The focus of this article is the evaluation of the quality and the degree of community engagement in an expert-based, public-health communicative intervention for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). In 2023 the Canadian Alcohol Use Disorder Society collaborated with a grass-roots community health group, a regional health authority, and an academic participatory researcher to organize a working group to mount a social-marketing campaign to increase community support for AUD medical treatment in family-practice settings in a rural community in British Columbia. The partnership working group conducted a series of activities in the school system, the town council, and the community. This article covers the formative evaluation and the summative evaluation of the working group's effectiveness. The formative evaluation ("lessons learned" and "recommendations") consists of consensus evaluations of the quality of each activity using a variety of data sources. The formative evaluation followed improvement science methods and used consensus meetings to provide and reflect on formal and informal feedback. Formative results reflect the consensus of the participants in the working group and they record the reactions in the community. The summative evaluation measures evidence of community engagement found in transcribed text from meeting minutes. The summative evaluation used theory-based frameworks and text data visualization to assess the engagement dynamics of the working group. The summative evaluation helps to put the formative evaluation into perspective as communicative action. The summative evaluation validates the formative evaluation by revealing the communicative dynamics of engagement which resulted in the community’s increased capacity to understand and support Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment options. The working group and the entire intervention was seen by the participants and the public as a success and capable of replication. In a small community, it instilled new understandings and attitudes, bringing an emerging awareness of medication as an optional health mitigation strategy for Alcohol Use Disorder. Our study furthers this overall assessment by using theoretical constructs and analysis of communicative records to trace engagement characteristics of interest to researchers, societies, and community groups contemplating similar interventions in the future. The study also validates the effectiveness of communicative analysis as a measure of social-marketing for expert-based public health interventions.

Communicating about sex is important in generating positive perceptions about one’s sexual and romantic life. The last decade has provided insight into the theoretical applications on sex communication research. While the focus on extant research focuses on the psychological processes’ individuals employ to talk about sex, no theoretical framework exists that identifies key constructs that provides a parsimonious understanding about the communicative processes of sex and sexuality. This review sought to identified key constructs that are suitable to develop a sex talk theory. In the current project, we reviewed 24 studies including 8,698 participants (Mage = 24.98) that applied a theoretical framework to sex research. This review identified three salient constructs (e.g., disclosure, cognitive, and relational and behavioral) that are important for a sex talk theory. Last, this review indicated that scholarship should explain the relationships between the key constructs. We provided several recommendations that scholars should take when developing a theory in sex communication research.

Currently the integration of Kazakhstan into the world community requires the training of highly qualified specialists fluently speaking and having a good command of foreign language. The study is devoted to the problem of development of foreign language professional skills of students of non-linguistic specialty. The aim of the research is to identify the efficiency of integrated approach use for shaping foreign language communicative skills of non-linguistic specialty students. The methodological basis of the research was communicative approach to foreign language teaching. In the framework of the research scientific and theoretical literary sources on the problem of the development of foreign language professional skills of non-linguistic specialty students were studied and summarized; the analysis of the empirical material obtained in the questioning and testing of students. To determine the level of formation of foreign language professional competence of international relations specialty students we have developed the following components: linguistic, cognitive, pragmatic. In the course of the experimental study, the authors revealed that the use of problem-based methods such as discussion, project and case technologies, debates in the framework of integrated approach to professional foreign language teaching promote students’ motivation increase and contribute to the improvement of their foreign language professional skills. The results of the study can be used in application of CLIL technology for the formation of foreign language professional competence of non-linguistic specialty students at the university.

Equine Assisted Activities (EAA) are considered a suitable innovative rehabilitative practice for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). While standardized scales have been previously used as a tool to evaluate the effects of EAA on different domains of functioning in ASD children, few studies have considered an ethological approach as a means to describe human-horse interactions in the context of ASD. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the behaviour of 19 children with ASD - in comparison with 19 typically developing children (TD) - during EAA sessions. We developed an ethogram from the video-recordings, to assess spatial relationships, social interactions and communicative behaviours displayed by the child towards the horse, as well as the occurrence of problem behaviours. Results indicate that children’s behaviours during EAA sessions are modulated by sex and age, while previous children’s experience with EAA appeared to improve interpersonal distance and horse handling. Results from this study highlight the importance of exploring children's behavioural response during animal-assisted activities through direct measurements. This may allow linking the quality/strength of the child-horse relationship to the benefits obtained by the child, particularly in the social/communicative domain, a core symptom of ASD.

The aim of study was to assess empirical model of factors determining the attitude towards learning communicative competences among nurses participating in the program of speciality training courses. A research by method a cross-sectional study. A representative group of the 1,010 Polish registered nurses that took part in the postgraduate education course answered self-report survey (three instruments: NEO-PI-R questionnaire, Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) and Empathy Understanding Questionnaire of other people (KRE II)) between beginning of March to the end of May 2018, which was evaluated using path analysis. The research results conducted confirmed the soundness of the created theoretical model (χ2 = 0.278, P = 0.598, RMSEA <0.05). It was proved that learning communicative competences in nurses is determined with factors such as professional experience, emphatic tendencies and the intensity of agreeableness, whereby these factors are bound with each other creating a homogeneous network. The developed model demonstrated that the skills can be shaped most effectively on an individual attitude based on positive mentoring in work environment..

This article presents a quantitative assessment of pedagogical support aimed at improving collaborative education at a modern technical university. The article analyzes the structural composition of the universal communicative competence in a foreign language to identify the advantages of the proposed content detailization. An algorithm for constructing educational and speech actions of students with the use of collaborative digital technology, regarding the monitoring and control of tools, is developed and theoretically justified. Microsoft Teams is offered as a platform for implementing digital collaborative learning technology. The didactic possibilities and methodological functions of Microsoft Teams in foreign language teaching are revealed. The digital technology of the collaborative learning algorithm is relevant for building collaborative actions is relevant, since it contributes to the development of the ability to solve common professional tasks. The algorithm of the dialogic communication, including problem, contradiction, conflict, intellectual difficulty, having general professional context as a stimulus to enhance the interaction in pair work is proposed as pedagogical support. The analysis and quantitative assessment of students' oral responses showed that the dialogue in a foreign language, based on the algorithmic component, is more structured and stimulates students' communication on relevant professional-oriented topics.

Previous research on the relative benefits of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems (AACs) has indicated controversial results regarding the effectiveness, the ease of use, and the preference for the different systems. The study aims to observe the comparative effectiveness of two different Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and a speech-generating device (SGD), as communication aids for children with autism. Three children with severe autism and minimally verbally or with no functional language participated. The results showed an increase of communicative behavior with both AAC intervention strategies and a speed acquisition time slightly shorter for the SGD training. Two of the three participants showed a preference for the use of the SGD. Reduction in problem behaviors and improvement in vocal production was observed for one of the participants. Results suggest that PECS and SGD are similarly appropriate for the development of initial request skills and that they can encourage vocal production in students with specific prerequisites.