Sample records for younger typically developing

  1. Early social-communicative and cognitive development of younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders.

    PubMed

    Stone, Wendy L; McMahon, Caitlin R; Yoder, Paul J; Walden, Tedra A

    2007-04-01

    To compare the early social-communicative development of younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with that of younger siblings of children with typical development, using parental report and child-based measures. Group comparison. Vanderbilt University, between July 1, 2003, and July 31, 2006. Younger siblings of children with ASD (n = 64) and younger siblings of children with typical development (n = 42) between the ages of 12 and 23 months (mean, 16 months). Main Exposure Having a sibling with an ASD. Child-based measures included a cognitive assessment; an interactive screening tool assessing play, imitation, and communication; and a rating of autism symptoms. Parental report measures were an interview of social-communicative interactions and a questionnaire assessing language and communication skills. Younger siblings of children with ASD demonstrated weaker performance in nonverbal problem solving (mean difference [MD], 5.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.48-9.34), directing attention (MD, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.07-0.97), understanding words (MD, 33.30; 95% CI, 3.11-63.48), understanding phrases (MD, 4.56; 95% CI, 1.85-7.27), gesture use (MD, 1.49; 95% CI, 0.51-2.47), and social-communicative interactions with parents (MD, 1.32; 95% CI, 0.27-2.37), and had increased autism symptoms (MD, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.05-4.03), relative to control siblings. A substantial minority of the ASD sibling group exhibited lower performance relative to controls. Significant correlations between child-based measures and parental reports assessing similar constructs were found (r = -0.74 to 0.53; P range, .000-.002). The weaker performance found for children in the ASD sibling group may represent early-emerging features of the broader autism phenotype, thus highlighting the importance of developmental surveillance for younger siblings.

  2. Older Siblings Influence Younger Siblings' Motor Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berger, Sarah E.; Nuzzo, Katie

    2008-01-01

    Evidence exists for two competing theories about the effects of having an older sibling on development. Previous research has found that having an older sibling has both advantages and disadvantages for younger siblings' development. This study examined whether and how older siblings influenced the onset of their own younger siblings' motor…

  3. The Structure of Mother-Child Play: Young Children with Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roach, Mary A.; Barratt, Marguerite Stevenson; Miller, Jon F.; Leavitt, Lewis A.

    1998-01-01

    Compared mothers' play with infants with Down syndrome (DSC) and typically developing children (TDC) matched for mental or chronological age. Found that TDC mothers exhibited more object demonstrations with their developmentally younger children, who showed less object play. DSC mothers were more directive and supportive than mothers of younger…

  4. The vocabulary profile of Slovak children with primary language impairment compared to typically developing Slovak children measured by LITMUS-CLT.

    PubMed

    Kapalková, Svetlana; Slančová, Daniela

    2017-01-01

    This study compared a sample of children with primary language impairment (PLI) and typically developing age-matched children using the crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLT-SK). We also compared the PLI children with typically developing language-matched younger children who were matched on the basis of receptive vocabulary. Overall, statistical testing showed that the vocabulary of the PLI children was significantly different from the vocabulary of the age-matched children, but not statistically different from the younger children who were matched on the basis of their receptive vocabulary size. Qualitative analysis of the correct answers revealed that the PLI children showed higher rigidity compared to the younger language-matched children who are able to use more synonyms or derivations across word class in naming tasks. Similarly, an examination of the children's naming errors indicated that the language-matched children exhibited more semantic errors, whereas PLI children showed more associative errors.

  5. Predicting Friendship Quality in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Solomon, Marjorie; Rogers, Sally J.

    2009-01-01

    The role played by social relationship variables (attachment security; mother–child relationship qualities) and social-cognitive capacities (theory of mind) was examined in both observed friendship behaviors and in children’s descriptions of friendships (age 8–12) with high functioning children with autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) (n = 44) and with typical development (TYP) (n = 38). Overall, half of the HFASD sample (54.45%) reported maternal attachment security, corroborating data from younger children with ASD. The hypothesized predictors and their interrelations had both direct and indirect effects on friendship for both groups of children, highlighting the importance of these factors in children’s friendship development and suggesting both compensatory and amplification mechanisms for friendship qualities. Practical and clinical implications are discussed for friendship support in both ASD and TYP. PMID:20039110

  6. Word structures of Granada Spanish-speaking preschoolers with typical versus protracted phonological development.

    PubMed

    Bernhardt, B May; Hanson, R; Perez, D; Ávila, C; Lleó, C; Stemberger, J P; Carballo, G; Mendoza, E; Fresneda, D; Chávez-Peón, M

    2015-01-01

    Research on children's word structure development is limited. Yet, phonological intervention aims to accelerate the acquisition of both speech-sounds and word structure, such as word length, stress or shapes in CV sequences. Until normative studies and meta-analyses provide in-depth information on this topic, smaller investigations can provide initial benchmarks for clinical purposes. To provide preliminary reference data for word structure development in a variety of Spanish with highly restricted coda use: Granada Spanish (similar to many Hispano-American varieties). To be clinically applicable, such data would need to show differences by age, developmental typicality and word structure complexity. Thus, older typically developing (TD) children were expected to show higher accuracy than younger children and those with protracted phonological development (PPD). Complex or phonologically marked forms (e.g. multisyllabic words, clusters) were expected to be late developing. Participants were 59 children aged 3-5 years in Granada, Spain: 30 TD children, and 29 with PPD and no additional language impairments. Single words were digitally recorded by a native Spanish speaker using a 103-word list and transcribed by native Spanish speakers, with confirmation by a second transcriber team and acoustic analysis. The program Phon 1.5 provided quantitative data. In accordance with expectations, the TD and older age groups had better-established word structures than the younger children and those with PPD. Complexity was also relevant: more structural mismatches occurred in multisyllabic words, initial unstressed syllables and clusters. Heterosyllabic consonant sequences were more accurate than syllable-initial sequences. The most common structural mismatch pattern overall was consonant deletion, with syllable deletion most common in 3-year-olds and children with PPD. The current study provides preliminary reference data for word structure development in a Spanish variety with

  7. Translating Adult Electrophysiology Findings to Younger Patient Populations: Difficulty Measuring 40-Hz Auditory Steady-State Responses in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    PubMed

    Edgar, J Christopher; Fisk, Charles L; Liu, Song; Pandey, Juhi; Herrington, John D; Schultz, Robert T; Roberts, Timothy P L

    2016-01-01

    x03B3; (∼30-80 Hz) brain rhythms are thought to be abnormal in neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In adult populations, auditory 40-Hz click trains or 40-Hz amplitude-modulated tones are used to assess the integrity of superior temporal gyrus (STG) 40-Hz x03B3;-band circuits. As STG 40-Hz auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) are not fully developed in children, tasks using these stimuli may not be optimal in younger patient populations. The present study examined this issue in typically developing (TD) children as well as in children with ASD, using source localization to directly assess activity in the principal generators of the 40-Hz ASSR in the left and right primary/secondary auditory cortices. 40-Hz amplitude-modulated tones of 1 s duration were binaurally presented while magnetoencephalography data were obtained from 48 TD children (45 males; 7-14 years old) and 42 ASD children (38 males; 8-14 years old). T1-weighted structural MRI was obtained. Using single dipoles anatomically constrained to each participant's left and right Heschl's Gyrus, left and right 40-Hz ASSR total power (TP) and intertrial coherence (ITC) measures were obtained. Associations between 40-Hz ASSR TP, ITC and age as well as STG gray matter cortical thickness (CT) were assessed. Group STG function and structure differences were also examined. TD and ASD did not differ in 40-Hz ASSR TP or ITC. In TD and ASD, age was associated with left and right 40-Hz ASSR ITC (p < 0.01). The interaction term was not significant, indicating in both groups a ∼0.01/year increase in ITC. 40-Hz ASSR TP and ITC were greater in the right than left STG. Groups did not differ in STG CT, and no associations were observed between 40-Hz ASSR activity and STG CT. Finally, right STG transient x03B3; (50-100 ms and 30-50 Hz) was greater in TD versus ASD (significant for TP, trend for ITC). The 40-Hz ASSR develops, in part, via an age-related increase in

  8. The Typicality Ranking Task: A New Method to Derive Typicality Judgments from Children

    PubMed Central

    Ameel, Eef; Storms, Gert

    2016-01-01

    An alternative method for deriving typicality judgments, applicable in young children that are not familiar with numerical values yet, is introduced, allowing researchers to study gradedness at younger ages in concept development. Contrary to the long tradition of using rating-based procedures to derive typicality judgments, we propose a method that is based on typicality ranking rather than rating, in which items are gradually sorted according to their typicality, and that requires a minimum of linguistic knowledge. The validity of the method is investigated and the method is compared to the traditional typicality rating measurement in a large empirical study with eight different semantic concepts. The results show that the typicality ranking task can be used to assess children’s category knowledge and to evaluate how this knowledge evolves over time. Contrary to earlier held assumptions in studies on typicality in young children, our results also show that preference is not so much a confounding variable to be avoided, but that both variables are often significantly correlated in older children and even in adults. PMID:27322371

  9. The Typicality Ranking Task: A New Method to Derive Typicality Judgments from Children.

    PubMed

    Djalal, Farah Mutiasari; Ameel, Eef; Storms, Gert

    2016-01-01

    An alternative method for deriving typicality judgments, applicable in young children that are not familiar with numerical values yet, is introduced, allowing researchers to study gradedness at younger ages in concept development. Contrary to the long tradition of using rating-based procedures to derive typicality judgments, we propose a method that is based on typicality ranking rather than rating, in which items are gradually sorted according to their typicality, and that requires a minimum of linguistic knowledge. The validity of the method is investigated and the method is compared to the traditional typicality rating measurement in a large empirical study with eight different semantic concepts. The results show that the typicality ranking task can be used to assess children's category knowledge and to evaluate how this knowledge evolves over time. Contrary to earlier held assumptions in studies on typicality in young children, our results also show that preference is not so much a confounding variable to be avoided, but that both variables are often significantly correlated in older children and even in adults.

  10. Social maturity and theory of mind in typically developing children and those on the autism spectrum.

    PubMed

    Peterson, Candida C; Slaughter, Virginia P; Paynter, Jessica

    2007-12-01

    Results of several studies using the Vineland scale to explore links between social behavior and theory of mind (ToM) have produced mixed results, especially for children on the autism spectrum. The present pair of studies developed a psychometrically sound, age-referenced measure of social maturity to explore these issues further. In Study 1, 37 typically developing preschoolers took a battery of standard false belief tests of ToM and were rated by their teachers on a newly developed age-referenced social maturity scale with 7 items. In Study 2, a further group of 43 children aged 4 to 12 years (13 with autism, 14 with Asperger's disorder and 16 with typical development) took part in the same procedure. In Study 1, ToM was found to predict typical preschoolers' social maturity independently of age and verbal maturity. In Study 2, children with autism scored below age-matched and younger typical developers in both ToM and social maturity. Those with Asperger's disorder did well on ToM but poorly on social maturity. Study 2 replicated Study 1's finding (for typical children and for the full sample) that ToM was linked with social maturity independently of age and verbal ability, although the link was not independent of autism diagnosis. Teachers are capable of rating children's social behavior with peers as advanced, on-time or delayed for their age. Suggestive links between these ratings and ToM require further investigation, especially among children on the autism spectrum.

  11. Everyday social and conversation applications of theory-of-mind understanding by children with autism-spectrum disorders or typical development.

    PubMed

    Peterson, Candida C; Garnett, Michelle; Kelly, Adrian; Attwood, Tony

    2009-02-01

    Children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) often fail laboratory false-belief tests of theory of mind (ToM). Yet how this impacts on their everyday social behavior is less clear, partly owing to uncertainty over which specific everyday conversational and social skills require ToM understanding. A new caregiver-report scale of these everyday applications of ToM was developed and validated in two studies. Study 1 obtained parent ratings of 339 children (85 with autism; 230 with Asperger's; 24 typically-developing) on the new scale and results revealed (a) that the scale had good psychometric properties and (b) that children with ASD had significantly more everyday mindreading difficulties than typical developers. In Study 2, we directly tested links between laboratory ToM and everyday mindreading using teacher ratings on the new scale. The sample of 25 children included 15 with autism and 10 typical developers aged 5-12 years. Children in both groups who passed laboratory ToM tests had fewer everyday mindreading difficulties than those of the same diagnosis who failed. Yet, intriguingly, autistic ToM-passers still had more problems with everyday mindreading than younger typically-developing ToM-failers. The possible roles of family conversation and peer interaction, along with ToM, in everyday social functioning were considered.

  12. Brief Report: Early Social Communication Behaviors in the Younger Siblings of Children with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goldberg, Wendy A.; Jarvis, Kelly L.; Osann, Kathryn; Laulhere, Tracy M.; Straub, Carol; Thomas, Erin; Filipek, Pauline; Spence, M. Anne

    2005-01-01

    The early social and communicative development of very young siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the focus of the current study. Three groups of children were included: (1) young children diagnosed with ASD, (2) younger siblings in families with a somewhat older child with ASD, and (3) young typically developing children.…

  13. Swahili speech development: preliminary normative data from typically developing pre-school children in Tanzania.

    PubMed

    Gangji, Nazneen; Pascoe, Michelle; Smouse, Mantoa

    2015-01-01

    Swahili is widely spoken in East Africa, but to date there are no culturally and linguistically appropriate materials available for speech-language therapists working in the region. The challenges are further exacerbated by the limited research available on the typical acquisition of Swahili phonology. To describe the speech development of 24 typically developing first language Swahili-speaking children between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 years in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A cross-sectional design was used with six groups of four children in 6-month age bands. Single-word speech samples were obtained from each child using a set of culturally appropriate pictures designed to elicit all consonants and vowels of Swahili. Each child's speech was audio-recorded and phonetically transcribed using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) conventions. Children's speech development is described in terms of (1) phonetic inventory, (2) syllable structure inventory, (3) phonological processes and (4) percentage consonants correct (PCC) and percentage vowels correct (PVC). Results suggest a gradual progression in the acquisition of speech sounds and syllables between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 years. Vowel acquisition was completed and most of the consonants acquired by age 3;0. Fricatives/z, s, h/ were later acquired at 4 years and /θ/and /r/ were the last acquired consonants at age 5;11. Older children were able to produce speech sounds more accurately and had fewer phonological processes in their speech than younger children. Common phonological processes included lateralization and sound preference substitutions. The study contributes a preliminary set of normative data on speech development of Swahili-speaking children. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of phonological development, and may be used as a basis for further normative studies with larger numbers of children and ultimately the development of a contextually relevant assessment of the phonology of Swahili

  14. Psychometric evaluation of the Theory of Mind Inventory (ToMI): a study of typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder.

    PubMed

    Hutchins, Tiffany L; Prelock, Patricia A; Bonazinga, Laura

    2012-03-01

    Two studies examined the psychometric properties of the Theory of Mind Inventory (ToMI). In Study One, 135 caregivers completed the ToMI for children (ages 3 through 17) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Findings revealed excellent test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Principle Components Analysis revealed three subscales related to the complexity of ToM understanding. In Study Two, data were collected for 124 typically developing children (2 through 12 years). Findings again revealed excellent test-retest and internal consistency. The ToMI distinguished groups by age (younger vs. older children) and developmental status (typically developing vs. ASD), and predicted child performance on a ToM task battery. Utility of the ToMI, study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

  15. Subitizing and Counting in Typical and Atypical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schleifer, Patrick; Landerl, Karin

    2011-01-01

    Enumeration performance in standard dot counting paradigms was investigated for different age groups with typical and atypically poor development of arithmetic skills. Experiment 1 showed a high correspondence between response times and saccadic frequencies for four age groups with typical development. Age differences were more marked for the…

  16. Human Behavior, Learning, and the Developing Brain: Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coch, Donna, Ed.; Fischer, Kurt W., Ed.; Dawson, Geraldine, Ed.

    2010-01-01

    This volume brings together leading authorities from multiple disciplines to examine the relationship between brain development and behavior in typically developing children. Presented are innovative cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that shed light on brain-behavior connections in infancy and toddlerhood through adolescence. Chapters…

  17. OLDER ADULTS CATCH UP TO YOUNGER ADULTS ON A LEARNING AND MEMORY TASK THAT INVOLVES COLLABORATIVE SOCIAL INTERACTION

    PubMed Central

    Derksen, B.J.; Duff, M.C.; Weldon, K.; Zhang, J.; Zamba, G.; Tranel, D.; Denburg, N.L.

    2014-01-01

    Learning and memory abilities tend to decline as people age. The current study examines the question of whether a learning situation that emphasizes collaborative social interaction might help older persons overcome age-related learning and memory changes and thus perform similarly to younger persons. Younger and Older participants (n = 34 in each group) completed the Barrier Task, a game-like social interaction where partners work together to develop labels for a set of abstract tangrams. Participants were also administered standard clinical neuropsychological measures of memory, on which the Older group showed expected inferiority to the Younger group. On the Barrier Task, the Older group performed less well than the Younger group early on, but as the task progressed, the performance of the Older group caught up and became statistically indistinguishable from that of the Younger group. These results can be taken to suggest that a learning milieu characterized by collaborative social interaction can attenuate some of the typical memory disadvantages associated with being older. PMID:24841619

  18. Older adults catch up to younger adults on a learning and memory task that involves collaborative social interaction.

    PubMed

    Derksen, B J; Duff, M C; Weldon, K; Zhang, J; Zamba, K D; Tranel, D; Denburg, N L

    2015-01-01

    Learning and memory abilities tend to decline as people age. The current study examines the question of whether a learning situation that emphasises collaborative social interaction might help older persons overcome age-related learning and memory changes and thus perform similarly to younger persons. Younger and Older participants (n = 34 in each group) completed the Barrier Task (BT), a game-like social interaction where partners work together to develop labels for a set of abstract tangrams. Participants were also administered standard clinical neuropsychological measures of memory, on which the Older group showed expected inferiority to the Younger group. On the BT, the Older group performed less well than the Younger group early on, but as the task progressed, the performance of the Older group caught up and became statistically indistinguishable from that of the Younger group. These results can be taken to suggest that a learning milieu characterised by collaborative social interaction can attenuate some of the typical memory disadvantages associated with being older.

  19. Mother-child play: children with Down syndrome and typical development.

    PubMed

    Venuti, P; de Falco, S; Esposito, G; Bornstein, Marc H

    2009-07-01

    Child solitary and collaborative mother-child play with 21 children with Down syndrome and 33 mental-age-matched typically developing children were compared. In solitary play, children with Down syndrome showed less exploratory but similar symbolic play compared to typically developing children. From solitary to collaborative play, children with Down syndrome increased their exploratory play, attaining the same level as typically developing children. Pretense significantly increased from solitary to collaborative play only in typically developing children. Differences between mothers' play in the two groups mirrored those between their children. Both groups showed similar attunement and synchrony. Mothers contribute to the play development of children with Down syndrome through their own adaptation to their children's limitations and potentialities.

  20. Israeli Arabs develop diverticulitis at a younger age and are more likely to require surgery than Jews.

    PubMed

    Itai, Ghersin; Slijper, Nadav; Sroka, Gideon; Matter, Ibrahim

    2015-01-01

    Only few studies have examined the impact of racial differences on the age of onset, course and outcomes of diverticulitis. To provide data about the epidemiology of diverticulitis in northern Israel, and to determine whether ethnicity is a predictor of age of onset, complications, and need for surgery. Was conducted a retrospective review of the charts of all patients diagnosed with a first episode of diverticulitis in our hospital between 2005 and 2012. Were found 638 patients with a first episode of acute diverticulitis in the eight year interval. Israeli Arabs developed a first episode of diverticulitis at a younger age compared to Jews (51.2 vs 63.8 years, p<0.01). Arabs living in rural areas developed diverticulitis at a younger age than Arabs living in urban centers (49.4 vs 54.5 years, P=0.03). Jewish and Arabic men developed diverticulitis at younger age compared to their female counterparts (59.9 vs 66.09, p<0.01, and 47.31 vs 56.93, p<0.01, respectively). Arabs were more likely [odds ratio (OR)=1.81 ,95% confidence interval (CI)1.12-2.90, p=0.017] than Jews to require surgical treatment (urgent or elective) for diverticulitis. Israeli Arabs tend to develop diverticulitis at a younger age and are more likely to require surgical treatment for diverticulitis compared to Jews. Arabs living in rural areas develop diverticulitis at a younger age than Arabs living in urban centers. These findings highlight a need to address the root cause for ethnic differences in onset, course and outcome of acute diverticulitis.

  1. Incidental Memory of Younger and Older Adults for Objects Encountered in a Real World Context

    PubMed Central

    Qin, Xiaoyan; Bochsler, Tiana M.; Aizpurua, Alaitz; Cheong, Allen M. Y.; Koutstaal, Wilma; Legge, Gordon E.

    2014-01-01

    Effects of context on the perception of, and incidental memory for, real-world objects have predominantly been investigated in younger individuals, under conditions involving a single static viewpoint. We examined the effects of prior object context and object familiarity on both older and younger adults’ incidental memory for real objects encountered while they traversed a conference room. Recognition memory for context-typical and context-atypical objects was compared with a third group of unfamiliar objects that were not readily named and that had no strongly associated context. Both older and younger adults demonstrated a typicality effect, showing significantly lower 2-alternative-forced-choice recognition of context-typical than context-atypical objects; for these objects, the recognition of older adults either significantly exceeded, or numerically surpassed, that of younger adults. Testing-awareness elevated recognition but did not interact with age or with object type. Older adults showed significantly higher recognition for context-atypical objects than for unfamiliar objects that had no prior strongly associated context. The observation of a typicality effect in both age groups is consistent with preserved semantic schemata processing in aging. The incidental recognition advantage of older over younger adults for the context-typical and context-atypical objects may reflect aging-related differences in goal-related processing, with older adults under comparatively more novel circumstances being more likely to direct their attention to the external environment, or age-related differences in top-down effortful distraction regulation, with older individuals’ attention more readily captured by salient objects in the environment. Older adults’ reduced recognition of unfamiliar objects compared to context-atypical objects may reflect possible age differences in contextually driven expectancy violations. The latter finding underscores the theoretical and

  2. Israeli Arabs develop diverticulitis at a younger age and are more likely to require surgery than Jews

    PubMed Central

    Itai, GHERSIN; SLIJPER, Nadav; SROKA, Gideon; MATTER, Ibrahim

    2015-01-01

    Background Only few studies have examined the impact of racial differences on the age of onset, course and outcomes of diverticulitis. Aim To provide data about the epidemiology of diverticulitis in northern Israel, and to determine whether ethnicity is a predictor of age of onset, complications, and need for surgery. Methods Was conducted a retrospective review of the charts of all patients diagnosed with a first episode of diverticulitis in our hospital between 2005 and 2012. Results Were found 638 patients with a first episode of acute diverticulitis in the eight year interval. Israeli Arabs developed a first episode of diverticulitis at a younger age compared to Jews (51.2 vs 63.8 years, p<0.01). Arabs living in rural areas developed diverticulitis at a younger age than Arabs living in urban centers (49.4 vs 54.5 years, P=0.03). Jewish and Arabic men developed diverticulitis at younger age compared to their female counterparts (59.9 vs 66.09, p<0.01, and 47.31 vs 56.93, p<0.01, respectively). Arabs were more likely [odds ratio (OR)=1.81 ,95% confidence interval (CI)1.12-2.90, p=0.017] than Jews to require surgical treatment (urgent or elective) for diverticulitis. Conclusions Israeli Arabs tend to develop diverticulitis at a younger age and are more likely to require surgical treatment for diverticulitis compared to Jews. Arabs living in rural areas develop diverticulitis at a younger age than Arabs living in urban centers. These findings highlight a need to address the root cause for ethnic differences in onset, course and outcome of acute diverticulitis. PMID:26176244

  3. Inhibition of misleading heuristics as a core mechanism for typical cognitive development: evidence from behavioural and brain-imaging studies.

    PubMed

    Borst, Grégoire; Aïte, Ania; Houdé, Olivier

    2015-04-01

    Cognitive development is generally conceived as incremental with knowledge of increasing complexity acquired throughout childhood and adolescence. However, several studies have now demonstrated not only that infants possess complex cognitive abilities but also that older children, adolescents, and adults tend to make systematic errors even in simple logical reasoning tasks. Therefore, one of the main issues for any theory of typical cognitive development is to provide an explanation of why at some age and in some contexts children, adolescents, and adults do not express a knowledge or cognitive principle that they already acquired when they were younger. In this review, we present convergent behavioural and neurocognitive evidence that cognitive development is more similar to a non-linear dynamic system than to a linear, stage-like system. In this theoretical framework, errors can emerge in problems similar to the ones infants or young children were succeeding when older children, adolescents, and adults rely on a misleading heuristic rather than on the correct logical algorithm to solve such problems. And the core mechanism for overcoming these errors is inhibitory control (i.e. the ability to inhibit the misleading heuristics). Therefore, typical cognitive development relies not only on the ability to acquire knowledge of incremental complexity but also to inhibit previously acquired knowledge. © 2015 The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology © 2015 Mac Keith Press.

  4. Mercury Concentrations in Coastal Sediment from Younger Lagoon, Central California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hohn, R. A.; Ganguli, P. M.; Swarzenski, P. W.; Richardson, C. M.; Merckling, J.; Johnson, C.; Flegal, A. R.

    2013-12-01

    Younger Lagoon Reserve, located in northern Monterey Bay, is one of the few relatively undisturbed wetlands that remain along the Central Coast of California. This lagoon system provides protected habitat for more than 100 bird species and for populations of fish, mammals, and invertebrates. Total mercury (HgT) concentrations in water within Younger Lagoon appear to vary with rainfall conditions and range from about 5-15 pM. These concentrations are similar to HgT in water from six nearby lagoon systems. However, Younger Lagoon contains elevated concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (~1 mM) and monomethylmercury (MMHg, ~1 pM) relative to our comparison lagoon sites (DOC < 0.5 mM and MMHg < 0.5 pM). We attribute Younger Lagoon's high DOC and MMHg to its restricted connection to the ocean and minor riverine contribution. Coastal lagoons in this region typically form at the mouth of streams. They behave as small estuaries during the wet season when surface water discharge keeps the mouth of the stream open to the ocean, and then transition into lagoons in the dry season when a sand berm develops and effectively cuts off surface water exchange. At Younger Lagoon, the sand berm remains intact throughout the year, breaching only during particularly high tides or intense rain events. Therefore, the lagoon's connection to nearshore seawater is primarily via surface water - groundwater interaction through the sand berm. Because Younger Lagoon is largely isolated from a surface water connection with the ocean, runoff from upgradient urban and agricultural land has an enhanced impact on water (and presumably sediment) quality. As a result, the lagoon is eutrophic and experiences annual algal blooms. Groundwater surveys suggest surface water, groundwater, and coastal seawater are hydraulically connected at Younger Lagoon, and mixing among these water masses appears to influence water geochemistry. To date, no chemical analyses have been conducted on sediment from Younger

  5. Mother-Child Play: Children with Down Syndrome and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Venuti, P.; de Falco, S.; Esposito, G.; Bornstein, Marc H.

    2009-01-01

    Child solitary and collaborative mother-child play with 21 children with Down syndrome and 33 mental-age-matched typically developing children were compared. In solitary play, children with Down syndrome showed less exploratory but similar symbolic play compared to typically developing children. From solitary to collaborative play, children with…

  6. Acquisition of Motor and Cognitive Skills through Repetition in Typically Developing Children

    PubMed Central

    Magallón, Sara; Narbona, Juan; Crespo-Eguílaz, Nerea

    2016-01-01

    Background Procedural memory allows acquisition, consolidation and use of motor skills and cognitive routines. Automation of procedures is achieved through repeated practice. In children, improvement in procedural skills is a consequence of natural neurobiological development and experience. Methods The aim of the present research was to make a preliminary evaluation and description of repetition-based improvement of procedures in typically developing children (TDC). Ninety TDC children aged 6–12 years were asked to perform two procedural learning tasks. In an assembly learning task, which requires predominantly motor skills, we measured the number of assembled pieces in 60 seconds. In a mirror drawing learning task, which requires more cognitive functions, we measured time spent and efficiency. Participants were tested four times for each task: three trials were consecutive and the fourth trial was performed after a 10-minute nonverbal interference task. The influence of repeated practice on performance was evaluated by means of the analysis of variance with repeated measures and the paired-sample test. Correlation coefficients and simple linear regression test were used to examine the relationship between age and performance. Results TDC achieved higher scores in both tasks through repetition. Older children fitted more pieces than younger ones in assembling learning and they were faster and more efficient at the mirror drawing learning task. Conclusions These findings indicate that three consecutive trials at a procedural task increased speed and efficiency, and that age affected basal performance in motor-cognitive procedures. PMID:27384671

  7. Acquisition of Motor and Cognitive Skills through Repetition in Typically Developing Children.

    PubMed

    Magallón, Sara; Narbona, Juan; Crespo-Eguílaz, Nerea

    2016-01-01

    Procedural memory allows acquisition, consolidation and use of motor skills and cognitive routines. Automation of procedures is achieved through repeated practice. In children, improvement in procedural skills is a consequence of natural neurobiological development and experience. The aim of the present research was to make a preliminary evaluation and description of repetition-based improvement of procedures in typically developing children (TDC). Ninety TDC children aged 6-12 years were asked to perform two procedural learning tasks. In an assembly learning task, which requires predominantly motor skills, we measured the number of assembled pieces in 60 seconds. In a mirror drawing learning task, which requires more cognitive functions, we measured time spent and efficiency. Participants were tested four times for each task: three trials were consecutive and the fourth trial was performed after a 10-minute nonverbal interference task. The influence of repeated practice on performance was evaluated by means of the analysis of variance with repeated measures and the paired-sample test. Correlation coefficients and simple linear regression test were used to examine the relationship between age and performance. TDC achieved higher scores in both tasks through repetition. Older children fitted more pieces than younger ones in assembling learning and they were faster and more efficient at the mirror drawing learning task. These findings indicate that three consecutive trials at a procedural task increased speed and efficiency, and that age affected basal performance in motor-cognitive procedures.

  8. Face-to-face interference in typical and atypical development

    PubMed Central

    Riby, Deborah M; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

    2012-01-01

    Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze it interferes with task completion. In this novel study we quantify face interference for the first time in Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These disorders of development impact on cognition and social attention, but how do faces interfere with cognitive processing? Individuals developing typically as well as those with ASD (n = 19) and WS (n = 16) were recorded during a question and answer session that involved mathematics questions. In phase 1 gaze behaviour was not manipulated, but in phase 2 participants were required to maintain eye contact with the experimenter at all times. Looking at faces decreased task accuracy for individuals who were developing typically. Critically, the same pattern was seen in WS and ASD, whereby task performance decreased when participants were required to hold face gaze. The results show that looking at faces interferes with task performance in all groups. This finding requires the caveat that individuals with WS and ASD found it harder than individuals who were developing typically to maintain eye contact throughout the interaction. Individuals with ASD struggled to hold eye contact at all points of the interaction while those with WS found it especially difficult when thinking. PMID:22356183

  9. The impact of age stereotypes on source monitoring in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Kuhlmann, Beatrice G; Bayen, Ute J; Meuser, Katharina; Kornadt, Anna E

    2016-12-01

    In 2 experiments, we examined reliance on age stereotypes when reconstructing the sources of statements. Two sources presented statements (half typical for a young adult, half for an old adult). Afterward, the sources' ages-23 and 70 years-were revealed and participants completed a source-monitoring task requiring attribution of statements to the sources. Multinomial model-based analyses revealed no age-typicality effect on source memory; however, age-typicality biased source-guessing: When not remembering the source, participants predominantly guessed the source for whose age the statement was typical. Thereby, people retrospectively described the sources as having made more statements that fit with stereotypes about their age group than they had truly made. In Experiment 1, older (60-84 years) participants' guessing bias was stronger than younger (17-26 years) participants', but they also had poorer source memory. Furthermore, older adults with better source memory were less biased than those with poorer source memory. Similarly, younger adults' age-stereotype reliance was larger when source memory was impaired in Experiment 2. Thus, age stereotypes bias source attributions, and individuals with poor source memory are particularly prone to this bias, which may contribute to the maintenance of age stereotypes over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Typical and Atypical Development of Basic Numerical Skills in Elementary School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Landerl, Karin; Kolle, Christina

    2009-01-01

    Deficits in basic numerical processing have been identified as a central and potentially causal problem in developmental dyscalculia; however, so far not much is known about the typical and atypical development of such skills. This study assessed basic number skills cross-sectionally in 262 typically developing and 51 dyscalculic children in…

  11. Word Detection in Sung and Spoken Sentences in Children With Typical Language Development or With Specific Language Impairment

    PubMed Central

    Planchou, Clément; Clément, Sylvain; Béland, Renée; Cason, Nia; Motte, Jacques; Samson, Séverine

    2015-01-01

    Background: Previous studies have reported that children score better in language tasks using sung rather than spoken stimuli. We examined word detection ease in sung and spoken sentences that were equated for phoneme duration and pitch variations in children aged 7 to 12 years with typical language development (TLD) as well as in children with specific language impairment (SLI ), and hypothesized that the facilitation effect would vary with language abilities. Method: In Experiment 1, 69 children with TLD (7–10 years old) detected words in sentences that were spoken, sung on pitches extracted from speech, and sung on original scores. In Experiment 2, we added a natural speech rate condition and tested 68 children with TLD (7–12 years old). In Experiment 3, 16 children with SLI and 16 age-matched children with TLD were tested in all four conditions. Results: In both TLD groups, older children scored better than the younger ones. The matched TLD group scored higher than the SLI group who scored at the level of the younger children with TLD . None of the experiments showed a facilitation effect of sung over spoken stimuli. Conclusions: Word detection abilities improved with age in both TLD and SLI groups. Our findings are compatible with the hypothesis of delayed language abilities in children with SLI , and are discussed in light of the role of durational prosodic cues in words detection. PMID:26767070

  12. Recognizing the same face in different contexts: Testing within-person face recognition in typical development and in autism

    PubMed Central

    Neil, Louise; Cappagli, Giulia; Karaminis, Themelis; Jenkins, Rob; Pellicano, Elizabeth

    2016-01-01

    Unfamiliar face recognition follows a particularly protracted developmental trajectory and is more likely to be atypical in children with autism than those without autism. There is a paucity of research, however, examining the ability to recognize the same face across multiple naturally varying images. Here, we investigated within-person face recognition in children with and without autism. In Experiment 1, typically developing 6- and 7-year-olds, 8- and 9-year-olds, 10- and 11-year-olds, 12- to 14-year-olds, and adults were given 40 grayscale photographs of two distinct male identities (20 of each face taken at different ages, from different angles, and in different lighting conditions) and were asked to sort them by identity. Children mistook images of the same person as images of different people, subdividing each individual into many perceived identities. Younger children divided images into more perceived identities than adults and also made more misidentification errors (placing two different identities together in the same group) than older children and adults. In Experiment 2, we used the same procedure with 32 cognitively able children with autism. Autistic children reported a similar number of identities and made similar numbers of misidentification errors to a group of typical children of similar age and ability. Fine-grained analysis using matrices revealed marginal group differences in overall performance. We suggest that the immature performance in typical and autistic children could arise from problems extracting the perceptual commonalities from different images of the same person and building stable representations of facial identity. PMID:26615971

  13. Functioning of peripheral Ia pathways in infants with typical development: responses in antagonist muscle pairs

    PubMed Central

    Ulrich, Beverly D.; Martin, Bernard

    2015-01-01

    In muscle responses of proprioceptive origin, including the stretch/tendon reflex (T-reflex), the corresponding reciprocal excitation and irradiation to distant muscles have been described from newborn infants to older adults. However, the functioning of other responses mediated primarily by Ia-afferents has not been investigated in infants. Understanding the typical development of these multiple pathways is critical to determining potential problems in their development in populations affected by neurological disease, such as spina bifida or cerebral palsy. Hence, the goal of the present study was to quantify the excitability of Ia-mediated responses in lower limb muscles of infants with typical development. These responses were elicited by mechanical stimulation applied to the distal tendons of the gastrocnemius-soleus (GS), tibialis anterior (TA) and quadriceps (QAD) muscles of both legs in twelve 2- to 10-month-old infants and recorded simultaneously in antagonist muscle pairs by surface EMG. Tendon taps alone elicited responses in either, both or neither muscle. The homonymous response (T-reflex) was less frequent in the TA than the GS or QAD muscle. An 80 Hz vibration superimposed on tendon taps induced primarily an inhibition of monosynaptic responses; however, facilitation also occurred in either muscle of the recorded pair. These responses were not influenced significantly by age or gender. Vibration alone produced a tonic reflex response in the vibrated muscle (TVR) and/or the antagonist muscle (AVR). However, for the TA muscle the TVR was more frequently elicited in older than younger infants. High variability was common to all responses. Overall, the random distribution and inconsistency of muscle responses suggests that the gain of Ia-mediated feedback is unstable. We propose that during infancy the central nervous system needs to learn to set stable feedback gain, or destination of proprioceptive assistance, based on their use during functional

  14. Angle closure in younger patients.

    PubMed Central

    Chang, Brian M; Liebmann, Jeffrey M; Ritch, Robert

    2002-01-01

    PURPOSE: Angle-closure glaucoma is rare in children and young adults. Only scattered cases associated with specific clinical entities have been reported. We evaluated the findings in patients in our database aged 40 or younger with angle closure. METHODS: Our database was searched for patients with angle closure who were 40 years old or younger. Data recorded included age at initial consultation; age at the time of diagnosis; gender; results of slit-lamp examination, gonioscopy, and ultrasound biomicroscopy (from 1993 onward); clinical diagnosis; and therapy. Patients with previous incisional surgery were excluded, as were patients with anterior chamber proliferative mechanisms leading to angle closure. RESULTS: Sixty-seven patients (49 females, 18 males) met entry criteria. Mean age (+/- SD) at the time of consultation was 34.4 +/- 9.4 years (range, 3-68 years). Diagnoses included plateau iris syndrome (35 patients), iridociliary cysts (8 patients), retinopathy of prematurity (7 patients), uveitis (5 patients), isolated nanophthalmos (3 patients), relative pupillary block (2 patients), Weill-Marchesani syndrome (3 patients), and 1 patient each with Marfan syndrome, miotic-induced angle closure, persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous, and idiopathic lens subluxation. CONCLUSION: The etiology of angle closure in young persons is different from that in the older population and is typically associated with structural or developmental ocular anomalies rather than relative pupillary block. Following laser iridotomy, these eyes should be monitored for recurrent angle closure and the need for additional laser or incisional surgical intervention. PMID:12545694

  15. Using Typical Infant Development to Inform Music Therapy with Children with Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wheeler, Barbara L.; Stultz, Sylvia

    2008-01-01

    This article illustrates some ways in which observations of typically-developing infants can inform music therapy and other work with children with disabilities. The research project that is described examines typical infant development with special attention to musical relatedness and communication. Videotapes of sessions centering on musical…

  16. Development of cortical asymmetry in typically developing children and its disruption in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    PubMed

    Shaw, Philip; Lalonde, Francois; Lepage, Claude; Rabin, Cara; Eckstrand, Kristen; Sharp, Wendy; Greenstein, Deanna; Evans, Alan; Giedd, J N; Rapoport, Judith

    2009-08-01

    Just as typical development of anatomical asymmetries in the human brain has been linked with normal lateralization of motor and cognitive functions, disruption of asymmetry has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). No study has examined the development of cortical asymmetry using longitudinal neuroanatomical data. To delineate the development of cortical asymmetry in children with and without ADHD. Longitudinal study. Government Clinical Research Institute. A total of 218 children with ADHD and 358 typically developing children, from whom 1133 neuroanatomical magnetic resonance images were acquired prospectively. Cortical thickness was estimated at 40 962 homologous points in the left and right hemispheres, and the trajectory of change in asymmetry was defined using mixed-model regression. In right-handed typically developing individuals, a mean (SE) increase in the relative thickness of the right orbitofrontal and inferior frontal cortex with age of 0.011 (0.0018) mm per year (t(337) = 6.2, P < .001) was balanced against a relative left-hemispheric increase in the occipital cortical regions of 0.013 (0.0015) mm per year (t(337) = 8.1, P < .001). Age-related change in asymmetry in non-right-handed typically developing individuals was less extensive and was localized to different cortical regions. In ADHD, the posterior component of this evolving asymmetry was intact, but the prefrontal component was lost. These findings explain the way that, in typical development, the increased dimensions of the right frontal and left occipital cortical regions emerge in adulthood from the reversed pattern of childhood cortical asymmetries. Loss of the prefrontal component of this evolving asymmetry in ADHD is compatible with disruption of prefrontal function in the disorder and demonstrates the way that disruption of typical processes of asymmetry can inform our understanding of

  17. Temperament Dimensions in Stuttering and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eggers, Kurt; De Nil, Luc F.; Van den Bergh, Bea R. H.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children who stutter (CWS) and typically developing children (TDC) differ from each other on composite temperament factors or on individual temperament scales. Methods: Participants consisted of 116 age and gender-matched CWS and TDC (3.04-8.11). Temperament was assessed with a Dutch…

  18. Diffusion of Technology: Frequency of Use for Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Olson, Katherine E.; O’Brien, Marita A.; Rogers, Wendy A.; Charness, Neil

    2012-01-01

    Objectives When we think of technology-savvy consumers, older adults are typically not the first persons that come to mind. The common misconception is that older adults do not want to use or cannot use technology. But for an increasing number of older adults, this is not true (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2003). Older adults do use technologies similar to their younger counterparts, but perhaps at different usage rates. Previous research has identified that there may be subgroups of older adults, “Silver Surfers”, whose adoption patterns mimic younger adults (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2003). Much of the previous research on age-related differences in technology usage has only investigated usage broadly -- from a “used” or “not used” standpoint. The present study investigated age-related differences in overall usage of technologies, as well as frequency of technology usage (i.e., never, occasional, or frequent). Methods The data were gathered through a questionnaire from younger adults (N=430) and older adults (N=251) in three geographically separate and ethnically diverse areas of the United States. Results We found that younger adults use a greater breadth of technologies than older adults. However, age-related differences in usage and the frequency of use depend on the technology domain. Conclusion This paper presents technology usage and frequency data to highlight age-related differences and similarities. The results provide insights into older and younger adults’ technology-use patterns, which in turn provide a basis for expectations about knowledge differences. Designers and trainers can benefit from understanding experience and knowledge differences. PMID:22685360

  19. Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Radvansky, Gabriel A; Pettijohn, Kyle A; Kim, Joonsung

    2015-06-01

    Previous research on event cognition has found that walking through doorways can cause forgetting. The explanation for this finding is that there is a competition between event models, producing interference, and depressing performance. The current study explored the degree to which this might be affected by the natural aging process. This is of interest because there is some evidence that older adults have trouble coordinating sources of interference, which is what is thought to underlie this effect. This would suggest that older adults should do worse on this task. Alternatively, there is also evidence that older adults are typically not disrupted at the event level of processing per se. This would suggest that older adults should perform similarly to younger adults on this task. In the study reported here, younger and older participants navigated through a virtual environment, and memory was tested with probes either before or after a shift and for objects that were associated with the participant (i.e., just picked up). In general, both younger and older adults had memory disrupted after walking through a doorway. Importantly, the magnitude of this disruption was similar in the 2 age groups. This is consistent with the idea that processing at the event level is relatively unaffected by the natural aging process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. Recognizing the same face in different contexts: Testing within-person face recognition in typical development and in autism.

    PubMed

    Neil, Louise; Cappagli, Giulia; Karaminis, Themelis; Jenkins, Rob; Pellicano, Elizabeth

    2016-03-01

    Unfamiliar face recognition follows a particularly protracted developmental trajectory and is more likely to be atypical in children with autism than those without autism. There is a paucity of research, however, examining the ability to recognize the same face across multiple naturally varying images. Here, we investigated within-person face recognition in children with and without autism. In Experiment 1, typically developing 6- and 7-year-olds, 8- and 9-year-olds, 10- and 11-year-olds, 12- to 14-year-olds, and adults were given 40 grayscale photographs of two distinct male identities (20 of each face taken at different ages, from different angles, and in different lighting conditions) and were asked to sort them by identity. Children mistook images of the same person as images of different people, subdividing each individual into many perceived identities. Younger children divided images into more perceived identities than adults and also made more misidentification errors (placing two different identities together in the same group) than older children and adults. In Experiment 2, we used the same procedure with 32 cognitively able children with autism. Autistic children reported a similar number of identities and made similar numbers of misidentification errors to a group of typical children of similar age and ability. Fine-grained analysis using matrices revealed marginal group differences in overall performance. We suggest that the immature performance in typical and autistic children could arise from problems extracting the perceptual commonalities from different images of the same person and building stable representations of facial identity. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Development of Visuospatial Attention in Typically Developing Children

    PubMed Central

    Ickx, Gaétan; Bleyenheuft, Yannick; Hatem, Samar M.

    2017-01-01

    The aim of the present study is to investigate the development of visuospatial attention in typically developing children and to propose reference values for children for the following six visuospatial attention tests: star cancellation, Ogden figure, reading test, line bisection, proprioceptive pointing and visuo-proprioceptive pointing. Data of 159 children attending primary or secondary school in the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (Belgium) were analyzed. Results showed that the children's performance on star cancellation, Ogden figure and reading test improved until the age of 13 years, whereas their performance on proprioceptive pointing, visuo-proprioceptive pointing and line bisection was stable with increasing age. These results suggest that the execution of different types of visuospatial attention tasks are not following the same developmental trajectories. This dissociation is strengthened by the lack of correlation observed between tests assessing egocentric and allocentric visuospatial attention, except for the star cancellation test (egocentric) and the Ogden figure copy (ego- and allocentric). Reference values are proposed that may be useful to examine children with clinical disorders of visuospatial attention. PMID:29270138

  2. Syllabic patterns in typical and atypical phonological development: ultrasonographic analysis.

    PubMed

    Vassoler, Aline Mara de Oliveira; Berti, Larissa Cristina

    2018-01-01

    Objective The present study aims to compare the production of syllabic patterns of the CVC and CV types performed by Brazilian children with typical and atypical phonological development through ultrasonography of tongue. Methods Ten children (five with typical and with five atypical phonological development) recorded nine pairs of words from the syllables: CCV and CV. The images and audios were captured simultaneously by the Articulate Assistant Advanced software. The data were submitted to perceptive analysis and ultrasonographic articulatory analysis (the area between the tip and the blade of the tongue). The area measurements were submitted to one-way repeated measures ANOVA. Results ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect for the clinical condition (typical and atypical), (F (1.8) = 172.48, p> 0.000) forthe area measurements. In both syllabic patterns (CCV and CV) the atypical children showed greater values ​​of the area between the tip and the blade of the tongue. Regarding the syllabic patterns analyzed, the statistical test showed no significant effect (F (1.8)=0.19, p>0.658). Conclusion The use of a greater area of ​​the tongue by children with atypical phonological development suggests the non-differentiation of the tip and the anterior body gestures of the tongue in the production of CV and CCV.

