1. A SMART YOUTH HEALTH SYSTEM: New and Emerging Approaches Mark Stephenson Speech-Language Therapist Teacher 2016 Vodafone Fellow

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3. “… what does guilty mean?”

4. Their problem!

6. The prevalence of communication disorders in young people in custody was 60-90% - the highest rate of all the neurodevelopmental disorders reported in this population. Hughes et al (2012)

7. Across UK, USA & Australia, 50- 60% of young males who offend have clinically significant levels of language impairment Snow (2013)

8. Emerging data in NZ suggest that figures here may be similar, or perhaps even worse Rucklidge, McLean, & Bateup (2013) Lount, Purdy, Hand & Kedge (2014)

10. There are strong associations between behavioural difficulties and oral language difficulties (Lindsay & Dockrell, 2000, Brownlie et al 2004)

11. NZ & overseas studies found that most of the young people in the youth justice system had never been assessed for oral language difficulties, and were receiving no oral language support at the time of the various studies

12. “Studies … consistently highlight unmet needs due to lack of identification and difficulties accessing appropriate support and intervention” Hughes et al (2012) p12

13. “ They were using big words – so I thought ‘what the f*** ’ and I just said ‘Yep’ “

14. Our problem!

15. Police interviews… Youth Advocate discussions… Family Group Conferences… Restorative meetings… Court proceedings… Counselling… “Everything is a talkfest!”

16. “ They called me into the courtroom. They said stand in the dock. I didn’t know what a dock was…“

17. How could we easily discover which young people may have an oral language problem?

18. Oral Language Assessment Tool [OLAT]

19. Oral Language Assessment Tool [OLAT] - designed for use by any youth justice professionals.

20. Oral Language Assessment Tool [OLAT] - designed for use by any youth justice professionals. - addresses key areas of understanding & expression pertinent to youth justice context

21. “Remorse? Dunno what that means. I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.”

22. Oral Language Assessment Tool [OLAT] concepts of time vocabulary [YJ] figurative language tag questions

23. Oral Language Assessment Tool [OLAT] the ability to explain things understanding syntax using syntax…

24. “ They said I’m charged with ‘possession of instruments for conversion’ – the only instruments I know are musical so I thought they were charging me with something I never did – a ram raid on a music shop.”

25. Once we realised a young person had problems with understanding, what if… we changed how we do what we do in youth justice?

26. TRAINING TO CHANGE

27. Establishing a culture where it’s OK to and ask if you don’t understand… no whakamā – no shame!

28. Post-it time lines when explaining anything Post-it notes let you move the different bits to get the order right Doesn’t matter if they start in the middle You can both see where you are in the story OR

29. What this is all about… The things we need to talk about/decide are… 1) 2) 3) We are going to talk for___ minutes We will finish at_________ I can have a break. I can tell ________ I want to stop. I can say if people are not making sense or I want them to say something again.

30. What that was all about… The things we talked about were…1) 2) 3) This is what I think is very important… This is what I want to.. 1) Keep doing/keep happening 2) Start doing/start happening 3) Stop doing/stop from happening

31. “We really appreciate your input - we need your help in working with these young people – but knowing how long the meeting is going to take, I’m kind of wishing I’d never asked you to be involved!!!!” [Youth justice professional]

32. Their problem - OLAT!

33. Their problem: OLAT Our problem: OLAT & Training for Change

34. If we knew then what we know now…

35. A SMART YOUTH HEALTH SYSTEM: New and Emerging Approaches Mark Stephenson m.stephenson@cls.org.nz