mild anxiety and depression. 2/

They have put me on a 72hr psych hold while they work to get the county courts to commit me to a psych ward. This is a nightmare. They have taken away most of my belongings, put me in a new uniform, and are keeping me under 24/7 video surveillance. 3/

In the middle of the night last night when I sat up to use the urinal loud alarms sounded, as though I was trying to escape. I can’t even walk and hadn’t even left my bed. 4/

If they succeed in having me fully committed I will lose ability to communicate with the outside world except for an occasional phone call. I will lose all agency, and will very likely have treatments forced upon me. 5/
HEALTH
Santiago
Santiago
@svpino
You gotta think about this one carefully!

Imagine you go to the doctor and get tested for a rare disease (only 1 in 10,000 people get it.)

The test is 99% effective in detecting both sick and healthy people.

Your test comes back positive.

Are you really sick? Explain below 👇

The most complete answer from every reply so far is from Dr. Lena. Thanks for taking the time and going through


You can get the answer using Bayes' theorem, but let's try to come up with it in a different —maybe more intuitive— way.

👇


Here is what we know:

- Out of 10,000 people, 1 is sick
- Out of 100 sick people, 99 test positive
- Out of 100 healthy people, 99 test negative

Assuming 1 million people take the test (including you):

- 100 of them are sick
- 999,900 of them are healthy

👇

Let's now test both groups, starting with the 100 people sick:

▫️ 99 of them will be diagnosed (correctly) as sick (99%)

▫️ 1 of them is going to be diagnosed (incorrectly) as healthy (1%)

👇
HEALTH
AutisticSciencePerson
AutisticSciencePerson
@AutSciPerson
Okay, let's start this hypersomnia thread!

[note - I am not looking for unsolicited advice.]

Idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy (not the same, but similar) is very hard to describe to people.

When I say "I slept 10 hours last night and I'm still tired" I'm not bragging. 1/16

For me, the accommodations I need are about time. My body doesn't care what I want to do - when I want to wake up or be asleep. My body wants to wake up at 10-11am, and go to sleep at 3am, always.

Just a one hour shift in my sleep schedule can screw me up for days. 2/16

When I tell people that I'd really "prefer it" if we could meet at 10am or later, it's because getting up before that has consequences for me. Big consequences. Most people won't see them. Sometimes I still give in and say it's fine. It ruins 2-3 of my days, sometimes more. 3/16

Let me explain. When I am required to wake up at 9am, esp. in covid times working from home, my body pays me back for it later.

I'm going to show you ways this happens. I can usually withstand 1 day of waking up early, with some consequences, but 2 days in a row kills me. 4/16

Let's say this graph represents Day 1, the first time I am required to get up early. The y-axis is my level of Sleepiness. Any symptom listed higher up includes that symptom + every other symptom below it. Getting up that early means I can't listen or concentrate all day. 5/16
HEALTH

You May Also Like

Greg Olear
Greg Olear
@gregolear
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Let’s sort it out.

[THREAD]


1/ Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch called on Mitch McConnell, after hours. Since then, two Fox News-related Twitter accounts have not tweeted.

2/ Trump fired Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with human dildo/Putin collaborator Matt Whitaker. Sessions had asked to stay until Friday and was told to leave immediately. So there was clearly some urgency to install the dildo...er, puppet.

3/ The Democrats won the SHIT out of the Midterms. Come January, the House check on Trump will leave him so hobbled, he’ll be like the dude from Misery.

4/ Trump went to Paris, ostensibly for an Armistice Day centennial event. He skipped the event, and much of the dinner tonight, because of “weather,” which everyone seems to agree is a bullshit excuse.
POLITICS
Jeannette Ng \u5433\u5fd7\u9e97
Jeannette Ng 吳志麗...
@jeannette_ng
So, you’re a writer and you’re worried about writing outside your immediate experiences and identities.

Here is the thread of practical advice for you.

EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES. Why do you want to write this?

Are you trying to solve racism/sexism/colonialism with your work?

As writers we love stories about heroic writers whose work has changed the world. And as such we like to look to our own writing to solve societal problems.

And I understand this completely, not the least because I’ve felt the pull.

But if you’re looking to play saviour with your words, it is unlikely that you will do the marginalised people you are trying to save justice.

And I understand this very often comes from place of good intentions, but there is a reason that most of the moralising plays written by white abolitionists are deeply uncomfortable to read.

It is incredibly easy for works looking to play saviour to become patronising or traffic in simplistic stereotypes that ultimately hurt the people they are looking to rescue.
WRITING
Advertisement
KENYAN\U0001f1f0\U0001f1ea HISTORY\U0001f1f0\U0001f1ea
KENYAN🇰🇪 HISTORY🇰🇪...
@historykenya101
Have you ever wondered why the sons and daughters of the colonial chiefs and guards who were collaborators live a good life while those of the MAU MAU fighters live in abject poverty?

***THREAD***


It should be known that the colonialists reached a point that they knew they had 2 leave Kenya since they couldn't handle the Mau Mau war & the world was moving toward accepting independent Africa.However,the colonialists devised an evil scheme that still eats Kenya upto this day

Under this scheme, the colonial state came up with a plan that saw the first crop of chiefly “big men” being empowered financially to take their children to schools and eventually have those children go to England for further studies...

...and eventually providing a ready-made socio-economic & political class whom state power could be entrusted in the post-colonial era.This explains why their children & grandchildren still hold majority of important positions in govt or in the private sector supported by state.

This also explains why children and grandchildren of these homeguards are always given preferential treatment when it comes to government appointments. Wewe na masomo yako you are always asking why you can never get a job in government...yet you're qualified..now you know.
HISTORY
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
KANIPAKAM VINAYAKA, CHITOOR (AP)
#bharatmandir

Kani means wetland and Pakam means flow of water into wetland.
Kanipakam Vinayaka is swayambhu (self-manifested). The murti is in a well which is always full of water.


Once, there were three brothers. Each one had a handicap- Dumb, Deaf and Blind. They had a small piece of land for livelihood. For their field, they drew water from a well. One day, they found that the well had dried up so one of them started digging in the well.


His tool hit something and blood oozed out. They found a swayambhu murti of Ganesha here.
Villagers started offering coconut water which overflew into a channel. Hence the name Kanipakam.


The murti is still growing in size. At present, we see the knees and the abdomen only. The Kavacham (Armour) offered to Vinayaka 50 years ago doesn’t fit today.
Vinayaka is believed to be the upholder of truth. So people come here and swear before him to prove their innocence.
ALL
Simon DeDeo
Simon DeDeo
@SimonDeDeo
This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?
ALL