  3. Prosodic skills in children with Down syndrome and in typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Zampini, Laura; Fasolo, Mirco; Spinelli, Maria; Zanchi, Paola; Suttora, Chiara; Salerni, Nicoletta

    2016-01-01

    Many studies have analysed language development in children with Down syndrome to understand better the nature of their linguistic delays and the reason why these delays, particularly those in the morphosyntactic area, seem greater than their cognitive impairment. However, the prosodic characteristics of language development in children with Down syndrome have been scarcely investigated. To analyse the prosodic skills of children with Down syndrome in the production of multi-word utterances. Data on the prosodic skills of these children were compared with data on typically developing children matched on developmental age and vocabulary size. Between-group differences and the relationships between prosodic and syntactic skills were investigated. The participants were nine children with Down syndrome (who ranged in chronological age from 45 to 63 months and had a mean developmental age of 30 months) and 12 30-month-old typically developing children. The children in both groups had a vocabulary size of approximately 450 words. The children's spontaneous productions were recorded during observations of mother-child play sessions. Data analyses showed that despite their morphosyntactic difficulties, children with Down syndrome were able to master some aspects of prosody in multi-word utterances. They were able to produce single intonation multi-word utterances on the same level as typically developing children. In addition, the intonation contour of their utterances was not negatively influenced by syntactic complexity, contrary to what occurred in typically developing children, although it has to be considered that the utterances produced by children with Down syndrome were less complex than those produced by children in the control group. However, children with Down syndrome appeared to be less able than typically developing children to use intonation to express the pragmatic interrogative function. The findings are discussed considering the effects of social

  4. Stimulus Overselectivity in Autism, Down Syndrome, and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dube, William V.; Farber, Rachel S.; Mueller, Marlana R.; Grant, Eileen; Lorin, Lucy; Deutsch, Curtis K.

    2016-01-01

    Stimulus overselectivity refers to maladaptive narrow attending that is a common learning problem among children with intellectual disabilities and frequently associated with autism. The present study contrasted overselectivity among groups of children with autism, Down syndrome, and typical development. The groups with autism and Down syndrome…

  5. Cognitive Development Trajectories of Very Preterm and Typically Developing Children.

    PubMed

    Mangin, Kathryn S; Horwood, L J; Woodward, Lianne J

    2017-01-01

    Cognitive impairment is common among children born very preterm (VPT), yet little is known about how this risk changes over time. To examine this issue, a regional cohort of 110 VPT (≤ 32 weeks gestation) and 113 full-term (FT) born children was prospectively assessed at ages 4, 6, 9, and 12 years using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and then Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th ed. At all ages, VPT children obtained lower scores than their FT born peers (p < .001). Growth curve modeling revealed stable cognitive trajectories across both groups. Neonatal white matter abnormalities and family socioeconomic adversity additively predicted cognitive risk. Despite some intraindividual variability, cognitive functioning of typically developing and high-risk VPT children was stable and influenced by early neurological development and family rearing context. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  6. Teaching Typically Developing Children to Promote Social Play with Their Siblings with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L.; Leaf, Justin B.; Dozier, Claudia; Sheldon, Jan B.; Sherman, James A.

    2012-01-01

    Siblings are important "peers" for children. Unfortunately, children with autism often do not play or interact often with their typically developing siblings. The purpose of this study was to teach three typically developing children (ages 4-6) skills that were likely to increase the amount and quality of social play interactions with their…

  7. Development of Novel Metaphor and Metonymy Comprehension in Typically Developing Children and Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van Herwegen, Jo; Dimitriou, Dagmara; Rundblad, Gabriella

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated the development of novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension in both typically developing (TD) children and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). Thirty-one TD children between the ages of 3;09 and 17;01 and thirty-four individuals with WS between the ages of 7;01 and 44 years old were administered a newly developed task…

  8. Face-to-Face Interference in Typical and Atypical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Riby, Deborah M.; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

    2012-01-01

    Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze…

  9. Imitation and the Social Mind: Autism and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rogers, Sally J., Ed.; Williams, Justin H. G., Ed.

    2006-01-01

    From earliest infancy, a typically developing child imitates or mirrors the facial expressions, postures and gestures, and emotional behavior of others. Where does this capacity come from, and what function does it serve? What happens when imitation is impaired? Synthesizing cutting-edge research emerging from a range of disciplines, this…

  10. SOCIAL AND NON-SOCIAL CUEING OF VISUOSPATIAL ATTENTION IN AUTISM AND TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT

    PubMed Central

    Pruett, John R.; LaMacchia, Angela; Hoertel, Sarah; Squire, Emma; McVey, Kelly; Todd, Richard D.; Constantino, John N.; Petersen, Steven E.

    2013-01-01

    Three experiments explored attention to eye gaze, which is incompletely understood in typical development and is hypothesized to be disrupted in autism. Experiment 1 (n=26 typical adults) involved covert orienting to box, arrow, and gaze cues at two probabilities and cue-target times to test whether reorienting for gaze is endogenous, exogenous, or unique; experiment 2 (total n=80: male and female children and adults) studied age and sex effects on gaze cueing. Gaze cueing appears endogenous and may strengthen in typical development. Experiment 3 tested exogenous, endogenous, and/or gaze-based orienting in 25 typical and 27 Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children. ASD children made more saccades, slowing their reaction times; however, exogenous and endogenous orienting, including gaze cueing, appear intact in ASD. PMID:20809377

  11. The effects of color cues on typically developing preschoolers' speed of locating a target line drawing: implications for augmentative and alternative communication display design.

    PubMed

    Thistle, Jennifer J; Wilkinson, Krista

    2009-08-01

    This research examined how the presence of color in relation to a target within an augmentative and alternative communication array influenced the speed with which typically developing preschoolers located a target line drawing. Fifteen children over the age of 4 years (from 4;2 [years;months] to 5;4) and 15 children under the age of 4 years (2;10-3;11) participated. Participants were asked to find a target line drawing of foods (e.g., banana and tomato) among an array of 12. The reaction time of locating the target was measured across 4 conditions in which the foreground color and the background color of the line drawing were manipulated. For all participants, line drawings featuring foreground color provided greater advantages in the speed of locating the target compared with drawings featuring only background color. Younger participants demonstrated faster reaction times when color was limited to the foreground. Clinicians should consider incorporating color in the foreground of the line drawing when constructing visual displays. Targets that contain only background color but no foreground color appear to have a negative effect on the speed with which younger children can locate a target. Further research is needed to determine the effects in children with disabilities.

  12. The Development of Metaphorical Language Comprehension in Typical Development and in Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas, Michael S. C.; Van Duuren, Mike; Purser, Harry R. M.; Mareschal, Denis; Ansari, Daniel; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

    2010-01-01

    The domain of figurative language comprehension was used to probe the developmental relation between language and cognition in typically developing individuals and individuals with Williams syndrome. Extending the work of Vosniadou and Ortony, the emergence of nonliteral similarity and category knowledge was investigated in 117 typically…

  13. Metapragmatic explicitation ability in children with typical language development: development and validation of a novel clinical assessment.

    PubMed

    Collins, Anna; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine

    2014-01-01

    Speech-language practitioners recognise the importance of metapragmatic (MP) ability (the ability to explicitly reflect on pragmatic rules) in therapy for children with pragmatic and social communication difficulties. There is inconclusive evidence in the literature regarding both the development of metapragmatic ability in children with typical language and the expected levels of explicitation (reflection on pragmatic behaviours) in children's metapragmatic descriptions. The main purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability of a novel task of metapragmatic awareness (the Assessment of Metapragmatics or AMP) and to investigate typical developmental trends of metapragmatic ability and metapragmatic explicitation using the AMP task. Analysis of pooled data from 40 children with typical language development aged between six and eleven years and 48 children with communication impairments indicated that the AMP task had satisfactory internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. For children with typical language development, there was no relationship between gender and metapragmatic ability as measured by AMP. There was a linear relationship between age and AMP task scores and between age and explicitation. The scoring system used in the AMP task was sensitive to age-related changes in metapragmatic ability in a normative sample. The sophistication of metapragmatic awareness (explicitation) also increased with age. At age six years, children demonstrated metapragmatic awareness in their responses to 74% of AMP stimuli items; this increased to 95% of AMP items at ages 10-11 years. The AMP is a reliable measure of development in MP explicitation for children with satisfactory face validity in terms of acceptability to communication professionals and to child participants. From age six, children have some awareness of pragmatic acts and can identify and relate linguistic cues or pragmatic rules in atypical interactions of the type depicted in the AMP. The

  14. Distinct neuropsychological subgroups in typically developing youth inform heterogeneity in children with ADHD

    PubMed Central

    Fair, Damien A.; Bathula, Deepti; Nikolas, Molly A.; Nigg, Joel T.

    2012-01-01

    Research and clinical investigations in psychiatry largely rely on the de facto assumption that the diagnostic categories identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) represent homogeneous syndromes. However, the mechanistic heterogeneity that potentially underlies the existing classification scheme might limit discovery of etiology for most developmental psychiatric disorders. Another, perhaps less palpable, reality may also be interfering with progress—heterogeneity in typically developing populations. In this report we attempt to clarify neuropsychological heterogeneity in a large dataset of typically developing youth and youth with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using graph theory and community detection. We sought to determine whether data-driven neuropsychological subtypes could be discerned in children with and without the disorder. Because individual classification is the sine qua non for eventual clinical translation, we also apply support vector machine-based multivariate pattern analysis to identify how well ADHD status in individual children can be identified as defined by the community detection delineated subtypes. The analysis yielded several unique, but similar subtypes across both populations. Just as importantly, comparing typically developing children with ADHD children within each of these distinct subgroups increased diagnostic accuracy. Two important principles were identified that have the potential to advance our understanding of typical development and developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. The first tenet suggests that typically developing children can be classified into distinct neuropsychological subgroups with high precision. The second tenet proposes that some of the heterogeneity in individuals with ADHD might be “nested” in this normal variation. PMID:22474392

  15. Development of upper body coordination during sitting in typically developing infants

    PubMed Central

    KYVELIDOU, ANASTASIA; STUBERG, WAYNE A.; HARBOURNE, REGINA T.; DEFFEYES, JOAN E.; BLANKE, DANIEL; STERGIOU, NICHOLAS

    2009-01-01

    Pediatric Research Articles Ahead of Print contains articles in unedited manuscript form that have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. As a service to our readers, we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final definitive form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered, which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Our goal was to determine how the actions of the thorax and the pelvis are organized and coordinated to achieve independent sitting posture in typically developing infants. The participants were ten typically developing infants that were evaluated longitudinally from first onset of sitting until sitting independence. Each infant underwent nine testing sessions. The first session included motor evaluation with the Peabody test. The other eight sessions occurred over a period of four months where sitting behavior was evaluated by angular kinematics of the thorax and the pelvis. A physical therapist evaluated sitting behavior in each session and categorized it according to five stages. The phasing relationship of the thorax and the pelvis was calculated and evaluated longitudinally using a one-way ANOVA. With development, the infants progressed from an in-phase (moving in the same direction) to an out-of-phase (moving in an opposite direction) coordinative relationship between the thorax and the pelvis segments. This change was significant for both the sagittal and frontal planes of motion. Clinically, this relationship is important because it provides a method to quantify infant sitting postural development, and can be used to assess efficacy of early interventions for pediatric populations with developmental motor delays. PMID:19190546

  16. Typical and atypical brain development: a review of neuroimaging studies

    PubMed Central

    Dennis, Emily L.; Thompson, Paul M.

    2013-01-01

    In the course of development, the brain undergoes a remarkable process of restructuring as it adapts to the environment and becomes more efficient in processing information. A variety of brain imaging methods can be used to probe how anatomy, connectivity, and function change in the developing brain. Here we review recent discoveries regarding these brain changes in both typically developing individuals and individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. We begin with typical development, summarizing research on changes in regional brain volume and tissue density, cortical thickness, white matter integrity, and functional connectivity. Space limits preclude the coverage of all neurodevelopmental disorders; instead, we cover a representative selection of studies examining neural correlates of autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Fragile X, 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, and Turner syndrome. Where possible, we focus on studies that identify an age by diagnosis interaction, suggesting an altered developmental trajectory. The studies we review generally cover the developmental period from infancy to early adulthood. Great progress has been made over the last 20 years in mapping how the brain matures with MR technology. With ever-improving technology, we expect this progress to accelerate, offering a deeper understanding of brain development, and more effective interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders. PMID:24174907

  17. Typical and atypical brain development: a review of neuroimaging studies.

    PubMed

    Dennis, Emily L; Thompson, Paul M

    2013-09-01

    In the course of development, the brain undergoes a remarkable process of restructuring as it adapts to the environment and becomes more efficient in processing information. A variety of brain imaging methods can be used to probe how anatomy, connectivity, and function change in the developing brain. Here we review recent discoveries regarding these brain changes in both typically developing individuals and individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. We begin with typical development, summarizing research on changes in regional brain volume and tissue density, cortical thickness, white matter integrity, and functional connectivity. Space limits preclude the coverage of all neurodevelopmental disorders; instead, we cover a representative selection of studies examining neural correlates of autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Fragile X, 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, and Turner syndrome. Where possible, we focus on studies that identify an age by diagnosis interaction, suggesting an altered developmental trajectory. The studies we review generally cover the developmental period from infancy to early adulthood. Great progress has been made over the last 20 years in mapping how the brain matures with MR technology. With ever-improving technology, we expect this progress to accelerate, offering a deeper understanding of brain development, and more effective interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders.

  18. Strategies for continuing professional development among younger, middle-aged, and older nurses: a biographical approach.

    PubMed

    Pool, Inge A; Poell, Rob F; Berings, Marjolein G M C; ten Cate, Olle

    2015-05-01

    A nursing career can last for more than 40 years, during which continuing professional development is essential. Nurses participate in a variety of learning activities that correspond with their developmental motives. Lifespan psychology shows that work-related motives change with age, leading to the expectation that motives for continuing professional development also change. Nevertheless, little is known about nurses' continuing professional development strategies in different age groups. To explore continuing professional development strategies among younger, middle-aged, and older nurses. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, from a biographical perspective. Data were analysed using a vertical process aimed at creating individual learning biographies, and a horizontal process directed at discovering differences and similarities between age groups. Twenty-one nurses in three age groups from general and academic hospitals in the Netherlands. In all age groups, daily work was an important trigger for professional development on the ward. Performing extra or new tasks appeared to be an additional trigger for undertaking learning activities external to the ward. Learning experiences in nurses' private lives also contributed to their continuing professional development. Besides these similarities, the data revealed differences in career stages and private lives, which appeared to be related to differences in continuing professional development strategy; 'gaining experience and building a career' held particularly true among younger nurses, 'work-life balance' and 'keeping work interesting and varied' to middle-aged nurses, and 'consistency at work' to older nurses. Professional development strategies can aim at performing daily patient care, extra tasks and other roles. Age differences in these strategies appear to relate to tenure, perspectives on the future, and situations at home. These insights could help hospitals to orientate continuing

  19. Irrational ideas. Older vs. younger inpatients.

    PubMed

    Hyer, L A; Jacobsen, R; Harrison, W R

    1985-04-01

    The relationship to age of irrational beliefs among psychiatric inpatients has not been explored using the rational-emotive model. This study addressed the following two questions: 1) Do older and younger psychiatric inpatients differ in irrational beliefs? 2) Do older depressives differ from older nondepressives in irrational beliefs? Upon admission to a large medical center, 58 younger (less than 45 years old) and 54 older (greater than 55 years old) subjects were assessed on a battery of psychological tests, including the Idea Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. Results showed that older and younger inpatients did not differ on irrational beliefs. Results also showed that older and younger groups of depressives did not differ on the irrationality scores. When a correlational analysis was used, depression was related to irrationality within the older group but not within the younger group.

  20. Review: typically-developing students' views and experiences of inclusive education.

    PubMed

    Bates, Helen; McCafferty, Aileen; Quayle, Ethel; McKenzie, Karen

    2015-01-01

    The present review aimed to summarize and critique existing qualitative studies that have examined typically-developing students' views of inclusive education (i.e. the policy of teaching students with special educational needs in mainstream settings). Guidelines from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination were followed, outlining the criteria by which journal articles were identified and critically appraised. Narrative Synthesis was used to summarize findings across studies. Fourteen studies met the review's inclusion criteria and were subjected to quality assessment. Analysis revealed that studies were of variable quality: three were of "good" methodological quality, seven of "medium" quality, and four of "poor" quality. With respect to findings, three overarching themes emerged: students expressed mostly negative attitudes towards peers with disabilities; were confused by the principles and practices of inclusive education; and made a number of recommendations for improving its future provision. A vital determinant of the success of inclusive education is the extent to which it is embraced by typically-developing students. Of concern, this review highlights that students tend not to understand inclusive education, and that this can breed hostility towards it. More qualitative research of high methodological quality is needed in this area. Implications for Rehabilitation Typically-developing students are key to the successful implementation of inclusive education. This review shows that most tend not to understand it, and can react by engaging in avoidance and/or targeted bullying of peers who receive additional support. Schools urgently need to provide teaching about inclusive education, and increase opportunities for contact between students who do and do not receive support (e.g. cooperative learning).

  1. Conversational Profiles of Children with ADHD, SLI and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Redmond, Sean M.

    2004-01-01

    Conversational indices of language impairment were used to investigate similarities and differences among children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). Utterance formulation measures (per cent words mazed and average number of words per…

  2. Visual Search in Typically Developing Toddlers and Toddlers with Fragile X or Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scerif, Gaia; Cornish, Kim; Wilding, John; Driver, Jon; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

    2004-01-01

    Visual selective attention is the ability to attend to relevant visual information and ignore irrelevant stimuli. Little is known about its typical and atypical development in early childhood. Experiment 1 investigates typically developing toddlers' visual search for multiple targets on a touch-screen. Time to hit a target, distance between…

  3. Older and Younger Adults’ Accuracy in Discerning Health and Competence in Older and Younger Faces

    PubMed Central

    Zebrowitz, Leslie A.; Franklin, Robert G.; Boshyan, Jasmine; Luevano, Victor; Agrigoroaei, Stefan; Milosavljevic, Bosiljka; Lachman, Margie E.

    2015-01-01

    We examined older and younger adults’ accuracy judging the health and competence of faces. Accuracy differed significantly from chance and varied with face age but not rater age. Health ratings were more accurate for older than younger faces, with the reverse for competence ratings. Accuracy was greater for low attractive younger faces, but not for low attractive older faces. Greater accuracy judging older faces’ health was paralleled by greater validity of attractiveness and looking older as predictors of their health. Greater accuracy judging younger faces’ competence was paralleled by greater validity of attractiveness and a positive expression as predictors of their competence. Although the ability to recognize variations in health and cognitive ability is preserved in older adulthood, the effects of face age on accuracy and the different effects of attractiveness across face age may alter social interactions across the life span. PMID:25244467

  4. Verbal communication skills in typical language development: a case series.

    PubMed

    Abe, Camila Mayumi; Bretanha, Andreza Carolina; Bozza, Amanda; Ferraro, Gyovanna Junya Klinke; Lopes-Herrera, Simone Aparecida

    2013-01-01

    The aim of the current study was to investigate verbal communication skills in children with typical language development and ages between 6 and 8 years. Participants were 10 children of both genders in this age range without language alterations. A 30-minute video of each child's interaction with an adult (father and/or mother) was recorded, fully transcribed, and analyzed by two trained researchers in order to determine reliability. The recordings were analyzed according to a protocol that categorizes verbal communicative abilities, including dialogic, regulatory, narrative-discursive, and non-interactive skills. The frequency of use of each category of verbal communicative ability was analyzed (in percentage) for each subject. All subjects used more dialogical and regulatory skills, followed by narrative-discursive and non-interactive skills. This suggests that children in this age range are committed to continue dialog, which shows that children with typical language development have more dialogic interactions during spontaneous interactions with a familiar adult.

  5. Physiological reactivity to faces via live and video-mediated communication in typical and atypical development.

    PubMed

    Riby, Deborah M; Whittle, Lisa; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth

    2012-01-01

    The human face is a powerful elicitor of emotion, which induces autonomic nervous system responses. In this study, we explored physiological arousal and reactivity to affective facial displays shown in person and through video-mediated communication. We compared measures of physiological arousal and reactivity in typically developing individuals and those with the developmental disorders Williams syndrome (WS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants attended to facial displays of happy, sad, and neutral expressions via live and video-mediated communication. Skin conductance level (SCL) indicated that live faces, but not video-mediated faces, increased arousal, especially for typically developing individuals and those with WS. There was less increase of SCL, and physiological reactivity was comparable for live and video-mediated faces in ASD. In typical development and WS, physiological reactivity was greater for live than for video-mediated communication. Individuals with WS showed lower SCL than typically developing individuals, suggesting possible hypoarousal in this group, even though they showed an increase in arousal for faces. The results are discussed in terms of the use of video-mediated communication with typically and atypically developing individuals and atypicalities of physiological arousal across neurodevelopmental disorder groups.

  6. Pragmatic Language Development in Language Impaired and Typically Developing Children: Incorrect Answers in Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryder, Nuala; Leinonen, Eeva

    2014-01-01

    This study focused on young children's incorrect answers to pragmatically demanding questions. Children with specific language impairment (SLI), including a subgroup with pragmatic language difficulties (PLD) and typically developing children answered questions targeting implicatures, based on a storybook and short verbal scenarios.…

  7. Typical School Personnel Developing and Implementing Basic Behavior Support Plans

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strickland-Cohen, M. Kathleen; Horner, Robert H.

    2015-01-01

    We evaluated the ability of typical school personnel with basic behavioral training to develop and implement function-based supports for students with mild to moderate problem behaviors. Descriptive results indicated that following four 1-hr training sessions, 13 participants were able to (a) identify interventions that were and were not…

  8. The Effects of Prior Exposure on Face Processing in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Heisz, Jennifer J.; Ryan, Jennifer D.

    2011-01-01

    Older adults differ from their younger counterparts in the way they view faces. We assessed whether older adults can use past experience to mitigate these typical face-processing differences; that is, we examined whether there are age-related differences in the use of memory to support current processing. Eye movements of older and younger adults were monitored as they viewed faces that varied in the type/amount of prior exposure. Prior exposure was manipulated by including famous and novel faces, and by presenting faces up to five times. We expected that older adults may have difficulty quickly establishing new representations to aid in the processing of recently presented faces, but would be able to invoke face representations that have been stored in memory long ago to aid in the processing of famous faces. Indeed, younger adults displayed effects of recent exposure with a decrease in the total fixations to the faces and a gradual increase in the proportion of fixations to the eyes. These effects of recent exposure were largely absent in older adults. In contrast, the effect of fame, revealed by a subtle increase in fixations to the inner features of famous compared to non-famous faces, was similar for younger and older adults. Our results suggest that older adults’ current processing can benefit from lifetime experience, however the full benefit of recent experience on face processing is not realized in older adults. PMID:22007169

  9. Memory for sequences of events impaired in typical aging.

    PubMed

    Allen, Timothy A; Morris, Andrea M; Stark, Shauna M; Fortin, Norbert J; Stark, Craig E L

    2015-03-01

    Typical aging is associated with diminished episodic memory performance. To improve our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying this age-related memory deficit, we previously developed an integrated, cross-species approach to link converging evidence from human and animal research. This novel approach focuses on the ability to remember sequences of events, an important feature of episodic memory. Unlike existing paradigms, this task is nonspatial, nonverbal, and can be used to isolate different cognitive processes that may be differentially affected in aging. Here, we used this task to make a comprehensive comparison of sequence memory performance between younger (18-22 yr) and older adults (62-86 yr). Specifically, participants viewed repeated sequences of six colored, fractal images and indicated whether each item was presented "in sequence" or "out of sequence." Several out of sequence probe trials were used to provide a detailed assessment of sequence memory, including: (i) repeating an item from earlier in the sequence ("Repeats"; e.g., AB A: DEF), (ii) skipping ahead in the sequence ("Skips"; e.g., AB D: DEF), and (iii) inserting an item from a different sequence into the same ordinal position ("Ordinal Transfers"; e.g., AB 3: DEF). We found that older adults performed as well as younger controls when tested on well-known and predictable sequences, but were severely impaired when tested using novel sequences. Importantly, overall sequence memory performance in older adults steadily declined with age, a decline not detected with other measures (RAVLT or BPS-O). We further characterized this deficit by showing that performance of older adults was severely impaired on specific probe trials that required detailed knowledge of the sequence (Skips and Ordinal Transfers), and was associated with a shift in their underlying mnemonic representation of the sequences. Collectively, these findings provide unambiguous evidence that the capacity to remember

  10. Memory for sequences of events impaired in typical aging

    PubMed Central

    Allen, Timothy A.; Morris, Andrea M.; Stark, Shauna M.; Fortin, Norbert J.

    2015-01-01

    Typical aging is associated with diminished episodic memory performance. To improve our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying this age-related memory deficit, we previously developed an integrated, cross-species approach to link converging evidence from human and animal research. This novel approach focuses on the ability to remember sequences of events, an important feature of episodic memory. Unlike existing paradigms, this task is nonspatial, nonverbal, and can be used to isolate different cognitive processes that may be differentially affected in aging. Here, we used this task to make a comprehensive comparison of sequence memory performance between younger (18–22 yr) and older adults (62–86 yr). Specifically, participants viewed repeated sequences of six colored, fractal images and indicated whether each item was presented “in sequence” or “out of sequence.” Several out of sequence probe trials were used to provide a detailed assessment of sequence memory, including: (i) repeating an item from earlier in the sequence (“Repeats”; e.g., ABADEF), (ii) skipping ahead in the sequence (“Skips”; e.g., ABDDEF), and (iii) inserting an item from a different sequence into the same ordinal position (“Ordinal Transfers”; e.g., AB3DEF). We found that older adults performed as well as younger controls when tested on well-known and predictable sequences, but were severely impaired when tested using novel sequences. Importantly, overall sequence memory performance in older adults steadily declined with age, a decline not detected with other measures (RAVLT or BPS-O). We further characterized this deficit by showing that performance of older adults was severely impaired on specific probe trials that required detailed knowledge of the sequence (Skips and Ordinal Transfers), and was associated with a shift in their underlying mnemonic representation of the sequences. Collectively, these findings provide unambiguous evidence that the

  11. Pregnant and parenting adolescents and their younger sisters: the influence of relationship qualities for younger sister outcomes.

    PubMed

    East, P L; Shi, C R

    1997-04-01

    On the basis of social modeling theory and a sibling interaction hypothesis, it was hypothesized that specific relationship qualities between a pregnant or parenting teen and her younger sister would be associated with permissive younger sister outcomes, such as permissive childbearing attitudes and permissive sexual behavior. Results indicated that negative relationship qualities, such as rivalry, competition, and conflict, were more closely related to younger sisters engaging in problem delinquent-like behavior and sexual behavior than were positive relationship qualities, such as warmth and closeness. Additionally, a shared friendship network with the older sister was found to be associated with extensive younger sister problem behavior and sexual behavior. Three potential explanatory processes are discussed.

  12. The effects of value on context-item associative memory in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Hennessee, Joseph P; Knowlton, Barbara J; Castel, Alan D

    2018-02-01

    Valuable items are often remembered better than items that are less valuable by both older and younger adults, but older adults typically show deficits in binding. Here, we examine whether value affects the quality of recognition memory and the binding of incidental details to valuable items. In Experiment 1, participants learned English words each associated with a point-value they earned for correct recognition with the goal of maximizing their score. In Experiment 2, value was manipulated by presenting items that were either congruent or incongruent with an imagined state of physiological need (e.g., hunger). In Experiment 1, point-value was associated with enhanced recollection in both age groups. Memory for the color associated with the word was in fact reduced for high-value recollected items compared with low-value recollected items, suggesting value selectively enhances binding of task-relevant details. In Experiment 2, memory for learned images was enhanced by value in both age groups. However, value differentially enhanced binding of an imagined context to the item in younger and older adults, with a strong trend for increased binding in younger adults only. These findings suggest that value enhances episodic encoding in both older and younger adults but that binding of associated details may be reduced for valuable items compared to less valuable items, particularly in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Comparing Levels of Mastery Motivation in Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and Typically Developing Children.

    PubMed

    Salavati, Mahyar; Vameghi, Roshanak; Hosseini, Seyed Ali; Saeedi, Ahmad; Gharib, Masoud

    2018-02-01

    The present study aimed to compare motivation in school-age children with CP and typically developing children. 229 parents of children with cerebral palsy and 212 parents of typically developing children participated in the present cross sectional study and completed demographic and DMQ18 forms. The rest of information was measured by an occupational therapist. Average age was equal to 127.12±24.56 months for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 128.08±15.90 for typically developing children. Independent t-test used to compare two groups; and Pearson correlation coefficient by SPSS software applied to study correlation with other factors. There were differences between DMQ subscales of CP and typically developing groups in terms of all subscales ( P <0.05). The lowest motivation scores of subscales obtained in gross motor persistence (2.4870±.81047) and cognitive-oriented persistence (2.8529±.84223) in children with CP. Motivation was correlated with Gross Motor function Classification System (r= -0.831, P<0.001), Manual ability classification system (r=-0.782, P<0.001) and cognitive impairment (r=-0.161, P<0.05). Children with CP had lower mastery motivation than typically developing children. Rehabilitation efforts should take to enhance motivation, so that children felt empowered to do tasks or practices.

  14. Social and Non-Social Cueing of Visuospatial Attention in Autism and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pruett, John R.; LaMacchia, Angela; Hoertel, Sarah; Squire, Emma; McVey, Kelly; Todd, Richard D.; Constantino, John N.; Petersen, Steven E.

    2011-01-01

    Three experiments explored attention to eye gaze, which is incompletely understood in typical development and is hypothesized to be disrupted in autism. Experiment 1 (n = 26 typical adults) involved covert orienting to box, arrow, and gaze cues at two probabilities and cue-target times to test whether reorienting for gaze is endogenous, exogenous,…

  15. Lung cancer in younger patients.

    PubMed

    Abbasowa, Leda; Madsen, Poul Henning

    2016-07-01

    Lung cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related death. The incidence increases with age and the occurrence in young patients is relatively low. The clinicopathological features of lung cancer in younger patients have not been fully explored previously. To assess the age differences in the clinical characteristics of lung cancer, we conducted a retrospective analysis comparing young patients ≤ 65 years of age with an elderly group > 65 years of age. Among 1,232 patients evaluated due to suspicion of lung cancer in our fast-track setting from January-December 2013, 312 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients were included. Patients ≤ 65 years had a significantly higher representation of females (p = 0.0021), more frequent familial cancer aggregation (p = 0.028) and a lower incidence of squamous cell carcinoma (p = 0.0133). When excluding pure carcinoid tumours, a significantly higher proportion of the younger patients presented with advanced stage disease (p = 0.0392). Combined modality therapy was more common in younger patients (p = 0.0009), while chemotherapy appeared less prevalent among the elderly (p = 0.0015). Lung cancer in younger patients comprises a distinct clinicopathological entity with more frequent advanced stage disease and a significantly greater proportion with a family history of cancer. Implementing genetic background assessments and considering lung cancer as a possible diagnosis in younger, symptomatic patients, is of paramount importance. none. The study was approved by the -Danish Data Protection Agency.

  16. Migraine in a pediatric population: a clinical study in children younger than 7 years of age.

    PubMed

    Raieli, Vincenzo; Pitino, Renata; Giordano, Giuliana; Spitalieri, Chiara; Consolo, Flavia; Puma, Domenico; Santangelo, Giuseppe; Vanadia, Francesca; D'Amelio, Marco

    2015-06-01

    Migraines in children younger than 7 years of age have received limited attention in the published literature. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of migraine phenotypes in children younger than 7 years, and to compare them with migraines in children older than 7 years of age. We reviewed all standard clinical files, collected over 4 years, related to children with a diagnosis of primary headache. We included all children younger than 7 years diagnosed with migraine in our study. A total of 374 children (188 males, 186 females) were affected by migraine with/without aura: 40 of these patients (10.7%; 20 males, 20 females; mean age 5y 7mo, SD 1y 2mo) where younger than 7 years old. The frequencies of the main migraine features in the younger age group were similar to those of children older than 7 years, with the exception of a shorter duration of migraine and reduced frequency of attacks. In children younger than 7 years of age, the clinical phenotype of migraine is similar to that seen in older children. We propose that there is a general genetic migraine susceptibility that, in the presence of activating environmental factors, may induce typical attacks of migraine in individuals already predisposed to migraine attacks. Therefore, different modules induce different clinical features within the different age groups, but there is no difference in the frequencies of clinical phenotypes between the two age groups. © 2015 Mac Keith Press.

  17. Relationship Between Sensory Processing and Pretend Play in Typically Developing Children.

    PubMed

    Roberts, Tara; Stagnitti, Karen; Brown, Ted; Bhopti, Anoo

    We sought to investigate the relationship between sensory processing and pretend play in typically developing children. Forty-two typically developing children ages 5-7 yr were assessed with the Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment and the Home and Main Classroom forms of the Sensory Processing Measure (SPM). There were significant relationships between elaborate pretend play and body awareness (r = .62, p < .01), balance (r = .42, p < .01), and touch (r = .47, p < .01). Object substitution was associated with social participation (r = .42, p < .05). The sensory processing factors (from the SPM)-namely, Body Awareness, Balance, Touch, and Social Participation-were predictive of the quality of children's engagement in pretend play in the home environment. The results indicated that, to engage and participate in play, children are involving sensory processing abilities, especially body awareness, balance, and touch. Copyright © 2018 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

  18. Motor Skill Performance by Low SES Preschool and Typically Developing Children on the PDMS-2

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Ting; Hoffmann, Chelsea; Hamilton, Michelle

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to compare the motor skill performance of preschool children from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds to their age matched typically developing peers using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 (PDMS-2). Sixty-eight children (34 low SES and 34 typically developing; ages 3-5) performed the PDMS-2. Standard scores…

  19. Precursors to Language Development in Typically and Atypically Developing Infants and Toddlers: The Importance of Embracing Complexity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    D'Souza, Dean; D'Souza, Hana; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

    2017-01-01

    In order to understand how language abilities emerge in typically and atypically developing infants and toddlers, it is important to embrace complexity in development. In this paper, we describe evidence that early language development is an experience-dependent process, shaped by diverse, interconnected, interdependent developmental mechanisms,…

  20. The Production of Figurative Language in Typically Developing Children and Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Naylor, Lauren; Van Herwegen, Jo

    2012-01-01

    The current study investigated the development of figurative language production, including different types of figurative expressions, during a fictional narrative in 20 typically developing (TD) children and 20 children with Williams syndrome (WS) aged 7-18 years old. In contrast to previous studies, developmental trajectories showed that (1) the…

  1. Sustained Attention and Social Competence in Typically Developing Preschool-Aged Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murphy, Laura M. Bennett; Laurie-Rose, Cynthia; Brinkman, Tara M.; McNamara, Kelly A.

    2007-01-01

    The current study examines the relationship between sustained attention and social competence in preschool children. While studies demonstrate that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit poor social competence, less is known about typically developing children. Since children with ADHD have associated behavior…

  2. Lipreading Ability and Its Cognitive Correlates in Typically Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heikkilä, Jenni; Lonka, Eila; Ahola, Sanna; Meronen, Auli; Tiippana, Kaisa

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Lipreading and its cognitive correlates were studied in school-age children with typical language development and delayed language development due to specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Forty-two children with typical language development and 20 children with SLI were tested by using a word-level lipreading test and an extensive…

  3. Young friendship in HFASD and typical development: friend versus non-friend comparisons.

    PubMed

    Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit; Agam-Ben-Artzi, Galit

    2014-07-01

    This study conducted comparative assessment of friendship in preschoolers with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD, n = 29) versus preschoolers with typical development (n = 30), focusing on interactions with friends versus acquaintances. Groups were matched on SES, verbal/nonverbal MA, IQ, and CA. Multidimensional assessments included: mothers' and teachers' reports about friends' and friendship characteristics and observed individual and dyadic behaviors throughout interactions with friends versus non-friends during construction, drawing, and free-play situations. Findings revealed group differences in peer interaction favoring the typical development group, thus supporting the neuropsychological profile of HFASD. However, both groups' interactions with friends surpassed interactions with acquaintances on several key socio-communicative and intersubjective capabilities, thus suggesting that friendship may contribute to enhancement and practice of social interaction in HFASD.

  4. Pruning or tuning? Maturational profiles of face specialization during typical development.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Xun; Bhatt, Ramesh S; Joseph, Jane E

    2016-06-01

    Face processing undergoes significant developmental change with age. Two kinds of developmental changes in face specialization were examined in this study: specialized maturation, or the continued tuning of a region to faces but little change in the tuning to other categories; and competitive interactions, or the continued tuning to faces accompanied by decreased tuning to nonfaces (i.e., pruning). Using fMRI, in regions where adults showed a face preference, a face- and object-specialization index were computed for younger children (5-8 years), older children (9-12 years) and adults (18-45 years). The specialization index was scaled to each subject's maximum activation magnitude in each region to control for overall age differences in the activation level. Although no regions showed significant face specialization in the younger age group, regions strongly associated with social cognition (e.g., right posterior superior temporal sulcus, right inferior orbital cortex) showed specialized maturation, in which tuning to faces increased with age but there was no pruning of nonface responses. Conversely, regions that are associated with more basic perceptual processing or motor mirroring (right middle temporal cortex, right inferior occipital cortex, right inferior frontal opercular cortex) showed competitive interactions in which tuning to faces was accompanied by pruning of object responses with age. The overall findings suggest that cortical maturation for face processing is regional-specific and involves both increased tuning to faces and diminished response to nonfaces. Regions that show competitive interactions likely support a more generalized function that is co-opted for face processing with development, whereas regions that show specialized maturation increase their tuning to faces, potentially in an activity-dependent, experience-driven manner.

  5. The Representational Status of Pretence: Evidence from Typical Development and Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jarrold, Christopher; Mansergh, Ruth; Whiting, Claire

    2010-01-01

    The question of whether understanding pretend play requires meta-representational skill was examined among typically developing children and individuals with autism. Participants were presented with closely equated true and false pretence trials in which they had to judge a protagonist's pretend reading of a situation, which either matched or…

  6. Gastrointestinal Problems in Children with Autism, Developmental Delays or Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chaidez, Virginia; Hansen, Robin L.; Hertz-Picciotto, Irva

    2014-01-01

    To compare gastrointestinal (GI) problems among children with: (1) autism spectrum disorder (ASD), (2) developmental delay (DD) and (3) typical development (TD), GI symptom frequencies were obtained for 960 children from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment (CHARGE) study. We also examined scores on five Aberrant Behavior…

  7. Development of Pointing Gestures in Children with Typical and Delayed Language Acquisition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lüke, Carina; Ritterfeld, Ute; Grimminger, Angela; Liszkowski, Ulf; Rohlfing, Katharina J.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: This longitudinal study compared the development of hand and index-finger pointing in children with typical language development (TD) and children with language delay (LD). First, we examined whether the number and the form of pointing gestures during the second year of life are potential indicators of later LD. Second, we analyzed the…

  8. Play preference of children with ADHD and typically developing children in Brazil: a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Pfeifer, Luzia Iara; Terra, Lauana Nogueira; dos Santos, Jair Lício Ferreira; Stagnitti, Karen Ellen; Panúncio-Pinto, Maria Paula

    2011-12-01

    Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been reported to have play deficits, which can cause problems in occupational development. The aim of this paper was to report research findings on children with ADHD and typically developing children in relation to preference of play partners, play places, toys and type of play. Thirty-two school aged children from low socioeconomic status were divided into two groups. One group of 16 children with ADHD were matched with 16 typically developing children. There were no significant differences between the two groups in relation to play partners, with classmates being the most frequent play partner for both groups. There were significant differences between the two groups in preferred place to play. Children with ADHD preferred to play in school and typically developing children preferred to play on the street. There were significant differences in relation to toys and type of play engaged in with children with ADHD preferring educational materials and typically developing children preferring electronic games. These findings add to knowledge of Brazilian children with ADHD and their play preferences. Comparisons are made with research with Australian children with and without ADHD. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

  9. Maternal and paternal pragmatic speech directed to young children with Down syndrome and typical development

    PubMed Central

    de Falco, Simona; Venuti, Paola; Esposito, Gianluca; Bornstein, Marc H.

    2011-01-01

    The aim of this study was to compare functional features of maternal and paternal speech directed to children with Down syndrome and developmental age-matched typically developing children. Altogether 88 parents (44 mothers and 44 fathers) and their 44 young children (22 children with Down syndrome and 22 typically developing children) participated. Parents’ speech directed to children was obtained through observation of naturalistic parent–child dyadic interactions. Verbatim transcripts of maternal and paternal language were categorized in terms of the primary function of each speech unit. Parents (both mothers and fathers) of children with Down syndrome used more affect-salient speech compared to parents of typically developing children. Although parents used the same amounts of information-salient speech, parents of children with Down syndrome used more direct statements and asked fewer questions than did parents of typically developing children. Concerning parent gender, in both groups mothers used more language than fathers and specifically more descriptions. These findings held controlling for child age and MLU and family SES. This study highlights strengths and weaknesses of parental communication to children with Down syndrome and helps to identify areas of potential improvement through intervention. PMID:21215458

  10. Maternal and paternal pragmatic speech directed to young children with Down syndrome and typical development.

    PubMed

    de Falco, Simona; Venuti, Paola; Esposito, Gianluca; Bornstein, Marc H

    2011-02-01

    The aim of this study was to compare functional features of maternal and paternal speech directed to children with Down syndrome and developmental age-matched typically developing children. Altogether 88 parents (44 mothers and 44 fathers) and their 44 young children (22 children with Down syndrome and 22 typically developing children) participated. Parents' speech directed to children was obtained through observation of naturalistic parent-child dyadic interactions. Verbatim transcripts of maternal and paternal language were categorized in terms of the primary function of each speech unit. Parents (both mothers and fathers) of children with Down syndrome used more affect-salient speech compared to parents of typically developing children. Although parents used the same amounts of information-salient speech, parents of children with Down syndrome used more direct statements and asked fewer questions than did parents of typically developing children. Concerning parent gender, in both groups mothers used more language than fathers and specifically more descriptions. These findings held controlling for child age and MLU and family SES. This study highlights strengths and weaknesses of parental communication to children with Down syndrome and helps to identify areas of potential improvement through intervention. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Factorial Temperament Structure in Stuttering, Voice-Disordered, and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eggers, Kurt; De Nil, Luc F.; Van den Bergh, Bea R. H.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the underlying temperamental structure of the Dutch Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; B. Van den Bergh & M. Ackx, 2003) was identical for children who stutter (CWS), typically developing children (TDC), and children with vocal nodules (CWVN). Method: A principal axis factor…

  12. Teaching Perspective-Taking Skills to Typically Developing Children through Derived Relational Responding

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heagle, Amie I.; Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne

    2006-01-01

    Perspective-taking is an ability that requires a child to emit a selection response of informational states in himself or herself and in others. This study used an extended version of the Barnes-Holmes protocol developed in a series of studies by McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, and Barnes-Holmes (2004) to teach typically developing children between the…

  13. Typical and Atypical (Cerebral Palsy) Development of Unimanual and Bimanual Grasp Planning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Janssen, Loes; Steenbergen, Bert

    2011-01-01

    In the present study we tested 13 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 24 typically developing children (7-12 years old) in a unimanual and bimanual motor planning task. We focused on two research questions: (1) How does motor planning develop in children with and without CP? and (2) Is motor planning facilitated when the task is performed with…

  14. [Research on developping the spectral dataset for Dunhuang typical colors based on color constancy].

    PubMed

    Liu, Qiang; Wan, Xiao-Xia; Liu, Zhen; Li, Chan; Liang, Jin-Xing

    2013-11-01

    The present paper aims at developping a method to reasonably set up the typical spectral color dataset for different kinds of Chinese cultural heritage in color rendering process. The world famous wall paintings dating from more than 1700 years ago in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes was taken as typical case in this research. In order to maintain the color constancy during the color rendering workflow of Dunhuang culture relics, a chromatic adaptation based method for developping the spectral dataset of typical colors for those wall paintings was proposed from the view point of human vision perception ability. Under the help and guidance of researchers in the art-research institution and protection-research institution of Dunhuang Academy and according to the existing research achievement of Dunhuang Research in the past years, 48 typical known Dunhuang pigments were chosen and 240 representative color samples were made with reflective spectral ranging from 360 to 750 nm was acquired by a spectrometer. In order to find the typical colors of the above mentioned color samples, the original dataset was devided into several subgroups by clustering analysis. The grouping number, together with the most typical samples for each subgroup which made up the firstly built typical color dataset, was determined by wilcoxon signed rank test according to the color inconstancy index comprehensively calculated under 6 typical illuminating conditions. Considering the completeness of gamut of Dunhuang wall paintings, 8 complementary colors was determined and finally the typical spectral color dataset was built up which contains 100 representative spectral colors. The analytical calculating results show that the median color inconstancy index of the built dataset in 99% confidence level by wilcoxon signed rank test was 3.28 and the 100 colors are distributing in the whole gamut uniformly, which ensures that this dataset can provide reasonable reference for choosing the color with highest

  15. Neonatal Factors in Infants with Autistic Disorder and Typically Developing Infants

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sugie, Yoko; Sugie, Hideo; Fukuda, Tokiko; Ito, Masataka

    2005-01-01

    The prenatal and neonatal factors of 225 children diagnosed with Autistic Disorder were compared with those of 1580 typically developing children. Each of the neonatal factors was compared between the Autistic Disorder and control groups, and between males and females. The results showed that males in the "Autistic Disorder" group had a…

  16. Sleep Problems in Children with Autism and in Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoffman, Charles D.; Sweeney, Dwight P.; Gilliam, James E.; Lopez-Wagner, Muriel C.

    2006-01-01

    Although sleep problems are often seen as a clinical feature associated with autism, and children with autism are reported to have more sleep disturbances than typically developing children, there is a paucity of studies in the area and findings are restricted by problematic methodological approaches. The present study addressed these limitations,…

  17. Participation of Children with Intellectual Disability Compared with Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Matthew; Shields, Nora; Imms, Christine; Black, Monique; Ardern, Clare

    2013-01-01

    We compared participation in out-of-school activities between children with intellectual disability and children with typical development using the Children's Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment and Preferences for Activities of Children questionnaires. Thirty-eight pairs of children were matched for age (mean age 12.3 plus or minus 2.7…

  18. Student-Teacher Relationship Stability across Early School Years for Children with Intellectual Disability or Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blacher, Jan; Baker, Bruce L.; Eisenhower, Abbey S.

    2009-01-01

    Student-teacher relationships of 37 children with moderate to borderline intellectual disability and 61 with typical cognitive development were assessed from child ages 6-8 years. Student-teacher relationship quality was moderately stable for the typical development group, but less so for the intellectual disability group. At each assessment these…

  19. A Preliminary Report on the English Phonology of Typically Developing English-Mandarin Bilingual Preschool Singaporean Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    En, Lydea Gn Wei; Brebner, Chris; McCormack, Paul

    2014-01-01

    Background: There are no published data on typical phonological development for Singaporean children. There is therefore the risk that children's speech in Singapore may be misdiagnosed or that clinicians may set goals erroneously. Aims: This paper reports a preliminary study on the English phonology of typically developing 4;0-4;5-year-old…

  20. Examining the Language Phenotype in Children with Typical Development, Specific Language Impairment, and Fragile X Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haebig, Eileen; Sterling, Audra; Hoover, Jill

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: One aspect of morphosyntax, finiteness marking, was compared in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), specific language impairment (SLI), and typical development matched on mean length of utterance (MLU). Method: Nineteen children with typical development (mean age = 3.3 years), 20 children with SLI (mean age = 4.9 years), and 17 boys…

  1. Do active video games benefit the motor skill development of non-typically developing children and adolescents: A systematic review.

