Substantial research indicates that high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) confers a wide range of benefits for children, yet quality in ECEC remains inconsistent. Given the ...variability in training and qualifications, one strategy for improving ECEC quality is in-service professional development (PD).
The current study evaluated an evidence-based in-service PD programme, Leadership for Learning, via a cluster randomised controlled trial involving 83 ECEC services and 1,346 children in their final year of pre-school.
Results indicated significant improvements in teaching quality across treatment centres and child development outcomes in language, numeracy and social-emotional development.
This study provides strong support for making evidence-informed PD routinely available for ECEC practitioners.
In New South Wales (NSW), legislation prioritises open adoption over long-term foster care when restoration is not possible, and suitable kin or guardians cannot be found. The adoption application ...includes an adoption plan that outlines the nature of a child's post-adoption contact with his or her birth family. There are efforts to include the views of the child, birth family, and prospective adoptive parents when developing this plan. This paper reports on the analysis of 89 adoption court files for 117 children from out-of-home care, finalised in 2017 by the Supreme Court of NSW. It focuses on the views of birth parents with respect to contact arrangements specified in the adoption plan. Three researchers independently coded the data, using an inductive approach based on grounded theory. The findings highlight the complexities in the changing relationship structures associated with adoption. Patterns of contact prior to adoption proceedings are highly predictive of plans for post-adoption contact. There are implications for social workers supporting positive contact experiences for children prior to an adoption order as well as the relationships between children's prospective adoptive families and birth families.
Post-adoption contact decisions are informed by the views of birth family, children, and prospective adoptive parents, as well as the contact that has occurred pre-adoption.
Birth parents expressed preferences for a specific amount and type of experience for contact, reflective of their relationships with the adoptive parents.
Supports are needed to ensure that positive contact for children and relationships between children's birth family and adoptive family are established and maintained.
Cluster of differentiation (CD) 166 or activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) is a transmembrane molecule known to be an intercellular adhesion factor. The expression and function of ...ALCAM in medulloblastoma (MB), a pediatric brain tumor with highly advanced molecular genetics, remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the significance and functional role of ALCAM expression in MB. ALCAM expression in 45 patients with MB was evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical specimens and the relationship between ALCAM expression and pathological type/molecular subgroup, such as WNT, SHH, Group 3, and Group 4, was examined. Eight ALCAM positive (18%), seven partially positive (16%), and 30 negative (67%) cases were detected. All seven cases of the WNT molecular subgroup were ALCAM positive and ALCAM expression strongly correlated with this subgroup (P < 0.0001). In addition, functional studies using MB cell lines revealed ALCAM expression affected proliferation and migration as a positive regulator in vitro. However, ALCAM silencing did not affect survival or the formation of leptomeningeal dissemination in an orthotopic mouse model, but did induce a malignant phenotype with increased tumor cell invasion at the dissemination sites (P = 0.0029). In conclusion, our results revealed that ALCAM exhibited highly specific expression in the WNT subgroup of MB. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the cell kinetics of MB cell lines can be altered by the expression of ALCAM.
Medulloblastoma is the most frequent malignant brain tumor in children. Four medulloblastoma molecular subgroups, MBSHH, MBWNT, MBGRP3 and MBGRP4, have been identified by integrated high‐throughput ...platforms. Recently, a 22‐gene panel NanoString‐based assay was developed for medulloblastoma molecular subgrouping, but the robustness of this assay has not been widely evaluated. Mutations in the gene for human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) have been found in medulloblastomas and are associated with distinct molecular subtypes. This study aimed to implement the 22‐gene panel in a Brazilian context, and to associate the molecular profile with patients’ clinical‐pathological features. Formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded (FFPE) medulloblastoma samples (n = 104) from three Brazilian centers were evaluated. Expression profiling of the 22‐gene panel was performed by NanoString and a Canadian series (n = 240) was applied for training phase. hTERT mutations were analyzed by PCR followed by direct Sanger sequencing and the molecular profile was associated with patients’ clinicopathological features. Overall, 65% of the patients were male, average age at diagnosis was 18 years and 7% of the patients presented metastasis at diagnosis. The molecular classification was attained in 100% of the cases, with the following frequencies: MBSHH (n = 51), MBWNT (n = 19), MBGRP4 (n = 19) and MBGRP3 (n = 15). The MBSHH and MBGRP3 subgroups were associated with older and younger patients, respectively. The MBGRP4 subgroup exhibited the lowest 5‐year cancer‐specific overall survival (OS), yet in the multivariate analysis, only metastasis at diagnosis and surgical resection were associated with OS. hTERT mutations were detected in 29% of the cases and were associated with older patients, increased hTERT expression and MBSHH subgroup. The 22‐gene panel provides a reproducible assay for molecular subgrouping of medulloblastoma FFPE samples in a routine setting and is well‐suited for future clinical trials.
