Cuestionarios de las entrevistas

Tel: 0171 955 5000

Dear

You may remember that I met you and your child some years ago for an assessment We are now trying to improve our own skills by looking again at children that we saw when they were very much younger to gain some idea o f the progress that they have made and what difQculties both you as parents and your child are now experiencing. W e would be extremely grateful if you felt able to help us with this.

What we would ask you to do is to allow us to visit you at home (this would be our researcher who is a Psychology Graduate accompanied by a very

experienced Speech Therapist). They would make an assessment o f your child and to help us we would also ask you to fill in a number o f questionnaires, about behaviour and any other difficulties which you think are important We would be happy to provide a brief written report on our assessment results. We hope that this re-assessment w ill enable us to be more useful to children and parents in the future. If you would prefer not to be contacted, please would you send back the enclosed pre-paid card otherwise we w ill get in touch with you with a possible date on which to make a visit.

Yours sincerely

D r Gillian Baird

APPENDIX 4

G i r o ’s HOSPITAL R E S E A R C H E T H IC S C O M M IT T E E

I CONSENT FORM FOR PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS & CUWICAL TRTAt : I

T itle of Project A follow-up study o f children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder and language disorder at age 3 to 5 years.

Principal Investigator. Dr G. Baird Other Investigator/s

earolling patients: V. Slonims & I. Michdotti

Ethics Committee Code No: 98/07/08

Outline explanation: We are inviting 6m3ies to take part in a new project which has recently been set up at Guy's Hospital We are planning to cany out a follow-up study, which is interested in looldng at the ways in which children who were seen at a young age in the clinic at the Newcomen Centre some years ago may have dianged over time. In particular, we want to compare chddien described as having a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) with tiiose described as having a language disorder (LD). Although the types o f difficulties experienced by both these groups are known to show some degree o f overlap, the nature o f the relationship )etween them and the changes that occur over the course o f development are not completely dear. This stu ^ aims to shed light on some o f these issues and hopes to increase our knowledge and understanding o f the problems associated with making diagnoses in very young children.

The study has essentially been derigned in two stages, the second part requires your involvement In the first instance, your child’s file will be retrieved from the medical records department, and researchers working on the study will make note o f the information that was collected in the Newcomen Centre clinic some years ago. The next step will involve a pair of researchers arranging a convenient time to visit your home, in order to gather up-to-date information about your child. It is estimated that this visit will last on average 3 to 4 hours, and we realise that this is requiring you to commit a conriderable amount o f time. You will be asked to complete some questionaires and we would like to interview you briefly about your child’s current situatioiL In addition, we would like to spend time with your child, which will involve a sl^ g them to complete a range o f activities which are generally found to be enjoyable; including some puzzles and games. Following the virit, you wiU be provided with a written summary o f your child’s performance on the assessment, which we hope will provide some useful feedback about your cMd’s current level o f functioning. All the results o f this study will r e m a in confidential.

You may withdraw from the study at any stage without necesarily giving a reason fi>r doing so, and this will in no way affect any future care or tretament received. In order for your child to be involved in the study, we need to obtain consent from you on their behalf. For this purpose, we ask that you read and sign the section below. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the researchers working on the study who will be willing to discuss these with you. If you have no objection, we would like to inform your OP that you are taking part in the study.______________________________________ ________

I (name) of (address)

hereby consent on my child’s behalf to their taking part in the above investigation, the nature and purpose of which have been oulined above. I understand that I may withdraw from the

investigation at any stage without necessarily giving a reason for doing so and that this will in no way affect the care I receive.

APPENDIX 5