    PubMed

    Page, Zoey E; Barrington, Stephanie; Edwards, Jacqueline; Barnett, Lisa M

    2017-12-01

    The use of interactive video gaming, known as 'exergames' or 'active video games (AVG)' may provide an opportunity for motor skill development. Youth with non-typical patterns of development may have deficits in gross motor skill capacities and are therefore an intervention target. The aim was to determine the effectiveness of AVG use on motor skill development in non-typically developing children and adolescents. Review article. The PRISMA protocol was used to conduct a systematic review of EBSCOhost, Embase, Gale Cengage, Informit, Ovid, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases. A total of 19 articles met inclusion criteria (non-typically developing participants such as those with a learning or developmental delay aged 3-18, use of an AVG console, assessed one or more gross motor skills). Studies were excluded if gross motor skill outcomes encompassed fine motor skills or reflected mobility related to daily living. Interventions included children and adolescents with eight different conditions. The Nintendo Wii was the most utilised gaming platform (14/19 studies). Studies examined a combination of skills, with most examining balance (15/19), five studies examining ball skills, and other gross motor skills such as coordination (3 studies), running (3 studies) and jumping (3 studies). There was strong evidence that AVG's improved balance. AVG's also appeared to benefit participants with Cerebral Palsy. AVG's could be a valuable tool to improve gross motor skills of non-typically developing children. There is scope for further exploration, particularly of ball, coordination and locomotor skills and varying platforms to draw more conclusive evaluations. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Exploring the role of auditory analysis in atypical compared to typical language development.

    PubMed

    Grube, Manon; Cooper, Freya E; Kumar, Sukhbinder; Kelly, Tom; Griffiths, Timothy D

    2014-02-01

    The relationship between auditory processing and language skills has been debated for decades. Previous findings have been inconsistent, both in typically developing and impaired subjects, including those with dyslexia or specific language impairment. Whether correlations between auditory and language skills are consistent between different populations has hardly been addressed at all. The present work presents an exploratory approach of testing for patterns of correlations in a range of measures of auditory processing. In a recent study, we reported findings from a large cohort of eleven-year olds on a range of auditory measures and the data supported a specific role for the processing of short sequences in pitch and time in typical language development. Here we tested whether a group of individuals with dyslexic traits (DT group; n = 28) from the same year group would show the same pattern of correlations between auditory and language skills as the typically developing group (TD group; n = 173). Regarding the raw scores, the DT group showed a significantly poorer performance on the language but not the auditory measures, including measures of pitch, time and rhythm, and timbre (modulation). In terms of correlations, there was a tendency to decrease in correlations between short-sequence processing and language skills, contrasted by a significant increase in correlation for basic, single-sound processing, in particular in the domain of modulation. The data support the notion that the fundamental relationship between auditory and language skills might differ in atypical compared to typical language development, with the implication that merging data or drawing inference between populations might be problematic. Further examination of the relationship between both basic sound feature analysis and music-like sound analysis and language skills in impaired populations might allow the development of appropriate training strategies. These might include types of musical

  3. Early deictic but not other gestures predict later vocabulary in both typical development and autism.

    PubMed

    Özçalışkan, Şeyda; Adamson, Lauren B; Dimitrova, Nevena

    2016-08-01

    Research with typically developing children suggests a strong positive relation between early gesture use and subsequent vocabulary development. In this study, we ask whether gesture production plays a similar role for children with autism spectrum disorder. We observed 23 18-month-old typically developing children and 23 30-month-old children with autism spectrum disorder interact with their caregivers (Communication Play Protocol) and coded types of gestures children produced (deictic, give, conventional, and iconic) in two communicative contexts (commenting and requesting). One year later, we assessed children's expressive vocabulary, using Expressive Vocabulary Test. Children with autism spectrum disorder showed significant deficits in gesture production, particularly in deictic gestures (i.e. gestures that indicate objects by pointing at them or by holding them up). Importantly, deictic gestures-but not other gestures-predicted children's vocabulary 1 year later regardless of communicative context, a pattern also found in typical development. We conclude that the production of deictic gestures serves as a stepping-stone for vocabulary development. © The Author(s) 2015.

  4. Fundamental frequency development in typically developing infants and infants with severe-to-profound hearing loss

    PubMed Central

    Iyer, Suneeti Nathani; Oller, D. Kimbrough

    2010-01-01

    Little research has been conducted on the development of suprasegmental characteristics of vocalizations in typically developing infants (TDI) and the role of audition in the development of these characteristics. The purpose of the present study was to examine the longitudinal development of fundamental frequency (F0) in eight TDI and eight infants with severe-to-profound hearing loss matched for level of vocal development. Results revealed no significant changes in F0 with advances in pre-language vocal development for TDI. Infants with hearing loss, however, showed a statistically reliable higher variability of F0 than TDI, when age was accounted for as a covariate. The results suggest development of F0 may be strongly influenced by audition. PMID:19031191

  5. Meta-analyses of cognitive and motor function in youth aged 16 years and younger who subsequently develop schizophrenia.

    PubMed

    Dickson, H; Laurens, K R; Cullen, A E; Hodgins, S

    2012-04-01

    Previous reviews have reported cognitive and motor deficits in childhood and adolescence among individuals who later develop schizophrenia. However, these reviews focused exclusively on studies of individuals with affected relatives or on population/birth cohorts, incorporated studies with estimated measures of pre-morbid intelligence, or included investigations that examined symptomatic at-risk participants or participants 18 years or older. Thus, it remains unclear whether cognitive and motor deficits constitute robust antecedents of schizophrenia. Meta-analyses were conducted on published studies that examined cognitive or motor function in youth aged 16 years or younger who later developed schizophrenia or a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and those who did not. Twenty-three studies fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: (1) written in English; (2) prospective investigations of birth or genetic high-risk cohorts, or follow-back investigations of population samples; (3) objective measures of cognitive or motor performance at age 16 or younger; (4) results provided for individuals who did and who did not develop schizophrenia/SSD later in life; and (5) sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. Four domains of function were examined: IQ; Motor Function; General Academic Achievement; and Mathematics Achievement. Meta-analyses showed that, by age 16, individuals who subsequently developed schizophrenia/SSD displayed significant deficits in IQ (d=0.51) and motor function (d=0.56), but not in general academic achievement (d=0.25) or mathematics achievement (d=0.21). Subsidiary analysis indicated that the IQ deficit was present by age 13. These results demonstrate that deficits in IQ and motor performance precede the prodrome and the onset of illness.

  6. Young Friendship in HFASD and Typical Development: Friend versus Non-Friend Comparisons

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit; Agam-Ben-Artzi, Galit

    2014-01-01

    This study conducted comparative assessment of friendship in preschoolers with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD, n = 29) versus preschoolers with typical development (n = 30), focusing on interactions with friends versus acquaintances. Groups were matched on SES, verbal/nonverbal MA, IQ, and CA. Multidimensional assessments…

  7. Warm summers during the Younger Dryas cold reversal.

    PubMed

    Schenk, Frederik; Väliranta, Minna; Muschitiello, Francesco; Tarasov, Lev; Heikkilä, Maija; Björck, Svante; Brandefelt, Jenny; Johansson, Arne V; Näslund, Jens-Ove; Wohlfarth, Barbara

    2018-04-24

    The Younger Dryas (YD) cold reversal interrupts the warming climate of the deglaciation with global climatic impacts. The sudden cooling is typically linked to an abrupt slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in response to meltwater discharges from ice sheets. However, inconsistencies regarding the YD-response of European summer temperatures have cast doubt whether the concept provides a sufficient explanation. Here we present results from a high-resolution global climate simulation together with a new July temperature compilation based on plant indicator species and show that European summers remain warm during the YD. Our climate simulation provides robust physical evidence that atmospheric blocking of cold westerly winds over Fennoscandia is a key mechanism counteracting the cooling impact of an AMOC-slowdown during summer. Despite the persistence of short warm summers, the YD is dominated by a shift to a continental climate with extreme winter to spring cooling and short growing seasons.

  8. Accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.

    PubMed

    Pigati, Jeffrey S; Latorre, Claudio; Rech, Jason A; Betancourt, Julio L; Martínez, Katherine E; Budahn, James R

    2012-05-08

    The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis contends that an extraterrestrial object exploded over North America at 12.9 ka, initiating the Younger Dryas cold event, the extinction of many North American megafauna, and the demise of the Clovis archeological culture. Although the exact nature and location of the proposed impact or explosion remain unclear, alleged evidence for the fallout comes from multiple sites across North America and a site in Belgium. At 6 of the 10 original sites (excluding the Carolina Bays), elevated concentrations of various "impact markers" were found in association with black mats that date to the onset of the Younger Dryas. Black mats are common features in paleowetland deposits and typically represent shallow marsh environments. In this study, we investigated black mats ranging in age from approximately 6 to more than 40 ka in the southwestern United States and the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. At 10 of 13 sites, we found elevated concentrations of iridium in bulk and magnetic sediments, magnetic spherules, and/or titanomagnetite grains within or at the base of black mats, regardless of their age or location, suggesting that elevated concentrations of these markers arise from processes common to wetland systems, and not a catastrophic extraterrestrial impact event.

  9. Accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

    PubMed Central

    Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Latorre, Claudio; Rech, Jason A.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Martínez, Katherine E.; Budahn, James R.

    2012-01-01

    The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis contends that an extraterrestrial object exploded over North America at 12.9 ka, initiating the Younger Dryas cold event, the extinction of many North American megafauna, and the demise of the Clovis archeological culture. Although the exact nature and location of the proposed impact or explosion remain unclear, alleged evidence for the fallout comes from multiple sites across North America and a site in Belgium. At 6 of the 10 original sites (excluding the Carolina Bays), elevated concentrations of various “impact markers” were found in association with black mats that date to the onset of the Younger Dryas. Black mats are common features in paleowetland deposits and typically represent shallow marsh environments. In this study, we investigated black mats ranging in age from approximately 6 to more than 40 ka in the southwestern United States and the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. At 10 of 13 sites, we found elevated concentrations of iridium in bulk and magnetic sediments, magnetic spherules, and/or titanomagnetite grains within or at the base of black mats, regardless of their age or location, suggesting that elevated concentrations of these markers arise from processes common to wetland systems, and not a catastrophic extraterrestrial impact event. PMID:22529347

  10. Accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Latorre, Claudio; Rech, Jason A.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Martinez, Katherine E.; Budahn, James R.

    2012-01-01

    The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis contends that an extraterrestrial object exploded over North America at 12.9 ka, initiating the Younger Dryas cold event, the extinction of many North American megafauna, and the demise of the Clovis archeological culture. Although the exact nature and location of the proposed impact or explosion remain unclear, alleged evidence for the fallout comes from multiple sites across North America and a site in Belgium. At 6 of the 10 original sites (excluding the Carolina Bays), elevated concentrations of various "impact markers" were found in association with black mats that date to the onset of the Younger Dryas. Black mats are common features in paleowetland deposits and typically represent shallow marsh environments. In this study, we investigated black mats ranging in age from approximately 6 to more than 40 ka in the southwestern United States and the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. At 10 of 13 sites, we found elevated concentrations of iridium in bulk and magnetic sediments, magnetic spherules, and/or titanomagnetite grains within or at the base of black mats, regardless of their age or location, suggesting that elevated concentrations of these markers arise from processes common to wetland systems, and not a catastrophic extraterrestrial impact event.

  11. The Development of Route Learning in Down Syndrome, Williams Syndrome and Typical Development: Investigations with Virtual Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Purser, Harry R. M.; Farran, Emily K.; Courbois, Yannick; Lemahieu, Axelle; Sockeel, Pascal; Mellier, Daniel; Blades, Mark

    2015-01-01

    The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to…

  12. REM Theta Activity Enhances Inhibitory Control in Typically Developing Children but not Children with ADHD Symptoms

    PubMed Central

    Cremone, Amanda; Lugo-Candelas, Claudia I.; Harvey, Elizabeth A.; McDermott, Jennifer M.; Spencer, Rebecca M. C.

    2017-01-01

    Sleep disturbances impair cognitive functioning in typically developing populations. Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a disorder characterized by impaired inhibitory control and attention, commonly experience sleep disturbances. Whether inhibitory impairments are related to sleep deficits in children with ADHD is unknown. Children with ADHD (n = 18; Mage = 6.70 years) and typically developing controls (n = 15; Mage = 6.73 years) completed a Go/No-Go task to measure inhibitory control and sustained attention before and after polysomnography-monitored overnight sleep. Inhibitory control and sustained attention were improved following overnight sleep in typically developing children. Moreover, morning inhibitory control was positively correlated with rapid eye movement (REM) theta activity in this group. Although REM theta activity was greater in children with ADHD compared to typically developing children, it was functionally insignificant. Neither inhibitory control nor sustained attention were improved following overnight sleep in children with ADHD symptoms, and neither of these behaviors was associated with REM theta activity in this group. Taken together, these results indicate that elevated REM theta activity may be functionally related to ADHD symptomology, possibly reflecting delayed cortical maturation. PMID:28246970

  13. Burnout in Australasian Younger Fellows.

    PubMed

    Benson, Sarah; Sammour, Tarik; Neuhaus, Susan J; Findlay, Bruce; Hill, Andrew G

    2009-09-01

    Burnout is the state of prolonged physical, emotional and psychological exhaustion characteristic of individuals working in human service occupations. This study examines the prevalence of burnout among Younger Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and its relationship to demographic variables. In March 2008, a survey was sent via email to 1287 Younger Fellows. This included demographic questions, a measure of burnout (Copenhagen Burnout Inventory), and an estimate of social desirability (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale - Form C). Females exhibited higher levels of personal burnout (P < 0.001) and work-related burnout (P < 0.025), but no significant difference in patient-related burnout. Younger Fellows in hospitals with less than 50 beds reported significantly higher patient-related burnout levels (mean burnout 37.0 versus 22.1 in the rest, P = 0.004). An equal work division between public and private practice resulted in higher work-related burnout than concentration of work in one sector (P < 0.05). Younger Fellows working more than 60 hours per week reported significantly higher personal burnout than those who worked less than this (P < 0.05). There was no significant correlation between age, country of practice, surgical specialty and any of the burnout subscales. Female surgeons, surgeons that work in smaller hospitals, those that work more than 60 h per week, and those with practice division between the private and public sectors, are at a particularly high risk of burnout. Further enquiry into potentially remediable causes for the increased burnout in these groups is indicated.

  14. Advancing Continence in Typically Developing Children: Adapting the Procedures of Foxx and Azrin for Primary Care.

    PubMed

    Warzak, William J; Forcino, Stacy S; Sanberg, Sela Ann; Gross, Amy C

    2016-01-01

    To (1) identify and summarize procedures of Foxx and Azrin's classic toilet training protocol that continue to be used in training typically developing children and (2) adapt recent findings with the original Foxx and Azrin procedures to inform practical suggestions for the rapid toilet training of typically developing children in the primary care setting. Literature searches of PsychINFO and MEDLINE databases used the search terms "(toilet* OR potty* AND train*)." Selection criteria were only peer-reviewed experimental articles that evaluated intensive toilet training with typically developing children. Exclusion criteria were (1) nonpeer reviewed research, (2) studies addressing encopresis and/or enuresis, (3) studies excluding typically developing children, and (4) studies evaluating toilet training during infancy. In addition to the study of Foxx and Azrin, only 4 publications met the above criteria. Toilet training procedures from each article were reviewed to determine which toilet training methods were similar to components described by Foxx and Azrin. Common training elements include increasing the frequency of learning opportunities through fluid loading and having differential consequences for being dry versus being wet and for voiding in the toilet versus elsewhere. There is little research on intensive toilet training of typically developing children. Practice sits and positive reinforcement for voids in the toilet are commonplace, consistent with the Foxx and Azrin protocol, whereas positive practice as a corrective procedure for wetting accidents often is omitted. Fluid loading and differential consequences for being dry versus being wet and for voiding in the toilet also are suggested procedures, consistent with the Foxx and Azrin protocol.

  15. Dietary Patterns and Body Mass Index in Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

    PubMed Central

    Evans, E. Whitney; Must, Aviva; Anderson, Sarah E.; Curtin, Carol; Scampini, Renee; Maslin, Melissa; Bandini, Linda

    2012-01-01

    To determine whether dietary patterns (juice and sweetened non-dairy beverages, fruits, vegetables, fruits & vegetables, snack foods, and kid’s meals) and associations between dietary patterns and body mass index (BMI) differed between 53 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 58 typically developing children, ages 3 to 11, multivariate regression models including interaction terms were used. Children with ASD were found to consume significantly more daily servings of sweetened beverages (2.6 versus 1.7, p=0.03) and snack foods (4.0 versus 3.0, p=0.01) and significantly fewer daily servings of fruits and vegetables (3.1 versus 4.4, p=0.006) than typically developing children. There was no evidence of statistical interaction between any of the dietary patterns and BMI z-score with autism status. Among all children, fruits and vegetables (p=0.004) and fruits alone (p=0.005) were positively associated with BMI z-score in our multivariate models. Children with ASD consume more energy-dense foods than typically developing children; however, in our sample, only fruits and vegetables were positively associated with BMI z-score. PMID:22936951

  16. Diverging Narratives: Evaluating the Uses of the Ideal-Typical Sequence of Transport Network Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weber, Joe

    2004-01-01

    The development of new transport systems has been an important and highly visible component of economic development and spatial reorganization in the past two centuries. The Ideal-Typical Sequence of network development has been a widely used model of transport development. This paper shows that this model has been used in several different ways,…

  17. Case Assignment in Typically Developing English-Speaking Children: A Paired Priming Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wisman Weil, Lisa Marie

    2013-01-01

    This study utilized a paired priming paradigm to examine the influence of input features on case assignment in typically developing English-speaking children. The Input Ambiguity Hypothesis (Pelham, 2011) was experimentally tested to help explain why children produce subject pronoun case errors. Analyses of third singular "-s" marking on…

  18. Collaborative Problem Solving in Young Typical Development and HFASD

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kimhi, Yael; Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit

    2012-01-01

    Collaborative problem solving (CPS) requires sharing goals/attention and coordinating actions--all deficient in HFASD. Group differences were examined in CPS (HFASD/typical), with a friend versus with a non-friend. Participants included 28 HFASD and 30 typical children aged 3-6 years and their 58 friends and 58 non-friends. Groups were matched on…

  19. Suicide ideation and attempts in children with psychiatric disorders and typical development.

    PubMed

    Dickerson Mayes, Susan; Calhoun, Susan L; Baweja, Raman; Mahr, Fauzia

    2015-01-01

    Children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders are at increased risk for suicide behavior. This is the first study to compare frequencies of suicide ideation and attempts in children and adolescents with specific psychiatric disorders and typical children while controlling for comorbidity and demographics. Mothers rated the frequency of suicide ideation and attempts in 1,706 children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders and typical development, 6-18 years of age. For the typical group, 0.5% had suicide behavior (ideation or attempts), versus 24% across the psychiatric groups (bulimia 48%, depression or anxiety disorder 34%, oppositional defiant disorder 33%, ADHD-combined type 22%, anorexia 22%, autism 18%, intellectual disability 17%, and ADHD-inattentive type 8%). Most alarming, 29% of adolescents with bulimia often or very often had suicide attempts, compared with 0-4% of patients in the other psychiatric groups. It is important for professionals to routinely screen all children and adolescents who have psychiatric disorders for suicide ideation and attempts and to treat the underlying psychiatric disorders that increase suicide risk.

  20. The Association between Graphomotor Tests and Participation of Typically Developing Young Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rosenberg, Limor

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to explore the association between graphomotor tests--VMI, ROCF, SWT--and the measures of a child's participation. Seventy-five typically developing children aged 4 to 9 years were individually evaluated using the graphomotor tests and their parents completed a participation questionnaire. After controlling for child's age, the…

  1. Language Learning of Children with Typical Development Using a Deductive Metalinguistic Procedure

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Finestack, Lizbeth H.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: In the current study, the author aimed to determine whether 4- to 6-year-old typically developing children possess requisite problem-solving and language abilities to produce, generalize, and retain a novel verb inflection when taught using an explicit, deductive teaching procedure. Method: Study participants included a cross-sectional…

  2. Representing Intentions in Self and Other: Studies of Autism and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, David; Happe, Francesca

    2010-01-01

    Two experiments were conducted to explore the extent to which individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as well as young typically developing (TD) children, are explicitly aware of their own and others' intentions. In Experiment 1, participants with ASD were significantly less likely than age- and ability-matched comparison participants to…

  3. The attentional blink in typically developing and reading-disabled children.

    PubMed

    de Groot, Barry J A; van den Bos, Kees P; van der Meulen, Bieuwe F; Minnaert, Alexander E M G

    2015-11-01

    This study's research question was whether selective visual attention, and specifically the attentional blink (AB) as operationalized by a dual target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, can explain individual differences in word reading (WR) and reading-related phonological performances in typically developing children and reading-disabled subgroups. A total of 407 Dutch school children (Grades 3-6) were classified either as typically developing (n = 302) or as belonging to one of three reading-disabled subgroups: reading disabilities only (RD-only, n = 69), both RD and attention problems (RD+ADHD, n = 16), or both RD and a specific language impairment (RD+SLI, n = 20). The RSVP task employed alphanumeric stimuli that were presented in two blocks. Standardized Dutch tests were used to measure WR, phonemic awareness (PA), and alphanumeric rapid naming (RAN). Results indicate that, controlling for PA and RAN performance, general RSVP task performance contributes significant unique variance to the prediction of WR. Specifically, consistent group main effects for the parameter of AB(minimum) were found, whereas there were no AB-specific effects (i.e., AB(width) and AB(amplitude)) except for the RD+SLI group. Finally, there was a group by measurement interaction, indicating that the RD-only and comorbid groups are differentially sensitive for prolonged testing sessions. These results suggest that more general factors involved in RSVP processing may explain the group differences found. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Breast cancer treatment costs in younger, privately insured women.

    PubMed

    Allaire, Benjamin T; Ekwueme, Donatus U; Poehler, Diana; Thomas, Cheryll C; Guy, Gery P; Subramanian, Sujha; Trogdon, Justin G

    2017-07-01

    Younger women (under age 45 years) diagnosed with breast cancer often face more aggressive tumors, higher treatment intensity, lower survival rates, and greater financial hardship. The purpose of this study was to estimate breast cancer costs by stage at diagnosis during the first 18 months of treatment for privately insured younger women. We analyzed North Carolina cancer registry data linked to claims data from private insurers from 2003 to 2010. Breast cancer patients were split into two cohorts: a younger and older group aged 21-44 and 45-64 years, respectively. We conducted a cohort study and matched women with and without breast cancer using age, ZIP, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. We calculated mean excess costs between breast cancer and non-breast cancer patients at 6, 12, and 18 months. For younger women, AJCC 6th edition stage II cancer was the most common at diagnosis (40%), followed by stage I (34%). On the other hand, older women had more stage I (46%) cancer followed by stage II (34%). The excess costs for younger and older women at 12 months were $97,486 (95% confidence interval [CI] $93,631-101,341) and $75,737 (95% CI $73,962-77,512), respectively. Younger breast cancer patients had both a higher prevalence of later-stage disease and higher within-stage costs. The study reports high costs of treatment for both younger and older women than a non-cancer comparison group; however, the estimated excess cost was significantly higher for younger women. The financial implications of breast cancer treatment costs for younger women need to be explored in future studies.

  5. A Comparison of the Development of Audiovisual Integration in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Natalie; Isaac, Claire; Milne, Elizabeth

    2010-01-01

    This study aimed to investigate the development of audiovisual integration in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Audiovisual integration was measured using the McGurk effect in children with ASD aged 7-16 years and typically developing children (control group) matched approximately for age, sex, nonverbal ability and verbal ability.…

  6. Mealtime Behaviors of Preschool Children: Comparison of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Provost, Beth; Crowe, Terry K.; Osbourn, Patricia L.; McClain, Catherine; Skipper, Betty J.

    2010-01-01

    This study identified mealtime behaviors of young children (3-6 years old) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and compared these behaviors to children with typical development matched for age, gender, and ethnicity. The parents of children with ASD (n = 24) and children with typical development (n = 24) completed a mealtime survey to assess early…

  7. Training Class Inclusion Responding in Typically Developing Children and Individuals with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ming, Siri; Mulhern, Teresa; Stewart, Ian; Moran, Laura; Bynum, Kellie

    2018-01-01

    In a "class inclusion" task, a child must respond to stimuli as being involved in two different though hierarchically related categories. This study used a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) paradigm to assess and train this ability in three typically developing preschoolers and three individuals with autism spectrum disorder, all of whom had…

  8. An Evaluation of Imitation Recognition Abilities in Typically Developing Children and Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    PubMed

    Berger, Natalie I; Ingersoll, Brooke

    2015-08-01

    Previous work has indicated that both typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display a range of imitation recognition behaviors in response to a contingent adult imitator. However, it is unknown how the two groups perform comparatively on this construct. In this study, imitation recognition behaviors for children with ASD and typically developing children were observed during periods of contingent imitation imbedded in a naturalistic imitation task. Results from this study indicate that children with ASD are impaired in their ability to recognize being imitated relative to typically developing peers as demonstrated both by behaviors representing basic social attention and more mature imitation recognition. Display of imitation recognition behaviors was independent of length of contingent imitation period in typically developing children, but rate of engagement in imitation recognition behaviors was positively correlated with length of contingent imitation period in children with ASD. Exploratory findings also suggest a link between the ability to demonstrate recognition of being imitated and ASD symptom severity, language, and object imitation for young children with ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Contribution of parenting to complex syntax development in preschool children with developmental delays or typical development.

    PubMed

    Moody, C T; Baker, B L; Blacher, J

    2018-05-10

    Despite studies of how parent-child interactions relate to early child language development, few have examined the continued contribution of parenting to more complex language skills through the preschool years. The current study explored how positive and negative parenting behaviours relate to growth in complex syntax learning from child age 3 to age 4 years, for children with typical development or developmental delays (DDs). Participants were children with or without DD (N = 60) participating in a longitudinal study of development. Parent-child interactions were transcribed and coded for parenting domains and child language. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify the contribution of parenting to complex syntax growth in children with typical development or DD. Analyses supported a final model, F(9,50) = 11.90, P < .001, including a significant three-way interaction between positive parenting behaviours, negative parenting behaviours and child delay status. This model explained 68.16% of the variance in children's complex syntax at age 4. Simple two-way interactions indicated differing effects of parenting variables for children with or without DD. Results have implications for understanding of complex syntax acquisition in young children, as well as implications for interventions. © 2018 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Nonverbal components of Theory of Mind in typical and atypical development.

    PubMed

    Kampis, Dora; Fogd, Dóra; Kovács, Ágnes Melinda

    2017-08-01

    To successfully navigate the human social world one needs to realize that behavior is guided by mental states such as goals and beliefs. Humans are highly proficient in using mental states to explain and predict their conspecific's behavior, which enables adjusting one's own behavior in online social interactions. Whereas according to recent studies even young infants seem to integrate others' beliefs into their own behavior, it is unclear what processes contribute to such competencies and how they may develop. Here we analyze a set of possible nonverbal components of theory of mind that may be involved in taking into account others' mental states, and discuss findings from typical and atypical development. To track an agent's belief one needs to (i) pay attention to agents that might be potential belief holders, and identify their focus of attention and their potential belief contents; (ii) keep track of their different experiences and their consequent beliefs, and (iii) to make behavioral predictions based on such beliefs. If an individual fails to predict an agent's behavior depending on the agent's beliefs, this may be due to a problem at any stage in the above processes. An analysis of the possible nonverbal processes contributing to belief tracking and their functioning in typical and atypical development aims to provide new insights into the possible mechanisms that make human social interactions uniquely rich. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Psychomotor development index in children younger than 6 years from Argentine provinces.

    PubMed

    Lejarraga, Horacio; Kelmansky, Diana M; Masautis, Alicia; Nunes, Fernando

    2018-04-01

    To obtain a psychomotor development index (PDI) for each Argentine province. Using a national, probabilistic, and stratified sample of 13 323 male and female children younger than 6 years selected for the National Survey on Nutrition and Health (Encuesta Nacional de Nutrición y Salud, ENNyS 2004), we estimated the PDI per province based on compliance with 10 developmental milestones. The median age at attainment (median age) of each milestone was estimated adjusting a logistic regression. The PDI was estimated as 100* (1 + b), where "b" is the regression coefficient of y= a + b x, where "y" is the median age as per the national reference (x) minus the median age at attainment of a milestone. The theoretical value expected for the PDI was 100. The PDI per province ranged between 72.1 and 106.4. Most provinces showed a negative regression coefficient, which indicated a progressive increase of the delay in the age at attainment of milestones. The correlation coefficient between the PDI per province and infant mortality in 2005was extremely high: -0.85, suggesting that both indicators share similar biological and social determinants. The PDI was negative because the higher the mortality, the lower the PDI. We have now a positive health indicator available in Argentina: the psychomotor development index, which is a low-cost, easy to collect, and reliable tool that may be used in national health statistics. Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría.

  12. Development of Face Recognition in 5- to 15-Year-Olds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kinnunen, Suna; Korkman, Marit; Laasonen, Marja; Lahti-Nuuttila, Pekka

    2013-01-01

    This study focuses on the development of face recognition in typically developing preschool- and school-aged children (aged 5 to 15 years old, "n" = 611, 336 girls). Social predictors include sex differences and own-sex bias. At younger ages, the development of face recognition was rapid and became more gradual as the age increased up…

  13. Model development to study strategies of younger and older adults getting up from the floor.

    PubMed

    Schwickert, L; Oberle, C; Becker, C; Lindemann, U; Klenk, J; Schwenk, M; Bourke, A; Zijlstra, W

    2016-04-01

    Long lies after a fall remain a public health challenge. Many successful fall prevention programmes have been developed but only few of them include recovery strategies after a fall. Once better understood, such movement strategies could be implemented into training interventions. A model of motion sequences describing successful movement strategies for rising from the floor in different age groups was developed. Possible risk factors for poor rising performance such as flexibility and muscle power were evaluated. Fourteen younger subjects between 20 and 50 years of age and 10 healthy older subjects (60+ years) were included. Movement strategies and key components of different rising sequences were determined from video analyses. The temporal parameters of transfers and number of components within the motion sequences were calculated. Possible explanatory variables for differences in rising performance were assessed (leg extension power, flexibility of the knee- and hip joints). Seven different components were identified for the lie-to-stand-walk transfer, labelled as lying, initiation, positioning, supporting, elevation, or stabilisation component followed by standing and/or walking. Median time to rise was significantly longer in older subjects (older 5.7s vs. younger 3.7s; p < 0.001), and leg extension power (left p = 0.002, right p = 0.013) and knee flexibility (left p = 0.019, right p = 0.025) were significantly lower. The number of components for rising was correlated with hip flexibility (r = 0.514) and maximal power (r = 0.582). The time to rise was correlated with minimal goniometric knee angle of the less flexible leg (r = 0.527) and maximal leg extension power (r = 0.725). A motion sequence model containing seven different components identified by individual key-frames could be established. Age-related differences in rising strategies and performance were identified.

  14. Bridging the Gaps in the Study of Typical and Atypical Cognitive Development: A Commentary

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graham, Susan A.; Madigan, Sheri

    2016-01-01

    The articles in this special issue of the "Journal of Cognition and Development" examine the cognitive development of children who are following typical and atypical developmental pathways. The articles offer a mixture of theory-based considerations, reviews of the literature, and new empirical data addressing fundamental aspects of…

  15. Hypocaloric, high-protein nutrition therapy in older vs younger critically ill patients with obesity.

    PubMed

    Dickerson, Roland N; Medling, Theresa L; Smith, Ashley C; Maish, George O; Croce, Martin A; Minard, Gayle; Brown, Rex O

    2013-01-01

    Older patients require more protein than younger patients to achieve anabolism, but age-associated renal dysfunction may limit the amount of protein that can be safely provided. This study examined whether older, critically ill trauma patients with obesity can safely achieve nitrogen equilibrium and have positive clinical outcomes similar to younger obese patients during hypocaloric, high-protein nutrition therapy. Adult patients with traumatic injury and obesity (body mass index [BMI] >30 kg/m(2)), admitted to the Presley Trauma Center from January 2009 to April 2011, were evaluated. Patients were targeted to receive hypocaloric, high-protein nutrition therapy (<25 kcal/kg ideal body weight [IBW]/d and >2 g/kg IBW/d of protein) for >10 days. Patients were stratified as older (≥60 years) or younger (18-59 years). Seventy-four patients (33 older, 41 younger) were studied. Older and younger patients were similar in BMI and injury severity. When given isonitrogenous regimens (2.3 ± 0.2 g/kg IBW/d), nitrogen balance was similar between older and younger patients (-3.2 ± 5.7 g/d vs -4.9 ± 9.0 g/d; P = .363). Older patients experienced a greater mean serum urea nitrogen concentration than younger patients (30 ± 14 mg/dL vs 20 ± 9 mg/dL; P = .001) during nutrition therapy. Clinical outcomes were not different between groups. Older critically ill trauma patients exhibited an equivalent net protein response as younger patients during hypocaloric, high-protein nutrition therapy. Older patients are at greater risk for developing azotemia. Close monitoring is warranted.

  16. Connectivity dynamics in typical development and its relationship to autistic traits and autism spectrum disorder.

    PubMed

    Rashid, Barnaly; Blanken, Laura M E; Muetzel, Ryan L; Miller, Robyn; Damaraju, Eswar; Arbabshirani, Mohammad R; Erhardt, Erik B; Verhulst, Frank C; van der Lugt, Aad; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; Tiemeier, Henning; White, Tonya; Calhoun, Vince

    2018-03-30

    Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques have provided significant insights into developmental trajectories of human brain function. Characterizations of typical neurodevelopment provide a framework for understanding altered neurodevelopment, including differences in brain function related to developmental disorders and psychopathology. Historically, most functional connectivity studies of typical and atypical development operate under the assumption that connectivity remains static over time. We hypothesized that relaxing stationarity assumptions would reveal novel features of both typical brain development related to children on the autism spectrum. We employed a "chronnectomic" (recurring, time-varying patterns of connectivity) approach to evaluate transient states of connectivity using resting-state functional MRI in a population-based sample of 774 6- to 10-year-old children. Dynamic connectivity was evaluated using a sliding-window approach, and revealed four transient states. Internetwork connectivity increased with age in modularized dynamic states, illustrating an important pattern of connectivity in the developing brain. Furthermore, we demonstrated that higher levels of autistic traits and ASD diagnosis were associated with longer dwell times in a globally disconnected state. These results provide a roadmap to the chronnectomic organization of the developing brain and suggest that characteristics of functional brain connectivity are related to children on the autism spectrum. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Sleep Patterns in Preschool-Age Children with Autism, Developmental Delay, and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goodlin-Jones, Beth L.; Tang, Karen; Liu, Jingyi; Anders, Thomas F.

    2008-01-01

    The study investigates sleep disorders by assessing the quantity and quality of sleep in preschool children with autism and comparing them with developmental delay without autism, and typical development. The results prove that sleep patterns are different in preschool children across all three categories.

  18. Comparison of Autism Screening in Younger and Older Toddlers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sturner, Raymond; Howard, Barbara; Bergmann, Paul; Stewart, Lydia; Afarian, Talin E.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effect of age at completion of an autism screening test on item failure rates contrasting older (>20 months) with younger (<20 months) toddlers in a community primary care sample of 73,564 children. Items related to social development were categorized into one of three age sets per criteria from Inada et al.…

  19. Maternal regulation of child affect in externalizing and typically-developing children.

    PubMed

    Lougheed, Jessica P; Hollenstein, Tom; Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Anna; Granic, Isabela

    2015-02-01

    Temporal contingencies between children's affect and maternal behavior play a role in the development of children's externalizing problems. The goal of the current study was to use a microsocial approach to compare dyads with externalizing dysregulation (N =191) to healthy controls (N = 54) on maternal supportive regulation of children's negative and positive affect. Children were between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Mother-child dyads participated in conflict and positive discussions, and child affect and maternal supportive affect regulation were coded in real time. First, no group differences on overall levels of mother supportive regulation or child affect were found. Second, three event history analyses in a 2-level Cox hazard regression framework were used to predict the hazard rate of (a) maternal supportiveness, and of children's transitions (b) out of negative affect and (c) into positive affect. The hazard rate of maternal supportiveness, regardless of child affect, was not different between groups. However, as expected, the likelihood of mothers' supportive responses to children's negative affect was lower in externalizing than comparison dyads. In addition, children with externalizing problems were significantly less likely than typically developing children to transition out of negative affect in response to maternal supportiveness. The likelihood of both typically developing children and children with externalizing problems transitioning into positive affect were not related to specific occurrences of maternal supportiveness. Results of the current study show the importance of temporal dynamics in mother-child interactions in the emergence of children's externalizing problems. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

  20. Caregiver burden and sibling relationships in families raising children with disabilities and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Roper, Susanne Olsen; Allred, Diane W; Mandleco, Barbara; Freeborn, Donna; Dyches, Tina

    2014-06-01

    Using family systems theory as a theoretical framework, we investigated direct and indirect associations between type of disability, caregiver burden, and sibling relationships with structural equation modeling. We recruited 172 families raising typically developing children or a child with a disability. Participants volunteered at meetings and workshops for families of children with disabilities and were also recruited through snowball sampling. Mothers and fathers independently completed self-report questionnaires on caregiver burden and perceptions of the sibling relationship. Mothers experienced higher levels of caregiver burden than fathers. Parents of children with autism reported higher levels of caregiver burden than parents of typically developing children. Mothers of children with Down syndrome and multiple disabilities reported more positive sibling relationships than mothers of typically developing children. Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of caregiver burden were negatively related to their perceptions of the sibling relationship. Caregiver burden mediated the relationship between having a child with autism and positive sibling relationships. Results indicate the benefits of using a systems framework in examining families raising children with disabilities. Future research should focus on interventions for families of children with disabilities that help alleviate parental burden and foster positive sibling relationships.

  1. Multimodal imaging of temporal processing in typical and atypical language development.

    PubMed

    Kovelman, Ioulia; Wagley, Neelima; Hay, Jessica S F; Ugolini, Margaret; Bowyer, Susan M; Lajiness-O'Neill, Renee; Brennan, Jonathan

    2015-03-01

    New approaches to understanding language and reading acquisition propose that the human brain's ability to synchronize its neural firing rate to syllable-length linguistic units may be important to children's ability to acquire human language. Yet, little evidence from brain imaging studies has been available to support this proposal. Here, we summarize three recent brain imaging (functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG)) studies from our laboratories with young English-speaking children (aged 6-12 years). In the first study (fNIRS), we used an auditory beat perception task to show that, in children, the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) responds preferentially to rhythmic beats at 1.5 Hz. In the second study (fMRI), we found correlations between children's amplitude rise-time sensitivity, phonological awareness, and brain activation in the left STG. In the third study (MEG), typically developing children outperformed children with autism spectrum disorder in extracting words from rhythmically rich foreign speech and displayed different brain activation during the learning phase. The overall findings suggest that the efficiency with which left temporal regions process slow temporal (rhythmic) information may be important for gains in language and reading proficiency. These findings carry implications for better understanding of the brain's mechanisms that support language and reading acquisition during both typical and atypical development. © 2014 New York Academy of Sciences.

  2. Behavioural and cognitive sex/gender differences in autism spectrum condition and typically developing males and females.

    PubMed

    Hull, Laura; Mandy, William; Petrides, K V

    2017-08-01

    Studies assessing sex/gender differences in autism spectrum conditions often fail to include typically developing control groups. It is, therefore, unclear whether observed sex/gender differences reflect those found in the general population or are particular to autism spectrum conditions. A systematic search identified articles comparing behavioural and cognitive characteristics in males and females with and without an autism spectrum condition diagnosis. A total of 13 studies were included in meta-analyses of sex/gender differences in core autism spectrum condition symptoms (social/communication impairments and restricted/repetitive behaviours and interests) and intelligence quotient. A total of 20 studies were included in a qualitative review of sex/gender differences in additional autism spectrum condition symptoms. For core traits and intelligence quotient, sex/gender differences were comparable in autism spectrum conditions and typical samples. Some additional autism spectrum condition symptoms displayed different patterns of sex/gender differences in autism spectrum conditions and typically developing groups, including measures of executive function, empathising and systemising traits, internalising and externalising problems and play behaviours. Individuals with autism spectrum conditions display typical sex/gender differences in core autism spectrum condition traits, suggesting that diagnostic criteria based on these symptoms should take into account typical sex/gender differences. However, awareness of associated autism spectrum condition symptoms should include the possibility of different male and female phenotypes, to ensure those who do not fit the 'typical' autism spectrum condition presentation are not missed.

  3. Framing Effects in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Sunghan; Goldstein, David; Hasher, Lynn; Zacks, Rose T.

    2006-01-01

    A growing literature on decision making in older adults suggests that they are more likely to use heuristic processing than are younger adults. We assessed this tendency in the context of a framing effect, a decision-making phenomenon whereby the language used to describe options greatly influences the decision maker’s choice. We compared decision making under a standard (“heuristic”) condition and also under a “justification” condition known to reduce reliance on heuristics. In the standard condition, older adults were more susceptible than younger adults to framing but the two groups did not differ when participants were asked to provide a justification. Thus, although older adults may spontaneously rely more on heuristic processing than younger adults, they can be induced to take a more systematic approach to decision making. PMID:15980289

  4. Framing effects in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Kim, Sunghan; Goldstein, David; Hasher, Lynn; Zacks, Rose T

    2005-07-01

    A growing literature on decision making in older adults suggests that they are more likely to use heuristic processing than are younger adults. We assessed this tendency in the context of a framing effect, a decision-making phenomenon whereby the language used to describe options greatly influences the decision maker's choice. We compared decision making under a standard ("heuristic") condition and also under a "justification" condition known to reduce reliance on heuristics. In the standard condition, older adults were more susceptible than younger adults to framing but the two groups did not differ when participants were asked to provide a justification. Thus, although older adults may spontaneously rely more on heuristic processing than younger adults, they can be induced to take a more systematic approach to decision making.

  5. Consonant Acquisition in Young Cochlear Implant Recipients and Their Typically Developing Peers

    PubMed Central

    Jung, Jongmin; Ertmer, David J.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose Consonant acquisition was examined in 13 young cochlear implant (CI) recipients and 11 typically developing (TD) children. Method A longitudinal research design was implemented to determine the rate and nature of consonant acquisition during the first 2 years of robust hearing experience. Twenty-minute adult–child (typically a parent) interactions were video and audio recorded at 3-month intervals following implantation until 24 months of robust hearing experience was achieved. TD children were similarly recorded between 6 and 24 months of age. Consonants that were produced twice within a 50-utterance sample were considered “established” within a child's consonant inventory. Results Although the groups showed similar trajectories, the CI group produced larger consonant inventories than the TD group at each interval except for 21 and 24 months. A majority of children with CIs also showed more rapid acquisition of consonants and more diverse consonant inventories than TD children. Conclusions These results suggest that early auditory deprivation does not significantly affect consonant acquisition for most CI recipients. Tracking early consonant development appears to be a useful way to assess the effectiveness of cochlear implantation in young recipients. PMID:28474085

  6. Postural control of typical developing boys during the transition from double-leg stance to single-leg stance.

    PubMed

    Deschamps, Kevin; Staes, Filip; Peerlinck, Kathelijne; Van Geet, Kristel; Hermans, Cedric; Lobet, Sebastien

    2017-02-01

    Literature is lacking information about postural control performance of typically developing children during a transition task from double-leg stance to single-leg stance. The purpose of the present study was therefore to evaluate the clinical feasibility of a transition task in typical developing age groups as well as to study the correlation between associated balance measures and age.Thirty-three typically developing boys aged 6-20 years performed a standard transition task from DLS to SLS with eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC). Balance features derived from the center of pressure displacement captured by a single force platform were correlated with age on the one hand and considered for differences in the perspective of limb dominance on the other hand.All TDB (typically developing boys) were able to perform the transition task with EO. With respect to EC condition, all TDB from the age group 6-7 years and the youngest of the age group 8-12 years (N = 4) were unable to perform the task. No significant differences were observed between the balance measures of the dominant and non-dominant limbs.With respect to EO condition, correlation analyses indicated that time to new stability point (TNSP) as well as the sway measure after this TNSP were correlated with age (p < 0.0001). For the EC condition, only the anthropometrically scaled sway measure was found to be correlated (p = 0.03). The results provide additional insight into balance development in childhood and may serve as a useful basis for assessing balance impairments in higher functioning children with musculoskeletal problems. What is Known: • Reference data regarding postural balance of typically developing children during walking, running, sit-to-stand, and bipodal and unipodal stance has been well documented in the literature. • These reference data provided not only insight into the maturation process of the postural control system, but also served in diagnosing and managing functional

  7. Building Alliance for Preschool Inclusion: Parents of Typically Developing Children, Attitudes and Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sira, Natalia; Maine, Erica; McNeil, Sarah

    2018-01-01

    The current study investigated perceptions, thoughts, and attitudes of parents of typically developing children enrolled in inclusive 3-year-old and 4-year-old preschool classrooms. Using a qualitative approach, guided by ecological system theory semi-structured interviews with parents (N = 7) were completed. Several common themes related to…

  8. Sleep Problems among Taiwanese Children with Autism, Their Siblings and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chou, Miao-Chun; Chou, Wen-Jiun; Chiang, Huey-Ling; Wu, Yu-Yu; Lee, Ju-Chin; Wong, Ching-Ching; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

    2012-01-01

    The current study compared the sleep schedules, sleep problems among children with autism, their siblings and typically developing children, and to explore other associated factors with sleep problems. We conducted a case-control study consisting 110 children with autistic disorder, 125 unaffected siblings, and 110 age-, sex-, and parental…

  9. Analysis of Mother-Infant Interaction in Infants with Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Infants

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Slonims, Vicky; McConachie, Helen

    2006-01-01

    Delays in development of early social behaviors in babies with Down syndrome are likely to affect patterns of interaction with their caregivers. We videotaped 23 babies in face-to-face interaction with their mothers at 8 and 20 weeks of age and compared them to 23 typically developing infants and their mothers. Social behaviors, mothers'…

  10. The Development of Word-Object Associations in Typically Developing Infants and Infants and Toddlers with Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ha, Oh Ryeong

    2013-01-01

    The ability to form associations between words and objects rapidly with a short amount of exposure is a marker of more proficient word learners in typically developing (TD) infants. Investigating the underlying mechanisms for how words are associated with objects is necessary for understanding early word learning in the TD population as well as in…

  11. Bilingualism and Procedural Learning in Typically Developing Children and Children with Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Park, Jisook; Miller, Carol A.; Rosenbaum, David A.; Sanjeevan, Teenu; van Hell, Janet G.; Weiss, Daniel J.; Mainela-Arnold, Elina

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate whether dual language experience affects procedural learning ability in typically developing children and in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: We examined procedural learning in monolingual and bilingual school-aged children (ages 8-12 years) with and without SLI. The…

  12. Longitudinal changes in cortical thickness in autism and typical development.

    PubMed

    Zielinski, Brandon A; Prigge, Molly B D; Nielsen, Jared A; Froehlich, Alyson L; Abildskov, Tracy J; Anderson, Jeffrey S; Fletcher, P Thomas; Zygmunt, Kristen M; Travers, Brittany G; Lange, Nicholas; Alexander, Andrew L; Bigler, Erin D; Lainhart, Janet E

    2014-06-01

    The natural history of brain growth in autism spectrum disorders remains unclear. Cross-sectional studies have identified regional abnormalities in brain volume and cortical thickness in autism, although substantial discrepancies have been reported. Preliminary longitudinal studies using two time points and small samples have identified specific regional differences in cortical thickness in the disorder. To clarify age-related trajectories of cortical development, we examined longitudinal changes in cortical thickness within a large mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal sample of autistic subjects and age- and gender-matched typically developing controls. Three hundred and forty-five magnetic resonance imaging scans were examined from 97 males with autism (mean age = 16.8 years; range 3-36 years) and 60 males with typical development (mean age = 18 years; range 4-39 years), with an average interscan interval of 2.6 years. FreeSurfer image analysis software was used to parcellate the cortex into 34 regions of interest per hemisphere and to calculate mean cortical thickness for each region. Longitudinal linear mixed effects models were used to further characterize these findings and identify regions with between-group differences in longitudinal age-related trajectories. Using mean age at time of first scan as a reference (15 years), differences were observed in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis and pars triangularis, right caudal middle frontal and left rostral middle frontal regions, and left frontal pole. However, group differences in cortical thickness varied by developmental stage, and were influenced by IQ. Differences in age-related trajectories emerged in bilateral parietal and occipital regions (postcentral gyrus, cuneus, lingual gyrus, pericalcarine cortex), left frontal regions (pars opercularis, rostral middle frontal and frontal pole), left supramarginal gyrus, and right transverse temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and

  13. Longitudinal changes in cortical thickness in autism and typical development

    PubMed Central

    Prigge, Molly B. D.; Nielsen, Jared A.; Froehlich, Alyson L.; Abildskov, Tracy J.; Anderson, Jeffrey S.; Fletcher, P. Thomas; Zygmunt, Kristen M.; Travers, Brittany G.; Lange, Nicholas; Alexander, Andrew L.; Bigler, Erin D.; Lainhart, Janet E.