Pediatric ependymomas are highly recurrent tumors resistant to conventional chemotherapy. Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein critical in permitting limitless replication, has been found to be critically ...important for the maintenance of tumor-initiating cells (TICs). These TICs are chemoresistant, repopulate the tumor from which they are identified, and are drivers of recurrence in numerous cancers. In this study, telomerase enzymatic activity was directly measured and inhibited to assess the therapeutic potential of targeting telomerase. Telomerase repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) (
n
= 36) and C-circle assay/telomere FISH/ATRX staining (
n
= 76) were performed on primary ependymomas to determine the prevalence and prognostic potential of telomerase activity or alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) as telomere maintenance mechanisms, respectively. Imetelstat, a phase 2 telomerase inhibitor, was used to elucidate the effect of telomerase inhibition on proliferation and tumorigenicity in established cell lines (BXD-1425EPN, R254), a primary TIC line (E520) and xenograft models of pediatric ependymoma. Over 60 % of pediatric ependymomas were found to rely on telomerase activity to maintain telomeres, while no ependymomas showed evidence of ALT. Children with telomerase-active tumors had reduced 5-year progression-free survival (29 ± 11 vs 64 ± 18 %;
p
= 0.03) and overall survival (58 ± 12 vs 83 ± 15 %;
p
= 0.05) rates compared to those with tumors lacking telomerase activity. Imetelstat inhibited proliferation and self-renewal by shortening telomeres and inducing senescence in vitro. In vivo, Imetelstat significantly reduced subcutaneous xenograft growth by 40 % (
p
= 0.03) and completely abolished the tumorigenicity of pediatric ependymoma TICs in an orthotopic xenograft model. Telomerase inhibition represents a promising therapeutic approach for telomerase-active pediatric ependymomas found to characterize high-risk ependymomas.
Display omitted
•Evidence review of reunification programs promoting safety, security and stability.•Utilised a common elements approach to identify practices to support reunification.•Most practices ...utilised behavioral or social learning theories in driving change.•Practices identified include coaching, awareness-raising, and role modelling.•Common elements offer potential to tailor interventions and develop frameworks.
A proliferation of programs and interventions aim to promote permanency for children and young people in contact with the child welfare system. Many are manualized and evaluated at the program-level rather than at practice-level. Interest is growing in the common elements approach, to determine which individual program components are most useful for informing practice. This paper draws from the findings of a systematic review that assessed current research on permanency programs and utilized a common elements approach to identify practices that support permanency via reunification, guardianship or adoption. The focus of this paper is on practice elements that are common for supporting parents towards reunification. Twelve publications met inclusion criteria: seven experimental (randomized controlled trial) studies, two quasi-experimental studies, and three pretest–posttest studies. From these, 10 programs were identified that aim to build the capacity of parents undertaking reunification efforts to promote their children’s safety, stability, and security. Using content analysis, a total of eight distinct practices in reunification programs were identified; these practices applied a structured and individualized approach to improve parent–child interactions and build parent skills to recognize and respond to child behavioral issues. The common elements approach reveals the components of evidence-based interventions to support reunification and can be useful for tailoring interventions, developing frameworks, upskilling workforce and identifying effective practices within existing interventions.
Abstract
Achieving timely “permanency” for children after statutory child removal has become a key policy driver internationally. In New South Wales, child protection reforms include prioritising ...reunification; introducing time frames for resolution of legal proceedings; and outsourcing a substantial proportion of casework to the non‐government sector. In assessing the viability of reunification, courts place responsibility for behaviour change on parents and obscure the role of systems in supporting these changes. Professionals, as actors within a complex system, have an insider perspective on factors that influence reunification. A qualitative study was undertaken to elicit the perspectives of professionals working with parents involved in care proceedings. A total of 29 caseworkers and lawyers took part in focus groups. Complexity theory was used as an interpretive framework, and thematic analysis was completed. Themes about barriers to reunification exposed the unintended consequences of change in a complex adaptive system. Far from making reunification more achievable by streamlining the legal process, changes introduced impediments in the form of role, goal and process confusion and low levels of professional confidence in their capacity to help parents and achieve predictable legal outcomes. These results strengthen calls for a different approach to confront system‐induced barriers. Embedding interagency collaboration, challenging risk narratives about parents and offering them dedicated services are areas that demand urgent attention in order to ensure no child, whose safety and best interests could be met by reunification, remains in care.
•Use of Qualitative Data Mining to harness narrative detail in adoption court files.•Sibling networks of children adopted from care are common, large and complex.•Frequency of sibling contact ...associated with relatedness and care arrangements.•Pre-adoption contact is critical for post-adoption contact and sibling connections.•Adequate post-adoption resources needed to support sibling relationships over time.
For children in care, sibling relationships can be one of their most important life-long relationships. This study describes the nature and complexity of the sibling networks of children adopted from out-of-home care in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. A case file analysis was undertaken of 89 case files for the adoption of 117 children from care, representing all such adoptions that were finalised by the NSW Supreme Court in 2017. In nine in ten cases, children in the adoption application had at least one sibling who lived elsewhere and who was not part of the application. De-identified information about children and siblings’ characteristics living situations, contact arrangements, and relationships were extracted and coded using thematic analysis. Sibling networks were generally large and diverse. Frequency of face-to-face contact between children and their siblings varied based on degree of relatedness, living arrangements, and caregiver type. Importantly, contact arrangements that are in place prior to an adoption order are pivotal to decisions made about proposed post-adoption contact. The results of this study suggest that when siblings are separated in care, efforts are needed to help children, siblings and their caregivers initiate and maintain connections. Such findings highlight the need for adequate post-adoption resources to support sibling connections over time.
PDF
