Project Updates
2024:
Our team worked with clinical partners from across Canada to assess the feasibility of the C-BiLLT-CAN Offline for use with children with CP who have significant speech and motor limitations.
2023:
Clinicians and families from across Canada were engaged in an environmental scan and virtual focus groups to assess their language comprehension assessment experiences and needs, as well as their perceived barriers and facilitators to using the C-BiLLT-CAN in the Canadian clinical context. Based on findings from the 2021 European implementation studies, as well as feedback from Canadian families and clinicians, the C-BiLLT-CAN was an adapted into the C-BiLLT-CAN Offline, a downloadable application, that is the offline iteration of the C-BiLLT-CAN. The C-BiLLT-CAN Offline was developed based on the results of studies that showed end users in Canada required the test to include an expanded palette of alternative response methods and visual/auditory access customization options, and to function without internet connectivity. Three manuscripts were developed as part of this work.
2022:
Drs Cunningham (Western) and Chau (Holland Bloorview) received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to continue supporting implementation of the C-BiLLT in Canada (2022-2026). The project is entitled “Innovative language assessment for children with low motor and speech function: Engaging stakeholders to understand the necessary conditions for implementing the C-BiLLT in Canada” and aims to identify and address barriers to C-BiLLT-CAN use in Canada as well as to develop a virtual training for clinicians. The project involves a collaboration between research, clinician, and family partners. In 2022, the team obtained ethics approval to complete this study together with 8 clinical partner sites in Canada (6 in Ontario, 1 in New Brunswick, 1 in Alberta).
2021:
In 2021, we were funded by CanChild to conduct a cross-sectional survey study with 90 clinicians in the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium where the C-BiLLT was being routinely used, and a follow-up interview study to explore clinicians’ behaviours with regards to C-BiLLT use in more detail. This work provided evidence for how the C-BiLLT was being used in clinical practice and reported on its implementation status. Publications are available in the journals BMC Health Services Research and Augmentative and Alternative Communication describing the survey and interview studies.
2020:
In accordance with the measures to reduce the spread of the corona virus, data collection for the C-BiLLT-CAN validation study was paused while we worked to transition from in person to virtual study visits. Validation data were collected by 2021 and suggested the C-BiLLT-CAN was a valid and reliable measure of language comprehension for English-speaking Canadian children. Further testing of the C-BiLLT in the Canadian clinical context was recommended, as pandemic-related disturbances meant we were unable to recruit enough participants to completely assess the feasibility of the C-BiLLT-CAN for use with children with CP. A manuscript describing the Canadian validation project is published in the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine.
2019:
Jael Bootsma, Johanna Geytenbeek and Jan Willem Gorter wrote a letter to the editor of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology to stress the importance of reliable assessment of cognitive abilities such as language comprehension in children with severe impairments. Read the letter here.
2018:
A stakeholder meeting was held in June of 2018. This meeting included Academic Researchers, Research Staff, Students, Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Professional Linguists, and parents of children with CP. Several researchers from the original Dutch C-BiLLT team attended the meeting in person, and others joined the meeting via teleconference. The first step of the meeting was to bring together a group of ~10 SLPs/Linguists for a consensus meeting to:
- Review the English items to determine whether the semantic and grammatical concepts and levels of complexity have been retained and that concepts are relevant to English-speaking children, and
- Ensure linguistic differences between the two languages have been taken into consideration such as vocabulary, morphology and word order.
The version of the C-BiLLT that was created using the results from this consensus meeting was used in the pilot test. In the pilot test, Canadian children reviewed the 86 C-BiLLT items. They were invited to share feedback on the wording, the image, and the concept of all items. The resulting version of the C-BiLLT is currently being used to test its validity, reliability and feasibility.