    2014-01-01

    The natural history of brain growth in autism spectrum disorders remains unclear. Cross-sectional studies have identified regional abnormalities in brain volume and cortical thickness in autism, although substantial discrepancies have been reported. Preliminary longitudinal studies using two time points and small samples have identified specific regional differences in cortical thickness in the disorder. To clarify age-related trajectories of cortical development, we examined longitudinal changes in cortical thickness within a large mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal sample of autistic subjects and age- and gender-matched typically developing controls. Three hundred and forty-five magnetic resonance imaging scans were examined from 97 males with autism (mean age = 16.8 years; range 3–36 years) and 60 males with typical development (mean age = 18 years; range 4–39 years), with an average interscan interval of 2.6 years. FreeSurfer image analysis software was used to parcellate the cortex into 34 regions of interest per hemisphere and to calculate mean cortical thickness for each region. Longitudinal linear mixed effects models were used to further characterize these findings and identify regions with between-group differences in longitudinal age-related trajectories. Using mean age at time of first scan as a reference (15 years), differences were observed in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis and pars triangularis, right caudal middle frontal and left rostral middle frontal regions, and left frontal pole. However, group differences in cortical thickness varied by developmental stage, and were influenced by IQ. Differences in age-related trajectories emerged in bilateral parietal and occipital regions (postcentral gyrus, cuneus, lingual gyrus, pericalcarine cortex), left frontal regions (pars opercularis, rostral middle frontal and frontal pole), left supramarginal gyrus, and right transverse temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and

  14. Amphetamine modulates brain signal variability and working memory in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Garrett, Douglas D; Nagel, Irene E; Preuschhof, Claudia; Burzynska, Agnieszka Z; Marchner, Janina; Wiegert, Steffen; Jungehülsing, Gerhard J; Nyberg, Lars; Villringer, Arno; Li, Shu-Chen; Heekeren, Hauke R; Bäckman, Lars; Lindenberger, Ulman

    2015-06-16

    Better-performing younger adults typically express greater brain signal variability relative to older, poorer performers. Mechanisms for age and performance-graded differences in brain dynamics have, however, not yet been uncovered. Given the age-related decline of the dopamine (DA) system in normal cognitive aging, DA neuromodulation is one plausible mechanism. Hence, agents that boost systemic DA [such as d-amphetamine (AMPH)] may help to restore deficient signal variability levels. Furthermore, despite the standard practice of counterbalancing drug session order (AMPH first vs. placebo first), it remains understudied how AMPH may interact with practice effects, possibly influencing whether DA up-regulation is functional. We examined the effects of AMPH on functional-MRI-based blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability (SD(BOLD)) in younger and older adults during a working memory task (letter n-back). Older adults expressed lower brain signal variability at placebo, but met or exceeded young adult SD(BOLD) levels in the presence of AMPH. Drug session order greatly moderated change-change relations between AMPH-driven SD(BOLD) and reaction time means (RT(mean)) and SDs (RT(SD)). Older adults who received AMPH in the first session tended to improve in RT(mean) and RT(SD) when SD(BOLD) was boosted on AMPH, whereas younger and older adults who received AMPH in the second session showed either a performance improvement when SD(BOLD) decreased (for RT(mean)) or no effect at all (for RT(SD)). The present findings support the hypothesis that age differences in brain signal variability reflect aging-induced changes in dopaminergic neuromodulation. The observed interactions among AMPH, age, and session order highlight the state- and practice-dependent neurochemical basis of human brain dynamics.

  15. Amphetamine modulates brain signal variability and working memory in younger and older adults

    PubMed Central

    Garrett, Douglas D.; Nagel, Irene E.; Preuschhof, Claudia; Burzynska, Agnieszka Z.; Marchner, Janina; Wiegert, Steffen; Jungehülsing, Gerhard J.; Nyberg, Lars; Villringer, Arno; Li, Shu-Chen; Heekeren, Hauke R.; Bäckman, Lars; Lindenberger, Ulman

    2015-01-01

    Better-performing younger adults typically express greater brain signal variability relative to older, poorer performers. Mechanisms for age and performance-graded differences in brain dynamics have, however, not yet been uncovered. Given the age-related decline of the dopamine (DA) system in normal cognitive aging, DA neuromodulation is one plausible mechanism. Hence, agents that boost systemic DA [such as d-amphetamine (AMPH)] may help to restore deficient signal variability levels. Furthermore, despite the standard practice of counterbalancing drug session order (AMPH first vs. placebo first), it remains understudied how AMPH may interact with practice effects, possibly influencing whether DA up-regulation is functional. We examined the effects of AMPH on functional-MRI–based blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability (SDBOLD) in younger and older adults during a working memory task (letter n-back). Older adults expressed lower brain signal variability at placebo, but met or exceeded young adult SDBOLD levels in the presence of AMPH. Drug session order greatly moderated change–change relations between AMPH-driven SDBOLD and reaction time means (RTmean) and SDs (RTSD). Older adults who received AMPH in the first session tended to improve in RTmean and RTSD when SDBOLD was boosted on AMPH, whereas younger and older adults who received AMPH in the second session showed either a performance improvement when SDBOLD decreased (for RTmean) or no effect at all (for RTSD). The present findings support the hypothesis that age differences in brain signal variability reflect aging-induced changes in dopaminergic neuromodulation. The observed interactions among AMPH, age, and session order highlight the state- and practice-dependent neurochemical basis of human brain dynamics. PMID:26034283

  16. Development of Gender Typicality and Felt Pressure in European French and North African French Adolescents.

    PubMed

    Hoffman, Adam J; Dumas, Florence; Loose, Florence; Smeding, Annique; Kurtz-Costes, Beth; Régner, Isabelle

    2017-11-14

    Trajectories of gender identity were examined from Grade 6 (M age  = 11.9 years) to Grade 9 in European French (n = 570) and North African French (n = 534) adolescents, and gender and ethnic group differences were assessed in these trajectories. In Grade 6, boys of both ethnic groups reported higher levels of gender typicality and felt pressure for gender conformity than girls. European French girls and boys and North African French girls reported decreasing gender typicality from Grade 6 to Grade 9, whereas North African French boys did not change. Felt pressure decreased among girls, did not change in European French boys, and increased in North African French boys. Ethnic and gender differences in gender identity development are discussed. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  17. Mother-child play in children with Down syndrome and typical development

    PubMed Central

    Venuti, P.; de Falco, S.; Esposito, G.; Bornstein, Marc H.

    2014-01-01

    The present study compares child solitary and collaborative play with mother in 21 children with Down syndrome (DS) and 33 mental-age-matched typically developing (TD) children. In solitary play, children with DS showed less exploratory but similar symbolic play compared to TD children. From solitary to collaborative play, children with DS increased their exploratory play attaining the same level as TD children; Pretense significantly increased from solitary to collaborative play only in TD children . Differences between mothers’ play in the two groups mirrored those between their children. Child and mother play in both groups showed similar attunement and synchrony. Mothers contribute to the play development of children with DS through their own adaptation to their children’s limitations and potentialities alike. PMID:19642713

  18. Engaging with the Self: Mirror Behaviour in Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reddy, Vasudevi; Williams, Emma; Costantini, Cristina; Lan, Britta

    2010-01-01

    Children with autism achieve mirror self-recognition appropriate to developmental age, but are nonetheless reported to have problems in other aspects of a sense of self. We observed behaviour in the mirror in 12 pre-school children with autism, 13 pre-school children with Down syndrome (DS) and 13 typically developing (TD) toddlers. Reliable…

  19. Variable Use of Features Associated with African American English by Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackson, Janice E.; Pearson, Barbara Zurer

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: The well-known decline in the use of African American English (AAE) features by groups of school-aged AAE-speaking children was reexamined for patterns of overt-, zero-, and mixed-marking for individual features and individual speakers. Methods: Seven hundred twenty-nine typically developing children between the ages of 4 and 12--511…

  20. Attractiveness for Younger Generation of Ostrava - Jih Housing Area Developed in Socialist Era: Through Interviews with the Inhabitants (Ostrava-City, Czech Republic)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanaka, Yuno; Kanki, Kiyoko

    2017-10-01

    Ostrava city had developed as an industrial city in socialist era but now faces to deindustrialization. Ostrava-Jih is one of the housing areas developed in the socialist era. In this paper, the attractiveness of Ostrava-Jih for younger generation was showed by interview with inhabitants. As a result, the accessibility to nature around the housing estate, commercial facilities and public facilities, reasonable rent and housing price were evaluated. Besides, the inhabitants have done some activities for making their neighbourhoods more attractive.

  1. Polygenic risk for psychiatric disorders correlates with executive function in typical development.

    PubMed

    Schork, A J; Brown, T T; Hagler, D J; Thompson, W K; Chen, C-H; Dale, A M; Jernigan, T L; Akshoomoff, N

    2018-04-16

    Executive functions are a diverse and critical suite of cognitive abilities that are often disrupted in individuals with psychiatric disorders. Despite their moderate to high heritability, little is known about the molecular genetic factors that contribute to variability in executive functions and how these factors may be related to those that predispose to psychiatric disorders. We examined the relationship between polygenic risk scores built from large genome-wide association studies of psychiatric disorders and executive functioning in typically developing children. In our discovery sample (N = 417), consistent with previous reports on general cognitive abilities, polygenic risk for autism spectrum disorder was associated with better performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort test from the NIH Cognition Toolbox, with the largest effect in the youngest children. Polygenic risk for major depressive disorder was associated with poorer performance on the Flanker test in the same sample. This second association replicated for performance on the Penn Conditional Exclusion Test in an independent cohort (N = 3681). Our results suggest that the molecular genetic factors contributing to variability in executive function during typical development are at least partially overlapping with those associated with psychiatric disorders, although larger studies and further replication are needed. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

  2. Bridge Building and Other Possible Metaphors for Patching over Discrepancies between Typical and Atypical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chandler, Michael

    2016-01-01

    The next several pages are intended as a "Commentary" on the six target articles bundled together as a Special Issue of the "Journal of Cognition and Development"--literature reviews and research reports all intended to "build bridges" between the study of cognitive development in typical and atypical populations.

  3. Masculine Traits and Depressive Symptoms in Older and Younger Men and Women.

    PubMed

    Price, Elizabeth C; Gregg, Jeffrey J; Smith, Merideth D; Fiske, Amy

    2018-01-01

    Evidence suggests that men who strongly endorse masculine traits display an atypical presentation of depression, including more externalizing symptoms (e.g., anger or substance use), but fewer typical, internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressed mood or crying). This phenomenon has not been adequately explored in older adults or women. The current study used the externalizing subscale of the Masculine Depression Scale in older and younger men and women to detect atypical symptoms. It was predicted that individuals who more strongly endorsed masculine traits would have higher scores on the measure of externalizing symptoms relative to a measure of typical depressive symptoms Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale. It was anticipated that results would differ by age-group but not by gender. Multigroup path analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The hypothesized path model, in which endorsement of masculine traits was associated with lower scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and with scores on the externalizing, but not internalizing, factor of the Masculine Depression Scale, fit the data well. Results differed significantly by age-group and gender. Masculine individuals reported lower levels of typical depressive symptoms relative to externalizing symptoms, but further research is needed within age- and gender groups. Results are consistent with the gendered responding framework and suggest that current assessment tools, which tend to focus on internalizing symptoms of depression, may not detect depression in individuals who endorse masculine traits.

  4. Masculine Traits and Depressive Symptoms in Older and Younger Men and Women

    PubMed Central

    Price, Elizabeth C.; Gregg, Jeffrey J.; Smith, Merideth D.; Fiske, Amy

    2015-01-01

    Evidence suggests that men who strongly endorse masculine traits display an atypical presentation of depression, including more externalizing symptoms (e.g., anger or substance use), but fewer typical, internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressed mood or crying). This phenomenon has not been adequately explored in older adults or women. The current study used the externalizing subscale of the Masculine Depression Scale in older and younger men and women to detect atypical symptoms. It was predicted that individuals who more strongly endorsed masculine traits would have higher scores on the measure of externalizing symptoms relative to a measure of typical depressive symptoms Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale. It was anticipated that results would differ by age-group but not by gender. Multigroup path analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The hypothesized path model, in which endorsement of masculine traits was associated with lower scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale and with scores on the externalizing, but not internalizing, factor of the Masculine Depression Scale, fit the data well. Results differed significantly by age-group and gender. Masculine individuals reported lower levels of typical depressive symptoms relative to externalizing symptoms, but further research is needed within age- and gender groups. Results are consistent with the gendered responding framework and suggest that current assessment tools, which tend to focus on internalizing symptoms of depression, may not detect depression in individuals who endorse masculine traits. PMID:26634856

  5. Establishing Language Benchmarks for Children with Typically Developing Language and Children with Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schmitt, Mary Beth; Logan, Jessica A. R.; Tambyraja, Sherine R.; Farquharson, Kelly; Justice, Laura M.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Practitioners, researchers, and policymakers (i.e., stakeholders) have vested interests in children's language growth yet currently do not have empirically driven methods for measuring such outcomes. The present study established language benchmarks for children with typically developing language (TDL) and children with language…

  6. Social analogical reasoning in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing peers.

    PubMed

    Green, Adam E; Kenworthy, Lauren; Gallagher, Natalie M; Antezana, Ligia; Mosner, Maya G; Krieg, Samantha; Dudley, Katherina; Ratto, Allison; Yerys, Benjamin E

    2017-05-01

    Analogical reasoning is an important mechanism for social cognition in typically developing children, and recent evidence suggests that some forms of analogical reasoning may be preserved in autism spectrum disorder. An unanswered question is whether children with autism spectrum disorder can apply analogical reasoning to social information. In all, 92 children with autism spectrum disorder completed a social content analogical reasoning task presented via photographs of real-world social interactions. Autism spectrum disorder participants exhibited performance that was well above chance and was not significantly worse than age- and intelligence quotient-matched typically developing children. Investigating the relationship of social content analogical reasoning performance to age in this cross-sectional dataset indicated similar developmental trajectories in the autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children groups. These findings provide new support for intact analogical reasoning in autism spectrum disorder and have theoretical implications for analogy as a metacognitive skill that may be at least partially dissociable from general deficits in processing social content. As an initial study of social analogical reasoning in children with autism spectrum disorder, this study focused on a basic research question with limited ecological validity. Evidence that children with autism spectrum disorder can apply analogical reasoning ability to social content may have long-range applied implications for exploring how this capacity might be channeled to improve social cognition in daily life.

  7. Autistic Traits and Brain Activation during Face-to-Face Conversations in Typically Developed Adults

    PubMed Central

    Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

    2011-01-01

    Background Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. Methodology We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Principal Findings Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Conclusions Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically

  8. Autistic traits and brain activation during face-to-face conversations in typically developed adults.

    PubMed

    Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

    2011-01-01

    Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically developed participants with higher levels of autistic

  9. Voluntary Orienting among Children and Adolescents with Down Syndrome and MA-Matched Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goldman, Karen J.; Flanagan, Tara; Shulman, Cory; Enns, James T.; Burack, Jacob A.

    2005-01-01

    A forced-choice reaction-time (RT) task was used to examine voluntary visual orienting among children and adolescents with trisomy 21 Down syndrome and typically developing children matched at an MA of approximately 5.6 years, an age when the development of orienting abilities reaches optimal adult-like efficiency. Both groups displayed faster…

  10. Comprehension of wh-questions precedes their production in typical development and autism spectrum disorders

    PubMed Central

    Goodwin, Anthony; Fein, Deborah; Naigles, Letitia R.

    2011-01-01

    Lay Abstract Children with autism produce few wh-questions, compared to their typically developing peers. It is unclear if this is because of social-pragmatic difficulties, or if they have not yet learned the grammar for asking wh-questions. If children do not know how to use grammatical rules to produce questions, they might simply repeat sentences that they have heard without completely understanding them first. We visited the homes of 15 children with autism and 18 typically developing children with similar language abilities, across a three-year period. At each visit, children watched a video that depicted an apple hitting a flower and keys hitting a book. The children were then shown the items side-by-side on the screen and the audio asked “what hit the flower?” and “what did the keys hit?” We filmed the children’s eye movements and analyzed how long they looked at the named item, compared to when they heard “where is the flower/keys?” At each visit, we also filmed a 30-minute mother-child play session and analyzed the types of questions that the children asked. Children with autism showed comprehension of wh-questions at a later age than typically developing children, but at a similar level of overall language development. Neither group produced wh-questions before they had demonstrated that they understood the underlying grammatical rules. Therefore, children with autism seem to process wh-questions in the same way as their typically developing peers, just at a later age. This paper discusses the implications of our findings for the language development of children with autism. Scientific Abstract Children with autism (ASD) rarely produce wh-questions (e.g., “What hit the book?”) in naturalistic speech. It is unclear if this is due to social-pragmatic difficulties, or if grammatical deficits are also involved. If grammar is impaired, production of wh-questions by rote memorization might precede comprehension of similar forms. In a

  11. Mental health among younger and older caregivers of dementia patients.

    PubMed

    Koyama, Asuka; Matsushita, Masateru; Hashimoto, Mamoru; Fujise, Noboru; Ishikawa, Tomohisa; Tanaka, Hibiki; Hatada, Yutaka; Miyagawa, Yusuke; Hotta, Maki; Ikeda, Manabu

    2017-03-01

    Caregiver burden in dementia is an important issue, but few studies have examined the mental health of younger and older family caregivers by comparing them with age- and gender-matched community residents. We aimed to compare the mental health of dementia caregivers with that of community residents and to clarify factors related to mental health problems in younger and older caregivers. We studied 104 dementia caregivers; 46 were younger (<65 years) and 58 were older (≥65 years). A total of 104 community residents who were matched for age and gender were selected. We compared depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for younger participants; Geriatric Depression Scale for older participants), health-related quality of life (QOL) short-form health survey (SF-8), sleep problems, and suicidal ideation between the caregivers and community residents by age. Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, activities of daily living (ADL), and instrumental ADL were assessed among patients with dementia using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Physical Self-Maintenance Scale, and Lawton Instrumental ADL Scale, respectively. According to SF-8 results, both younger and older caregivers had significantly worse mental QOL than community residents (younger caregivers: 46.3 vs community residents: 49.7, P = 0.017; older caregivers: 48.2 vs community residents: 51.1, P = 0.024) but were not more depressive. Sleep problems were significantly more frequent in younger caregivers (39.1%) than in community residents (17.0%) (P = 0.017). Multiple regression analysis revealed that caregivers' deteriorated mental QOL was associated with patients' behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in younger caregivers and with dementia patients' instrumental ADL and female gender in older caregivers. Dementia caregivers had a lower mental QOL than community residents. To maintain caregivers' mental QOL, it is necessary to provide younger

  12. fMRI and MEG in the study of typical and atypical cognitive development.

    PubMed

    Taylor, M J; Donner, E J; Pang, E W

    2012-01-01

    The tremendous changes in brain structure over childhood are critical to the development of cognitive functions. Neuroimaging provides a means of linking these brain-behaviour relations, as task protocols can be adapted for use with young children to assess the development of cognitive functions in both typical and atypical populations. This paper reviews some of our research using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional MRI (fMRI) in the study of cognitive development, with a focus on frontal lobe functions. Working memory for complex abstract patterns showed clear development in terms of the recruitment of frontal regions, seen with fMRI, with indications of strategy differences across the age range, from 6 to 35 years of age. Right hippocampal involvement was also evident in these n-back tasks, demonstrating its involvement in recognition in simple working memory protocols. Children born very preterm (7 to 9 years of age) showed reduced fMRI activation particularly in the precuneus and right hippocampal regions relative to control children. In a large normative n-back study (n=90) with upright and inverted faces, MEG data also showed right hippocampal activation that was present across the age range; frontal sources were evident only from 10 years of age. Other studies have investigated the development of set shifting, an executive function that is often deficit in atypical populations. fMRI showed recruitment of frontal areas, including the insula, that have significantly different patterns in children (7 to 14 years of age) with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing children, indicating that successful performance implicated differing strategies in these two groups of children. These types of studies will help our understanding of both normal brain-behaviour development and cognitive dysfunction in atypically developing populations. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  13. Accounting for the listener: comparing the production of contrastive intonation in typically-developing speakers and speakers with autism.

    PubMed

    Kaland, Constantijn; Swerts, Marc; Krahmer, Emiel

    2013-09-01

    The present research investigates what drives the prosodic marking of contrastive information. For example, a typically developing speaker of a Germanic language like Dutch generally refers to a pink car as a "PINK car" (accented words in capitals) when a previously mentioned car was red. The main question addressed in this paper is whether contrastive intonation is produced with respect to the speaker's or (also) the listener's perspective on the preceding discourse. Furthermore, this research investigates the production of contrastive intonation by typically developing speakers and speakers with autism. The latter group is investigated because people with autism are argued to have difficulties accounting for another person's mental state and exhibit difficulties in the production and perception of accentuation and pitch range. To this end, utterances with contrastive intonation are elicited from both groups and analyzed in terms of function and form of prosody using production and perception measures. Contrary to expectations, typically developing speakers and speakers with autism produce functionally similar contrastive intonation as both groups account for both their own and their listener's perspective. However, typically developing speakers use a larger pitch range and are perceived as speaking more dynamically than speakers with autism, suggesting differences in their use of prosodic form.

  14. Structure and coherence of reasoning ability in Down Syndrome adults and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Natsopoulo, D; Christou, C; Koutselini, M; Raftopoulos, A; Karefillidou, C

    2002-01-01

    The present study investigates the ability of Down Syndrome (DS) adults to reason: (a) deductively with transitivity (linear and reverse relations) and categorical syllogisms (all-some relations); (b) inductively with classical verbal analogies and non-verbal analogical reasoning (Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices); and (c) to retain information in short-term memory. The results have shown that: (i) The Down Syndrome adults did not differ from typically developing children, matched on expressive and verbal ability, in transitivity and non-verbal analogical thinking; (ii) they differed in categorical reasoning, classical verbal analogies and short-term memory. Application of a structural model demonstrated that, despite differences in slope means in the three measures, the structure of functioning within-and-across all domains of cognition tests and its growth pattern, equally reliable and coherent, goes in parallel for the Down Syndrome adults and the typically developing children. The results are discussed within the context of the two-group developmental and difference approach.

  15. Precursors to language development in typically and atypically developing infants and toddlers: the importance of embracing complexity.

    PubMed

    D'Souza, Dean; D'Souza, Hana; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

    2017-05-01

    In order to understand how language abilities emerge in typically and atypically developing infants and toddlers, it is important to embrace complexity in development. In this paper, we describe evidence that early language development is an experience-dependent process, shaped by diverse, interconnected, interdependent developmental mechanisms, processes, and abilities (e.g. statistical learning, sampling, functional specialization, visual attention, social interaction, motor ability). We also present evidence from our studies on neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome) that variations in these factors significantly contribute to language delay. Finally, we discuss how embracing complexity, which involves integrating data from different domains and levels of description across developmental time, may lead to a better understanding of language development and, critically, lead to more effective interventions for cases when language develops atypically.

  16. Immunization Uptake in Younger Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kuwaik, Ghassan Abu; Roberts, Wendy; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Bryson, Susan; Smith, Isabel M.; Szatmari, Peter; Modi, Bonnie M.; Tanel, Nadia; Brian, Jessica

    2014-01-01

    Background: Parental concerns persist that immunization increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder, resulting in the potential for reduced uptake by parents of younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder ("younger sibs"). Objective: To compare immunization uptake by parents for their younger child relative to their…

  17. Profiles of Vocal Development in Young Cochlear Implant Recipients

    PubMed Central

    Ertmer, David J.; Young, Nancy M.; Nathani, Suneeti

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine prelinguistic vocal development in very young cochlear implant recipients. A prospective longitudinal research design was used to observe the sequence and time-course of vocal development in seven children who were implanted between 10 and 36 months of age. Speech samples were collected twice before implant activation and on a monthly basis thereafter for up to 2 years. Children’s vocalizations were classified according to the levels of the Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development- Revised (SAEVD-R; Nathani, Ertmer, & Stark, in press). The main findings were (a) six of seven children made advancements in vocal development after implantation, (b) children implanted between 12 and 36 months progressed through SAEVD-R levels in the predicted sequence whereas a child implanted at a younger age showed a different sequence, (c) milestones in vocal development were often achieved with fewer months of hearing experience than observed in typically developing infants and appeared to be influenced by age at implantation, and (d) in general, children implanted at younger ages completed vocal development at younger chronological ages than those implanted later in life. Clinical indicators of benefit from implant use were also identified. PMID:17463237

  18. [A clinical study on pulmonary tuberculosis in younger age groups].

    PubMed

    Takahara, M; Suzuki, T; Toyota, E; Kobayashi, N; Kawada, H; Kudoh, K

    2000-04-01

    In 1997, the number of newly registered patients with pulmonary tuberculosis increased, compared with that in 1996, in Japan. The majority of the increase were occupied by elder patients 70 years of age or higher. But in younger group less than 30 years old, a reduction in the incidence of tuberculosis had been slowed down, until 1996. The purpose of this report is to elucidate the characteristics of these younger patients. 139 cases younger than 30 years of age, who were hospitalized in the tuberculous ward of IMCJ from April 1995 to March 1998, were investigated, and were compared with the control group (557 cases), 30-79 years old who were hospitalized during the same period. In the younger group, the proportion of women cases, discovered by health examination, foreigners, and contact with TB patients in the past was significantly higher than in the control group. But there were no difference between the both groups, concerning the proportion of those spending irregular life or living alone. The proportion of sputa smear negative cases was significantly higher in the younger group than in the control. For early diagnosis of TB among younger group, the application of bronchofiberscopy and nucleic acid diagnostic method, are encouraged.

  19. Word Problem Solving of Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Students with Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bae, Young Seh

    2013-01-01

    Mathematical Word Problem Solving of Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Students with Typical Development Young Seh Bae This study investigated mathematical word problem solving and the factors associated with the solution paths adopted by two groups of participants (N=40), students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and typically…

  20. Dietary Patterns and Body Mass Index in Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, E. Whitney; Must, Aviva; Anderson, Sarah E.; Curtin, Carol; Scampini, Renee; Maslin, Melissa; Bandini, Linda

    2012-01-01

    To determine whether dietary patterns (juice and sweetened non-dairy beverages, fruits, vegetables, fruits and vegetables, snack foods, and kid's meals) and associations between dietary patterns and body mass index (BMI) differed between 53 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 58 typically developing children, ages 3-11, multivariate…

  1. Intelligibility of emotional speech in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Dupuis, Kate; Pichora-Fuller, M Kathleen

    2014-01-01

    Little is known about the influence of vocal emotions on speech understanding. Word recognition accuracy for stimuli spoken to portray seven emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, neutral, happiness, and pleasant surprise) was tested in younger and older listeners. Emotions were presented in either mixed (heterogeneous emotions mixed in a list) or blocked (homogeneous emotion blocked in a list) conditions. Three main hypotheses were tested. First, vocal emotion affects word recognition accuracy; specifically, portrayals of fear enhance word recognition accuracy because listeners orient to threatening information and/or distinctive acoustical cues such as high pitch mean and variation. Second, older listeners recognize words less accurately than younger listeners, but the effects of different emotions on intelligibility are similar across age groups. Third, blocking emotions in list results in better word recognition accuracy, especially for older listeners, and reduces the effect of emotion on intelligibility because as listeners develop expectations about vocal emotion, the allocation of processing resources can shift from emotional to lexical processing. Emotion was the within-subjects variable: all participants heard speech stimuli consisting of a carrier phrase followed by a target word spoken by either a younger or an older talker, with an equal number of stimuli portraying each of seven vocal emotions. The speech was presented in multi-talker babble at signal to noise ratios adjusted for each talker and each listener age group. Listener age (younger, older), condition (mixed, blocked), and talker (younger, older) were the main between-subjects variables. Fifty-six students (Mage= 18.3 years) were recruited from an undergraduate psychology course; 56 older adults (Mage= 72.3 years) were recruited from a volunteer pool. All participants had clinically normal pure-tone audiometric thresholds at frequencies ≤3000 Hz. There were significant main effects of

  2. Peer Social Skills and Theory of Mind in Children with Autism, Deafness, or Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peterson, Candida; Slaughter, Virginia; Moore, Chris; Wellman, Henry M.

    2016-01-01

    Consequences of theory of mind (ToM) development for daily social lives of children are uncertain. Five to 13-year-olds (N = 195) with typical development, autism, or deafness (both native and late signers) took ToM tests and their teachers reported on their social skills for peer interaction (e.g., leadership, group entry). Groups differed in…

  3. Group typicality, group loyalty and cognitive development.

    PubMed

    Patterson, Meagan M

    2014-09-01

    Over the course of childhood, children's thinking about social groups changes in a variety of ways. Developmental Subjective Group Dynamics (DSGD) theory emphasizes children's understanding of the importance of conforming to group norms. Abrams et al.'s study, which uses DSGD theory as a framework, demonstrates the social cognitive skills underlying young elementary school children's thinking about group norms. Future research on children's thinking about groups and group norms should explore additional elements of this topic, including aspects of typicality beyond loyalty. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  4. Dense home-based recordings reveal typical and atypical development of tense/aspect in a child with delayed language development.

    PubMed

    Chin, Iris; Goodwin, Matthew S; Vosoughi, Soroush; Roy, Deb; Naigles, Letitia R

    2018-01-01

    Studies investigating the development of tense/aspect in children with developmental disorders have focused on production frequency and/or relied on short spontaneous speech samples. How children with developmental disorders use future forms/constructions is also unknown. The current study expands this literature by examining frequency, consistency, and productivity of past, present, and future usage, using the Speechome Recorder, which enables collection of dense, longitudinal audio-video recordings of children's speech. Samples were collected longitudinally in a child who was previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, but at the time of the study exhibited only language delay [Audrey], and a typically developing child [Cleo]. While Audrey was comparable to Cleo in frequency and productivity of tense/aspect use, she was atypical in her consistency and production of an unattested future form. Examining additional measures of densely collected speech samples may reveal subtle atypicalities that are missed when relying on only few typical measures of acquisition.

  5. Comparison of Physical Activity between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bandini, Linda G.; Gleason, James; Curtin, Carol; Lividini, Keith; Anderson, Sarah E.; Cermak, Sharon A.; Maslin, Melissa; Must, Aviva

    2013-01-01

    Regular physical activity is important for promoting health and well-being; however, physical activity behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have received little attention. We compared physical activity levels among 53 children with ASD and 58 typically developing children aged 3-11 years who participated in the Children's…

  6. Assessing Children with Autism, Mental Retardation, and Typical Development Using the Playground Observation Checklist

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ingram, Daniel H.; Mayes, Susan Dickerson; Troxell, Lucinda B.; Calhoun, Susan L.

    2007-01-01

    Elementary school children with normal intelligence and autism (n = 20), mental retardation and no autism (n = 24), and typical development (n = 37) were observed for 15 minutes during recess at school. Ten behaviors were scored as present or absent using the Playground Observation Checklist. Children with autism were distinguished from children…

  7. Anxiety and Depression in Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, Reading Disabilities, or Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mammarella, Irene C.; Ghisi, Marta; Bomba, Monica; Bottesi, Gioia; Caviola, Sara; Broggi, Fiorenza; Nacinovich, Renata

    2016-01-01

    The main goal of the present study was to shed further light on the psychological characteristics of children with different learning disability profiles aged between 8 and 11 years, attending from third to sixth grade. Specifically, children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD), reading disabilities (RD), or a typical development (TD) were…

  8. A Sentence Repetition Task for Catalan-Speaking Typically-Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment

    PubMed Central

    Gavarró, Anna

    2017-01-01

    It is common to find that so-called minority languages enjoy fewer (if any) diagnostic tools than the so-called majority languages. This has repercussions for the detection and proper assessment of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) brought up in these languages. With a view to remedy this situation for Catalan, I developed a sentence repetition task to assess grammatical maturity in school-age children; in current practice, Catalan-speaking children are assessed with tests translated from Spanish, with disregard of the fact that the markers of SLI may differ substantially from one language to another, even between closely related languages. The test proposed here is inspired by SASIT [School-Age Sentence Imitation Test – English], designed for English by Marinis et al. (2011); some of the constructions targeted are challenging in a subset of languages, but not others, and are included because they are indeed affected in Catalan SLI; other constructions appear to be disrupted universally. The test involves canonical SVO sentences, sentences with third person accusative clitics (known to be problematic in Catalan SLI, but not in Spanish), passives, wh- interrogatives, subordinate clauses, subject and object relatives and conditionals. The test was administered to thirty typically developing 6- and 7-year-olds (as reported in Gavarró et al., 2012b), and five children diagnosed with SLI (mean age 10;7). The results of the task were scored under two systems: (i) identical vs. non-identical repetition and (ii) identical, grammatical and ungrammatical repetition, with detail regarding the error type. The results for typically developing and SLI children showed differences between the groups: identical repetition was found in 88.9% of cases for typically developing children but only 48% for SLI children. Ungrammatical productions were higher for the SLI group, and so were grammatical but different repetitions, a trend which was found in every child

  9. Attitudes toward Younger and Older Adults: The German Aging Semantic Differential

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gluth, Sebastian; Ebner, Natalie C.; Schmiedek, Florian

    2010-01-01

    The present study used the German Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) to assess attitudes toward younger and older adults in a heterogeneous sample of n = 151 younger and n = 143 older adults. The questionnaire was administered in two versions, one referring to the evaluation of younger adults, the other to the evaluation of older adults.…

  10. How Arousal Affects Younger and Older Adults' Memory Binding

    PubMed Central

    Nashiro, Kaoru; Mather, Mara

    2009-01-01

    A number of recent studies have shown that associative memory for within-item features is enhanced for emotionally arousing items, whereas arousal-enhanced binding is not seen for associations between distinct items (for a review see Mather, 2007). The costs and benefits of arousal in memory binding have been examined for younger adults but not for older adults. The present experiment examined whether arousal would enhance younger and older adults' within-item and between-item memory binding. The results revealed that arousal improved younger adults' within-item memory binding but not that of older adults. Arousal worsened both groups' between-item memory binding. PMID:21240821

  11. How arousal affects younger and older adults' memory binding.

    PubMed

    Nashiro, Kaoru; Mather, Mara

    2011-01-01

    A number of recent studies have shown that associative memory for within-item features is enhanced for emotionally arousing items, whereas arousal-enhanced binding is not seen for associations between distinct items (for a review, see Mather, 2007, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 33-52). The costs and benefits of arousal in memory binding have been examined for younger adults but not for older adults. The present experiment examined whether arousal would enhance younger and older adults' within-item and between-item memory binding. The results revealed that arousal improved younger adults' within-item memory binding but not that of older adults. Arousal worsened both groups' between-item memory binding.

  12. Younger Dryas glaciers in the High Atlas, Morocco

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hughes, Philip; Fink, David

    2016-04-01

    Twelve cirque glaciers formed during the Younger Dryas on the mountains of Aksoual (3912 m a.s.l.) and Adrar el Hajj (3129 m a.s.l.) in the Marrakesh High Atlas. Moraines in two separate cirques on these mountains have been dated using 10Be and 36Cl exposure dating. In both cirques the age scatter is relatively small (13.8-10.1 ka) and all ages overlap within error with the Younger Dryas (12.9-11.7 ka). The glaciers were small and covered <2 km2 and formed on north-facing slopes. However, the altitudinal range of the glaciers was very large, with equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) ranging from 2470 and 3560 m. This large range is attributed to local topoclimatic factors with the lowest glacier (confirmed as Younger Dryas in age by 3 exposure ages) occupying a very steep cirque floor where a combination of steep glacier gradient and a large potential avalanche catchment enabled its low-lying position. This indicates that caution should be taken when using single glacier sites for reconstructing regional palaeoclimate, especially those formed in steep catchments that have strong topoclimatic controls. The average ELA of the twelve Younger Dryas glaciers was c. 3109 m a.s.l. (St Dev = 325 m) and this represents an ELA depression of > 1000 m from the modern theoretical regional ELA. Under precipitation values similar to today this would require a mean annual temperature depression of 9°C. Moreover, the glacier-climate modelling indicates that it is very unlikely that climate was drier than today during the Younger Dryas in the Marrakesh High Atlas.

  13. Media use by children younger than 2 years.

    PubMed

    Brown, Ari

    2011-11-01

    In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement addressing media use in children. The purpose of that statement was to educate parents about the effects that media--both the amount and the content--may have on children. In one part of that statement, the AAP recommended that "pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of two years." The wording of the policy specifically discouraged media use in this age group, although it is frequently misquoted by media outlets as no media exposure in this age group. The AAP believed that there were significantly more potential negative effects of media than positive ones for this age group and, thus, advised families to thoughtfully consider media use for infants. This policy statement reaffirms the 1999 statement with respect to media use in infants and children younger than 2 years and provides updated research findings to support it. This statement addresses (1) the lack of evidence supporting educational or developmental benefits for media use by children younger than 2 years, (2) the potential adverse health and developmental effects of media use by children younger than 2 years, and (3) adverse effects of parental media use (background media) on children younger than 2 years.

  14. Anticipatory Action Planning Increases from 3 to 10 Years of Age in Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jongbloed-Pereboom, Marjolein; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, Maria W. G.; Saraber-Schiphorst, Nicole; Craje, Celine; Steenbergen, Bert

    2013-01-01

    The primary aim of this study was to assess the development of action planning in a group of typically developing children aged 3 to 10 years (N = 351). The second aim was to assess reliability of the action planning task and to relate the results of the action planning task to results of validated upper limb motor performance tests. Participants…

  15. Longitudinal mediators of social problem solving in spina bifida and typical development.

    PubMed

    Landry, Susan H; Taylor, Heather B; Swank, Paul R; Barnes, Marcia; Juranek, Jenifer

    2013-05-01

    The current study examined the role of early executive functions (EF) and social language (SL) as well as responsive parenting as mediators of the effect of group on social problem-solving skills at 7 years of age for children with spina bifida and typically developing children. A mediation analysis was used to determine if the effect of having spina bifida on school age social problem-solving skills was mediated through the effect of group on EF/SL at 3 years of age and responsive parenting at 12 and 18 months. As part of a larger longitudinal study, 103 infants (n = 49 with spina bifida; n = 54 typically developing) received measures of EF/SL at 3 years of age and mother-infant play interactions at 12 and 18 months of age were coded for a range of responsive parenting behaviors. Social problem-solving skills were measured with a game-like observational task at 7 years of age. Group had a direct relation with later social problem-solving as well as an indirect relation through early EF/SL skills that, in turn, had a direct relation with later social problem solving. An indirect effect of responsive parenting on later social skills also was found through a direct effect on EF/SL skills. Early precursors of school age difficulties with social problem solving observed for children with spina bifida can be explained, in part, by difficulties in the first 3 years of life with EF/SL. Early responsive parenting appears to positively affect the development of these EF/SL skills. Implications for early intervention are an outcome of this study.

  16. Optimism for the Future in Younger and Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Durbin, Kelly A; Barber, Sarah J; Brown, Maddalena; Mather, Mara

    2018-01-09

    Research has suggested that older adults are less optimistic about their future than younger adults; however, a limitation of prior studies is that younger and older adults were forecasting to different ages and stages of life. To address this, we investigated whether there are age differences in future optimism when people project to the exact same age. We also tested whether optimism differs when projecting one's own future versus another person's future. Participants were 285 younger and 292 older adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed writing and word-rating tasks in which they imagined their own future in 15 years, their own future at age 85, or the average person's future at age 85. Younger adults were more optimistic than older adults about their own future in 15 years. In contrast, both age groups were similarly optimistic about their future at age 85 and expected it to be more positive than others' future at age 85. Contrary to previous research, younger and older adults had comparable future forecasts when projecting to the exact same age. These findings emphasize the need to consider age and stage of life when examining age differences in future optimism. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  17. OCCURRENCE OF COLORECTAL ADENOMAS IN YOUNGER ADULTS: AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC NECROPSY STUDY

    PubMed Central

    Pendergrass, Cheryl J.; Edelstein, Daniel L.; Hylind, Linda M.; Phillips, Blaine T.; Iacobuzio-Donahue, Christine; Romans, Katharine; Griffin, Constance A.; Cruz-Correa, Marcia; Tersmette, Anne C.; Offerhaus, G. Johan A.; Giardiello, Francis M.

    2009-01-01

    Background and Aims The colorectal adenoma is the precursor lesion in virtually all colorectal cancers. Occurrence of colorectal adenomas has been studied in older adults but analysis in younger adults is lacking. Methods The prevalence by age, sex, race, and location, and the number of colorectal adenomas detected was investigated using epidemiologic necropsy in 3558 persons aged 20–89 autopsied from 1985 to 2004 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Results were standardized to the general population. Younger adults 20–49 years old were compared to older adults 50 to 89 years old. Results The prevalence of colorectal adenomas in younger adults increased from 1.72% to 3.59% from the 3rd to 5th decade of life and then sharply increased after age 50. In younger adults, adenomas were more prevalent in men than women (RR= 1.09, CI 1.07–1.11) and whites than blacks (RR=1.28, CI 1.26–1.31). Overall, both younger and older adults had predominately left-sided adenomas, but blacks in both age groups had more right-sided adenomas. Occurrence of two or more adenomas in younger adults and five or more in older adults was greater than 2 standard deviations from the mean. Conclusions Colorectal adenomas infrequently occur in younger adults and are more prevalent in the left colon. Irrespective of age, blacks have more right-sided adenomas suggesting need for screening the entire colorectum. Two or more adenomas in younger adults and five or more in older adults represents polyp burden outside the normal expectation. PMID:18558514

  18. The association of gender, age, and intelligence with neuropsychological functioning in young typically developing children: The Generation R study.

    PubMed

    Mous, Sabine E; Schoemaker, Nikita K; Blanken, Laura M E; Thijssen, Sandra; van der Ende, Jan; Polderman, Tinca J C; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; Hofman, Albert; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning; White, Tonya

    2017-01-01

    Although early childhood is a period of rapid neurocognitive development, few studies have assessed neuropsychological functioning in various cognitive domains in young typically developing children. Also, results regarding its association with gender and intelligence are mixed. In 853 typically developing children aged 6 to 10 years old, the association of gender, age, and intelligence with neuropsychological functioning in the domains of attention, executive functioning, language, memory, sensorimotor functioning, and visuospatial processing was explored. Clear positive associations with age were observed. In addition, gender differences were found and showed that girls generally outperformed boys, with the exception of visuospatial tasks. Furthermore, IQ was positively associated with neuropsychological functioning, which was strongest in visuospatial tasks. Performance in different neuropsychological domains was associated with age, gender, and intelligence in young typically developing children, and these factors should be taken into account when assessing neuropsychological functioning in clinical or research settings.

  19. Distinct cortical correlates of autistic versus antisocial traits in a longitudinal sample of typically developing youth

    PubMed Central

    Wallace, Gregory L.; Shaw, Philip; Lee, Nancy Raitano; Clasen, Liv S.; Raznahan, Armin; Lenroot, Rhoshel K.; Martin, Alex; Giedd, Jay N.

    2012-01-01

    In humans, behaviors associated with autism and antisociality, disorders characterized by distinct social impairments, can be viewed as quantitative traits that range from frank impairment to normal variation, as found in the general population. Neuroimaging investigations of autism and antisociality demonstrate diagnostically specific aberrant cortical brain structure. However, little is known about structural brain correlates of social behavior in non-clinical populations. Therefore, we sought to determine if autistic and antisocial traits exhibit dissociable cortical correlates and whether these associations are stable across development among typically developing youth. 323 typically developing youth (age at first scan: mean=10.63, SD=3.71 years) underwent anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (1–6 scans each; total=742 scans), and provided ratings of autistic and antisocial traits. Higher autistic trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex most prominently in right superior temporal sulcus while higher antisocial trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex in primarily bilateral anterior prefrontal cortices. There was no interaction with age, indicating that these brain-behavior associations were stable across development. Using assessments of both subclinical autistic and subclinical antisocial traits within a large longitudinal sample of typically developing youth, we demonstrate dissociable neuroanatomic correlations that parallel those found in the frank clinical disorders of autism (e.g., superior temporal cortex) and antisociality (e.g., anterior prefrontal cortex). Moreover, these correlations appear to be established in early childhood and remain fixed into early adulthood. These results support the dimensional view of psychopathology and provide neural signatures that can serve as informative endophenotypes for future genetic studies. PMID:22492041

  20. Distinct cortical correlates of autistic versus antisocial traits in a longitudinal sample of typically developing youth.

    PubMed

    Wallace, Gregory L; Shaw, Philip; Lee, Nancy Raitano; Clasen, Liv S; Raznahan, Armin; Lenroot, Rhoshel K; Martin, Alex; Giedd, Jay N

    2012-04-04

    In humans, behaviors associated with autism and antisociality, disorders characterized by distinct social impairments, can be viewed as quantitative traits that range from frank impairment to normal variation, as found in the general population. Neuroimaging investigations of autism and antisociality demonstrate diagnostically specific aberrant cortical brain structure. However, little is known about structural brain correlates of social behavior in nonclinical populations. Therefore, we sought to determine whether autistic and antisocial traits exhibit dissociable cortical correlates and whether these associations are stable across development among typically developing youth. Three hundred twenty-three typically developing youth (age at first scan: mean = 10.63, SD = 3.71 years) underwent anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (1-6 scans each; total = 742 scans), and provided ratings of autistic and antisocial traits. Higher autistic trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex most prominently in right superior temporal sulcus while higher antisocial trait ratings were associated with thinner cortex in primarily bilateral anterior prefrontal cortices. There was no interaction with age, indicating that these brain-behavior associations were stable across development. Using assessments of both subclinical autistic and subclinical antisocial traits within a large longitudinal sample of typically developing youth, we demonstrate dissociable neuroanatomic correlations that parallel those found in the frank clinical disorders of autism (e.g., superior temporal cortex) and antisociality (e.g., anterior prefrontal cortex). Moreover, these correlations appear to be established in early childhood and remain fixed into early adulthood. These results support the dimensional view of psychopathology and provide neural signatures that can serve as informative endophenotypes for future genetic studies.

  1. The Relationship between Speech Impairment, Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Judy; Botting, Nicola; Myers, Lucy; Dodd, Barbara

    2011-01-01

    Although children with speech impairment are at increased risk for impaired literacy, many learn to read and spell without difficulty. Around half the children with speech impairment have delayed acquisition, making errors typical of a normally developing younger child (e.g. reducing consonant clusters so that "spoon" is pronounced as…

  2. Sleep Problems of Parents of Typically Developing Children and Parents of Children with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lopez-Wagner, Muriel C.; Hoffman, Charles D.; Sweeney, Dwight P.; Hodge, Danelle; Gilliam, James E.

    2008-01-01

    Few researchers have investigated the relation of children's sleep problems to their parents' sleep problems. Children with autism have been reported to evidence greater sleep problems than do typically developing children (C. D. Hoffman, D. P. Sweeney, J. E. Gilliam, & M. C. Lopez-Wagner, 2006; P. G. William, L. L. Sears, & A. Allard, 2004). In…

  3. Comparison of Sedentary Behaviors between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Must, Aviva; Phillips, Sarah M.; Curtin, Carol; Anderson, Sarah E.; Maslin, Melissa; Lividini, Keith; Bandini, Linda G.

    2014-01-01

    Time spent in sedentary behavior is largely due to time spent engaged with electronic screen media. Little is known about the extent to which sedentary behaviors for children with autism spectrum disorder differ from typically developing children. We used parental report to assess and compare time spent in sedentary behaviors for 53 children with…

  4. Social-Emotional Inhibition of Return in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder versus Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Antezana, Ligia; Mosner, Maya G.; Troiani, Vanessa; Yerys, Benjamin E.

    2016-01-01

    In typical development there is a bias to orient visual attention to social information. Children with ASD do not reliably demonstrate this bias, and the role of attention orienting has not been well studied. We examined attention orienting via the inhibition of return (IOR) mechanism in a spatial cueing task using social-emotional cues; we…

  5. Student–Teacher Relationship Stability Across Early School Years for Children With Intellectual Disability or Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Blacher, Jan; Baker, Bruce L.; Eisenhower, Abbey S.

    2009-01-01

    Student–teacher relationships of 37 children with moderate to borderline intellectual disability and 61 with typical cognitive development were assessed from child ages 6–8 years. Student–teacher relationship quality was moderately stable for the typical development group, but less so for the intellectual disability group. At each assessment these relationships were poorer for children with intellectual disability. Child behavior problems consistently predicted more conflict, whereas social skills predicted more closeness. Accounting for these child characteristics reduced the status group difference to nonsignificance. Earlier student–teacher relationships predicted subsequent changes in child behavior problems and social skills. Student–teacher relationships in the intellectual disability group were significantly lower for children in regular than special classes by age 8. PMID:19928015

  6. Neuromagnetic Vistas into Typical and Atypical Development of Frontal Lobe Functions

    PubMed Central

    Taylor, Margot J.; Doesburg, Sam M.; Pang, Elizabeth W.

    2014-01-01

    The frontal lobes are involved in many higher-order cognitive functions such as social cognition executive functions and language and speech. These functions are complex and follow a prolonged developmental course from childhood through to early adulthood. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is ideal for the study of development of these functions, due to its combination of temporal and spatial resolution which allows the determination of age-related changes in both neural timing and location. There are several challenges for MEG developmental studies: to design tasks appropriate to capture the neurodevelopmental trajectory of these cognitive functions, and to develop appropriate analysis strategies to capture various aspects of neuromagnetic frontal lobe activity. Here, we review our MEG research on social and executive functions, and speech in typically developing children and in two clinical groups – children with autism spectrum disorder and children born very preterm. The studies include facial emotional processing, inhibition, visual short-term memory, speech production, and resting-state networks. We present data from event-related analyses as well as on oscillations and connectivity analyses and review their contributions to understanding frontal lobe cognitive development. We also discuss the challenges of testing young children in the MEG and the development of age-appropriate technologies and paradigms. PMID:24994980

  7. Multimodal interactions in typically and atypically developing children: natural versus artificial environments.

    PubMed

    Giannopulu, Irini

    2013-11-01

    This review addresses the central role played by multimodal interactions in neurocognitive development. We first analyzed our studies of multimodal verbal and nonverbal cognition and emotional interactions within neuronal, that is, natural environments in typically developing children. We then tried to relate them to the topic of creating artificial environments using mobile toy robots to neurorehabilitate severely autistic children. By doing so, both neural/natural and artificial environments are considered as the basis of neuronal organization and reorganization. The common thread underlying the thinking behind this approach revolves around the brain's intrinsic properties: neuroplasticity and the fact that the brain is neurodynamic. In our approach, neural organization and reorganization using natural or artificial environments aspires to bring computational perspectives into cognitive developmental neuroscience.

  8. Longitudinal Direct and Indirect Pathways Linking Older Sibling Competence to the Development of Younger Sibling Competence.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brody, Gene H.; Kim, Sooyeon; Murry, Velma McBride; Brown, Anita C.

    2003-01-01

    Tested links between early adolescent older sibling (OS) and younger sibling (YS) competence in rural African American families. Found that OS competence was stable across time and related to improvements in mothers' psychological functioning from Wave 1 to Wave 2. Mothers' Wave-2 psychological functioning related to Wave-3 involved-supportive…

  9. How retellings shape younger and older adults' memories.

    PubMed

    Barber, Sarah J; Mather, Mara

    2014-04-01

    The way a story is retold influences the way it is later remembered; after retelling an event in a biased manner people subsequently remember the event in line with their distorted retelling. This study tested the hypothesis that this should be especially true for older adults. To test this, older and younger adults retold a story to be entertaining, to be accurate, or did not complete an initial retelling. Later, all participants recalled the story as accurately as possible. On this final test younger adults were unaffected by how they had previously retold the story. In contrast, older adults had better memory for the story's content and structure if they had previously retold the story accurately. Furthermore, for older adults, greater usage of storytelling language during the retelling was associated with lower subsequent recall. In summary, retellings exerted a greater effect on memory in older, compared with younger, adults.

  10. Postural Sway Patterns in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared with Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Memari, Amir Hossein; Ghanouni, Parisa; Gharibzadeh, Shahriar; Eghlidi, Jandark; Ziaee, Vahid; Moshayedi, Pouria

    2013-01-01

    Postural control is a fundamental building block of each child's daily activities. The aim of this study was to compare patterns of postural sway in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with typically developing children (TD). We recruited 21 schoolchildren diagnosed with ASD aged 9-14 and 30 TD pupils aged 8-15. Postural sway parameters…

  11. Children's Responses to the Image of Self, Peer, and Adult: Autism and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanefuji, Wakako; Ohgami, Hidehiro

    2011-01-01

    The typical development (TD) of social cognition could be rooted in the implicit notion that others are like the self. Although many studies show their impairment of social orienting, such a primary notion in children with autistic disorder (AD) has not been known. The present paper examined the responses of children with AD to stimuli such as…

  12. Older (but Not Younger) Siblings Facilitate False Belief Understanding.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ruffman, Ted; Perner, Josef; Naito, Mika; Parkin, Lindsay; Clements, Wendy A.

    1998-01-01

    Four experiments and an analysis of pooled data from English and Japanese children show a linear increase in understanding false beliefs with number of older siblings; no such effect for children younger than 38 months; no helpful effect of younger siblings at any age; no effect of siblings' gender; and no helpful effect of siblings on a source…

  13. Medial gastrocnemius structure and gait kinetics in spastic cerebral palsy and typically developing children: A cross-sectional study.

    PubMed

    Martín Lorenzo, Teresa; Rocon, Eduardo; Martínez Caballero, Ignacio; Lerma Lara, Sergio

    2018-05-01

    To compare medial gastrocnemius muscle-tendon structure, gait propulsive forces, and ankle joint gait kinetics between typically developing children and those with spastic cerebral palsy, and to describe significant associations between structure and function in children with spastic cerebral palsy.A sample of typically developing children (n = 9 /16 limbs) and a sample of children with spastic cerebral palsy (n = 29 /43 limbs) were recruited. Ultrasound and 3-dimensional motion capture were used to assess muscle-tendon structure, and propulsive forces and ankle joint kinetics during gait, respectively.Children with spastic cerebral palsy had shorter fascicles and muscles, and longer Achilles tendons than typically developing children. Furthermore, total negative power and peak negative power at the ankle were greater, while total positive power, peak positive power, net power, total vertical ground reaction force, and peak vertical and anterior ground reaction forces were smaller compared to typically developing children. Correlation analyses revealed that smaller resting ankle joint angles and greater maximum dorsiflexion in children with spastic cerebral palsy accounted for a significant decrease in peak negative power. Furthermore, short fascicles, small fascicle to belly ratios, and large tendon to fascicle ratios accounted for a decrease in propulsive force generation.Alterations observed in the medial gastrocnemius muscle-tendon structure of children with spastic cerebral palsy may impair propulsive mechanisms during gait. Therefore, conventional treatments should be revised on the basis of muscle-tendon adaptations.

  14. Ulcerative colitis followed by the development of typical intestinal Behçet disease: A case report.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Zhenhua; Shu, Xu; Long, Shunhua; Jiang, Xiaozhen; Lu, Nonghua; Zhu, Xuan; Liao, Wangdi

    2018-02-01

    Intestinal Behçet disease (intestinal BD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) share a lot of characteristics, including genetic background, clinical manifestations, and therapeutic strategies, especially the extraintestinal manifestations, such as oral ulcers, arthralgia, eye lesions, skin lesions, etc, but the coexistence of these 2 diseases are uncommon. Behçet disease with gastrointestinal involvement in ulcerative colitis (UC) patient has been reported in just 1 previous case report, but, which can not be diagnosed as definite intestinal BD based on Korean novel diagnositic criteria due to lacking the typical ileocecal ulcer. We present a 23-year-old woman with ulcerative disease who developed typical intestinal BD, which is the first case report of patient with coexisting UC and typical intestinal BD. This patient was diagnosed as coexistence of intestinal BD and UC base on the clinical manifestations, extra intestinal manifestations and typical colonoscopic findings. Steroid and methotrexate were administered. This patient achieved clinical remission and mucosal healing. Coexistence of intestinal BD and UC is uncommon, and the combination with steroid, methotrexate, and 5-aminosalicylic acids is an effective therapy.

  15. Longitudinal Brain Development of Numerical Skills in Typically Developing Children and Children with Developmental Dyscalculia.

    PubMed

    McCaskey, Ursina; von Aster, Michael; Maurer, Urs; Martin, Ernst; O'Gorman Tuura, Ruth; Kucian, Karin

    2017-01-01

    Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning disability affecting the acquisition of numerical-arithmetical skills. Studies report persistent deficits in number processing and aberrant functional activation of the fronto-parietal numerical network in DD. However, the neural development of numerical abilities has been scarcely investigated. The present paper provides a first attempt to investigate behavioral and neural trajectories of numerical abilities longitudinally in typically developing (TD) and DD children. During a study period of 4 years, 28 children (8-11 years) were evaluated twice by means of neuropsychological tests and a numerical order fMRI paradigm. Over time, TD children improved in numerical abilities and showed a consistent and well-developed fronto-parietal network. In contrast, DD children revealed persistent deficits in number processing and arithmetic. Brain imaging results of the DD group showed an age-related activation increase in parietal regions (intraparietal sulcus), pointing to a delayed development of number processing areas. Besides, an activation increase in frontal areas was observed over time, indicating the use of compensatory mechanisms. In conclusion, results suggest a continuation in neural development of number representation in DD, whereas the neural network for simple ordinal number estimation seems to be stable or show only subtle changes in TD children over time.

  16. Longitudinal Brain Development of Numerical Skills in Typically Developing Children and Children with Developmental Dyscalculia

    PubMed Central

    McCaskey, Ursina; von Aster, Michael; Maurer, Urs; Martin, Ernst; O'Gorman Tuura, Ruth; Kucian, Karin

    2018-01-01

    Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning disability affecting the acquisition of numerical-arithmetical skills. Studies report persistent deficits in number processing and aberrant functional activation of the fronto-parietal numerical network in DD. However, the neural development of numerical abilities has been scarcely investigated. The present paper provides a first attempt to investigate behavioral and neural trajectories of numerical abilities longitudinally in typically developing (TD) and DD children. During a study period of 4 years, 28 children (8–11 years) were evaluated twice by means of neuropsychological tests and a numerical order fMRI paradigm. Over time, TD children improved in numerical abilities and showed a consistent and well-developed fronto-parietal network. In contrast, DD children revealed persistent deficits in number processing and arithmetic. Brain imaging results of the DD group showed an age-related activation increase in parietal regions (intraparietal sulcus), pointing to a delayed development of number processing areas. Besides, an activation increase in frontal areas was observed over time, indicating the use of compensatory mechanisms. In conclusion, results suggest a continuation in neural development of number representation in DD, whereas the neural network for simple ordinal number estimation seems to be stable or show only subtle changes in TD children over time. PMID:29354041

  17. The use of near-infrared spectroscopy in the study of typical and atypical development

    PubMed Central

    Vanderwert, Ross E.; Nelson, Charles A.

    2014-01-01

    The use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has grown exponentially over the past decade, particularly among investigators interested in early brain development. The use of this neuroimaging technique has begun to shed light on the development of a variety of sensory, perceptual, linguistic, and social-cognitive functions. Rather than cast a wide net, in this paper we first discuss typical development, focusing on joint attention, face processing, language, and sensorimotor development. We then turn our attention to infants and children whose development has been compromised or who are at risk for atypical development. We conclude our review by critiquing some of the methodological issues that have plagued the extant literature as well as offer suggestions for future research. PMID:24128733

  18. Early Gesture Provides a Helping Hand to Spoken Vocabulary Development for Children with Autism, Down Syndrome, and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Özçaliskan, Seyda; Adamson, Lauren B.; Dimitrova, Nevena; Baumann, Stephanie

    2017-01-01

    Typically developing (TD) children refer to objects uniquely in gesture (e.g., point at a cat) before they produce verbal labels for these objects ("cat"). The onset of such gestures predicts the onset of similar spoken words, showing a strong positive relation between early gestures and early words. We asked whether gesture plays the…

  19. The Effects of Feedback on Memory Strategies of Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Fan; Zhang, Xin; Luo, Meng; Geng, Haiyan

    2016-01-01

    Existing literature suggests that feedback could effectively reduce false memories in younger adults. However, it is unclear whether memory performance in older adults also might be affected by feedback. The current study tested the hypothesis that older adults can use immediate feedback to adjust their memory strategy, similar to younger adults, but after feedback is removed, older adults may not be able to maintain using the memory strategy. Older adults will display more false memories than younger adults due to a reduction in attentional resources. In Study 1, both younger and older adults adjusted gist processing and item-specific processing biases based on the feedback given (i.e., biased and objective feedback). In Study 2 after the feedback was removed, only younger adults with full attention were able to maintain the feedback-shaped memory strategy; whereas, both younger adults with divided attention and older adults had increased false memories after feedback was removed. The findings suggest that environmental support helps older adults as well as younger adults to adopt a memory strategy that demands high attentional resources, but when the support is removed, older adults can no longer maintain such a strategy. PMID:28033327

  20. The Effects of Feedback on Memory Strategies of Younger and Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Fan; Zhang, Xin; Luo, Meng; Geng, Haiyan

    2016-01-01

    Existing literature suggests that feedback could effectively reduce false memories in younger adults. However, it is unclear whether memory performance in older adults also might be affected by feedback. The current study tested the hypothesis that older adults can use immediate feedback to adjust their memory strategy, similar to younger adults, but after feedback is removed, older adults may not be able to maintain using the memory strategy. Older adults will display more false memories than younger adults due to a reduction in attentional resources. In Study 1, both younger and older adults adjusted gist processing and item-specific processing biases based on the feedback given (i.e., biased and objective feedback). In Study 2 after the feedback was removed, only younger adults with full attention were able to maintain the feedback-shaped memory strategy; whereas, both younger adults with divided attention and older adults had increased false memories after feedback was removed. The findings suggest that environmental support helps older adults as well as younger adults to adopt a memory strategy that demands high attentional resources, but when the support is removed, older adults can no longer maintain such a strategy.

  1. The use of conjunctions by children with typical language development.

    PubMed

    Glória, Yasmin Alves Leão; Hanauer, Letícia Pessota; Wiethan, Fernanda Marafiga; Nóro, Letícia Arruda; Mota, Helena Bolli

    2016-07-04

    To investigate the use of conjunctions in the spontaneous speech of three years old children with typical language development, who live in Santa Maria - RS. 45 children, aged 3:0;0 - 3:11;29 (years:months;days) from the database of the Center for the Study of Language and Speech (CELF) participated of this study. The spontaneous speech of each child was transcribed and followed by analysis of the samples to identify the types of conjunctions for each age group. The samples were statistically analyzed using the R software that allowed the evaluation of the number and type of conjunctions used in each age group by comparing them with each other. The data indicated that the higher the age of the child, the greater the number of types of conjunctions used by them. The comparison between age groups showed significant differences when comparing the average number of conjunctions per age group, as well as for additive conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. At age of three the children begin to develop the grammatical use of conjunctions, early appearing additive, adversative and explanatory coordinating conjunctions, and at 3:6 they are able to use the most complex conjunctions, as subordinating conjunctions.

  2. Validation of reaching in a virtual environment in typically developing children and children with mild unilateral cerebral palsy.

    PubMed

    Robert, Maxime T; Levin, Mindy F

    2018-04-01

    To compare three reaching movements made in two planes between a low-cost, game-based virtual reality and a matched physical environment in typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy (CP). To determine if differences in kinematics are related to sensory deficits. An observational study in which 27 children (typically developing, n=17, mean age 13y, [SD] 2y 2mo, range 9y 3mo-17y 2mo; CP, n=10, mean age 13y 8mo, [SD] 1y 8mo, range 11y 1mo-17y 1mo, Manual Ability Classification System levels I-II) performed 15 trials of three gestures in each of a virtual reality and a matched physical environment. Upper-limb and trunk kinematics were recorded using an electromagnetic system (G4, Polhemus, six markers, 120Hz). Compared to the physical environment, movements in virtual reality made by typically developing children were slower (p=0.002), and involved less trunk flexion (p=0.002) and rotation (p=0.026). Children with CP had more curved trajectories (p=0.005) and used less trunk flexion (p=0.003) and rotation (p=0.005). Elbow and shoulder kinematics differed from 2.8% to 155.4% between environments in both groups. Between groups, there were small, clinically insignificant differences with only the vertical gesture being longer in typically developing children. Children with CP who had greater tactile impairment used more trunk displacement. Clinicians and researchers need to be aware of differences in movement variables when setting goals or designing protocols for improving reaching in children with CP using low-cost, game-based virtual reality systems. Upper-limb kinematics differed in each group when reaching in physical versus virtual environments. There were small differences in movements made by children with mild unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) compared to typically developing children. Differences in reaching kinematics should be considered when goal setting using virtual reality interventions for children with mild unilateral CP. © 2018 Mac

  3. Pioglitazone is equally effective for diabetes prevention in older versus younger adults with impaired glucose tolerance.

    PubMed

    Espinoza, Sara E; Wang, Chen-Pin; Tripathy, Devjit; Clement, Stephen C; Schwenke, Dawn C; Banerji, Mary Ann; Bray, George A; Buchanan, Thomas A; Henry, Robert R; Kitabchi, Abbas E; Mudaliar, Sunder; Stentz, Frankie B; Reaven, Peter D; DeFronzo, Ralph A; Musi, Nicolas

    2016-12-01

    To determine the efficacy of pioglitazone to prevent type 2 diabetes in older compared to younger adults with pre-diabetes. Six hundred two participants with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were randomized in double blind fashion to placebo or pioglitazone for diabetes prevention in the ACT NOW study (NEJM 364:1104-1115, 2011). Cox proportional hazard regression was used to compare time to development of diabetes over a mean of 2 years between older (≥61 years) and younger participants. We compared effects of pioglitazone versus placebo on metabolic profiles, inflammatory markers, adipokines, β cell function (disposition index), insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index), and body composition by ANOVA. Diabetes incidence was reduced by 85 % in older and 69 % in younger subjects (p = 0.41). β cell function (disposition index) increased by 35.0 % in the older and 26.7 % in younger subjects (p = 0.83). Insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index) increased by 3.07 (5.2-fold) in older and by 2.54 (3.8-fold) in younger participants (p = 0.58). Pioglitazone more effectively increased adiponectin in older versus younger subjects (22.9 ± 3.2 μg/mL [2.7-fold] vs. 12.7 ± 1.4 μg/mL [2.2-fold], respectively; p = 0.04). Younger subjects tended to have a greater increase in whole body fat mass compared to older subjects (3.6 vs. 3.1 kg; p = 0.061). Younger and older subjects had similar decreases in bone mineral density (0.018 ± 0.0071 vs. 0.0138 ± 0.021 g/cm 2 ). Younger and older pre-diabetic adults taking pioglitazone had similar reductions in conversion to diabetes and older adults had similar or greater improvements in metabolic risk factors, demonstrating that pioglitazone is useful in preventing diabetes in older adults.

  4. The experiences of participating in winter among youths with a physical disability compared with their typically developing peers.

    PubMed

    Lindsay, S; Morales, E; Yantzi, N; Vincent, C; Howell, L; Edwards, G

    2015-11-01

    Having a physical disability and using a wheelchair can create difficulties in navigating the physical and built environment, especially during winter when snow and ice become problematic. Little is known about the experiences of winter among youth who use an assistive mobility device. This study aimed to understand how youth with a physical disability experience winter, compared with typically developing peers. A purposive sample of 25 youths (13 with a physical disability; 12 typically developing) completed a 2-week weather journal and photographs in two Canadian cities during winter. These data were used to guide semi-structured interviews with participants. Youths with disabilities experienced many similar challenges in winter, such as health and safety concerns and accessibility issues, compared with typically developing youth - but to a greater extent. Youths with disabilities reported more challenges going outdoors during winter and negative psychosocial impacts, including loneliness and increased dependence, compared with peers without a disability. They also, however, described developing several adaptive strategies to cope with these challenges. There is a strong need to remove physical and environmental barriers to facilitate the participation and inclusion of youth with disabilities in winter. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. How retellings shape younger and older adults’ memories

    PubMed Central

    Mather, Mara

    2014-01-01

    The way a story is retold influences the way it is later remembered; after retelling an event in a biased manner people subsequently remember the event in line with their distorted retelling. This study tested the hypothesis that this should be especially true for older adults. To test this, older and younger adults retold a story to be entertaining, to be accurate, or did not complete an initial retelling. Later, all participants recalled the story as accurately as possible. On this final test younger adults were unaffected by how they had previously retold the story. In contrast, older adults had better memory for the story’s content and structure if they had previously retold the story accurately. Furthermore, for older adults, greater usage of storytelling language during the retelling was associated with lower subsequent recall. In summary, retellings exerted a greater effect on memory in older, compared with younger, adults. PMID:25436107

  6. Comparison and evaluation of dietary quality between older and younger Mexican-American women.

    PubMed

    Pignotti, Giselle A P; Vega-López, Sonia; Keller, Colleen; Belyea, Michael; Ainsworth, Barbara; Nagle Williams, Allison; Records, Kathie; Coonrod, Dean; Permana, Paska

    2015-10-01

    To compare and evaluate the dietary quality of young and older sedentary Mexican-American women. Understanding key dietary concerns, while considering developmental transition periods and cultural relevance, can provide insight for developing appropriate nutrition interventions. Cross-sectional dietary data were collected using unannounced 24 h diet recalls to assess nutrient intake adequacy (Estimated Average Requirement cut-point method) and dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2010). Mujeres en Acción and Madres para la Salud, two community-based physical activity interventions. Participants were 139 young (28 (sd 6) years) and 124 older (55 (sd 7) years) overweight/obese sedentary Mexican-American women (BMI=25·0-35·0 kg/m2) of low socio-economic status. Older women consumed less Ca, Fe, folate, empty calories and energy from carbohydrate, but more fruit, vegetables, greens and beans, and fibre than younger women (all P<0·05). Over 60 % of all participants had an intake below recommendations for fibre, Ca, vitamin E, vitamin C and folate. Both groups had low total HEI-2010 scores (62 for older and 63 for younger women; NS), with 57 % of older and 48 % of younger women classified as having a poor diet. Despite differences in nutrient requirements according to developmental transition periods (childbearing v. perimenopausal), overall, older and younger Mexican-American women generally had low-quality diets and may benefit from dietary quality improvement.

  7. Thinking about a Limited Future Enhances the Positivity of Younger and Older Adults’ Recall: Support for Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

    PubMed Central

    Barber, Sarah J.; Opitz, Philipp C.; Martins, Bruna; Sakaki, Michiko; Mather, Mara

    2016-01-01

    Compared with younger adults, older adults have a relative preference to attend to and remember positive over negative information. This is known as the “positivity effect,” and researchers have typically evoked socioemotional selectivity theory to explain it. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as people get older they begin to perceive their time left in life as more limited. These reduced time horizons prompt older adults to prioritize achieving emotional gratification and thus exhibit increased positivity in attention and recall. Although this is the most commonly cited explanation of the positivity effect, there is currently a lack of clear experimental evidence demonstrating a link between time horizons and positivity. The goal of the current research was to address this issue. In two separate experiments, we asked participants to complete a writing activity, which directed them to think of time as being either limited or expansive (Experiments 1 and 2) or did not orient them to think about time in a particular manner (Experiment 2). Participants were then shown a series of emotional pictures, which they subsequently tried to recall. Results from both studies showed that regardless of chronological age, thinking about a limited future enhanced the relative positivity of participants’ recall. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 showed that this effect was not driven by changes in mood. Thus, the fact that older adults’ recall is typically more positive than younger adults’ recall may index naturally shifting time horizons and goals with age. PMID:27112461

  8. Thinking about a limited future enhances the positivity of younger and older adults' recall: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory.

    PubMed

    Barber, Sarah J; Opitz, Philipp C; Martins, Bruna; Sakaki, Michiko; Mather, Mara

    2016-08-01

    Compared with younger adults, older adults have a relative preference to attend to and remember positive over negative information. This is known as the "positivity effect," and researchers have typically evoked socioemotional selectivity theory to explain it. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as people get older they begin to perceive their time left in life as more limited. These reduced time horizons prompt older adults to prioritize achieving emotional gratification and thus exhibit increased positivity in attention and recall. Although this is the most commonly cited explanation of the positivity effect, there is currently a lack of clear experimental evidence demonstrating a link between time horizons and positivity. The goal of the current research was to address this issue. In two separate experiments, we asked participants to complete a writing activity, which directed them to think of time as being either limited or expansive (Experiments 1 and 2) or did not orient them to think about time in a particular manner (Experiment 2). Participants were then shown a series of emotional pictures, which they subsequently tried to recall. Results from both studies showed that regardless of chronological age, thinking about a limited future enhanced the relative positivity of participants' recall. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 showed that this effect was not driven by changes in mood. Thus, the fact that older adults' recall is typically more positive than younger adults' recall may index naturally shifting time horizons and goals with age.

  9. Topical Review: Integrating Findings on Direct Observation of Family Communication in Studies Comparing Pediatric Chronic Illness and Typically Developing Samples.

    PubMed

    Murphy, Lexa K; Murray, Caitlin B; Compas, Bruce E

    2017-01-01

    To review research on observed family communication in families with children with chronic illnesses compared with families with healthy, typically developing children, and to integrate findings utilizing a unifying family communication framework. Topical review of studies that have directly observed family communication in pediatric populations and included a typically developing comparison group. Initial findings from 14 studies with diverse approaches to quantifying observed family communication suggest that families with children with chronic illnesses may demonstrate lower levels of warm and structured communication and higher levels of hostile/intrusive and withdrawn communication compared with families with healthy, typically developing children. An integrative framework of family communication may be used in future studies that examine the occurrence, correlates, and mechanisms of family communication in pediatric populations.

  10. Caregivers' suffix frequencies and suffix acquisition by language impaired, late talking, and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Warlaumont, Anne S; Jarmulowicz, Linda

    2012-11-01

    Acquisition of regular inflectional suffixes is an integral part of grammatical development in English and delayed acquisition of certain inflectional suffixes is a hallmark of language impairment. We investigate the relationship between input frequency and grammatical suffix acquisition, analyzing 217 transcripts of mother-child (ages 1 ; 11-6 ; 9) conversations from the CHILDES database. Maternal suffix frequency correlates with previously reported rank orders of acquisition and with child suffix frequency. Percentages of children using a suffix are consistent with frequencies in caregiver speech. Although late talkers acquire suffixes later than typically developing children, order of acquisition is similar across populations. Furthermore, the third person singular and past tense verb suffixes, weaknesses for children with language impairment, are less frequent in caregiver speech than the plural noun suffix, a relative strength in language impairment. Similar findings hold across typical, SLI and late talker populations, suggesting that frequency plays a role in suffix acquisition.

  11. Perceptions of emotion and age among younger, midlife, and older adults.

    PubMed

    Santorelli, Gennarina D; Ready, Rebecca E; Mather, Molly A

    2018-03-01

    Older adults report greater emotional well-being than younger persons, yet negative stereotypes about aging are pervasive. Little is known about age group perceptions of emotion in adulthood, particularly for familiar persons. Thus, this project determined perceptions of general affect in familiar younger and older adults. In two studies, participants (Study 1, younger adult n = 123, older adult n = 43; Study 2, younger adult n = 34, midlife adult n = 41, older adult n = 16) provided self-report data about their affect in general, as well as reported on the affect of a familiar younger person (aged 18--34) and a familiar older person (aged 65 or older). Emotion scales assessed high- and low-arousal positive and negative affect. Results suggest a less favorable perception of emotion experiences of older adults compared to younger adults. Specifically, participants of all age groups rated older adults as having lower positive emotions and higher negative emotions than is found in self-report data. Perceptions of emotion in older adulthood reflect stereotypes of negative functioning. Older adult participants were not immune to holding negative views about older adults. Negative perceptions about emotion experiences in later life may be detrimental to the physical and mental health of older adults.

  12. Driving Comparisons Between Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Patrick, Kristina E; Hurewitz, Felicia; McCurdy, Mark D; Agate, Frederic Taylor; Daly, Brian P; Tarazi, Reem A; Chute, Douglas L; Schultheis, Maria T

    2018-05-18

    Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are reluctant to pursue driving because of concerns about their ability to drive safely. This study aimed to assess differences in simulated driving performance in young adults with ASD and typical development, examining relationships between driving performance and the level of experience (none, driver's permit, licensed) across increasingly difficult driving environments. Participants included 50 English-speaking young adults (16-26 years old) with ASD matched for sex, age, and licensure with 50 typically-developing (TD) peers. Participants completed a structured driving assessment using a virtual-reality simulator that included increasingly complex environmental demands. Differences in mean speed and speed and lane variability by diagnostic group and driving experience were analyzed using multilevel linear modeling. Young adults with ASD demonstrated increased variability in speed and lane positioning compared with controls, even during low demand tasks. When driving demands became more complex, group differences were moderated by driving experience such that licensed drivers with ASD drove similarly to TD licensed drivers for most tasks, whereas unlicensed drivers with ASD had more difficulty with speed and lane management than TD drivers. Findings suggest that young adults with ASD may have more difficulty with basic driving skills than peers, particularly in the early stages of driver training. Increased difficulty compared with peers increases as driving demands become more complex, suggesting that individuals with ASD may benefit from a slow and gradual approach to driver training. Future studies should evaluate predictors of driving performance, on-road driving, and ASD-specific driving interventions.

  13. Recall Memory in Children with Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Peers Matched on Developmental Age

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milojevich, H.; Lukowski, A.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Whereas research has indicated that children with Down syndrome (DS) imitate demonstrated actions over short delays, it is presently unknown whether children with DS recall information over lengthy delays at levels comparable with typically developing (TD) children matched on developmental age. Method: In the present research, 10…

  14. Modulation of Attentional Blink with Emotional Faces in Typical Development and in Autism Spectrum Disorders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yerys, Benjamin E.; Ruiz, Ericka; Strang, John; Sokoloff, Jennifer; Kenworthy, Lauren; Vaidya, Chandan J.

    2013-01-01

    Background: The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon was used to assess the effect of emotional information on early visual attention in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The AB effect is the momentary perceptual unawareness that follows target identification in a rapid serial visual processing…

  15. Social Analogical Reasoning in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Green, Adam E.; Kenworthy, Lauren; Gallagher, Natalie M.; Antezana, Ligia; Mosner, Maya G.; Krieg, Samantha; Dudley, Katherina; Ratto, Allison; Yerys, Benjamin E.

    2017-01-01

    Analogical reasoning is an important mechanism for social cognition in typically developing children, and recent evidence suggests that some forms of analogical reasoning may be preserved in autism spectrum disorder. An unanswered question is whether children with autism spectrum disorder can apply analogical reasoning to social information. In…

  16. Basic Auditory Processing Skills and Phonological Awareness in Low-IQ Readers and Typically Developing Controls

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kuppen, Sarah; Huss, Martina; Fosker, Tim; Fegan, Natasha; Goswami, Usha

    2011-01-01

    We explore the relationships between basic auditory processing, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading in a sample of 95 children, 55 typically developing children, and 40 children with low IQ. All children received nonspeech auditory processing tasks, phonological processing and literacy measures, and a receptive vocabulary task.…

  17. Spontaneous Lexical Alignment in Children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Branigan, Holly P.; Tosi, Alessia; Gillespie-Smith, Karri

    2016-01-01

    It is well established that adults converge on common referring expressions in dialogue, and that such lexical alignment is important for successful and rewarding communication. The authors show that children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and chronological- and verbal-age-matched typically developing (TD) children also show spontaneous…

  18. Destination memory accuracy and confidence in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Tara L; Jefferson, Susan C

    2018-01-01

    Background/Study Context: Nascent research on destination memory-remembering to whom we tell particular information-suggested that older adults have deficits in destination memory and are more confident on inaccurate responses than younger adults. This study assessed the effects of age, attentional resources, and mental imagery on destination memory accuracy and confidence in younger and older adults. Using computer format, participants told facts to pictures of famous people in one of four conditions (control, self-focus, refocus, imagery). Older adults had lower destination memory accuracy than younger adults, driven by a higher level of false alarms. Whereas younger adults were more confident in accurate answers, older adults were more confident in inaccurate answers. Accuracy across participants was lowest when attention was directed internally but significantly improved when mental imagery was used. Importantly, the age-related differences in false alarms and high-confidence inaccurate answers disappeared when imagery was used. Older adults are more likely than younger adults to commit destination memory errors and are less accurate in related confidence judgments. Furthermore, the use of associative memory strategies may help improve destination memory across age groups, improve the accuracy of confidence judgments in older adults, and decrease age-related destination memory impairment, particularly in young-old adults.

  19. Investigation of language and motor skills in Serbian speaking children with specific language impairment and in typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Vukovic, Mile; Vukovic, Irena; Stojanovik, Vesna

    2010-01-01

    Specific language impairment (SLI) is usually defined as a developmental language disorder which does not result from a hearing loss, autism, neurological and emotional difficulties, severe social deprivation, low non-verbal abilities. Children affected with SLI typically have difficulties with the acquisition of different aspects of language and by definition, their impairment is specific to language and no other skills are affected. However, there has been a growing body of literature to suggest that children with SLI also have non-linguistic deficits, including impaired motor abilities. The aim of the current study is to investigate language and motor abilities of a group of thirty children with SLI (aged between 4 and 7) in comparison to a group of 30 typically developing children matched for chronological age. The results showed that the group of children with SLI had significantly more difficulties on the language and motor assessments compared to the control group. The SLI group also showed delayed onset in the development of all motor skills under investigation in comparison to the typically developing group. More interestingly, the two groups differed with respect to which language abilities were correlated with motor abilities, however Imitation of Complex Movements was the unique skill which reliably predicted expressive vocabulary in both typically developing children and in children with SLI. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Prevalence of phonological disorders and phonological processes in typical and atypical phonological development.

    PubMed

    Ceron, Marizete Ilha; Gubiani, Marileda Barichello; Oliveira, Camila Rosa de; Gubiani, Marieli Barichello; Keske-Soares, Márcia

    2017-05-08

    To determine the occurrence of phonological disorders by age, gender and school type, and analyze the phonological processes observed in typical and atypical phonological development across different age groups. The sample consisted of 866 children aged between 3:0 and 8:11 years, recruited from public and private schools in the city of Santa Maria/RS. A phonological evaluation was performed to analyze the operative phonological processes. 15.26% (n = 132) of the sample presented atypical phonological acquisition (phonological disorders). Phonological impairments were more frequent in public school students across all age groups. Phonological alterations were most frequent between ages 4 -to 6, and more prevalent in males than females in all but the youngest age group. The most common phonological processes in typical phonological acquisition were: cluster reduction; nonlateral liquid deletion in coda; nonlateral liquid substitution in onset; semivocalization of lateral liquids in coda; and unstressed syllable deletion. In children with phonological disorders, the most common phonological processes were: lateral and nonlateral liquid substitution in onset position; nonlateral liquid deletion; fronting of fricatives in onset position; unstressed syllable deletion; semivocalization of nonlateral liquid in coda; and nonlateral liquid deletion in coda position. Phonological processes were highly prevalent in the present sample, and occurred more often in boys than in girls. Information regarding the type and frequency of phonological processes in both typical phonological acquisition and phonological disorders may contribute to early diagnosis and increase the efficiency of treatment planning.

  1. Longitudinal Heschl's gyrus growth during childhood and adolescence in typical development and autism.

    PubMed

    Prigge, Molly D; Bigler, Erin D; Fletcher, P Thomas; Zielinski, Brandon A; Ravichandran, Caitlin; Anderson, Jeffrey; Froehlich, Alyson; Abildskov, Tracy; Papadopolous, Evangelia; Maasberg, Kathryn; Nielsen, Jared A; Alexander, Andrew L; Lange, Nicholas; Lainhart, Janet

    2013-04-01

    Heightened auditory sensitivity and atypical auditory processing are common in autism. Functional studies suggest abnormal neural response and hemispheric activation to auditory stimuli, yet the neurodevelopment underlying atypical auditory function in autism is unknown. In this study, we model longitudinal volumetric growth of Heschl's gyrus gray matter and white matter during childhood and adolescence in 40 individuals with autism and 17 typically developing participants. Up to three time points of magnetic resonance imaging data, collected on average every 2.5 years, were examined from individuals 3-12 years of age at the time of their first scan. Consistent with previous cross-sectional studies, no group differences were found in Heschl's gyrus gray matter volume or asymmetry. However, reduced longitudinal gray matter volumetric growth was found in the right Heschl's gyrus in autism. Reduced longitudinal white matter growth in the left hemisphere was found in the right-handed autism participants. Atypical Heschl's gyrus white matter volumetric growth was found bilaterally in the autism individuals with a history of delayed onset of spoken language. Heightened auditory sensitivity, obtained from the Sensory Profile, was associated with reduced volumetric gray matter growth in the right hemisphere. Our longitudinal analyses revealed dynamic gray and white matter changes in Heschl's gyrus throughout childhood and adolescence in both typical development and autism. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Association between Blood Omega-3 Index and Cognition in Typically Developing Dutch Adolescents

    PubMed Central

    van der Wurff, Inge S. M.; von Schacky, Clemens; Berge, Kjetil; Zeegers, Maurice P.; Kirschner, Paul A.; de Groot, Renate H. M.

    2016-01-01

    The impact of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) on cognition is heavily debated. In the current study, the possible association between omega-3 LCPUFAs in blood and cognitive performance of 266 typically developing adolescents aged 13–15 years is investigated. Baseline data from Food2Learn, a double-blind and randomized placebo controlled krill oil supplementation trial in typically developing adolescents, were used for the current study. The Omega-3 Index was determined with blood from a finger prick. At baseline, participants finished a neuropsychological test battery consisting of the Letter Digit Substitution Test (LDST), D2 test of attention, Digit Span Forward and Backward, Concept Shifting Test and Stroop test. Data were analyzed with multiple regression analyses with correction for covariates. The average Omega-3 Index was 3.83% (SD 0.60). Regression analyses between the Omega-3 Index and the outcome parameters revealed significant associations with scores on two of the nine parameters. The association between the Omega-3 Index and both scores on the LDST (β = 0.136 and p = 0.039), and the number of errors of omission on the D2 (β = −0.053 and p = 0.007). This is a possible indication for a higher information processing speed and less impulsivity in those with a higher Omega-3 Index. PMID:26729157

  3. Television, Video Game and Social Media Use among Children with ASD and Typically Developing Siblings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mazurek, Micah O.; Wenstrup, Colleen

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the nature of television, video game, and social media use in children (ages 8-18) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, n = 202) compared to typically developing siblings (TD, n = 179), and relative to other activities. Parents completed measures assessing children's screen-based and other extracurricular activities. Children…

  4. The Bicycle Drawing Test: What Does It Measure in Developmentally Typical Children?

    PubMed

    Cannoni, Eleonora; Di Norcia, Anna; Bombi, Anna Silvia; Di Giunta, Laura

    2015-10-01

    To verify the dimensionality of Bicycle Drawing Test (BDT), we applied the coding system of Greenberg, Rodriguez, and Sesta to bicycle drawings made by 295 boys and 320 girls (6-10 years old) with typical development, and submitted the data to item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. These analyses confirmed only two of the original four dimensions of the BDT: spatial reasoning and visual-motor control. The scores in these two factors were correlated with the Colored Progressive Matrices, the Rey Complex Figure (Copy and Memory) and with the teachers' ratings in mathematics, language, and drawing. The correlations, albeit moderate in magnitude, were consistent with the hypothesized convergent and discriminant validity. After checking for measurement invariance across gender and age, we conducted two analyses of variance, the first of which showed a significant difference between younger children (6-8 years old) and older children (9-10 years old); the analysis of variance by gender did not yield significant differences. These data enhance the usefulness of the BDT as a measure of separate cognitive components, but do not support its use as a measure of mechanical reasoning. © The Author(s) 2014.

  5. Older Adolescents' Positive Attitudes toward Younger Adolescents as Sexual Partners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hegna, Kristinn; Mossige, Svein; Wichstrom, Lars

    2004-01-01

    The prevalence of older adolescents' positive attitudes toward younger sexual partners was investigated through three measures of self-reported hypothetical likelihood of having sex with preadolescents and younger adolescents (LSA), using a school-based cluster sample of 710 Norwegian 18- to 19-year-olds attending nonvocational high schools in…

  6. Comparison for younger and older adults: Stimulus temporal asynchrony modulates audiovisual integration.

    PubMed

    Ren, Yanna; Ren, Yanling; Yang, Weiping; Tang, Xiaoyu; Wu, Fengxia; Wu, Qiong; Takahashi, Satoshi; Ejima, Yoshimichi; Wu, Jinglong

    2018-02-01

    Recent research has shown that the magnitudes of responses to multisensory information are highly dependent on the stimulus structure. The temporal proximity of multiple signal inputs is a critical determinant for cross-modal integration. Here, we investigated the influence that temporal asynchrony has on audiovisual integration in both younger and older adults using event-related potentials (ERP). Our results showed that in the simultaneous audiovisual condition, except for the earliest integration (80-110ms), which occurred in the occipital region for older adults was absent for younger adults, early integration was similar for the younger and older groups. Additionally, late integration was delayed in older adults (280-300ms) compared to younger adults (210-240ms). In audition‑leading vision conditions, the earliest integration (80-110ms) was absent in younger adults but did occur in older adults. Additionally, after increasing the temporal disparity from 50ms to 100ms, late integration was delayed in both younger (from 230 to 290ms to 280-300ms) and older (from 210 to 240ms to 280-300ms) adults. In the audition-lagging vision conditions, integration only occurred in the A100V condition for younger adults and in the A50V condition for older adults. The current results suggested that the audiovisual temporal integration pattern differed between the audition‑leading and audition-lagging vision conditions and further revealed the varying effect of temporal asynchrony on audiovisual integration in younger and older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Reading Development in Typically Developing Children and Children With Prenatal or Perinatal Brain Lesions: Differential School Year and Summer Growth.

    PubMed

    Demir-Lira, Özlem Ece; Levine, Susan C

    2016-01-01

    Summer slide, uneven growth of academic skills over the calendar year, captures the fact that the learning gains children make over the school year do not continue at the same pace over the summer, when children are typically not in school. We compared growth of reading skills during the school year and over the summer months in children with pre-or perinatal brain lesion (PL) and typically-developing (TD) children from varying socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds as a new way to probe the role of structured environmental support in functional plasticity for reading skills in children with PL. Results showed that children with PL performed lower than TD children on both reading decoding and reading comprehension. Group differences were primarily driven by children with larger lesions and children with right hemisphere lesions (RH). For reading comprehension, children with RH showed greater growth during the school year but more slide during the summer months than both TD children and children with left hemisphere lesions, implicating a particularly strong role of structured input in supporting reading comprehension in this group. TD children from lower SES backgrounds fell behind their TD peers from higher SES backgrounds on decoding and reading comprehension, but did not show differential patterns of school year and summer growth. Overall, results highlight the importance of considering the role of a host of factors interacting at multiple levels of analyses, including biological and environmental, in influencing developmental trajectories of typically and atypically-developing children.

  8. Imitation from 12 to 24 months in autism and typical development: A longitudinal Rasch analysis

    PubMed Central

    Young, Gregory S.; Rogers, Sally J.; Hutman, Ted; Rozga, Agata; Sigman, Marian; Ozonoff, Sally

    2013-01-01

    The development of imitation during the second year of life plays an important role in domains of socio-cognitive development such as language and social learning. Deficits in imitation ability in persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have also been repeatedly documented from toddlerhood into adulthood, raising the possibility that early disruptions in imitation contribute to the onset of ASD and the deficits in language and social interaction that define the disorder. This study prospectively examined the development of imitation between 12 and 24 months of age in 154 infants at familial risk for ASD and 78 typically developing infants who were all later assessed at 36 months for ASD or other developmental delays. The study established a developmental measure of imitation ability, and examined group differences over time, using an analytic Rasch measurement model. Results revealed a unidimensional latent construct of imitation and verified a reliable sequence of imitation skills that was invariant over time for all outcome groups. Results also showed that all groups displayed similar significant linear increases in imitation ability between 12 and 24 months and that these increases were related to individual growth in both expressive language and ratings of social engagement, but not fine motor development. The group of children who developed ASD by age 3 years exhibited delayed imitation development compared to the low-risk typical outcome group across all time-points, but were indistinguishable from other high-risk infants who showed other cognitive delays not related to ASD. PMID:21910524

  9. Parenting a Child with ASD: Comparison of Parenting Style between ASD, Anxiety, and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ventola, Pamela; Lei, Jiedi; Paisley, Courtney; Lebowitz, Eli; Silverman, Wendy

    2017-01-01

    Parenting children with ASD has a complex history. Given parents' increasingly pivotal role in children's treatment, it is critical to consider parental style and behaviours. This study (1) compares parenting style of parents of children with ASD, parents of children with anxiety disorders, and parents of typically developing (TD) children and (2)…

  10. Cognitive Control and Lexical Access in Younger and Older Bilinguals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus; Luk, Gigi

    2008-01-01

    Ninety-six participants, who were younger (20 years) or older (68 years) adults and either monolingual or bilingual, completed tasks assessing working memory, lexical retrieval, and executive control. Younger participants performed most of the tasks better than older participants, confirming the effect of aging on these processes. The effect of…

  11. Word-initial rhotic clusters in typically developing children: European Portuguese.

    PubMed

    Ramalho, Ana Margarida; Freitas, M João

    2018-01-01

    Rhotic clusters are complex structures segmentally and prosodically and are frequently one of the last structures acquired by Portuguese-speaking children. This paper describes cross-sectional data for word-initial (WI) rhotic tap clusters in typically developing 3-4- and 5-year-olds in Portugal. Additional information is provided on WI /l/ as a singleton and in clusters. A native speaker audio-recorded and transcribed single words in a story-telling task. Results for WI rhotic clusters show an age effect consistent with previous research on European Portuguese. Singleton /l/ was in advance of /l/-clusters as expected, but the tap clusters were in advance of the /l/-clusters, possibly reflecting the velarized characteristics of the lateral. The prosodic variables word stress and word length were relevant for the WI rhotic clusters: shorter words and stressed syllables showed higher accuracy. Finally, mismatches ('errors') mainly reflected negative structural constraints (deletion of C2 and epenthesis) rather than segmental constraints (substitutions).

  12. Parents' Strategies to Elicit Autobiographical Memories in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Developmental Language Disorders and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goldman, Sylvie; DeNigris, Danielle

    2015-01-01

    Conversations about the past support the development of autobiographical memory. Parents' strategies to elicit child's participation and recall during past event conversations were compared across three school-age diagnostic groups: autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 11), developmental language disorders (n = 11) and typically developing (TD,…

  13. Toddlers' categorization of typical and scrambled dolls and cars.

    PubMed

    Heron, Michelle; Slaughter, Virginia

    2008-09-01

    Previous research has demonstrated discrimination of scrambled from typical human body shapes at 15-18 months of age [Slaughter, V., & Heron, M. (2004). Origins and early development of human body knowledge. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 69]. In the current study 18-, 24- and 30-month-old infants were presented with four typical and four scrambled dolls in a sequential touching procedure, to assess the development of explicit categorization of human body shapes. Infants were also presented with typical and scrambled cars, allowing comparison of infants' categorization of scrambled and typical exemplars in a different domain. Spontaneous comments regarding category membership were recorded. Girls categorized dolls and cars as typical or scrambled at 30 months, whereas boys only categorized the cars. Earliest categorization was for typical and scrambled cars, at 24 months, but only for boys. Language-based knowledge, coded from infants' comments, followed the same pattern. This suggests that human body knowledge does not have privileged status in infancy. Gender differences in performance are discussed.

  14. Dietary Patterns and Feeding Problems of Turkish Children with Intellectual Disabilities and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sayin, Kubra; Ilik, Senay

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed to determine whether dietary patterns and feeding problems differ among children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and typically developing children (TDC) in Turkey. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 220 (112 children with ID and 108 TDC) 7-12 aged children in Konya, Turkey. We assessed usual dietary intakes by a…

  15. Does Nutritional Intake Differ between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Children with Typical Development?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Herndon, Alison C.; DiGuiseppi, Carolyn; Johnson, Susan L.; Leiferman, Jenn; Reynolds, Ann

    2009-01-01

    Consumption of macro- and micronutrients and food group servings by children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs; n = 46) and typical development (n = 31) were compared using 3-day diet records. Children with ASDs consumed significantly more vitamin B6 and E and non-dairy protein servings, less calcium, and fewer dairy servings (p less than…

  16. 10. Typical Masonry Longitudinal Section Arch Seven; Typical Masonry ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    10. Typical Masonry Longitudinal Section - Arch Seven; Typical Masonry Longitudinal Section - Arch Eight - Arlington Memorial Bridge, Spanning Potomac River between Lincoln Memorial & Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

  17. Maternal support for autonomy: relationships with persistence for children with Down syndrome and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Gilmore, Linda; Cuskelly, Monica; Jobling, Anne; Hayes, Alan

    2009-01-01

    Maternal behaviors and child mastery behaviors were examined in 25 children with Down syndrome and 43 typically developing children matched for mental age (24-36 months). During a shared problem-solving task, there were no group differences in maternal directiveness or support for autonomy, and mothers in the two groups used similar verbal strategies when helping their child. There were also no group differences in child mastery behaviors, measured as persistence with two optimally challenging tasks. However, the two groups differed in the relationships of maternal style with child persistence. Children with Down syndrome whose mothers were more supportive of their autonomy in the shared task displayed greater persistence when working independently on a challenging puzzle, while children of highly directive mothers displayed lower levels of persistence. For typically developing children, persistence was unrelated to maternal style, suggesting that mother behaviors may have different causes or consequences in the two groups.

  18. Typical intellectual engagement and cognition in old age.

    PubMed

    Dellenbach, Myriam; Zimprich, Daniel

    2008-03-01

    Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) comprises the preference to engage in cognitively demanding activities and has been proposed as a potential explanatory variable of individual differences in cognitive abilities. Little is known, however, about the factorial structure of TIE, its relations to socio-demographic variables, and its influence on intellectual functioning in old age. In the present study, data of 364 adults (65-81 years) from the Zurich Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging (ZULU) were used to investigate the factorial structure of TIE and to examine the hypothesis that TIE is associated more strongly with crystallized intelligence than with fluid intelligence in old age. A measurement model of a second order factor based on a structure of four correlated first order factors (Reading, Problem Solving, Abstract Thinking, and Intellectual Curiosity) evinced an excellent fit. After controlling for age, sex, and formal education, TIE was more strongly associated with crystallized intelligence than with fluid intelligence, comparable to results in younger persons. More detailed analyses showed that this association is mostly defined via Reading and Intellectual Curiosity.

  19. Celiac disease in 87 children with typical and atypical symptoms in Black Sea region of Turkey.

    PubMed

    Dinler, Gönül; Atalay, Erdal; Kalayci, Ayhan Gazi

    2009-11-01

    Celiac disease presents with a spectrum of clinical disorders. The variety of clinical presentations largely depends on age and extraintestinal findings. This study aimed to determine typical and atypical cases according to presenting symptoms and to evaluate their biochemical and pathological parameters. Eighty-seven patients with celiac disease in our unit between 2000 and 2007 were reviewed. Their diagnosis was made by serological and histological examination. The patients were divided into two groups according to their typical or atypical symptoms. The mean age of the patients at diagnosis was 8.2 years (range, 1-18 years), but patients presenting with typical symptoms were younger than those presenting with atypical symptoms. The patients in the two groups did not differ significantly in sex, weight and height Z scores except age. Diarrhea (96.3%), abdominal distention (65.4%) and failure to thrive (60%) were the most common clinical presentations in the typical group, and short stature (62.5%) and anemia (31.2%) were the most common in the atypical group. Total/subtotal villous atrophy was significantly higher in the typical group than in the atypical group. Many children with celiac disease show an atypical form. The understanding of presentations of celiac disease may prevent delayed diagnosis. Celiac disease should be specially investigated in patients with recurrent iron deficiency anemia, short stature and autoimmune disorders.

  20. Back to the Future: Past and Future Era-Based Schematic Support and Associative Memory for Prices in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Castel, Alan D.; McGillivray, Shannon; Worden, Kendell M.

    2014-01-01

    Older adults typically display various associative memory deficits, but these deficits can be reduced when conditions allow for the use of prior knowledge or schematic support. To determine how era-specific schematic support and future simulation might influence associative memory, we examined how younger and older adults remember prices from the past as well as the future. Younger and older adults were asked to imagine the past or future, and then studied items and prices from approximately 40 years ago (market value prices from the 1970s) or 40 years in the future. In Experiment 1, all items were common items (e.g., movie ticket, coffee) and the associated prices reflected the era in question, whereas in Experiment 2, some item-price pairs were specific to the time period (e.g., typewriter, robot maid), to test different degrees of schematic support. After studying the pairs, participants were shown each item and asked to recall the associated price. In both experiments, older adults showed similar performance as younger adults in the past condition for the common items, whereas age-related differences were greater in the future condition and for the era-specific items. The findings suggest that in order for schematic support to be effective, recent (and not simply remote) experience is needed in order to enhance memory. Thus, whereas older adults can benefit from “turning back the clock,” younger adults better remember future-oriented information compared with older adults, outlining age-related similarities and differences in associative memory and the efficient use of past and future-based schematic support. PMID:24128073

  1. Neural basis for recognition confidence in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Chua, Elizabeth F; Schacter, Daniel L; Sperling, Reisa A

    2009-03-01

    Although several studies have examined the neural basis for age-related changes in objective memory performance, less is known about how the process of memory monitoring changes with aging. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine retrospective confidence in memory performance in aging. During low confidence, both younger and older adults showed behavioral evidence that they were guessing during recognition and that they were aware they were guessing when making confidence judgments. Similarly, both younger and older adults showed increased neural activity during low- compared to high-confidence responses in the lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and left intraparietal sulcus. In contrast, older adults showed more high-confidence errors than younger adults. Younger adults showed greater activity for high compared to low confidence in medial temporal lobe structures, but older adults did not show this pattern. Taken together, these findings may suggest that impairments in the confidence-accuracy relationship for memory in older adults, which are often driven by high-confidence errors, may be primarily related to altered neural signals associated with greater activity for high-confidence responses.

  2. Neural basis for recognition confidence in younger and older adults

    PubMed Central

    Chua, Elizabeth F.; Schacter, Daniel L.; Sperling, Reisa A.

    2008-01-01

    Although several studies have examined the neural basis for age-related changes in objective memory performance, less is known about how the process of memory monitoring changes with aging. We used fMRI to examine retrospective confidence in memory performance in aging. During low confidence, both younger and older adults showed behavioral evidence that they were guessing during recognition, and that they were aware they were guessing when making confidence judgments. Similarly, both younger and older adults showed increased neural activity during low compared to high confidence responses in lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and left intraparietal sulcus. In contrast, older adults showed more high confidence errors than younger adults. Younger adults showed greater activity for high compared to low confidence in medial temporal lobe structures, but older adults did not show this pattern. Taken together, these findings may suggest that impairments in the confidence-accuracy relationship for memory in older adults, which are often driven by high confidence errors, may be primarily related to altered neural signals associated with greater activity for high confidence responses. PMID:19290745

  3. Peer social skills and theory of mind in children with autism, deafness, or typical development.

    PubMed

    Peterson, Candida; Slaughter, Virginia; Moore, Chris; Wellman, Henry M

    2016-01-01

    Consequences of theory of mind (ToM) development for daily social lives of children are uncertain. Five to 13-year-olds (N = 195) with typical development, autism, or deafness (both native and late signers) took ToM tests and their teachers reported on their social skills for peer interaction (e.g., leadership, group entry). Groups differed in both ToM understanding (with late-signing deaf children especially delayed even relative to autistic children) and peer social skills (with autistic children especially delayed even relative to deaf late signers). Crucially, for the typically developing hearing children and deaf children alike, ToM understanding independently predicted peer social skills over and above age, gender, language ability, and, for deaf children, status as native- or late-signer. These novel findings offer some of the best evidence to date of the relevance of ToM cognitions to real-world social behavior for both these groups. However, for those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) the pattern was different. The apparent link of ToM to peer competence was not a direct one but instead was significantly mediated by language ability. Several possible explanations for this intriguing autism-specific result were also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. Effortful Control in Typically Developing Boys and in Boys with ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Samyn, Vicky; Roeyers, Herbert; Bijttebier, Patricia

    2011-01-01

    Despite increased interest in the role of effortful control (EC) in developmental disorders, few studies have focused on EC in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and no study so far has directly compared children with ASD and children with ADHD. A first aim of this study was to investigate whether typically developing (TD) boys, boys with ADHD and…

  5. Cognitive State Verbs and Complement Clauses in Children with SLI and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van Horne, Amanda J. Owen; Lin, Shanju

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated the use of cognitive state verbs (CSVs) and complement clauses in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing (TD) peers. In Study 1, conversational samples from 23 children with SLI (M = 6;2), 24 age-matched TD children (M = 6;2) and 21 vocabulary-matched TD children (M = 4;9) were…

  6. Attitudes and Behavioural Intentions of Typically Developing Adolescents towards a Hypothetical Peer with Asperger Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fleva, Eleni

    2014-01-01

    This study examines the attitudes and the behavioural intentions of typically developing (TD) adolescents towards a hypothetical peer with Asperger syndrome (AS). Participants (N = 179, M age = 13.7 years) viewed two PowerPoint presentations one of a TD male target and one of a male target with AS. The target with AS was introduced either with…

  7. White Matter Microstructure Correlates of Narrative Production in Typically Developing Children and Children with High Functioning Autism

    PubMed Central

    Mills, Brian; Lai, Janie; Brown, Timothy T.; Erhart, Matthew; Halgren, Eric; Reilly, Judy; Dale, Anders; Appelbaum, Mark; Moses, Pamela

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between white matter microstructure and the development of morphosyntax in a spoken narrative in typically developing children (TD) and in children with high functioning autism (HFA). Autism is characterized by language and communication impairments, yet the relationship between morphosyntactic development in spontaneous discourse contexts and neural development is not well understood in either this population or typical development. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to assess multiple parameters of diffusivity as indicators of white matter tract integrity in language-related tracts in children between 6 and 13 years of age. Children were asked to spontaneously tell a story about at time when someone made them sad, mad, or angry. The story was evaluated for morphological accuracy and syntactic complexity. Analysis of the relationship between white matter microstructure and language performance in TD children showed that diffusivity correlated with morphosyntax production in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), a fiber tract traditionally associated with language. At the anatomical level, the HFA group showed abnormal diffusivity in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) relative to the TD group. Within the HFA group, children with greater white matter integrity in the right ILF displayed greater morphological accuracy during their spoken narrative. Overall, the current study shows an association between white matter structure in a traditional language pathway and narrative performance in TD children. In the autism group, associations were only found in the ILF, suggesting that during real world language use, children with HFA rely less on typical pathways and instead rely on alternative ventral pathways that possibly mediate visual elements of language. PMID:23810972

  8. Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder.

    PubMed

    Beall, Paula M; Moody, Eric J; McIntosh, Daniel N; Hepburn, Susan L; Reed, Catherine L

    2008-11-01

    Typical adults mimic facial expressions within 1000 ms, but adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs) are associated with the development of social-emotional abilities. Such interpersonal matching may be caused by motor mirroring or emotional responses. Using facial electromyography (EMG), this study evaluated mechanisms underlying RFRs during childhood and examined possible impairment in children with ASD. Experiment 1 found RFRs to happy and angry faces (not fear faces) in 15 typically developing children from 7 to 12 years of age. RFRs of fear (not anger) in response to angry faces indicated an emotional mechanism. In 11 children (8-13 years of age) with ASD, Experiment 2 found undifferentiated RFRs to fear expressions and no consistent RFRs to happy or angry faces. However, as children with ASD aged, matching RFRs to happy faces increased significantly, suggesting the development of processes underlying matching RFRs during this period in ASD.

  9. Behavioural and Cognitive Sex/Gender Differences in Autism Spectrum Condition and Typically Developing Males and Females

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hull, Laura; Mandy, William; Petrides, K. V.

    2017-01-01

    Studies assessing sex/gender differences in autism spectrum conditions often fail to include typically developing control groups. It is, therefore, unclear whether observed sex/gender differences reflect those found in the general population or are particular to autism spectrum conditions. A systematic search identified articles comparing…

  10. Three-Dimensional Upper Limb Movement Characteristics in Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jaspers, Ellen; Desloovere, Kaat; Bruyninckx, Herman; Klingels, Katrijn; Molenaers, Guy; Aertbelien, Erwin; Van Gestel, Leen; Feys, Hilde

    2011-01-01

    The aim of this study was to measure which three-dimensional spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters differentiate upper limb movement characteristics in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) from those in typically developing children (TDC), during various clinically relevant tasks. We used a standardized protocol containing three reach…

  11. Predictors of Parent-Teacher Agreement in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Siblings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stratis, Elizabeth A.; Lecavalier, Luc

    2017-01-01

    This study evaluated the magnitude of informant agreement and predictors of agreement on behavior and emotional problems and autism symptoms in 403 children with autism and their typically developing siblings. Parent-teacher agreement was investigated on the "Child Behavior Checklist" (CBCL) and "Social Responsiveness Scale"…

  12. The Relationship between Intolerance of Uncertainty, Sensory Sensitivities, and Anxiety in Autistic and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Neil, Louise; Olsson, Nora Choque; Pellicano, Elizabeth

    2016-01-01

    Guided by a recent theory that proposes fundamental differences in how autistic individuals deal with uncertainty, we investigated the extent to which the cognitive construct "intolerance of uncertainty" and anxiety were related to parental reports of sensory sensitivities in 64 autistic and 85 typically developing children aged…

  13. Harmonic Domains and Synchronization in Typically and Atypically Developing Hebrew-Speaking Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bat-El, Outi

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a comparative study of typical and atypical consonant harmony (onset-onset place harmony), with emphasis on (i) the size of the harmonic domain, (ii) the position of the harmonic domain within the prosodic word, and (iii) the maximal size of the prosodic word that exhibits consonant harmony. The data, drawn from typically and…

  14. Longitudinal Links between Older Sibling Features and Younger Siblings’ Academic Adjustment during Early Adolescence

    PubMed Central

    Bouchey, Heather A.; Shoulberg, Erin K.; Jodl, Kathleen M.; Eccles, Jacquelynne S.

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated prospective relations between (1) older siblings’ support and academic engagement and (2) younger siblings’ academic adjustment from 7th to 8th grade. The study was unique in that it incorporated a sample of both African American and European American adolescents. Also investigated was the extent to which the gender constellation (same-sex vs. mixed-sex) of sibling dyads moderated prospective associations. Findings revealed that, in mixed-sex dyads only, younger siblings’ perceptions of support received from the older sibling and their positive image of the older sibling predicted declines in the younger sibling’s academic self-perceptions and performance over time, even after controlling for younger siblings’ background characteristics and support from parents. Older siblings’ reported support to younger siblings also predicted declines in younger siblings’ academic adjustment, whereas the older siblings’ own level of academic engagement predicted an increase in younger siblings’ academic adjustment over time. Overall, findings did not differ substantially for African and European American adolescents. PMID:20376283

  15. Expression of emotions related to the experience of cancer in younger and older Arab breast cancer survivors.

    PubMed

    Goldblatt, Hadass; Cohen, Miri; Azaiza, Faisal

    2016-12-01

    Researchers have suggested that older adults express less negative emotions. Yet, emotional expression patterns in older and younger breast cancer survivors, have barely been examined. This study aimed to explore types and intensity of negative and positive emotional expression related to the breast cancer experience by younger and older Arab breast cancer survivors. Participants were 20 younger (aged 32-50) and 20 older (aged 51-75) Muslim and Christian Arab breast cancer survivors (stages I-III), currently free of disease. Data were gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Mixed methods analyses were conducted, including: (1) frequency analysis of participants' emotional expressions; (2) content analysis of emotional expressions, categorized according to negative and positive emotions. Three emotional expression modalities were revealed: (1) Succinct versus comprehensive accounts; (2) expression of emotions versus avoidance of emotions; (3) patterns of expression of positive emotions and a sense of personal growth. Younger women provided more detailed accounts about their illness experiences than older women. Older women's accounts were succinct, action-focused, and included more emotion-avoiding expressions than younger women. Understanding the relationships between emotional expression, emotional experience, and cancer survivors' quality of life, specifically of those from traditional communities, is necessary for developing effective psycho-social interventions.

  16. Whole-Person Impairment in Younger Retired NFL Players

    PubMed Central

    Domb, Benjamin G.; Carter, Chris; Finch, Nathan A.; Hammarstedt, Jon E.; Dunne, Kevin F.; Stake, Christine E.

    2014-01-01

    Background: Professional American football is a physically demanding, high-impact sport with an elevated risk of injury. Orthopaedic injuries may impose acute, short-term or cumulative consequences throughout a player’s lifetime. Several studies have addressed health and psychosocial concerns of an older, retired population of players in the National Football League (NFL); however, minimal research has examined the orthopaedic toll on younger, retired players. Purpose: This study reports total whole-person impairment (WPI) percentages in a cohort of younger, retired NFL players who presented for disability evaluations based on the use of standardized American Medical Association (AMA) impairment guidelines. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: During the study period of February 2011 to August 2013, 65 younger retired NFL players presented for impairment evaluations. The mean time between retirement and impairment evaluation was 3.1 years (range, 0.3-16.4 years). A complete history and physical examination was performed on all symptomatic joints. A retrospective chart review was conducted on 100% of presenting players to assess orthopaedic burden. Body-part impairment (BPI) percentage for each affected joint was generated. The impairment data for each extremity were then combined with spine impairment data to create WPI percentage. Player demographics, including age, position, and playing time, were also recorded. Results: The average WPI percentage was 37% (range, 19%-53%). Players participating in >30 games (n = 54) had a higher mean WPI percentage (38%) than those playing in <30 games (31%; n = 11) (P = .004). Players competing in >5 seasons (n = 46) were 2.4 times more likely to have a WPI of at least 37% (P = .007). The most common joints players reported as symptomatic were lumbar (n = 63; 97%) and cervical spine (n = 58; 89%). The mean age at evaluation was 33.5 years (range, 27-42 years), and the mean number of seasons played was 7

  17. The effects of emotion on younger and older adults' monitoring of learning.

    PubMed

    Tauber, Sarah K; Dunlosky, John; Urry, Heather L; Opitz, Philipp C

    2017-09-01

    Age-related differences in memory monitoring appear when people learn emotional words. Namely, younger adults' judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for positive than neutral words, whereas older adults' JOLs do not discriminate between positive versus neutral words. In two experiments, we evaluated whether this age-related difference extends to learning positive versus neutral pictures. We also evaluated the contribution of two dimensions of emotion that may impact younger and older adults' JOLs: valence and arousal. Younger and older adults studied pictures that were positive or neutral and either high or low in arousal. Participants made immediate JOLs and completed memory tests. In both experiments, the magnitude of older adults' JOLs was influenced by emotion, and both younger and older adults demonstrated an emotional salience effect on JOLs. As important, the magnitude of participants' JOLs was influenced by valence, and not arousal. Emotional salience effects were also evident on participants' free recall, and older adults recalled as many pictures as did younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that older adults do not have a monitoring deficit when learning positive (vs. neutral) pictures and that emotional salience effects on younger and older adults' JOLs are produced more by valence than by arousal.

  18. Recognition of Emotion from Facial Expressions with Direct or Averted Eye Gaze and Varying Expression Intensities in Children with Autism Disorder and Typically Developing Children

    PubMed Central

    Tell, Dina; Davidson, Denise; Camras, Linda A.

    2014-01-01

    Eye gaze direction and expression intensity effects on emotion recognition in children with autism disorder and typically developing children were investigated. Children with autism disorder and typically developing children identified happy and angry expressions equally well. Children with autism disorder, however, were less accurate in identifying fear expressions across intensities and eye gaze directions. Children with autism disorder rated expressions with direct eyes, and 50% expressions, as more intense than typically developing children. A trend was also found for sad expressions, as children with autism disorder were less accurate in recognizing sadness at 100% intensity with direct eyes than typically developing children. Although the present research showed that children with autism disorder are sensitive to eye gaze direction, impairments in the recognition of fear, and possibly sadness, exist. Furthermore, children with autism disorder and typically developing children perceive the intensity of emotional expressions differently. PMID:24804098

  19. False Belief Understanding in Language Impaired and Typically Developing Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers from Lower Income Backgrounds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guiberson, Mark; Rodriguez, Barbara L.

    2013-01-01

    Research Findings: The present study describes developmental trends in false belief (in other and self) in 46 Mexican-dialect Spanish-speaking children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds with and without language impairment (LI). Results indicate that typically developing children's performance on false belief tasks improves with age, with very…

  20. Anxiety Disorders in Typically Developing Youth: Autism Spectrum Symptoms as a Predictor of Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Puleo, Connor M.; Kendall, Philip C.

    2011-01-01

    Symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were assessed (Social Responsiveness Scale-Parent (SRS-P); coded in-session behavior) in typically-developing, anxiety-disordered children (N = 50) treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). "Study 1": children with moderate autistic symptomology (per SRS-P) were significantly more likely to improve…

  1. Observing Iconic Gestures Enhances Word Learning in Typically Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vogt, Susanne; Kauschke, Christina

    2017-01-01

    Research has shown that observing iconic gestures helps typically developing children (TD) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) learn new words. So far, studies mostly compared word learning with and without gestures. The present study investigated word learning under two gesture conditions in children with and without language…

  2. Mealtime Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Siblings: A Comparison Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nadon, Genevieve; Feldman, Debbie Ehrmann; Dunn, Winnie; Gisel, Erika

    2011-01-01

    Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have mealtime problems. Diagnosis and the social environment may influence eating behaviours. We examined whether children with ASD have more mealtime problems than their typically developing siblings, and whether age and sex are associated with mealtime problems. Forty-eight families participated…

  3. Development of Gender Discrimination: Effect of Sex-Typical and Sex-Atypical Toys.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Etaugh, Claire; Duits, Terri L.

    Toddlers (41 girls and 35 boys) between 18 and 37 months of age were given four gender discrimination tasks each consisting of 6 pairs of color drawings. Three of the tasks employed color drawings of preschool girls and boys holding either a sex-typical toy, a sex-atypical toy, or no toy. The fourth employed pictures of sex-typical masculine and…

  4. Facilitating complex shape drawing in Williams syndrome and typical development.

    PubMed

    Hudson, Kerry D; Farran, Emily K

    2013-07-01

    Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) produce drawings that are disorganised, likely due to an inability to replicate numerous spatial relations between parts. This study attempted to circumvent these drawing deficits in WS when copying complex combinations of one, two and three shapes. Drawing decisions were reduced by introducing a number of facilitators, for example, by using distinct colours and including facilitatory cues on the response sheet. Overall, facilitation improved drawing in the WS group to a comparable level of accuracy as typically developing participants (matched for non-verbal ability). Drawing accuracy was greatest in both groups when planning demands (e.g. starting location, line lengths and changes in direction) were reduced by use of coloured figures and providing easily distinguished and clearly grouped facilitatory cues to form each shape. This study provides the first encouraging evidence to suggest that drawing of complex shapes in WS can be facilitated; individuals with WS might be receptive to remediation programmes for drawing and handwriting. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Ambulatory Physical Activity Performance in Youth With Cerebral Palsy and Youth Who Are Developing Typically

    PubMed Central

    Bjornson, Kristie F; Belza, Basia; Kartin, Deborah; Logsdon, Rebecca; McLaughlin, John F

    2007-01-01

    Background and Purpose Assessment of walking activity in youth with cerebral palsy (CP) has traditionally been “capacity-based.” The purpose of this study was to describe the day-to-day ambulatory activity “performance” of youth with CP compared with youth who were developing typically. Subjects Eighty-one youth with CP, aged 10 to 13 years, who were categorized as being in Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels I to III and 30 age-matched youth who were developing typically were recruited. Methods Using a cross-sectional design, participants wore the StepWatch monitor for 7 days while documenting average daily total step counts, percentage of all time active, ratio of medium to low activity levels, and percentage of time at high activity levels. Results The youth with CP demonstrated significantly lower levels of all outcomes than the comparison group. Discussion and Conclusion Daily walking activity and variability decreased as functional walking level (GMFCS level) decreased. Ambulatory activity performance within the context of the daily life for youth with CP appears valid and feasible as an outcome for mobility interventions in CP. PMID:17244693

  6. Differences in anxiety and depression symptoms: comparison between older and younger clinical samples.

    PubMed

    Wuthrich, Viviana M; Johnco, Carly J; Wetherell, Julie L

    2015-09-01

    Anxiety and depression symptoms change over the lifespan and older adults use different terms to describe their mental health, contributing to under identification of anxiety and depression in older adults. To date, research has not examined these differences in younger and older samples with comorbid anxiety and depression. One hundred and seven treatment-seeking participants (47 older, 60% female, and 60 younger, 50% female) with anxiety and mood disorders completed the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule and a symptom checklist to examine differences in symptom severity, symptom profiles and terms used to describe anxiety and mood. The findings indicated several key differences between the presentation and description of anxiety and depression in younger and older adults. Older adults with Social Phobia reported fearing a narrower range of social situations and less distress and interference. Older adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) reported less worry about interpersonal relationships and work/school than younger adults, however, there were no differences between age groups for behavioral symptoms endorsed. Further older adults reported phobia of lifts/small spaces more frequently than younger adults. Depressed older depressed adults also reported more anhedonia compared to younger adults, but no differences in terms of reported sadness were found. Finally, older and younger adults differed in their descriptions of symptoms with older adults describing anxiety as feeling stressed and tense, while younger adults described anxiety as feeling anxious, worried or nervous. Clinicians need to assess symptoms broadly to avoid missing the presence of anxiety and mood disorders especially in older adults.

  7. Long-term outcomes in younger men following permanent prostate brachytherapy.

    PubMed

    Shapiro, Edan Y; Rais-Bahrami, Soroush; Morgenstern, Carol; Napolitano, Barbara; Richstone, Lee; Potters, Louis

    2009-04-01

    We reviewed the long-term outcomes in men undergoing permanent prostate brachytherapy with a focus on those presenting before age 60 years. Between 1992 and 2005 a total of 2,119 patients with clinical stage T1-T2, N0, M0 prostate cancer treated with permanent prostate brachytherapy were included in this study. Treatment regimens consisted of permanent prostate brachytherapy with or without hormone therapy, permanent prostate brachytherapy with external beam radiotherapy, or all 3 modalities. Biochemical recurrence was defined using the Phoenix definition. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine if age and/or other clinicopathological features were associated with disease progression. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate rates of freedom from progression with the log rank test to compare patients younger than 60 vs 60 years or older. Median followup was 56.1 months. In the study population 237 patients were younger than 60 years at diagnosis (11%). The 5 and 10-year freedom from progression rates were 90.1% and 85.6%, respectively, for the entire population. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that prostate specific antigen (p <0.01), biopsy Gleason score (p <0.0001) and year of treatment (p <0.001) were associated with freedom from progression while age (p = 0.95) and clinical stage (p = 0.11) were not. There was no significant difference in freedom from progression between men younger than 60, or 60 years or older (log rank p = 0.46). In the younger cohort the 10-year freedom from progression for patients presenting with low, intermediate and high risk disease was 91.3%, 80.0% and 70.2% compared to 91.8%, 83.4% and 72.1%, respectively, for men 60 years or older. Our long-term results confirm favorable outcomes after permanent prostate brachytherapy in men younger than 60 years. Outcomes are impacted by disease related risk factors but not by age or clinical stage. Definitive treatment options for younger men with clinically localized prostate

  8. Decontextualised Minds: Adolescents with Autism Are Less Susceptible to the Conjunction Fallacy than Typically Developing Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morsanyi, Kinga; Handley, Simon J.; Evans, Jonathan S. B. T.

    2010-01-01

    The conjunction fallacy has been cited as a classic example of the automatic contextualisation of problems. In two experiments we compared the performance of autistic and typically developing adolescents on a set of conjunction fallacy tasks. Participants with autism were less susceptible to the conjunction fallacy. Experiment 2 also demonstrated…

  9. Vowels Development in Babbling of typically developing 6-to-12-month old Persian-learning Infants.

    PubMed

    Fotuhi, Mina; Yadegari, Fariba; Teymouri, Robab

    2017-10-01

    Pre-linguistic vocalizations including early consonants, vowels, and their combinations into syllables are considered as important predictors of the speech and language development. The purpose of this study was to examine vowel development in babblings of normally developing Persian-learning infants. Eight typically developing 6-8-month-old Persian-learning infants (3 boys and 5 girls) participated in this 4-month longitudinal descriptive-analytic study. A weekly 30-60-minute audio- and video-recording was obtained at home from the comfort state vocalizations of infants and the mother-child interactions. A total of 74:02:03 hours of vocalizations were phonetically transcribed. Seven vowels comprising /i/,/e/,/a/,/u/,/o/,/ɑ/, and /ә/ were identified in the babblings. The inter-rater reliability was obtained for 20% of vocalizations. The data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient using SPSS software version 20. The results showed that two vowels /a/ (46.04) and /e/ (23.60) were produced with the highest mean frequency of occurrence, respectively. Regarding front/back dimension, the front vowels were the most prominent ones (71.87); in terms of height, low (46.78) and mid (32.45) vowels occurred maximally. A good inter-rater reliability was obtained (0.99, P < .01). The increased frequency of occurrence of the low and mid front vowels in the current study was consistent with previous studies on the emergence of vowels in pre-linguistic vocalization in other languages.

  10. Minimizing Noise in Pediatric Task-Based functional MRI; Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities and Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Fassbender, Catherine; Muhkerjee, Prerona; Schweitzer, Julie B.

    2017-01-01

    Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) represents a powerful tool with which to examine brain functioning and development in typically developing pediatric groups as well as children and adolescents with clinical disorders. However, fMRI data can be highly susceptible to misinterpretation due to the effects of excessive levels of noise, often related to head motion. Imaging children, especially with developmental disorders, requires extra considerations related to hyperactivity, anxiety and the ability to perform and maintain attention to the fMRI paradigm. We discuss a number of methods that can be employed to minimize noise, in particular movement-related noise. To this end we focus on strategies prior to, during and following the data acquisition phase employed primarily within our own laboratory. We discuss the impact of factors such as experimental design, screening of potential participants and pre-scan training on head motion in our adolescents with developmental disorders and typical development. We make some suggestions that may minimize noise during data acquisition itself and finally we briefly discuss some current processing techniques that may help to identify and remove noise in the data. Many advances have been made in the field of pediatric imaging, particularly with regard to research involving children with developmental disorders. Mindfulness of issues such as those discussed here will ensure continued progress and greater consistency across studies. PMID:28130195

  11. Back to the future: past and future era-based schematic support and associative memory for prices in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Castel, Alan D; McGillivray, Shannon; Worden, Kendell M

    2013-12-01

    Older adults typically display various associative memory deficits, but these deficits can be reduced when conditions allow for the use of prior knowledge or schematic support. To determine how era-specific schematic support and future simulation might influence associative memory, we examined how younger and older adults remember prices from the past as well as the future. Younger and older adults were asked to imagine the past or future, and then studied items and prices from approximately 40 years ago (market value prices from the 1970s) or 40 years in the future. In Experiment 1, all items were common items (e.g., movie ticket, coffee) and the associated prices reflected the era in question, whereas in Experiment 2, some item-price pairs were specific to the time period (e.g., typewriter, robot maid), to test different degrees of schematic support. After studying the pairs, participants were shown each item and asked to recall the associated price. In both experiments, older adults showed similar performance as younger adults in the past condition for the common items, whereas age-related differences were greater in the future condition and for the era-specific items. The findings suggest that in order for schematic support to be effective, recent (and not simply remote) experience is needed in order to enhance memory. Thus, whereas older adults can benefit from "turning back the clock," younger adults better remember future-oriented information compared with older adults, outlining age-related similarities and differences in associative memory and the efficient use of past and future-based schematic support. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  12. Performance of children with typical development when reading and interpreting graphic-symbol sequences.

    PubMed

    Boyer, Catherine; Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann

    2012-06-01

    In order to understand a sequence of graphic symbols as sentences, one must not only recognize the meaning of individual symbols but also integrate their meaning together. In this study children without disabilities were asked to perform two tasks that presented sequences of graphics as stimuli but that differed in the need to treat the symbols as a sentence (i.e., with evidence of relationships among the individual symbols): a "reading" task (transpose the symbol sequence into speech), and an act-out task (demonstrate the meaning of the symbol sequences using puppets). The participants, aged 3 (n=18), 4 (n=36), 5 (n=27), and 6 (n=23) years, all succeeded on the reading task, but the younger groups were much less successful than the older groups on the act-out task. The children were more likely to pass the act-out task if they used conjugated rather than infinitive verb forms in their spoken responses on the reading task. In the younger age groups, children who used conjugated verb forms had higher receptive vocabulary scores. The findings suggest that being able to reproduce a sequence of symbols does not guarantee that the symbols are treated as a sentence. The inclusion in the study of children who were able to respond using speech, permitted observation of two types of responses (conjugated versus infinitive verb forms) that revealed different levels of understanding of graphic symbol sequences.

  13. Brief Report: A Gaming Approach to the Assessment of Attention Networks in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Mash, Lisa E; Klein, Raymond M; Townsend, Jeanne

    2018-06-12

    Attentional impairments are among the earliest identifiable features of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Three attention networks have been extensively studied using the attention network test (ANT), but this long and repetitive task may pose challenges for individuals with ASDs. The AttentionTrip was developed as a more engaging measure of attention network efficiency. In 20 adults with ASDs and 20 typically developing controls, both tasks produced typical network scores (all p < .003, all Cohen's d > 0.78). Reaction time was less variable in the AttentionTrip than the ANT, possibly reflecting improved task engagement. Although the AttentionTrip elicited more consistent responses throughout an experimental session, anomalously low split-half reliability for its executive control network suggests that some changes may be needed.

  14. Why are faces denser in the visual experiences of younger than older infants?

    PubMed Central

    Jayaraman, Swapnaa; Fausey, Caitlin M.; Smith, Linda B.

    2017-01-01

    Recent evidence from studies using head cameras suggests that the frequency of faces directly in front of infants declines over the first year and a half of life, a result that has implications for the development of and evolutionary constraints on face processing. Two experiments tested two opposing hypotheses about this observed age-related decline in the frequency of faces in infant views. By the People-input hypothesis, there are more faces in view for younger infants because people are more often physically in front of younger than older infants. This hypothesis predicts that not just faces but views of other body parts will decline with age. By the Face-input hypothesis, the decline is strictly about faces, not people or other body parts in general. Two experiments, one using a time-sampling method (84 infants 3 to 24 months in age) and the other analyses of head camera images (36 infants 1 to 24 months) provide strong support for the Face-input hypothesis. The results suggest developmental constraints on the environment that ensure faces are prevalent early in development. PMID:28026190

  15. Neighborhood Density and Syntactic Class Effects on Spoken Word Recognition: Specific Language Impairment and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoover, Jill R.

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to determine the effect of neighborhood density and syntactic class on word recognition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typical development (TD). Method: Fifteen children with SLI ("M" age = 6;5 [years;months]) and 15 with TD ("M" age = 6;4) completed a…

  16. Mathematical Word Problem Solving Ability of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bae, Young Seh; Chiang, Hsu-Min; Hickson, Linda

    2015-01-01

    This study examined the difference between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) in mathematical word problem solving ability and the factors associated with these children's word problem-solving ability. A total of 20 children with ASD and 20 children with TD participated in this study.…

  17. Investigating the Relationship between Nonword Repetition Performance and Syllabic Structure in Typical and Atypical Language Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tamburelli, Marco; Jones, Gary

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: In this study, the authors examined the role of syllabic structure in nonword repetition performance in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen children with SLI (5;7--6;7 [years;months]) and 18 TD children matched for chronological age were tested on their ability to…

  18. Development of Pointing Gestures in Children With Typical and Delayed Language Acquisition.

    PubMed

    Lüke, Carina; Ritterfeld, Ute; Grimminger, Angela; Liszkowski, Ulf; Rohlfing, Katharina J

    2017-11-09

    This longitudinal study compared the development of hand and index-finger pointing in children with typical language development (TD) and children with language delay (LD). First, we examined whether the number and the form of pointing gestures during the second year of life are potential indicators of later LD. Second, we analyzed the influence of caregivers' gestural and verbal input on children's communicative development. Thirty children with TD and 10 children with LD were observed together with their primary caregivers in a seminatural setting in 5 sessions between the ages of 12 and 21 months. Language skills were assessed at 24 months. Compared with children with TD, children with LD used fewer index-finger points at 12 and 14 months but more pointing gestures in total at 21 months. There were no significant differences in verbal or gestural input between caregivers of children with or without LD. Using more index-finger points at the beginning of the second year of life is associated with TD, whereas using more pointing gestures at the end of the second year of life is associated with delayed acquisition. Neither the verbal nor gestural input of caregivers accounted for differences in children's skills.

  19. Vaccination Patterns in Children After Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and in Their Younger Siblings.

    PubMed

    Zerbo, Ousseny; Modaressi, Sharareh; Goddard, Kristin; Lewis, Edwin; Fireman, Bruce H; Daley, Matthew F; Irving, Stephanie A; Jackson, Lisa A; Donahue, James G; Qian, Lei; Getahun, Darios; DeStefano, Frank; McNeil, Michael M; Klein, Nicola P

    2018-05-01

    In recent years, rates of vaccination have been declining. Whether this phenomenon disproportionately affects children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or their younger siblings is unknown. To investigate if children after receiving an ASD diagnosis obtain their remaining scheduled vaccines according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations and to compare the vaccination patterns of younger siblings of children with ASD with the vaccination patterns of younger siblings of children without ASD. This investigation was a retrospective matched cohort study. The setting was 6 integrated health care delivery systems across the United States within the Vaccine Safety Datalink. Participants were children born between January 1, 1995, and September 30, 2010, and their younger siblings born between January 1, 1997, and September 30, 2014. The end of follow-up was September 30, 2015. Recommended childhood vaccines between ages 1 month and 12 years. The proportion of children who received all of their vaccine doses according to ACIP recommendations. The study included 3729 children with ASD (676 [18.1%] female), 592 907 children without ASD, and their respective younger siblings. Among children without ASD, 250 193 (42.2%) were female. For vaccines recommended between ages 4 and 6 years, children with ASD were significantly less likely to be fully vaccinated compared with children without ASD (adjusted rate ratio, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.85-0.88). Within each age category, vaccination rates were significantly lower among younger siblings of children with ASD compared with younger siblings of children without ASD. The adjusted rate ratios varied from 0.86 for siblings younger than 1 year to 0.96 for those 11 to 12 years old. Parents who had a child with ASD were more likely to refuse at least 1 recommended vaccine for that child's younger sibling and to limit the number of vaccines administered during the younger sibling's first year of life

  20. Iconicity in the development of picture skills: typical development and implications for individuals with severe intellectual disabilities.

    PubMed

    Stephenson, Jennifer

    2009-01-01

    The iconicity of graphic symbols and the iconicity hypothesis are theoretical concepts that have had an impact on the use of augmentative and alternative communication strategies for people with severe intellectual disabilities. This article reviews some of the recent literature on the impact of iconicity on symbol recognition and use by typically developing children and relates those findings to people with severe disability. It seems that although iconicity may have some impact on symbol learning, there are other variables that are likely to be much more important. It is likely that iconicity is not helpful to those learning graphic symbols who have little or no comprehension of spoken language.

  1. Prelinguistic Vocal Development in Young Cochlear Implant Recipients and Typically Developing Infants: Year 1 of Robust Hearing Experience

    PubMed Central

    Ertmer, David J.; Jung, Jongmin

    2012-01-01

    This investigation examined the time course and sequence of prelinguistic vocal development during the first year of cochlear implant (CI) experience. Thirteen children who were implanted between 8 and 35 months and 11 typically developing (TD) infants participated in this longitudinal study. Adult–child play interactions were video- and audio-recorded at trimonthly intervals for each group, and child utterances were classified into categories representing progressively more mature productions: Precanonical Vocalizations, Basic Canonical Syllables, and Advanced Form vocalizations. Young CI recipients met the 20% criterion for establishment of the Basic Canonical Syllables and Advanced Forms levels with fewer months of robust hearing experience than the TD infants. Most CI recipients followed the sequence of development predicted by the Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development—Revised. The relatively rapid progress of the CI children suggests that an earlier period of auditory deprivation did not have negative consequences for prelinguistic vocal development. It also supports the notion that young CI recipients comparatively advanced maturity facilitated expeditious auditory-guided speech development. PMID:21586617

  2. A comparison of the function, activity and participation and quality of life between down syndrome children and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Jung, Hee-Kyoung; Chung, EunJung; Lee, Byoung-Hee

    2017-08-01

    [Purpose] To compare function, activity, participation, and quality of life of Down syndrome children and typically developing children according to age. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 16 Down syndrome children and 20 children with typical development were included as subjects for this study. International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) Child and Youth version (CY) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a questionnaire were used to measure children's functioning, activity, and participation. To measure quality of life, KIDSCREEN 52-HRQOL questionnaire was used in this study. [Results] ICF-CY function, activity, participation, and quality of life showed statistically significant differences between Down syndrome children and typically developing children. Down syndrome children with higher functions showed higher activities and participation. Higher function, activity and participation features were correlated with better quality of life. Higher function resulted in better quality of life. [Conclusion] Function, activity, participation, quality of life, and several common factors of Down syndrome children depend on the ability of children. Function of Down syndrome children affects their activity, participation, and quality of life. Activities and participations also affect quality of life. Therefore, children's functional aspect is the foundation for quality of life.

  3. Temporo-spatial gait parameters during street crossing conditions: a comparison between younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Vieira, Edgar R; Lim, Hyun-Hwa; Brunt, Denis; Hallal, Camilla Z; Kinsey, Laura; Errington, Lisa; Gonçalves, Mauro

    2015-02-01

    Most traffic accidents involving pedestrians happen during street crossing. Safe street crossing by older adults requires complex planning and imposes high cognitive demands. Understanding how street crossing situations affect younger and older adults' gait is important to create evidence-based policies, education and training. The objective of this study was to develop and test a method to evaluate temporo-spatial gait parameters of younger and older adults during simulated street crossing situations. Twenty-two younger (25±2 years old) and 22 older adults (73±6 years old) who lived independently in the community completed 3 walking trials at preferred gait speed and during simulated street crossing with regular and with reduced time. There were significant differences between groups (p<0.001) and conditions (p<0.001). Older adults' street crossing walking speed was higher than their preferred speed (p<0.001). Gait during simulated street crossing resulted in significant and progressive gait changes. The methods developed and tested can be used to (1) evaluate if people are at risk of falls and accidents during street crossing situations, (2) to compare among different groups, and (3) to help establish appropriate times for older pedestrians to cross streets safely. The current time to cross streets is too short even for healthy older adults. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Development of an online database of typical food portion sizes in Irish population groups.

    PubMed

    Lyons, Jacqueline; Walton, Janette; Flynn, Albert

    2013-01-01

    The Irish Food Portion Sizes Database (available at www.iuna.net) describes typical portion weights for an extensive range of foods and beverages for Irish children, adolescents and adults. The present paper describes the methodologies used to develop the database and some key characteristics of the portion weight data contained therein. The data are derived from three large, cross-sectional food consumption surveys carried out in Ireland over the last decade: the National Children's Food Survey (2003-2004), National Teens' Food Survey (2005-2006) and National Adult Nutrition Survey (2008-2010). Median, 25th and 75th percentile portion weights are described for a total of 545 items across the three survey groups, split by age group or sex as appropriate. The typical (median) portion weights reported for adolescents and adults are similar for many foods, while those reported for children are notably smaller. Adolescent and adult males generally consume larger portions than their female counterparts, though similar portion weights may be consumed where foods are packaged in unit amounts (for example, pots of yoghurt). The inclusion of energy under-reporters makes little difference to the estimation of typical portion weights in adults. The data have wide-ranging applications in dietary assessment and food labelling, and will serve as a useful reference against which to compare future portion size data from the Irish population. The present paper provides a useful context for researchers and others wishing to use the Irish Food Portion Sizes Database, and may guide researchers in other countries in establishing similar databases of their own.

  5. The Development of Complex Sentence Interpretation in Typically Developing Children Compared with Children with Specific Language Impairments or Early Unilateral Focal Lesions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dick, Frederic; Wulfeck, Beverly; Krupa-Kwiatkowski, Magda; Bates, Elizabeth

    2004-01-01

    This study compared sentence comprehension skills in typically developing children 5-17 years of age, children with language impairment (LI) and children with focal brain injuries (FL) acquired in the pre/perinatal period. Participants were asked to process sentences "on-line", choosing the agent in sentences that varied in syntactic complexity…

  6. Autistic traits and attention to speech: Evidence from typically developing individuals.

    PubMed

    Korhonen, Vesa; Werner, Stefan

    2017-04-01

    Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have a preference for attending to non-speech stimuli over speech stimuli. We are interested in whether non-speech preference is only a feature of diagnosed individuals, and whether we can we test implicit preference experimentally. In typically developed individuals, serial recall is disrupted more by speech stimuli than by non-speech stimuli. Since behaviour of individuals with autistic traits resembles that of individuals with autism, we have used serial recall to test whether autistic traits influence task performance during irrelevant speech sounds. The errors made on the serial recall task during speech or non-speech sounds were counted as a measure of speech or non-speech preference in relation to no sound condition. We replicated the serial order effect and found the speech to be more disruptive than the non-speech sounds, but were unable to find any associations between the autism quotient scores and the non-speech sounds. Our results may indicate a learnt behavioural response to speech sounds.

  7. Destination memory in social interaction: better memory for older than for younger destinations in normal aging?

    PubMed

    El Haj, Mohamad; Raffard, Stéphane; Fasotti, Luciano; Allain, Philippe

    2018-05-01

    Destination memory, a memory component allowing the attribution of information to its appropriate receiver (e.g., to whom did I lend my pen?), is compromised in normal aging. The present paper investigated whether older adults might show better memory for older destinations than for younger destinations. This hypothesis is based on empirical research showing better memory for older faces than for younger faces in older adults. Forty-one older adults and 44 younger adults were asked to tell proverbs to older and younger destinations (i.e., coloured faces). On a later recognition test, participants had to decide whether they had previously told some proverb to an older/younger destination or not. Prior to this task, participants reported their frequency of contact with other-age groups. The results showed lower destination memory in older adults than in younger adults. Interestingly, older adults displayed better memory for older than for younger destinations. The opposite pattern was seen in younger adults. The low memory for younger destinations, as observed in older adults, was significantly correlated with limited exposure to younger individuals. These findings suggest that for older adults, the social experience can play a crucial role in the destination memory, at least as far as exposure to other-age groups is concerned.

  8. Facilitating Other-Awareness in Low-Functioning Children with Autism and Typically-Developing Preschoolers Using Dual-Control Technology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holt, Samantha; Yuill, Nicola

    2014-01-01

    Children with autism are said to lack other-awareness, which restricts their opportunities for peer collaboration. We assessed other-awareness in non-verbal children with autism and typically-developing preschoolers collaborating on a shared computerised picture-sorting task. The studies compared a novel interface, designed to support…

  9. Glacier retreat in New Zealand during the Younger Dryas stadial.

    PubMed

    Kaplan, Michael R; Schaefer, Joerg M; Denton, George H; Barrell, David J A; Chinn, Trevor J H; Putnam, Aaron E; Andersen, Bjørn G; Finkel, Robert C; Schwartz, Roseanne; Doughty, Alice M

    2010-09-09

    Millennial-scale cold reversals in the high latitudes of both hemispheres interrupted the last transition from full glacial to interglacial climate conditions. The presence of the Younger Dryas stadial (approximately 12.9 to approximately 11.7 kyr ago) is established throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, but the global timing, nature and extent of the event are not well established. Evidence in mid to low latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, in particular, has remained perplexing. The debate has in part focused on the behaviour of mountain glaciers in New Zealand, where previous research has found equivocal evidence for the precise timing of increased or reduced ice extent. The interhemispheric behaviour of the climate system during the Younger Dryas thus remains an open question, fundamentally limiting our ability to formulate realistic models of global climate dynamics for this time period. Here we show that New Zealand's glaciers retreated after approximately 13 kyr bp, at the onset of the Younger Dryas, and in general over the subsequent approximately 1.5-kyr period. Our evidence is based on detailed landform mapping, a high-precision (10)Be chronology and reconstruction of former ice extents and snow lines from well-preserved cirque moraines. Our late-glacial glacier chronology matches climatic trends in Antarctica, Southern Ocean behaviour and variations in atmospheric CO(2). The evidence points to a distinct warming of the southern mid-latitude atmosphere during the Younger Dryas and a close coupling between New Zealand's cryosphere and southern high-latitude climate. These findings support the hypothesis that extensive winter sea ice and curtailed meridional ocean overturning in the North Atlantic led to a strong interhemispheric thermal gradient during late-glacial times, in turn leading to increased upwelling and CO(2) release from the Southern Ocean, thereby triggering Southern Hemisphere warming during the northern Younger Dryas.

  10. Autistic traits and social anxiety predict differential performance on social cognitive tasks in typically developing young adults

    PubMed Central

    Burk, Joshua A.; Fleckenstein, Katarina; Kozikowski, C. Teal

    2018-01-01

    The current work examined the unique contribution that autistic traits and social anxiety have on tasks examining attention and emotion processing. In Study 1, 119 typically-developing college students completed a flanker task assessing the control of attention to target faces and away from distracting faces during emotion identification. In Study 2, 208 typically-developing college students performed a visual search task which required identification of whether a series of 8 or 16 emotional faces depicted the same or different emotions. Participants with more self-reported autistic traits performed more slowly on the flanker task in Study 1 than those with fewer autistic traits when stimuli depicted complex emotions. In Study 2, participants higher in social anxiety performed less accurately on trials showing all complex faces; participants with autistic traits showed no differences. These studies suggest that traits related to autism and to social anxiety differentially impact social cognitive processing. PMID:29596523

  11. Parent perceptions of the quality of life of pet dogs living with neuro-typically developing and neuro-atypically developing children: An exploratory study.

    PubMed

    Hall, Sophie S; Wright, Hannah F; Mills, Daniel S

    2017-01-01

    There is growing scientific and societal recognition of the role that pet dogs can play in healthy development of children; both those who are neuro-typically developing and those who live with a neuro-developmental disorder, such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, little attention has been paid to how living with children positively and negatively affects quality of life of a pet dog. In this exploratory study we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents of neuro-typically developing children (n = 18) and those with a neuro-developmental disorder (n = 18) who owned a pet dog, until no new factors were identified. Living with children brought potentially positive benefits to the dog's life including: imposition of a routine, participation in recreational activities and the development of a strong bond between the child and the dog. The importance of maintaining a routine was particularly prevalent in families with children with neuro-developmental disorders. Potential negative factors included having to cope with child meltdowns and tantrums, over stimulation from child visitors, harsh contact and rough and tumble play with the child. The regularity and intensity of meltdowns and tantrums was particularly evident in responses from parents with children with a neuro-developmental disorder. However, child visitors and rough play and contact were mentioned similarly across the groups. Protective factors included having a safe haven for the dog to escape to, parent's awareness of stress signs and child education in dog-interaction. Parents were also asked to complete a stress response scale to provide an initial quantitative comparison of stress responses between dogs living with the two family-types. Parents with neuro-typically developing children more frequently observed their dog rapidly running away from a situation and less frequently observed their dog widening their eyes, than parents with children with a neuro

  12. Exploring employment readiness through mock job interview and workplace role-play exercises: comparing youth with physical disabilities to their typically developing peers.

    PubMed

    Lindsay, Sally; McDougall, Carolyn; Sanford, Robyn; Menna-Dack, Dolly; Kingsnorth, Shauna; Adams, Tracey

    2015-01-01

    To assess performance differences in a mock job interview and workplace role-play exercise for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers. We evaluated a purposive sample of 31 youth (15 with a physical disability and 16 typically developing) on their performance (content and delivery) in employment readiness role-play exercises. Our findings show significant differences between youth with disabilities compared to typically developing peers in several areas of the mock interview content (i.e. responses to the questions: "tell me about yourself", "how would you provide feedback to someone not doing their share" and a problem-solving scenario question) and delivery (i.e. voice clarity and mean latency). We found no significant differences in the workplace role-play performances of youth with and without disabilities. Youth with physical disabilities performed poorer in some areas of a job interview compared to their typically developing peers. They could benefit from further targeted employment readiness training. Clinicians should: Coach youth with physical disability on how to "sell" their abilities to potential employers and encourage youth to get involved in volunteer activities and employment readiness training programs. Consider using mock job interviews and other employment role-play exercises as assessment and training tools for youth with physical disabilities. Involve speech pathologists in the development of employment readiness programs that address voice clarity as a potential delivery issue.

  13. Rapid Facial Reactions to Emotional Facial Expressions in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beall, Paula M.; Moody, Eric J.; McIntosh, Daniel N.; Hepburn, Susan L.; Reed, Catherine L.

    2008-01-01

    Typical adults mimic facial expressions within 1000ms, but adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs) are associated with the development of social-emotional abilities. Such interpersonal matching may be caused by motor mirroring or emotional responses. Using facial electromyography (EMG), this study…

  14. Increased Sensory Processing Atypicalities in Parents of Multiplex ASD Families versus Typically Developing and Simplex ASD Families

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donaldson, Chelsea K.; Stauder, Johannes E. A.; Donkers, Franc C. L.

    2017-01-01

    Recent studies have suggested that sensory processing atypicalities may share genetic influences with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To further investigate this, the adolescent/adult sensory profile (AASP) questionnaire was distributed to 85 parents of typically developing children (P-TD), 121 parents from simplex ASD families (SPX), and 54…

  15. Older and younger adults differently judge the similarity between negative affect terms.

    PubMed

    Ready, Rebecca E; Santorelli, Gennarina D; Mather, Molly A

    2018-01-02

    Theoretical models of aging suggest changes across the adult lifespan in the capacity to differentiate emotions. Greater emotion differentiation is associated with advantages in terms of emotion regulation and emotion resiliency. This study utilized a novel method that directly measures judgments of affect differentiation and does not confound affective experience with knowledge about affect terms. Theoretical predictions that older adults would distinguish more between affect terms than younger persons were tested. Older (n = 27; aged 60-92) and younger (n = 56; aged 18-32) adults rated the difference versus similarity of 16 affect terms from the Kessler and Staudinger ( 2009 ) scales; each of the 16 items was paired with every other item for a total of 120 ratings. Participants provided self-reports of trait emotions, alexithymia, and depressive symptoms. Older adults significantly differentiated more between low arousal and high arousal negative affect (NA) items than younger persons. Depressive symptoms were associated with similarity ratings across and within valence and arousal. Findings offer partial support for theoretical predictions that older adults differentiate more between affect terms than younger persons. To the extent that differentiating between negative affects can aid in emotion regulation, older adults may have an advantage over younger persons. Future research should investigate mechanisms that underlie age group differences in emotion differentiation.

  16. CDC Vital Signs: Preventing Pregnancies in Younger Teens

    MedlinePlus

    ... media and digital technology (e.g., cell phones, computers, tablets). Younger teens can Know both they and ... and condoms correctly every time. Top of Page Science Behind the Issue MMWR Science Clips Related Pages ...

  17. Voluntary orienting among children and adolescents with Down syndrome and MA-matched typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Goldman, Karen J; Flanagan, Tara; Shulman, Cory; Enns, James T; Burack, Jacob A

    2005-05-01

    A forced-choice reaction-time (RT) task was used to examine voluntary visual orienting among children and adolescents with trisomy 21 Down syndrome and typically developing children matched at an MA of approximately 5.6 years, an age when the development of orienting abilities reaches optimal adult-like efficiency. Both groups displayed faster reaction times (RTs) when the target location was cued correctly than when cued incorrectly under both short and long SOA conditions, indicating intact orienting among children with Down syndrome. This finding is further evidence that the efficiency of many of the primary components of attention among persons with Down syndrome is consistent with their developmental level.

  18. The experience of demanding work environments in younger workers.

    PubMed

    Winding, T N; Labriola, M; Nohr, E A; Andersen, J H

    2015-06-01

    Investigating whether certain individual or background characteristics are associated with an increased risk of experiencing an excessively demanding work environment in younger workers may help to reduce future inequality in health and maximize their labour market participation. To describe the work environment of Danish 20- to 21-year olds and to investigate the influence of family socioeconomic background and individual characteristics at age 14-15 on later experience of physical and psychosocial work environments. We obtained information on subjects' school performance, vulnerability, health and parental socioeconomic status from registers and a questionnaire completed in 2004. A questionnaire concerning eight measures of subjects' psychosocial and physical work environment in 2010 was used to determine the outcomes of interest. The study population consisted of 679 younger workers aged 20-21. The psychosocial work environment was in general good but younger workers experienced more demanding physical work than the general working population. Overall, individual as well as family factors had a limited impact on their assessment of the work environment. Low self-esteem at age 14-15 was associated with experiencing high demands and lack of trust and fairness at work, whereas low parental socioeconomic status was associated with a demanding physical work environment. This study showed a social gradient in experiencing a demanding physical work environment at age 20-21. The psychosocial work environment experienced by younger workers was generally good, but vulnerable young people may need special attention to protect them from or prepare them for psychosocially demanding jobs later in life. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Both younger and older adults have difficulty updating emotional memories.

    PubMed

    Nashiro, Kaoru; Sakaki, Michiko; Huffman, Derek; Mather, Mara

    2013-03-01

    The main purpose of the study was to examine whether emotion impairs associative memory for previously seen items in older adults, as previously observed in younger adults. Thirty-two younger adults and 32 older adults participated. The experiment consisted of 2 parts. In Part 1, participants learned picture-object associations for negative and neutral pictures. In Part 2, they learned picture-location associations for negative and neutral pictures; half of these pictures were seen in Part 1 whereas the other half were new. The dependent measure was how many locations of negative versus neutral items in the new versus old categories participants remembered in Part 2. Both groups had more difficulty learning the locations of old negative pictures than of new negative pictures. However, this pattern was not observed for neutral items. Despite the fact that older adults showed overall decline in associative memory, the impairing effect of emotion on updating associative memory was similar between younger and older adults.

  20. Computer-based training for safety: comparing methods with older and younger workers.

    PubMed

    Wallen, Erik S; Mulloy, Karen B

    2006-01-01

    Computer-based safety training is becoming more common and is being delivered to an increasingly aging workforce. Aging results in a number of changes that make it more difficult to learn from certain types of computer-based training. Instructional designs derived from cognitive learning theories may overcome some of these difficulties. Three versions of computer-based respiratory safety training were shown to older and younger workers who then took a high and a low level learning test. Younger workers did better overall. Both older and younger workers did best with the version containing text with pictures and audio narration. Computer-based training with pictures and audio narration may be beneficial for workers over 45 years of age. Computer-based safety training has advantages but workers of different ages may benefit differently. Computer-based safety programs should be designed and selected based on their ability to effectively train older as well as younger learners.

  1. Sex Differences in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Compared with Their Unaffected Siblings and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Park, Subin; Cho, Soo-Churl; Cho, In Hee; Kim, Boong-Nyun; Kim, Jae-Won; Shin, Min-Sup; Chung, Un-Sun; Park, Tae-Won; Son, Jung-Woo; Yoo, Hee Jeong

    2012-01-01

    This study examined the nature of cognitive and behavioral sex differences in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and two comparison groups: a group of typically developing (TD) children and a group of unaffected siblings of ASD children. Sex differences in core autistic symptoms, co-occurring behavioral symptoms, and cognitive styles…

  2. Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Child-Directed Speech of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders or Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, Linda R.; Roberts, Jane E.; Baranek, Grace T.; Mandulak, Kerry C.; Dalton, Jennifer C.

    2012-01-01

    Young boys with autism were compared to typically developing boys on responses to nonsocial and child-directed speech (CDS) stimuli. Behavioral (looking) and physiological (heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) measures were collected. Boys with autism looked equally as much as chronological age-matched peers at nonsocial stimuli, but less…

  3. Development of Product Relatedness and Distance Effects in Typical Achievers and in Children with Mathematics Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rotem, Avital; Henik, Avishai

    2015-01-01

    The current study examined the development of two effects that have been found in single-digit multiplication errors: relatedness and distance. Typically achieving (TA) second, fourth, and sixth graders and adults, and sixth and eighth graders with a mathematics learning disability (MLD) performed a verification task. Relatedness was defined by a…

  4. Infliximab therapy in pediatric patients 7 years of age and younger.

    PubMed

    Kelsen, Judith R; Grossman, Andrew B; Pauly-Hubbard, Helen; Gupta, Kernika; Baldassano, Robert N; Mamula, Petar

    2014-12-01

    Infliximab (IFX) is efficacious for induction and maintenance of remission in pediatric patients with moderate-to-severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It has, however, not been studied in patients 7 years old and younger. Our aim was to characterize efficacy and safety of IFX therapy in this cohort. This was a retrospective study of patients with IBD ages 7 years and younger, treated with IFX between 1999 and 2011. Medical records were reviewed for age of diagnosis, disease phenotype, therapy, surgery, IFX infusion dates, dose, and intervals. Outcome measures included physician global assessment, corticosteroid requirement, and adverse events. Thirty-three children (ages 2.4-7 years) were included. Twenty patients had Crohn disease, 4 had ulcerative colitis, and 9 had indeterminate colitis. Maintenance of IFX therapy at 1, 2, and 3 years was 36%, 18%, and 12%, respectively. Patients of age 5 years and younger had the lowest rates of maintenance of therapy at 25% at year 1, and 10% at years 2 and 3 combined. Nine percent of all of the patients demonstrated response measured by the physician global assessment and were steroid free at 1 year. There were 8 infusion reactions. There were no malignancies, serious infections, or deaths. IFX demonstrated a modest response rate and a low steroid-sparing effect in patients with IBD 7 years old and younger. Although this is a limited study, there appears to be a trend for decreased sustained efficacy with IFX in this age group, particularly in children 5 years old and younger, when compared with the previously published literature in older children.

  5. Lung cancer in patients younger than 40 years in a multiracial Asian country.

    PubMed

    Liam, C K; Lim, K H; Wong, C M

    2000-12-01

    This study aimed to determine whether the clinicopathological features of lung cancer in patients younger than 40 years differ from that of older patients in an Asian country. We undertook a review of the clinicopathological data of all patients with confirmed primary lung cancer at the Department of Medicine, University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from October 1991 to September 1999. Of the 580 patients with lung cancer, 36 (6.2%; 23 males, 13 females) were 21-39 years old at diagnosis. The percentage of people who had never smoked was higher among the younger patients (58.3% vs 19.1%, P < 0.001). Although adenocarcinoma was the most common cell type in both groups, its incidence was higher in the younger patients (24/36 (66.7%) vs 228/544 (41.9%), P = 0.007). The mean World Health Organization performance status at presentation was worse in the younger patients (2.4 vs 2, P = 0.007). In the case of non-small cell lung cancer, all the younger patients presented with either stage IIIb or metastatic disease compared to 77.2% of the older patients (P < 0.001). Younger lung cancer patients were more likely than older patients to have never smoked, to have adenocarcinoma, and to present with poorer performance status and with more advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

  6. Association Between Indoor Tanning and Melanoma in Younger Men and Women.

    PubMed

    Lazovich, DeAnn; Isaksson Vogel, Rachel; Weinstock, Martin A; Nelson, Heather H; Ahmed, Rehana L; Berwick, Marianne

    2016-03-01

    In the United States and Minnesota, melanoma incidence is rising more steeply among women than men younger than 50 years. To our knowledge, no study has examined age- and sex-specific associations between indoor tanning and melanoma to determine if these trends could be due to greater indoor tanning use among younger women. To examine associations between indoor tanning and melanoma among men and women younger than 50 years. Population-based case-control study conducted in Minnesota of 681 patients (465 [68.3%] women) diagnosed as having melanoma between 2004 and 2007, and 654 controls (446 [68.2%] women), ages 25 to 49 years. Indoor tanning, defined as any use, first age of use, and total sessions. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs were calculated for melanoma in relation to indoor tanning exposure for men and women by diagnosis or reference age (<30, 30-39, 40-49 years). Sex-specific associations for indoor tanning and melanoma by anatomic site were examined. Compared with women aged 40 to 49 years, women younger than 40 years initiated indoor tanning at a younger age (16 vs 25 years, P < .001) and reported more frequent indoor tanning (median number of sessions, 100 vs 40, P < .001). Women younger than 30 years were 6 times more likely to be in the case than the control group if they tanned indoors (crude OR, 6.0; 95% CI, 1.3-28.5). Odds ratios were also significantly elevated among women, ages 30 to 49 years (adjusted OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.2-9.7 for women 30-39 years; adjusted OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.4-3.6 for women 40-49 years); a dose response was observed among women regardless of age. Among men, results by age were inconsistent. The strongest OR for indoor tanning by anatomic site was for melanomas arising on the trunk of women (adjusted OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.9-7.2). Indoor tanning is a likely factor for the steeper increase in melanoma rates in the United States among younger women compared with men, given the timing of when women initiated indoor

  7. Details: Elevation of Plate Typical Bay, SectionThrough Plate Typical Bay, ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    Details: Elevation of Plate Typical Bay, Section-Through Plate Typical Bay, Section-Through Plate Center Bay, Elevation of Plate Center Bay - Contoocook Covered Bridge, Spanning Contoocook River, Hopkinton, Merrimack County, NH

  8. Swahili Speech Development: Preliminary Normative Data from Typically Developing Pre-School Children in Tanzania

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gangji, Nazneen; Pascoe, Michelle; Smouse, Mantoa

    2015-01-01

    Background: Swahili is widely spoken in East Africa, but to date there are no culturally and linguistically appropriate materials available for speech-language therapists working in the region. The challenges are further exacerbated by the limited research available on the typical acquisition of Swahili phonology. Aim: To describe the speech…

  9. Self-Regulatory Speech during Planning and Problem-Solving in Children with SLI and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abdul Aziz, Safiyyah; Fletcher, Janet; Bayliss, Donna M.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Past research with children with specific language impairment (SLI) has shown them to have poorer planning and problem-solving ability, and delayed self-regulatory speech (SRS) relative to their typically developing (TD) peers. However, the studies are few in number and are restricted in terms of the number and age range of…

  10. Parents' Translations of Child Gesture Facilitate Word Learning in Children with Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dimitrova, Nevena; Özçaliskan, Seyda; Adamson, Lauren B.

    2016-01-01

    Typically-developing (TD) children frequently refer to objects uniquely in gesture. Parents translate these gestures into words, facilitating children's acquisition of these words (Goldin-Meadow et al. in "Dev Sci" 10(6):778-785, 2007). We ask whether this pattern holds for children with autism (AU) and with Down syndrome (DS) who show…

  11. Identifying the Dimensionality of Oral Language Skills of Children with Typical Development in Preschool through Fifth Grade

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lonigan, Christopher J.; Milburn, Trelani F.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Language is a multidimensional construct from prior to the beginning of formal schooling to near the end of elementary school. The primary goals of this study were to identify the dimensionality of language and to determine whether this dimensionality was consistent in children with typical language development from preschool through 5th…

  12. Variability in Classroom Social Communication: Performance of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kjellmer, Liselotte; Olswang, Lesley B.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: In this study, the authors examined how variability in classroom social communication performance differed between children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and pair-matched, typically developing peers. Method: Twelve pairs of children were observed in their classrooms, 40 min per day (20 min per child) for 4 days over a…

  13. Vocabulary, Syntax, and Narrative Development in Typically Developing Children and Children with Early Unilateral Brain Injury: Early Parental Talk about the "There-and-Then" Matters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demir, Özlem Ece; Rowe, Meredith L.; Heller, Gabriella; Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Levine, Susan C.

    2015-01-01

    This study examines the role of a particular kind of linguistic input--talk about the past and future, pretend, and explanations, that is, talk that is decontextualized--in the development of vocabulary, syntax, and narrative skill in typically developing (TD) children and children with pre- or perinatal brain injury (BI). Decontextualized talk…

  14. [Characteristics of emergency poisoning cases in elderly versus younger patients].

    PubMed

    Supervía Caparrós, August; Pallàs Villaronga, Oriol; Clemente Rodríguez, Carlos; Aranda Cárdenas, María Dolores; Pi-Figueras Valls, María; Cirera Lorenzo, Isabel

    2017-10-01

    To compare cases of poisoning according to age to detect differences in frequency of visits to the emergency department, patient characteristics, case management, and immediate outcome in terms of related mortality. Descriptive study of a retrospective series of patients who visited a university hospital emergency department for treatment of poisoning between 2009 and 2014. We collected patient characteristics and data related to the event, case management, and poisoning-related death. Patients were grouped according to age (cut-off 65 y). Of a total of 3847 poisoning episodes, 341 (8.9%) were in patients aged 65 years or older. The percentage of women among these older patients (61.3%) was greater than among younger patients (36.3%; P<.001). Poisoning was accidental in older patients more often than younger ones (64.4% vs 9.5%, respectively; P<.001), occurred more often in the home (82.1% vs 37%, P<.001), and more often required active treatment (73.3% vs 57.4%; P<.001) and admission to hospital (21.4% vs 7.3%, P<.001). The related mortality rate was also higher in the older patients (2.1% vs 0.1% in younger patients, P<.001). The percentage of poisonings in patients aged 65 years or older is not negligible. Poisoning in patients of advanced age tends to be accidental and take place in the home. Older patients more often require active treatment and hospital admission; poisoning-related death is more common in older patients than younger ones.

  15. Acoustic Correlates of Inflectional Morphology in the Speech of Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owen, Amanda J.; Goffman, Lisa

    2007-01-01

    The development of the use of the third-person singular -s in open syllable verbs in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing peers was examined. Verbs that included overt productions of the third-person singular -s morpheme (e.g. "Bobby plays ball everyday;" "Bear laughs when mommy buys…

  16. Basic visual perceptual processes in children with typical development and cerebral palsy: The processing of surface, length, orientation, and position.

    PubMed

    Schmetz, Emilie; Magis, David; Detraux, Jean-Jacques; Barisnikov, Koviljka; Rousselle, Laurence

    2018-03-02

    The present study aims to assess how the processing of basic visual perceptual (VP) components (length, surface, orientation, and position) develops in typically developing (TD) children (n = 215, 4-14 years old) and adults (n = 20, 20-25 years old), and in children with cerebral palsy (CP) (n = 86, 5-14 years old) using the first four subtests of the Battery for the Evaluation of Visual Perceptual and Spatial processing in children. Experiment 1 showed that these four basic VP processes follow distinct developmental trajectories in typical development. Experiment 2 revealed that children with CP present global and persistent deficits for the processing of basic VP components when compared with TD children matched on chronological age and nonverbal reasoning abilities.

  17. Assessment Tools for Evaluation of Oral Feeding in Infants Younger Than 6 Months.

    PubMed

    Pados, Britt F; Park, Jinhee; Estrem, Hayley; Awotwi, Araba

    2016-04-01

    Feeding difficulty is common in infants younger than 6 months. Identification of infants in need of specialized treatment is critical to ensure appropriate nutrition and feeding skill development. Valid and reliable assessment tools help clinicians objectively evaluate feeding. To identify and evaluate assessment tools available for clinical assessment of bottle- and breastfeeding in infants younger than 6 months. CINAHL, HaPI, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for "infant feeding" and "assessment tool." The literature (n = 237) was reviewed for relevant assessment tools. A secondary search was conducted in CINAHL and PubMed for additional literature on identified tools. Eighteen assessment tools met inclusion criteria. Of these, 7 were excluded because of limited available literature or because they were intended for use with a specific diagnosis or in research only. There are 11 assessment tools available for clinical practice. Only 2 of these were intended for bottle-feeding. All 11 indicated that they were appropriate for use with breastfeeding. None of the available tools have adequate psychometric development and testing. All of the tools should be used with caution. The Early Feeding Skills Assessment and Bristol Breastfeeding Assessment Tool had the most supportive psychometric development and testing. Feeding assessment tools need to be developed and tested to guide optimal clinical care of infants from birth through 6 months. A tool that assesses both bottle- and breastfeeding would allow for consistent assessment across feeding methods.

  18. Empirical Implications of Matching Children with Specific Language Impairment to Children with Typical Development on Nonverbal IQ

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Earle, F. Sayako; Gallinat, Erica L.; Grela, Bernard G.; Lehto, Alexa; Spaulding, Tammie J.

    2017-01-01

    This study determined the effect of matching children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their peers with typical development (TD) for nonverbal IQ on the IQ test scores of the resultant groups. Studies published between January 2000 and May 2012 reporting standard nonverbal IQ scores for SLI and age-matched TD controls were categorized…

  19. Evaluation of the Class Pass Intervention for Typically Developing Students with Hypothesized Escape-Motivated Disruptive Classroom Behavior

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cook, Clayton R.; Collins, Tai; Dart, Evan; Vance, Michael J.; McIntosh, Kent; Grady, Erin A.; DeCano, Policarpio

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the Class Pass Intervention (CPI) as a secondary intervention for typically developing students with escape-motivated disruptive classroom behavior. The CPI consists of providing students with passes that they can use to appropriately request a break from an academic task to engage in a preferred activity for…

  20. Understanding the effect of workload on automation use for younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    McBride, Sara E; Rogers, Wendy A; Fisk, Arthur D

    2011-12-01

    This study examined how individuals, younger and older, interacted with an imperfect automated system. The impact of workload on performance and automation use was also investigated. Automation is used in situations characterized by varying levels of workload. As automated systems spread to domains such as transportation and the home, a diverse population of users will interact with automation. Research is needed to understand how different segments of the population use automation. Workload was systematically manipulated to create three levels (low, moderate, high) in a dual-task scenario in which participants interacted with a 70% reliable automated aid. Two experiments were conducted to assess automation use for younger and older adults. Both younger and older adults relied on the automation more than they complied with it. Among younger adults, high workload led to poorer performance and higher compliance, even when that compliance was detrimental. Older adults' performance was negatively affected by workload, but their compliance and reliance were unaffected. Younger and older adults were both able to use and double-check an imperfect automated system. Workload affected how younger adults complied with automation, particularly with regard to detecting automation false alarms. Older adults tended to comply and rely at fairly high rates overall, and this did not change with increased workload. Training programs for imperfect automated systems should vary workload and provide feedback about error types, and strategies for identifying errors. The ability to identify automation errors varies across individuals, thereby necessitating training.

  1. Reducing the framing effect in older and younger adults by encouraging analytic processing.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Ayanna K; Millar, Peter R

    2012-03-01

    The present study explored whether the framing effect could be reduced in older and younger adults using techniques that influenced the accessibility of information relevant to the decision-making processing. Accessibility was manipulated indirectly in Experiment 1 by having participants engage in concurrent tasks, and directly in Experiment 2, through an instructions manipulation that required participants to maintain a goal of analytic processing throughout the experimental trial. We tested 120 older and 120 younger adults in Experiment 1. Participants completed 28 decision trials while concurrently either performing a probability calculation task or a memory task. In Experiment 2, we tested 136 older and 136 younger adults. Participants completed 48 decision trials after either having been instructed to "think like a scientist" or base decisions on "gut reactions." Results demonstrated that the framing effect was reduced in older and younger adults in the probability calculation task in Experiment 1 and under the "think like a scientist" instructions manipulation in Experiment 2. These results suggest that when information relevant to unbiased decision making was made more accessible, both older and younger adults were able to reduce susceptibility to the framing effect.

  2. Testing enhances subsequent learning in older but not in younger elementary school children.

    PubMed

    Aslan, Alp; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

    2016-11-01

    In adults, testing can enhance subsequent learning by reducing interference from the tested information. Here, we examined this forward effect of testing in children. Younger and older elementary school children and adult controls studied four lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test. Following presentation of each of the first three lists, participants were immediately tested on the respective list, or the list was re-presented for additional study. Results revealed that, compared to additional study, immediate testing of Lists 1-3 enhanced memory for the subsequently studied List 4 in adults and older elementary school children, but not in younger elementary school children. The findings indicate that the forward effect of testing is a relatively late-maturing phenomenon that develops over middle childhood and is still inefficient in the early elementary school years. Together with the results of other recent studies, these findings point to a more general problem in young children in combating interference. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Sibling influences on theory of mind development for children with ASD.

    PubMed

    O'Brien, Karen; Slaughter, Virginia; Peterson, Candida C

    2011-06-01

    Research indicates that having child siblings is positively associated with theory of mind (ToM) in typically developing children. As ToM is important to everyday social behaviours it is important to extend this research to examine whether there are similar sibling effects for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Theory of mind and executive functioning abilities of 60 children clinically diagnosed with ASD were assessed with batteries of standard tasks. Verbal mental age (VMA) and severity of autism symptoms were also measured together with number of child-aged siblings (1 to 12 years) and position in the sibling constellation. Having older siblings was a significant negative predictor of ToM performance for children with ASD, even after controlling for age, VMA, executive function and autism symptom severity. A weaker ToM benefit of younger siblings was not statistically significant independently of control variables. In sharp contrast to findings for typically developing preschoolers, having an older sibling was a disadvantage for ToM development in children with ASD. Conceivably, older siblings may over-compensate for their younger ASD siblings in social interactions, thereby limiting opportunities for social-cognitive growth. Parental attitudes, family resources, cultural norms and access to educational interventions may also conceivably be relevant and clearly warrant further research. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

  4. What's in a Name? Typicality and Relatedness Effects in Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jerger, Susan; Damian, Markus F.

    2005-01-01

    We studied how category typicality and out-of-category relatedness affect speeded category verification (vote ''yes'' if pictured object is clothing) in typically developing 4- to 14-year-olds and adults. Stimuli were typical and atypical category objects (e.g., pants, glove) and related and unrelated out-of-category objects (e.g., necklace,…

  5. Evaluation of a workplace engagement project for people with younger onset dementia.

    PubMed

    Robertson, Jacinta; Evans, David

    2015-08-01

    In 2011, a workplace project was established to provide a small group of people who had younger onset dementia with the opportunity to return to the workplace. The project sought to explore the feasibility and safety of engaging these younger people in workplace activities if an appropriate framework of support was provided. Opportunities to engage in meaningful activities are quite limited for younger people with dementia because services are targeted at an older client population. A qualitative exploratory approach was used for the project evaluation. Participants were people who were 65 years or younger and had a diagnosis of dementia. They attended a large metropolitan hardware store one day per week and worked beside a store employee for a four hour work shift. Evaluation of the project included observation of participant's engagement in the workplace, adverse events and a qualitative analysis that used participant-nominated good project outcomes. Nine people with a mean age of 58·8 years participated in the project. Six of these participants have been engaged at the workplace for more than two years. All participants were able to gain the skills needed to complete their respective work duties. Participants initially assisted with simple work tasks, but over time, they were able to expand their range of duties to include more complex activities such as customer sales. Participants achieved their nominated good outcomes of improved well-being, engaging in worthwhile activities, contributing to society and socialisation. The evaluation has shown that this workplace programme is a viable model of engagement for younger people with dementia. This evaluation offers a practical demonstration that it is feasible and safe to provide opportunities for younger people with dementia to engage in meaningful activities in the community if appropriate support is provided. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. The Typical General Aviation Aircraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Turnbull, Andrew

    1999-01-01

    The reliability of General Aviation aircraft is unknown. In order to "assist the development of future GA reliability and safety requirements", a reliability study needs to be performed. Before any studies on General Aviation aircraft reliability begins, a definition of a typical aircraft that encompasses most of the general aviation characteristics needs to be defined. In this report, not only is the typical general aviation aircraft defined for the purpose of the follow-on reliability study, but it is also separated, or "sifted" into several different categories where individual analysis can be performed on the reasonably independent systems. In this study, the typical General Aviation aircraft is a four-place, single engine piston, all aluminum fixed-wing certified aircraft with a fixed tricycle landing gear and a cable operated flight control system. The system breakdown of a GA aircraft "sifts" the aircraft systems and components into five categories: Powerplant, Airframe, Aircraft Control Systems, Cockpit Instrumentation Systems, and the Electrical Systems. This breakdown was performed along the lines of a failure of the system. Any component that caused a system to fail was considered a part of that system.

  7. The visual discrimination of negative facial expressions by younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Mienaltowski, Andrew; Johnson, Ellen R; Wittman, Rebecca; Wilson, Anne-Taylor; Sturycz, Cassandra; Norman, J Farley

    2013-04-05

    Previous research has demonstrated that older adults are not as accurate as younger adults at perceiving negative emotions in facial expressions. These studies rely on emotion recognition tasks that involve choosing between many alternatives, creating the possibility that age differences emerge for cognitive rather than perceptual reasons. In the present study, an emotion discrimination task was used to investigate younger and older adults' ability to visually discriminate between negative emotional facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, and disgust) at low (40%) and high (80%) expressive intensity. Participants completed trials blocked by pairs of emotions. Discrimination ability was quantified from the participants' responses using signal detection measures. In general, the results indicated that older adults had more difficulty discriminating between low intensity expressions of negative emotions than did younger adults. However, younger and older adults did not differ when discriminating between anger and sadness. These findings demonstrate that age differences in visual emotion discrimination emerge when signal detection measures are used but that these differences are not uniform and occur only in specific contexts.

  8. [Interventions to prevent the development of overweight and obesity in children younger than five years].

    PubMed

    Bonilla, Catherine; Híjar, Gisely; Márquez, Delia; Aramburú, Adolfo; Aparco, Juan Pablo; Gutiérrez, Ericson L

    2017-01-01

    Childhood obesity is one of the most severe public health problems worldwide. The present study describes the interventions used to prevent overweight and obesity in children younger than 5 years. The objective of the interventions was to stimulate breastfeeding, monitor the child's growth, and promote adequate complementary feeding by means of nutritional counseling using a responsive feeding approach in different settings, including health centers and residences. The interventions included physical activity and nutritional counseling, with the active participation of the parents. The quality of evidence from most studies was high because the evidence was derived from controlled clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. All interventions were conducted or could be replicated in Peru by adequate contextualization.

  9. Parent perceptions of the quality of life of pet dogs living with neuro-typically developing and neuro-atypically developing children: An exploratory study

    PubMed Central

    Wright, Hannah F.; Mills, Daniel S.

    2017-01-01

    There is growing scientific and societal recognition of the role that pet dogs can play in healthy development of children; both those who are neuro-typically developing and those who live with a neuro-developmental disorder, such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, little attention has been paid to how living with children positively and negatively affects quality of life of a pet dog. In this exploratory study we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents of neuro-typically developing children (n = 18) and those with a neuro-developmental disorder (n = 18) who owned a pet dog, until no new factors were identified. Living with children brought potentially positive benefits to the dog’s life including: imposition of a routine, participation in recreational activities and the development of a strong bond between the child and the dog. The importance of maintaining a routine was particularly prevalent in families with children with neuro-developmental disorders. Potential negative factors included having to cope with child meltdowns and tantrums, over stimulation from child visitors, harsh contact and rough and tumble play with the child. The regularity and intensity of meltdowns and tantrums was particularly evident in responses from parents with children with a neuro-developmental disorder. However, child visitors and rough play and contact were mentioned similarly across the groups. Protective factors included having a safe haven for the dog to escape to, parent’s awareness of stress signs and child education in dog-interaction. Parents were also asked to complete a stress response scale to provide an initial quantitative comparison of stress responses between dogs living with the two family-types. Parents with neuro-typically developing children more frequently observed their dog rapidly running away from a situation and less frequently observed their dog widening their eyes, than parents with children with a neuro

  10. Colour as an Environmental Cue when Learning a Route in a Virtual Environment: Typical and Atypical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Farran, Emily K.; Courbois, Yannick; Van Herwegen, Jo; Cruickshank, Alice G.; Blades, Mark

    2012-01-01

    Typically developing (TD) 6-year-olds and 9-year-olds, and older children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) navigated through brick-wall mazes in a virtual environment. Participants were shown a route through three mazes, each with 6 turns. In each maze the floor of each path section was a different colour such that colour acted as an…

  11. Superior Recognition Performance for Happy Masked and Unmasked Faces in Both Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Svärd, Joakim; Wiens, Stefan; Fischer, Håkan

    2012-01-01

    In the aging literature it has been shown that even though emotion recognition performance decreases with age, the decrease is less for happiness than other facial expressions. Studies in younger adults have also revealed that happy faces are more strongly attended to and better recognized than other emotional facial expressions. Thus, there might be a more age independent happy face advantage in facial expression recognition. By using a backward masking paradigm and varying stimulus onset asynchronies (17–267 ms) the temporal development of a happy face advantage, on a continuum from low to high levels of visibility, was examined in younger and older adults. Results showed that across age groups, recognition performance for happy faces was better than for neutral and fearful faces at durations longer than 50 ms. Importantly, the results showed a happy face advantage already during early processing of emotional faces in both younger and older adults. This advantage is discussed in terms of processing of salient perceptual features and elaborative processing of the happy face. We also investigate the combined effect of age and neuroticism on emotional face processing. The rationale was previous findings of age-related differences in physiological arousal to emotional pictures and a relation between arousal and neuroticism. Across all durations, there was an interaction between age and neuroticism, showing that being high in neuroticism might be disadvantageous for younger, but not older adults’ emotion recognition performance during arousal enhancing tasks. These results indicate that there is a relation between aging, neuroticism, and performance, potentially related to physiological arousal. PMID:23226135

  12. The role of imitation in the observed heterogeneity in EEG mu rhythm in autism and typical development.

    PubMed

    Bernier, Raphael; Aaronson, Benjamin; McPartland, James

    2013-06-01

    Dysfunction in an execution/observation matching system, or mirror neuron system, has been proposed to contribute to the social deficits observed in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Atypical activity in this system, as reflected in attenuation of the EEG mu rhythm, has been demonstrated in several studies; however, normative patterns of activity have been evident in other ASD samples. The current study sought to investigate this poorly understood heterogeneity in social perceptual brain function in ASD. EEG mu rhythm was recorded in a well-characterized sample of 19 children with ASD (mean age=6.4; 1 female) and 19 age-matched typically developing peers (mean age=6.9; 2 females) during execution and observation of goal-directed hand actions. Children were assessed on variables theoretically related to mirror neuron system function (MNS), such as ASD symptoms and imitation ability. Results indicated that MNS activity was associated with facial imitation ability, but not hand imitation ability, in children with ASD and typically developing individuals. Groups were comparable in terms of average MNS activity during both action observation and execution, but, in both groups, a subset of children showed absent or significantly reduced MNS activity during observation of action in conjunction with greater difficulty in imitation. These results emphasize the relationship between EEG indices of MNS function and imitative skill and suggest that dysfunction of the MNS is related to imitation ability in both clinical and typical populations, rather than representing a core deficit or universal impairment in ASD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. "What Brings Him Here Today?": Medical Problem Presentation Involving Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Solomon, Olga; Heritage, John; Yin, Larry; Maynard, Douglas W.; Bauman, Margaret L.

    2016-01-01

    Conversation and discourse analyses were used to examine medical problem presentation in pediatric care. Healthcare visits involving children with ASD and typically developing children were analyzed. We examined how children's communicative and epistemic capabilities, and their opportunities to be socialized into a competent patient role are…

  14. Memory-guided force control in healthy younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Neely, Kristina A; Samimy, Shaadee; Blouch, Samantha L; Wang, Peiyuan; Chennavasin, Amanda; Diaz, Michele T; Dennis, Nancy A

    2017-08-01

    Successful performance of a memory-guided motor task requires participants to store and then recall an accurate representation of the motor goal. Further, participants must monitor motor output to make adjustments in the absence of visual feedback. The goal of this study was to examine memory-guided grip force in healthy younger and older adults and compare it to performance on behavioral tasks of working memory. Previous work demonstrates that healthy adults decrease force output as a function of time when visual feedback is not available. We hypothesized that older adults would decrease force output at a faster rate than younger adults, due to age-related deficits in working memory. Two groups of participants, younger adults (YA: N = 32, mean age 21.5 years) and older adults (OA: N = 33, mean age 69.3 years), completed four 20-s trials of isometric force with their index finger and thumb, equal to 25% of their maximum voluntary contraction. In the full-vision condition, visual feedback was available for the duration of the trial. In the no vision condition, visual feedback was removed for the last 12 s of each trial. Participants were asked to maintain constant force output in the absence of visual feedback. Participants also completed tasks of word recall and recognition and visuospatial working memory. Counter to our predictions, when visual feedback was removed, younger adults decreased force at a faster rate compared to older adults and the rate of decay was not associated with behavioral performance on tests of working memory.

  15. Older Adults Make Less Advantageous Decisions than Younger Adults: Cognitive and Psychological Correlates

    PubMed Central

    Fein, George; McGillivray, Shannon; Finn, Peter

    2007-01-01

    This study tested the hypotheses that older adults make less advantageous decisions than younger adults on the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Less advantageous decisions, as measured by the IGT, are characterized by choices that favor larger versus smaller immediate rewards, even though such choices may result in long-term negative consequences. The IGT, and measures of neuropsychological function, personality, and psychopathology were administered to 164 healthy adults 18–85 years of age. Older adults performed less advantageously on the IGT compared with younger adults. Additionally, a greater number of older adult’s IGT performances were classified as ‘impaired’ when compared to younger adults. Less advantageous decisions were associated with obsessive symptoms in older adults and with antisocial symptoms in younger adults. Performance on the IGT was positively associated with auditory working memory and psychomotor function in young adults, and in immediate memory in older adults. PMID:17445297

  16. The influence of extreme seasonality on lake temperatures during Younger Dryas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schenk, F.; Stranne, C.; Wohlfarth, B.

    2016-12-01

    The Younger Dryas cold reversal ( 12.9 to 11.7 kyr BP) is the last abrupt climate change event interrupting the warming of the late deglaciation right before the onset of the Holocene. The spatial pattern of the cooling event seen in proxy data is largely consistent with those of climate simulations and suggests that the Younger Dryas is linked to a significant slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). However, despite the strong ocean cooling of up to 6 K along the European coasts and a significant southward extension of sea-ice during the Younger Dryas, different climate simulations do not reproduce summer cooling over Europe as seen in July lake temperature reconstructions based on chironomids. Aquatic plants used as climate indicator species do in contrast not show such a strong cooling and are more in line with climate simulations. To investigate this discrepancy, we use two numerical lake models driven by high resolution climate model output for the Younger Dryas and the preceding warm period of the late Alleröd ( 13 kyr BP). First, we investigate to which extent simulated lake temperatures in summer still reflect atmospheric summer temperatures despite a strong increase in seasonality during Younger Dryas. Because the (paleo-)lake depths are usually not well known, we use the lake models to test their sensitivity to changes in seasonality as a function of depth. Second, we artificially change the temperatures used as forcing for the lake models to investigate how cold air temperatures would need to be to match the up to 5 K July cooling suggested by chironomids. The results show that more care needs to be taken about the location and (paleo-)lake depths when comparing lake temperatures with simulated air temperatures. The simulated atmospheric circulation patterns during summer appears to be rather insensitive to the Younger Dryas cooling owing to the dominance of high atmospheric pressure over the Euro-Atlantic region. This would

  17. Understanding the Effect of Workload on Automation Use for Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    McBride, Sara E.; Rogers, Wendy A.; Fisk, Arthur D.

    2018-01-01

    Objective This study examined how individuals, younger and older, interacted with an imperfect automated system. The impact of workload on performance and automation use was also investigated. Background Automation is used in situations characterized by varying levels of workload. As automated systems spread to domains such as transportation and the home, a diverse population of users will interact with automation. Research is needed to understand how different segments of the population use automation. Method Workload was systematically manipulated to create three levels (low, moderate, high) in a dual-task scenario in which participants interacted with a 70% reliable automated aid. Two experiments were conducted to assess automation use for younger and older adults. Results Both younger and older adults relied on the automation more than they complied with it. Among younger adults, high workload led to poorer performance and higher compliance, even when that compliance was detrimental. Older adults’ performance was negatively affected by workload, but their compliance and reliance were unaffected. Conclusion Younger and older adults were both able to use and double-check an imperfect automated system. Workload affected how younger adults complied with automation, particularly with regard to detecting automation false alarms. Older adults tended to comply and rely at fairly high rates overall, and this did not change with increased workload. Application Training programs for imperfect automated systems should vary workload and provide feedback about error types, and strategies for identifying errors. The ability to identify automation errors varies across individuals, thereby necessitating training. PMID:22235529

  18. Smartphone Text Input Method Performance, Usability, and Preference With Younger and Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Smith, Amanda L; Chaparro, Barbara S

    2015-09-01

    User performance, perceived usability, and preference for five smartphone text input methods were compared with younger and older novice adults. Smartphones are used for a variety of functions other than phone calls, including text messaging, e-mail, and web browsing. Research comparing performance with methods of text input on smartphones reveals a high degree of variability in reported measures, procedures, and results. This study reports on a direct comparison of five of the most common input methods among a population of younger and older adults, who had no experience with any of the methods. Fifty adults (25 younger, 18-35 years; 25 older, 60-84 years) completed a text entry task using five text input methods (physical Qwerty, onscreen Qwerty, tracing, handwriting, and voice). Entry and error rates, perceived usability, and preference were recorded. Both age groups input text equally fast using voice input, but older adults were slower than younger adults using all other methods. Both age groups had low error rates when using physical Qwerty and voice, but older adults committed more errors with the other three methods. Both younger and older adults preferred voice and physical Qwerty input to the remaining methods. Handwriting consistently performed the worst and was rated lowest by both groups. Voice and physical Qwerty input methods proved to be the most effective for both younger and older adults, and handwriting input was the least effective overall. These findings have implications to the design of future smartphone text input methods and devices, particularly for older adults. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  19. Lower subcortical gray matter volume in both younger smokers and established smokers relative to non-smokers

    PubMed Central

    Hanlon, Colleen A.; Owens, Max M.; Joseph, Jane E.; Zhu, Xun; George, Mark S.; Brady, Kathleen T.; Hartwell, Karen J.

    2014-01-01

    Although established adult smokers with long histories of nicotine dependence have lower neural tissue volume than non-smokers, it is not clear if lower regional brain volume is also observed in younger, less established smokers. The primary goal of this study was to investigate neural tissue volume in a large group of smokers and non-smokers, with a secondary goal of measuring the impact of age on these effects. We used voxel-based morphometry to compare regional gray matter volume in 118 individuals (59 smokers, 59 age- and gender-matched non-smokers). Younger smokers had significantly lower gray matter volume in the left thalamus and the left amygdala than their non-smoking peers (family-wise error-corrected clusters, P < 0.05). There was no correlation between smoking use variables and tissue volume among younger smokers. Established smokers had significantly lower gray matter volume than age-matched non-smokers in the insula, parahippocampal gyrus and pallidum. Medial prefrontal cortex gray matter volume was negatively correlated with pack-years of smoking among the established smokers, but not the younger smokers. These data reveal that regional tissue volume differences are not limited exclusively to established smokers. Deficits in young adults indicate that cigarette smoking may either be deleterious to the thalamus and amygdala at an earlier age than previously reported, or that pre-existing differences in these areas may predispose individuals to the development of nicotine dependence. PMID:25125263

  20. Enhanced sea-ice export from the Arctic during the Younger Dryas.

    PubMed

    Not, Christelle; Hillaire-Marcel, Claude

    2012-01-31

    The Younger Dryas cold spell of the last deglaciation and related slowing of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation have been linked to a large array of processes, notably an influx of fresh water into the North Atlantic related to partial drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz. Here we observe a major drainage event, in marine sediment cores raised from the Lomonosov Ridge, in the central Arctic Ocean marked by a pulse in detrital dolomitic-limestones. This points to an Arctic-Canadian sediment source area with about fivefold higher Younger Dryas ice-rafting deposition rate, in comparison with the Holocene. Our findings thus support the hypothesis of a glacial drainage event in the Canadian Arctic area, at the onset of the Younger Dryas, enhancing sea-ice production and drifting through the Arctic, then export through Fram Strait, towards Atlantic meridional overturning circulation sites of the northern North Atlantic.

  1. Visual Scan Paths and Recognition of Facial Identity in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Wilson, C. Ellie; Palermo, Romina; Brock, Jon

    2012-01-01

    Background Previous research suggests that many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired facial identity recognition, and also exhibit abnormal visual scanning of faces. Here, two hypotheses accounting for an association between these observations were tested: i) better facial identity recognition is associated with increased gaze time on the Eye region; ii) better facial identity recognition is associated with increased eye-movements around the face. Methodology and Principal Findings Eye-movements of 11 children with ASD and 11 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls were recorded whilst they viewed a series of faces, and then completed a two alternative forced-choice recognition memory test for the faces. Scores on the memory task were standardized according to age. In both groups, there was no evidence of an association between the proportion of time spent looking at the Eye region of faces and age-standardized recognition performance, thus the first hypothesis was rejected. However, the ‘Dynamic Scanning Index’ – which was incremented each time the participant saccaded into and out of one of the core-feature interest areas – was strongly associated with age-standardized face recognition scores in both groups, even after controlling for various other potential predictors of performance. Conclusions and Significance In support of the second hypothesis, results suggested that increased saccading between core-features was associated with more accurate face recognition ability, both in typical development and ASD. Causal directions of this relationship remain undetermined. PMID:22666378

  2. Self-management of health-behaviors among older and younger workers with chronic illness.

    PubMed

    Munir, Fehmidah; Khan, Hafiz T A; Yarker, Joanna; Haslam, Cheryl; Long, Helen; Bains, Manpreet; Kalawsky, Katryna

    2009-10-01

    To examine the self-management of health behaviors carried out by older (aged 50-69 years) and younger workers (aged 20-49 years) with a chronic illness. Questionnaire data was collected from 759 employees with a diagnosed chronic illness. Four categories of self-managing health behaviors were examined: using prescribed medication, monitoring and responding to symptoms, managing an appropriate diet and exercising. The majority of participants (56-97%) reported being advised to carry out health behaviors at home and at work. Controlling for confounding factors, medication use was associated with younger and older workers. Managing an appropriate diet was associated with younger workers with asthma, musculoskeletal pain or diabetes. Exercising was associated with younger workers with asthma and with older workers with heart disease, arthritis and rheumatism or diabetes. The findings indicate that there are differences in diet and exercise activities among younger and older workers. To increase self-management in health behaviors at work, improved communication and understanding between the different health professions and the patient/employee is required so that different tailored approaches can be effectively targeted both by age and within the context of the working environment, to those managing asthma, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis and rheumatism. 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  3. Parenting a Child with ASD: Comparison of Parenting Style Between ASD, Anxiety, and Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Ventola, Pamela; Lei, Jiedi; Paisley, Courtney; Lebowitz, Eli; Silverman, Wendy

    2017-09-01

    Parenting children with ASD has a complex history. Given parents' increasingly pivotal role in children's treatment, it is critical to consider parental style and behaviours. This study (1) compares parenting style of parents of children with ASD, parents of children with anxiety disorders, and parents of typically developing (TD) children and (2) investigates contributors to parenting style within and between groups. Parents of children with anxiety had a distinct parenting style compared to ASD and TD parents. Unique relationships between child symptoms and parenting behaviours emerged across the three groups. Understanding factors that impact parenting between and within clinical groups can guide the development of interventions better tailored to support the needs of parents, particularly parents of children with ASD.

  4. Test-retest reliability of the assessment of postural stability in typically developing children and in hearing impaired children.

    PubMed

    De Kegel, A; Dhooge, I; Cambier, D; Baetens, T; Palmans, T; Van Waelvelde, H

    2011-04-01

    The purpose of this study was to establish test-retest reliability of centre of pressure (COP) measurements obtained by an AccuGait portable forceplate (ACG), mean COG sway velocity measured by a Basic Balance Master (BBM) and clinical balance tests in children with and without balance difficulties. 49 typically developing children and 23 hearing impaired children, with a higher risk for stability problems, between 6 and 12 years of age participated. Each child performed the modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction on Balance (mCTSIB), Unilateral Stance (US) and Tandem Stance on ACG, mCTSIB and US on BBM and clinical balance tests: one-leg standing, balance beam walking and one-leg hopping. All subjects completed 2 test sessions on 2 different days in the same week assessed by the same examiner. Among COP measurements obtained by the ACG, mean sway velocity was the most reliable parameter with all ICCs higher than 0.72. The standard deviation (SD) of sway velocity, sway area, SD of anterior-posterior and SD of medio-lateral COP data showed moderate to excellent reliability with ICCs between 0.55 and 0.96 but some caution must be taken into account in some conditions. BBM is less reliable but clinical balance tests are as reliable as ACG. Hearing impaired children exhibited better relative reliability (ICC) and comparable absolute reliability (SEM) for most balance parameters compared to typically developing children. Reliable information regarding postural stability of typically developing children and hearing impaired children may be obtained utilizing COP measurements generated by an AccuGait system and clinical balance tests. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Teen responses when a younger school-age sibling has been bullied

    PubMed Central

    Honig, Alice Sterling; Zdunowski-Sjoblom, Nicole

    2015-01-01

    The prevalence of bullying among children, and the sometimes tragic consequences as a result, has become a major concern in schools. The larger research for this study reported on in-depth interviews with 28 elementary and middle school-age boys and girls (7–12 years) who had experienced various forms of bullying and relational aggression by their peers, mostly on school grounds, and the responses of their parents and teachers. Responses of the children's teen siblings to the younger child's revelations of being bullied are the focus of this report. In-depth interviews with each teen sibling (n = 28) and with each bullied child revealed how the children viewed the teen siblings' supportive strategies. Almost all the children (89%) reported that their older siblings talked with them and offered advice. The teen siblings shared with the younger ones that they too (71%) had been bullied, or they knew someone who had been bullied (18%). Teens gave the advice to ‘bully back’ to 11% and advice to ‘tell someone’ to 32% of the younger children. The children felt quite positive about their older siblings' advice (89%), which did differ depending on the bullied child's gender. Teen siblings gave advice to ‘avoid bullies’ to 77% of female and to 27% of male younger children. PMID:25931644

  6. Movement Assessment of Children (MAC): validity, reliability, stability and sensitivity to change in typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Chandler, L S; Terhorst, L; Rogers, J C; Holm, M B

    2016-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to establish the validity, reliability, stability and sensitivity to change of the family-centred Movement Assessment of Children (MAC) in typically developing infants/toddlers from 2 months (1 month 16 days) to 2 years (24 months 15 days) of age. Assessment of infant/toddler motor development is critical so that infants and toddlers who are at-risk for developmental delay or whose functional motor development is delayed can be monitored and receive therapy to improve their developmental outcomes. Infants/toddlers are thought to be more responsive during the MAC assessment because parents and siblings participate and elicit responses. Two hundred seventy six children and 405 assessments contributed to the establishment of age-related parameters for typically developing infants and toddlers on the MAC. The MAC assesses three core domains of functional movement (head control, upper extremities and hands, pelvis and lower extremities), and generates a core total score. Four explanatory domains serve to alert examiners to factors that may impact atypical development (general observations, special senses, primitive reflexes/reactions, muscle tone). Construct validity of functional motor development was examined using the relationship between incremental increases in scores and increases in participants' ages. Subsamples were used to establish inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, stability and sensitivity to change. Construct validity was established and inter-rater reliability ICCs for the core items and core total ranged from 0.83 to 0.99. Percent agreement for the explanatory items ranged from 0.72 to 0.96. Stability within age grouping was consistent from baseline to 6 months post-baseline, and sensitivity to change from baseline to 6 months was significant for all core items and the total score. The MAC has proven to be a well-constructed assessment of infant and toddler functional motor development. It is a

  7. Limitations in social anticipation are independent of imaginative and Theory of Mind abilities in children with autism but not in typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Angus, Douglas Jozef; de Rosnay, Marc; Lunenburg, Patty; Meerum Terwogt, Mark; Begeer, Sander

    2015-07-01

    Anticipating future interactions is characteristic of our everyday social experiences, yet has received limited empirical attention. Little is known about how children with autism spectrum disorder, known for their limitations in social interactive skills, engage in social anticipation. We asked children with autism spectrum disorder and their typically developing counterparts to consider an interaction with another person in the near future. Our results suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children performed similarly when anticipating the age, gender, and possible questions of another person, but children with autism spectrum disorder struggled more to anticipate what they would say in response to an anticipated interaction. Furthermore, such responses were robustly associated with imaginative capacities in typically developing children but not children with autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that the cognitive mechanisms of social anticipation may differ between these groups. © The Author(s) 2014.

  8. Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Compared to Typically Developing Controls on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahan, Sara; Matson, Johnny L.

    2011-01-01

    As the "Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition" ("BASC-2") is often used to aid in diagnosis it is important to discern how children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) score on the "BASC-2" compared to typically developing controls. This study compared scores of typically developing…

  9. Variability of Self-Regulatory Strategies in Children with Intellectual Disability and Typically Developing Children in Pretend Play Situations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nader-Grosbois, N.; Vieillevoye, S.

    2012-01-01

    Objective: This study has examined whether or not self-regulatory strategies vary depending on pretend play situations in 40 children with intellectual disability and 40 typically developing children. Method: Their cognitive, linguistic and individual symbolic play levels were assessed in order to match the children of the two groups. During two…

  10. Does one size fit all? Assessing the preferences of older and younger people for attributes of quality of life.

    PubMed

    Ratcliffe, Julie; Lancsar, Emily; Flint, Thomas; Kaambwa, Billingsley; Walker, Ruth; Lewin, Gill; Luszcz, Mary; Cameron, Ian D

    2017-02-01

    To systematically compare, via ranking and best worst tasks, the relative importance of key dimensions of quality of life for younger and older people. A web-based survey was developed for administration to two Australia-wide community-based samples comprising younger people aged 18-64 years and older people aged 65 years and above. Respondents were asked to rank 12 quality of life dimensions. Respondents also completed a successive best worst task using the same 12 quality of life dimensions. The relative importance of the quality of life dimensions differed for younger and older person samples. For older people, the ability to be independent and to have control over their daily lives were particularly important for their overall quality of life whereas for younger people, mental health was considered most important. Many interventions accessed by older people in geriatric medicine and aged care sectors have a broader impact upon quality of life beyond health status. The findings from this study indicate that a focus on broader aspects of quality of life may also be consistent with the preferences of older people themselves as to what constitutes quality of life from their perspective.

  11. Category learning strategies in younger and older adults: Rule abstraction and memorization.

    PubMed

    Wahlheim, Christopher N; McDaniel, Mark A; Little, Jeri L

    2016-06-01

    Despite the fundamental role of category learning in cognition, few studies have examined how this ability differs between younger and older adults. The present experiment examined possible age differences in category learning strategies and their effects on learning. Participants were trained on a category determined by a disjunctive rule applied to relational features. The utilization of rule- and exemplar-based strategies was indexed by self-reports and transfer performance. Based on self-reported strategies, the frequencies of rule- and exemplar-based learners were not significantly different between age groups, but there was a significantly higher frequency of intermediate learners (i.e., learners not identifying with a reliance on either rule- or exemplar-based strategies) in the older than younger adult group. Training performance was higher for younger than older adults regardless of the strategy utilized, showing that older adults were impaired in their ability to learn the correct rule or to remember exemplar-label associations. Transfer performance converged with strategy reports in showing higher fidelity category representations for younger adults. Younger adults with high working memory capacity were more likely to use an exemplar-based strategy, and older adults with high working memory capacity showed better training performance. Age groups did not differ in their self-reported memory beliefs, and these beliefs did not predict training strategies or performance. Overall, the present results contradict earlier findings that older adults prefer rule- to exemplar-based learning strategies, presumably to compensate for memory deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Unpleasant Situations Elicit Different Emotional Responses in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Charles, Susan Turk; Carstensen, Laura L.

    2008-01-01

    Older adults report less distress in response to interpersonal conflicts than do younger adults, yet few researchers have examined factors that may contribute to these age differences. Emotion regulation is partially determined by the initial cognitive and emotional reactions that events elicit. We examined reported thoughts and emotions of younger and older adults (N = 195) while they listened to three different audio-taped conversations in which people were ostensibly making disparaging remarks about them. At four points during each scenario, the tape paused and participants engaged in a talk-aloud procedure and rated their level of anger and sadness. Findings revealed that older adults reported less anger but equal levels of sadness compared to younger adults, and their comments were judged by coders as less negative. Older adults made fewer appraisals about the people speaking on the tape and expressed less interest in learning more about their motives. Together, findings are consistent with age-related increases in processes that promote disengagement from offending situations. PMID:18808240

  13. Linguistic pattern analysis of misspellings of typically developing writers in grades 1-9.

    PubMed

    Bahr, Ruth Huntley; Sillian, Elaine R; Berninger, Virginia W; Dow, Michael

    2012-12-01

    A mixed-methods approach, evaluating triple word-form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in Grades 1-9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected. Grade-level effects were analyzed with trend analysis. Qualitative analyses determined frequent error types and how use of specific linguistic features varied across grades. Phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors were noted across all grades, but orthographic errors predominated. Linear trends revealed developmental shifts in error proportions for the orthographic and morphological categories between Grades 4 and 5. Similar error types were noted across age groups, but the nature of linguistic feature error changed with age. Triple word-form theory was supported. By Grade 1, orthographic errors predominated, and phonological and morphological error patterns were evident. Morphological errors increased in relative frequency in older students, probably due to a combination of word-formation issues and vocabulary growth. These patterns suggest that normal spelling development reflects nonlinear growth and that it takes a long time to develop a robust orthographic lexicon that coordinates phonology, orthography, and morphology and supports word-specific, conventional spelling.

  14. Learning and Processing Abstract Words and Concepts: Insights From Typical and Atypical Development.

    PubMed

    Vigliocco, Gabriella; Ponari, Marta; Norbury, Courtenay

    2018-05-21

    The paper describes two plausible hypotheses concerning the learning of abstract words and concepts. According to a first hypothesis, children would learn abstract words by extracting co-occurrences among words in linguistic input, using, for example, mechanisms as described by models of Distributional Semantics. According to a second hypothesis, children would exploit the fact that abstract words tend to have more emotional associations than concrete words to infer that they refer to internal/mental states. Each hypothesis makes specific predictions with regards to when and which abstract words are more likely to be learned; also they make different predictions concerning the impact of developmental disorders. We start by providing a review of work characterizing how abstract words and concepts are learned in development, especially between the ages of 6 and 12. Second, we review some work from our group that tests the two hypotheses above. This work investigates typically developing (TD) children and children with atypical development (developmental language disorders [DLD] and autism spectrum disorder [ASD] with and without language deficits). We conclude that the use of strategies based on emotional information, or on co-occurrences in language, may play a role at different developmental stages. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society Inc.

  15. "Hunting with a knife and ... fork": examining central coherence in autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and typical development with a linguistic task.

    PubMed

    Booth, Rhonda; Happé, Francesca

    2010-12-01

    A local processing bias, referred to as "weak central coherence," has been postulated to underlie key aspects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little research has examined whether individual differences in this cognitive style can be found in typical development, independent of intelligence, and how local processing relates to executive control. We present a brief and easy-to-administer test of coherence requiring global sentence completions. We report results from three studies assessing (a) 176 typically developing (TD) 8- to 25-year-olds, (b) individuals with ASD and matched controls, and (c) matched groups with ASD or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The results suggest that the Sentence Completion Task can reveal individual differences in cognitive style unrelated to IQ in typical development, that most (but not all) people with ASD show weak coherence on this task, and that performance is not related to inhibitory control. The Sentence Completion Task was found to be a useful test instrument, capable of tapping local processing bias in a range of populations. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. A Dyadic Analysis of the Effects of Setting and Communication Partner on Elicited and Spontaneous Communication of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Forde, Ita; Holloway, Jennifer; Healy, Olive; Brosnan, Julie

    2011-01-01

    The study examined the effects of condition and communication partner on spontaneous and elicited communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in comparison to age matched typically developing children. Eighteen children participated in the study (nine children diagnosed with ASD and nine typically developing children). Each…

  17. Comparison of nutritional status between children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children in the Mediterranean Region (Valencia, Spain).

    PubMed

    Marí-Bauset, Salvador; Llopis-González, Agustín; Zazpe, Itziar; Marí-Sanchis, Amelia; Morales Suárez-Varela, Maria

    2017-04-01

    This case-control study investigated nutrient intake, healthy eating index with 10 items on foods and nutrients, on 3-day food diaries and anthropometric measurements in 105 children with autism spectrum disorder and 495 typically developing children (6-9 years) in Valencia (Spain). Children with autism spectrum disorder were at a higher risk for underweight, eating more legumes, vegetables, fiber, and some micronutrients (traditional Mediterranean diet) but fewer dairy and cereal products, and less iodine, sodium, and calcium than their typically developing peers. Differences existed in total energy intake but healthy eating index and food variety score differences were not significant. Autism spectrum disorder group failed to meet dietary recommendations for thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin C, or calcium. Risk of inadequate intake of fiber, vitamin E, and sodium was lower in children with autism spectrum disorder than typically developing children. Results suggest that (1) risk of inadequate intake of some micronutrients in children with autism spectrum disorder and (2) cultural patterns and environment may influence food intake and anthropometric characteristics in autism spectrum disorder. Primary care should include anthropometric and nutritional surveillance in this population to identify intervention on a case-by-case basis. Future research should explore dietary patterns and anthropometric characteristics in different autism spectrum disorder populations in other countries, enhancing our understanding of the disorder's impact.

  18. Individual Differences in Lexical Processing at 18 Months Predict Vocabulary Growth in Typically Developing and Late-Talking Toddlers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fernald, Anne; Marchman, Virginia A.

    2012-01-01

    Using online measures of familiar word recognition in the looking-while-listening procedure, this prospective longitudinal study revealed robust links between processing efficiency and vocabulary growth from 18 to 30 months in children classified as typically developing (n = 46) and as "late talkers" (n = 36) at 18 months. Those late talkers who…

  19. Daytime Secretion of Salivary Cortisol and Alpha-Amylase in Preschool-Aged Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kidd, Sharon A.; Corbett, Blythe A.; Granger, Douglas A.; Boyce, W. Thomas; Anders, Thomas F.; Tager, Ira B.

    2012-01-01

    We examined daytime salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) secretion levels and variability in preschool-aged children with autism (AUT) and typically developing children (TYP). Fifty-two subjects (26 AUT and 26 TYP) were enrolled. Salivary samples were obtained at waking, midday, and bedtime on two consecutive days at three phases…

  20. Elicited Production of Relative Clauses in German: Evidence from Typically Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adani, Flavia; Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja; Haendler, Yair; Zukowski, Andrea

    2016-01-01

    We elicited the production of various types of relative clauses in a group of German-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in order to test the movement optionality account of grammatical difficulty in SLI. The results show that German-speaking children with SLI are impaired in relative clause…

  1. Sleep Environment Risks for Younger and Older Infants

    PubMed Central

    Collie-Akers, Vicki; Schunn, Christy; Moon, Rachel Y.

    2014-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: Sudden infant death syndrome and other sleep-related causes of infant mortality have several known risk factors. Less is known about the association of those risk factors at different times during infancy. Our objective was to determine any associations between risk factors for sleep-related deaths at different ages. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of sleep-related infant deaths from 24 states during 2004–2012 contained in the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths Case Reporting System, a database of death reports from state child death review teams. The main exposure was age, divided into younger (0–3 months) and older (4 months to 364 days) infants. The primary outcomes were bed-sharing, objects in the sleep environment, location (eg, adult bed), and position (eg, prone). RESULTS: A total of 8207 deaths were analyzed. Younger victims were more likely bed-sharing (73.8% vs 58.9%, P < .001) and sleeping in an adult bed/on a person (51.6% vs 43.8%, P < .001). A higher percentage of older victims had an object in the sleep environment (39.4% vs 33.5%, P < .001) and changed position from side/back to prone (18.4% vs 13.8%, P < .001). Multivariable regression confirmed these associations. CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors for sleep-related infant deaths may be different for different age groups. The predominant risk factor for younger infants is bed-sharing, whereas rolling into objects in the sleep area is the predominant risk factor for older infants. Parents should be warned about the dangers of these specific risk factors appropriate to their infant’s age. PMID:25022735

  2. Comparing service use and costs among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, special needs and typical development.

    PubMed

    Barrett, Barbara; Mosweu, Iris; Jones, Catherine Rg; Charman, Tony; Baird, Gillian; Simonoff, Emily; Pickles, Andrew; Happé, Francesca; Byford, Sarah

    2015-07-01

    Autism spectrum disorder is a complex condition that requires specialised care. Knowledge of the costs of autism spectrum disorder, especially in comparison with other conditions, may be useful to galvanise policymakers and leverage investment in education and intervention to mitigate aspects of autism spectrum disorder that negatively impact individuals with the disorder and their families. This article describes the services and associated costs for four groups of individuals: adolescents with autistic disorder, adolescents with other autism spectrum disorders, adolescents with other special educational needs and typically developing adolescents using data from a large, well-characterised cohort assessed as part of the UK Special Needs and Autism Project at the age of 12 years. Average total costs per participant over 6 months were highest in the autistic disorder group (£11,029), followed by the special educational needs group (£9268), the broader autism spectrum disorder group (£8968) and the typically developing group (£2954). Specialised day or residential schooling accounted for the vast majority of costs. In regression analysis, lower age and lower adaptive functioning were associated with higher costs in the groups with an autism spectrum disorder. Sex, ethnicity, number of International Classification of Diseases (10th revision) symptoms, autism spectrum disorder symptom scores and levels of mental health difficulties were not associated with cost. © The Author(s) 2014.

  3. 10. View south of Arctic Observation Room (typical). Natick ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    10. View south of Arctic Observation Room (typical). - Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center (NRDEC), Natick, Middlesex County, MA

  4. The HVTN503/Phambili HIV vaccine trial: a comparison of younger and older participants

    PubMed Central

    Volk, Jonathan E.; Hessol, Nancy A.; Gray, Glenda E.; Kublin, James G.; Churchyard, Gavin J.; Mlisana, Koleka; Nchabeleng, Maphoshane; Buchbinder, Susan P.; Bekker, Linda-Gail

    2014-01-01

    By comparing younger to older participants enrolled in a HIV vaccine efficacy trial, we aimed to gain insights into the inclusion of adolescents in future trials. This was a sub-analysis of a multisite HIV vaccine randomized clinical trial in South Africa, conducted January-September, 2007. Motivations for trial enrollment, social harms, adverse events, and loss to follow-up were compared between younger (18-20 years old) and older participants (21-35 years old). Both younger (n=238) and older participants (n=563) were equally likely to report enrolling for altruistic reasons. Younger females were less likely than older participants to join for trial reimbursement (p=0.005), while younger males were more likely to enroll because the vaccine may provide protection from HIV-acquisition (p<0.001). There were no significant differences in the number of social harms reported. Compared to males over 20 years-old, 18-20-year-old females were less likely to experience adverse events (OR=0.1, CI 0.01-0.80) and no more likely to be lost to follow up (OR=0.7, CI 0.39-1.25), while 18-20-year-old males were no more likely to experience adverse events (OR=1.3, CI 0.58-2.83) or loss to follow-up (OR=0.8, CI 0.51-1.41). Our data support the inclusion of younger participants who are at risk for HIV in future HIV vaccine efficacy trials. PMID:24104693

  5. Language, cognitive flexibility, and explicit false belief understanding: longitudinal analysis in typical development and specific language impairment.

    PubMed

    Farrant, Brad M; Maybery, Murray T; Fletcher, Janet

    2012-01-01

    The hypothesis that language plays a role in theory-of-mind (ToM) development is supported by a number of lines of evidence (e.g., H. Lohmann & M. Tomasello, 2003). The current study sought to further investigate the relations between maternal language input, memory for false sentential complements, cognitive flexibility, and the development of explicit false belief understanding in 91 English-speaking typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months) and 30 children with specific language impairment (M age = 63.0 months). Concurrent and longitudinal findings converge in supporting a model in which maternal language input predicts the child's memory for false complements, which predicts cognitive flexibility, which in turn predicts explicit false belief understanding. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  6. Meltwater routing and the Younger Dryas.

    PubMed

    Condron, Alan; Winsor, Peter

    2012-12-04

    The Younger Dryas--the last major cold episode on Earth--is generally considered to have been triggered by a meltwater flood into the North Atlantic. The prevailing hypothesis, proposed by Broecker et al. [1989 Nature 341:318-321] more than two decades ago, suggests that an abrupt rerouting of Lake Agassiz overflow through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley inhibited deep water formation in the subpolar North Atlantic and weakened the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). More recently, Tarasov and Peltier [2005 Nature 435:662-665] showed that meltwater could have discharged into the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenzie Valley ~4,000 km northwest of the St. Lawrence outlet. Here we use a sophisticated, high-resolution, ocean sea-ice model to study the delivery of meltwater from the two drainage outlets to the deep water formation regions in the North Atlantic. Unlike the hypothesis of Broecker et al., freshwater from the St. Lawrence Valley advects into the subtropical gyre ~3,000 km south of the North Atlantic deep water formation regions and weakens the AMOC by <15%. In contrast, narrow coastal boundary currents efficiently deliver meltwater from the Mackenzie Valley to the deep water formation regions of the subpolar North Atlantic and weaken the AMOC by >30%. We conclude that meltwater discharge from the Arctic, rather than the St. Lawrence Valley, was more likely to have triggered the Younger Dryas cooling.

  7. Meltwater routing and the Younger Dryas

    DOE PAGES

    Condron, Alan; Winsor, Peter

    2012-12-04

    The Younger Dryas -- the last major cold episode on Earth -- is generally considered to have been triggered by a meltwater flood into the North Atlantic. The prevailing hypothesis, proposed by Broecker et al. [1989 Nature 341:318–321] more than two decades ago, suggests that an abrupt rerouting of Lake Agassiz overflow through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley inhibited deep water formation in the subpolar North Atlantic and weakened the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).More recently, Tarasov and Peltier [2005 Nature 435:662–665] showed that meltwater could have discharged into the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenziemore » Valley ~4,000 km northwest of the St. Lawrence outlet. Here we use a sophisticated, high-resolution, ocean sea-ice model to study the delivery of meltwater from the two drainage outlets to the deep water formation regions in the North Atlantic. Unlike the hypothesis of Broecker et al., freshwater from the St. Lawrence Valley advects into the subtropical gyre ~3,000 km south of the North Atlantic deep water formation regions and weakens the AMOC by <15%. In contrast, narrow coastal boundary currents efficiently deliver meltwater from the Mackenzie Valley to the deep water formation regions of the subpolar North Atlantic and weaken the AMOC by >30%. We conclude that meltwater discharge from the Arctic, rather than the St. Lawrence Valley, was more likely to have triggered the Younger Dryas cooling.« less

  8. Word-initial /r/-clusters in Swedish speaking children with typical versus protracted phonological development.

    PubMed

    Lundeborg Hammarström, Inger

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigated word-initial (WI) /r/-clusters in Central Swedish-speaking children with and without protracted phonological development (PPD). Data for WI singleton /r/ and singleton and cluster /l/ served as comparisons. Participants were twelve 4-year-olds with PPD and twelve age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) controls. Native speakers audio-recorded and transcribed 109 target single words using a Swedish phonology test with 12 WI C+/r/-clusters and three WI CC+/r/-clusters. The results showed significantly higher match scores for the TD children, a lower match proportion for the /r/ targets and for singletons compared with clusters, and differences in mismatch patterns between the groups. There were no matches for /r/-cluster targets in the PPD group, with all children except two in that group showing deletions for both /r/-cluster types. The differences in mismatch proportions and types between the PPD group and controls suggests new directions for future clinical practice.

  9. 9. View to west of Tropic Dressing Room (typical). ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    9. View to west of Tropic Dressing Room (typical). - Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center (NRDEC), Natick, Middlesex County, MA

  10. Research on the recycling industry development model for typical exterior plastic components of end-of-life passenger vehicle based on the SWOT method.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Hongshen; Chen, Ming

    2013-11-01

    In-depth studies on the recycling of typical automotive exterior plastic parts are significant and beneficial for environmental protection, energy conservation, and sustainable development of China. In the current study, several methods were used to analyze the recycling industry model for typical exterior parts of passenger vehicles in China. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of the current recycling industry for typical exterior parts of passenger vehicles were analyzed comprehensively based on the SWOT method. The internal factor evaluation matrix and external factor evaluation matrix were used to evaluate the internal and external factors of the recycling industry. The recycling industry was found to respond well to all the factors and it was found to face good developing opportunities. Then, the cross-link strategies analysis for the typical exterior parts of the passenger car industry of China was conducted based on the SWOT analysis strategies and established SWOT matrix. Finally, based on the aforementioned research, the recycling industry model led by automobile manufacturers was promoted. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. A Group-Based Program of Emotional Recovery for Younger Women Following Myocardial Infarction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bowers, Michele J.; Buchanan, Marla J.

    2007-01-01

    Heart disease is the leading cause of illness, disability, and death among women in Canada. Myocardial infarction (MI) accounts for almost half of these deaths yearly. The purpose of this study was to understand younger women's experience of recovery from MI. A purposive sample consisting of six younger women diagnosed with MI participated in …

  12. Profiles in driver distraction : effects of cell phone conversations on younger and older drivers

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2004-01-01

    Synopsis Younger and older drivers conversing on a hands-free cell phone were found to have slower responses to random braking by the vehicle ahead. Cell phone use slowed the younger drivers responses to an extent that they were equivalent t...

  13. Testing the Limits of Optimizing Dual-Task Performance in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Strobach, Tilo; Frensch, Peter; Müller, Herrmann Josef; Schubert, Torsten

    2012-01-01

    Impaired dual-task performance in younger and older adults can be improved with practice. Optimal conditions even allow for a (near) elimination of this impairment in younger adults. However, it is unknown whether such (near) elimination is the limit of performance improvements in older adults. The present study tests this limit in older adults under conditions of (a) a high amount of dual-task training and (b) training with simplified component tasks in dual-task situations. The data showed that a high amount of dual-task training in older adults provided no evidence for an improvement of dual-task performance to the optimal dual-task performance level achieved by younger adults. However, training with simplified component tasks in dual-task situations exclusively in older adults provided a similar level of optimal dual-task performance in both age groups. Therefore through applying a testing the limits approach, we demonstrated that older adults improved dual-task performance to the same level as younger adults at the end of training under very specific conditions. PMID:22408613

  14. Rating Parent-Child Interactions: Joint Engagement, Communication Dynamics, and Shared Topics in Autism, Down Syndrome, and Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adamson, Lauren B.; Bakeman, Roger; Deckner, Deborah F.; Nelson, P. Brooke

    2012-01-01

    A battery of 17 rating items were applied to video records of typically-developing toddlers and young children with autism and Down syndrome interacting with their parents during the Communication Play Protocol. This battery provided a reliable and broad view of the joint engagement triad of child, partner, and shared topic. Ratings of the child's…

  15. Parents' strategies to elicit autobiographical memories in autism spectrum disorders, developmental language disorders and typically developing children.

    PubMed

    Goldman, Sylvie; DeNigris, Danielle

    2015-05-01

    Conversations about the past support the development of autobiographical memory. Parents' strategies to elicit child's participation and recall during past event conversations were compared across three school-age diagnostic groups: autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 11), developmental language disorders (n = 11) and typically developing (TD, n = 11). We focused on the prevalence of directives versus enrichment of events. Groups did not differ in number of events, length, and total turns. However, parents of children with ASD produced more direct questions, corrections, and unrelated turns than parents of TD children. Results highlight how parents adjusted their conversational style to their child's communication difficulties to maximize interactions and how these strategies may affect the development of personal conversations.

  16. Development of Tract-Specific White Matter Pathways During Early Reading Development in At-Risk Children and Typical Controls.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yingying; Mauer, Meaghan V; Raney, Talia; Peysakhovich, Barbara; Becker, Bryce L C; Sliva, Danielle D; Gaab, Nadine

    2017-04-01

    Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic basis. Previous studies observed white matter alterations in the left posterior brain regions in adults and school-age children with dyslexia. However, no study yet has examined the development of tract-specific white matter pathways from the pre-reading to the fluent reading stage in children at familial risk for dyslexia (FHD+) versus controls (FHD-). This study examined white matter integrity at pre-reading, beginning, and fluent reading stages cross-sectionally ( n = 78) and longitudinally (n = 45) using an automated fiber-tract quantification method. Our findings depict white matter alterations and atypical lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus at the pre-reading stage in FHD+ versus FHD- children. Moreover, we demonstrate faster white matter development in subsequent good versus poor readers and a positive association between white matter maturation and reading development using a longitudinal design. Additionally, the combination of white matter maturation, familial risk, and psychometric measures best predicted later reading abilities. Furthermore, within FHD+ children, subsequent good readers exhibited faster white matter development in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus compared with subsequent poor readers, suggesting a compensatory mechanism. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of white matter pathway maturation in the development of typical and atypical reading skills. Published by Oxford University Press 2016. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

  17. Automatic conversational scene analysis in children with Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism and typically developing peers.

    PubMed

    Tavano, Alessandro; Pesarin, Anna; Murino, Vittorio; Cristani, Marco

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with Asperger syndrome/High Functioning Autism fail to spontaneously attribute mental states to the self and others, a life-long phenotypic characteristic known as mindblindness. We hypothesized that mindblindness would affect the dynamics of conversational interaction. Using generative models, in particular Gaussian mixture models and observed influence models, conversations were coded as interacting Markov processes, operating on novel speech/silence patterns, termed Steady Conversational Periods (SCPs). SCPs assume that whenever an agent's process changes state (e.g., from silence to speech), it causes a general transition of the entire conversational process, forcing inter-actant synchronization. SCPs fed into observed influence models, which captured the conversational dynamics of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome/High Functioning Autism, and age-matched typically developing participants. Analyzing the parameters of the models by means of discriminative classifiers, the dialogs of patients were successfully distinguished from those of control participants. We conclude that meaning-free speech/silence sequences, reflecting inter-actant synchronization, at least partially encode typical and atypical conversational dynamics. This suggests a direct influence of theory of mind abilities onto basic speech initiative behavior.

  18. Quality of Life in the Nursing Home: Perspectives of Younger and Older Residents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watt, Ashli; Konnert, Candace

    2007-01-01

    Adults aged 65 and younger make up a significant proportion of nursing-home residents. To date, however, there is no research examining their quality of life (QOL), including how their perceptions of QOL compare to those of older nursing-home residents. This study used a multidimensional approach to (a) assess the QOL of younger nursing-home…

  19. The -Younger-Minority Boy" as a Clue to the Source of Achievement Orientation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kammeyer, Kenneth C. W.

    This study is a follow-up of the work by Morris Rosenberg who found that younger-minority boys tend to have high self-esteem, but a relatively low achievement orientation and low grades in school. Sampling a total 898 high school senior boys, this study found that younger minority boys do have lower grades and lower occupational and educational…

  20. Geochemical proxies of North American freshwater routing during the Younger Dryas cold event.

    PubMed

    Carlson, Anders E; Clark, Peter U; Haley, Brian A; Klinkhammer, Gary P; Simmons, Kathleen; Brook, Edward J; Meissner, Katrin J

    2007-04-17

    The Younger Dryas cold interval represents a time when much of the Northern Hemisphere cooled from approximately 12.9 to 11.5 kiloyears B.P. The cause of this event, which has long been viewed as the canonical example of abrupt climate change, was initially attributed to the routing of freshwater to the St. Lawrence River with an attendant reduction in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. However, this mechanism has recently been questioned because current proxies and dating techniques have been unable to confirm that eastward routing with an increase in freshwater flux occurred during the Younger Dryas. Here we use new geochemical proxies (DeltaMg/Ca, U/Ca, and (87)Sr/(86)Sr) measured in planktonic foraminifera at the mouth of the St. Lawrence estuary as tracers of freshwater sources to further evaluate this question. Our proxies, combined with planktonic delta(18)O(seawater) and delta(13)C, confirm that routing of runoff from western Canada to the St. Lawrence River occurred at the start of the Younger Dryas, with an attendant increase in freshwater flux of 0.06 +/- 0.02 Sverdrup (1 Sverdrup = 10(6) m(3).s(-1)). This base discharge increase is sufficient to have reduced Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and caused the Younger Dryas cold interval. In addition, our data indicate subsequent fluctuations in the freshwater flux to the St. Lawrence River of approximately 0.06-0.12 Sverdrup, thus explaining the variability in the overturning circulation and climate during the Younger Dryas.

  1. Icon arrays help younger children's proportional reasoning.

    PubMed

    Ruggeri, Azzurra; Vagharchakian, Laurianne; Xu, Fei

    2018-06-01

    We investigated the effects of two context variables, presentation format (icon arrays or numerical frequencies) and time limitation (limited or unlimited time), on the proportional reasoning abilities of children aged 7 and 10 years, as well as adults. Participants had to select, between two sets of tokens, the one that offered the highest likelihood of drawing a gold token, that is, the set of elements with the greater proportion of gold tokens. Results show that participants performed better in the unlimited time condition. Moreover, besides a general developmental improvement in accuracy, our results show that younger children performed better when proportions were presented as icon arrays, whereas older children and adults were similarly accurate in the two presentation format conditions. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? There is a developmental improvement in proportional reasoning accuracy. Icon arrays facilitate reasoning in adults with low numeracy. What does this study add? Participants were more accurate when they were given more time to make the proportional judgement. Younger children's proportional reasoning was more accurate when they were presented with icon arrays. Proportional reasoning abilities correlate with working memory, approximate number system, and subitizing skills. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

  2. Longitudinal Mediators of Achievement in Mathematics and Reading in Typical and Atypical Development

    PubMed Central

    Barnes, Marcia A.; Raghubar, Kimberly P.; English, Lianne; Williams, Jeffrey M.; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan

    2014-01-01

    Longitudinal studies of neurodevelopmental disorders that are diagnosed at or before birth and which are associated with specific learning difficulties at school-age provide one method for investigating developmental precursors of later-emerging academic disabilities. Spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with particular problems in mathematics, in contrast to well-developed word reading. Children with SBM (n = 30) and typically developing children (n = 35) were used to determine whether cognitive abilities measured at 36 and 60 months of age mediated the effect of group on mathematical and reading achievement outcomes at 8.5 and 9.5 years of age. A series of multiple mediator models showed that: visual-spatial working memory at 36 months and phonological awareness at 60 months partially mediated the effect of group on math calculations; phonological awareness partially mediated the effect of group on small addition and subtraction problems on a test of math fluency; and visual-spatial working memory mediated the effect of group on a test of math problem solving. Groups did not differ on word reading, and phonological awareness was the only mediator for reading fluency and reading comprehension. The findings are discussed with reference to theories of mathematical development and disability and with respect to both common and differing cognitive correlates of math and reading. PMID:24269579

  3. Longitudinal mediators of achievement in mathematics and reading in typical and atypical development.

    PubMed

    Barnes, Marcia A; Raghubar, Kimberly P; English, Lianne; Williams, Jeffrey M; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan

    2014-03-01

    Longitudinal studies of neurodevelopmental disorders that are diagnosed at or before birth and are associated with specific learning difficulties at school-age provide one method for investigating developmental precursors of later-emerging academic disabilities. Spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with particular problems in mathematics, in contrast to well-developed word reading. Children with SBM (n=30) and typically developing children (n=35) were used to determine whether cognitive abilities measured at 36 and 60 months of age mediated the effect of group on mathematical and reading achievement outcomes at 8.5 and 9.5 years of age. A series of multiple mediator models showed that: visual-spatial working memory at 36 months and phonological awareness at 60 months partially mediated the effect of group on math calculations, phonological awareness partially mediated the effect of group on small addition and subtraction problems on a test of math fluency, and visual-spatial working memory mediated the effect of group on a test of math problem solving. Groups did not differ on word reading, and phonological awareness was the only mediator for reading fluency and reading comprehension. The findings are discussed with reference to theories of mathematical development and disability and with respect to both common and differing cognitive correlates of math and reading. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. The Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function: A Pilot Test-Retest Reliability Study in Typically Developing Children.

    PubMed

    Reedman, Sarah Elizabeth; Beagley, Simon; Sakzewski, Leanne; Boyd, Roslyn N

    2016-08-01

    The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate reproducibility of the Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTTHF) in children. Eighty-seven typically developing children 5 to 10 years old were included from five Outside School Hours Care centers in the Greater Brisbane Region, Australia. Hand function was assessed on two occasions with a modified JTTHF, then reproducibility was assessed using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC [3,1]) and the Standard Error of Measurement (SEM). Total scores for male and female children were not significantly different. Five-year-old children were significantly different to all other age groups and were excluded from further analysis. Results for 71 children, 6 to 10 years old were analyzed (mean age 8.31 years (SD 1.32); 33 males). Test-retest reliability for total scores on the dominant and nondominant hands were ICC 0.74 (95% CI 0.61, 0.83) and ICC 0.72 (95% CI 0.59, 0.82), respectively. 'Writing' and 'Simulated Feeding' subtests demonstrated poor reproducibility. The Smallest Real Difference was 5.09 seconds for total score on the dominant hand. Findings indicate good test-retest reliability for the JTTHF total score to measure hand function in typically developing children aged 6 to 10 years.

  5. A qualitative study of younger men's experience of heart attack (myocardial infarction).

    PubMed

    Merritt, Christopher J; de Zoysa, Nicole; Hutton, Jane M

    2017-09-01

    The effects of heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), across psychosocial domains may be particularly acute in younger adults, for whom serious health events are non-normative. MI morbidity is declining in Western countries, but in England MI numbers have plateaued for the under-45 cohort, where approximately 90% of patients are male. Qualitative research on younger adults' experience of MI is limited, and no study has sampled exclusively under-45s. This study aimed to understand how a sample of men under 45 adjusted to and made sense of MI. Qualitative research design based on semi-structured in-depth interviews. Ten men aged under 45 who had experienced MI in the past 3-6 months were purposively recruited and interviewed. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Seven superordinate themes were identified. This article focuses in depth on the three most original themes: (1) 'I'm less of a man', which described experiences of losing 'maleness' (strength, independence, ability to provide) post-MI; (2) 'Shortened horizons', which covered participants' sense of foreshortened future and consequent reprioritization; and (3) 'Life loses its colour', describing the loss of pleasure from lifestyle-related changes. Themes broadly overlapped with the qualitative literature on younger adult MI. However, some themes (e.g., loss of 'maleness' post-MI, and ambivalence towards MI risk factors) appeared unique to this study. Themes were also discussed in relation to risk factors for anxiety and depression and how this might inform clinical care for a younger, male population. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Myocardial infarction (MI) morbidity is not declining in England for under-45s. Adjustment to MI is particularly challenging for younger adults, perhaps because it is non-normative. However, little is known about the experience of MI in younger adults. What does this study add? This

  6. The hypercorrection effect in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Eich, Teal S; Stern, Yaakov; Metcalfe, Janet

    2013-01-01

    ABSTRACT The hypercorrection effect, which refers to the finding that errors committed with high confidence are more likely to be corrected than are low confidence errors, has been replicated many times, and with both young adults and children. In the present study, we contrasted older with younger adults. Participants answered general-information questions, made confidence ratings about their answers, were given corrective feedback, and then were retested on questions that they had gotten wrong. While younger adults showed the hypercorrection effect, older adults, despite higher overall accuracy on the general-information questions and excellent basic metacognitive ability, showed a diminished hypercorrection effect. Indeed, the correspondence between their confidence in their errors and the probability of correction was not significantly greater than zero, showing, for the first time, that a particular participant population is selectively impaired on this error correction task. These results potentially offer leverage both on the mechanisms underlying the hypercorrection effect and on reasons for older adults' memory impairments, as well as on memory functions that are spared.

  7. Impact of the School Coexistence on Academic Performance According to Perception of Typically Developing and Special Educational Needs Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cerda, Gamal A.; Salazar, Yasna S.; Guzmán, Cristian E.; Narváez, Gabriela

    2018-01-01

    This descriptive correlational study aims to compare the perception about eight dimensions of school coexistence of typically developing high school students (n = 545) and students with special educational needs (n = 75) from Chile and their relationship with the general academic performance. Based on the analysis of hierarchical and…

  8. Are Typically-Developing Siblings of Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder at Risk for Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Maladjustment?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tomeny, Theodore S.; Barry, Tammy D.; Bader, Stephanie H.

    2012-01-01

    Existing literature regarding the adjustment of siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains inconclusive, with some studies showing positive adjustment, others showing negative adjustment, and others showing no difference when compared to siblings of typically-developing children. For the current study, 42 parents of a…

  9. Imaging decision about whether to benefit self by harming others: Adolescents with conduct and substance problems, with or without callous-unemotionality, or developing typically.

    PubMed

    Sakai, Joseph T; Dalwani, Manish S; Mikulich-Gilbertson, Susan K; Raymond, Kristen; McWilliams, Shannon; Tanabe, Jody; Rojas, Don; Regner, Michael; Banich, Marie T; Crowley, Thomas J

    2017-05-30

    We sought to identify brain activation differences in conduct-problem youth with limited prosocial emotions (LPE) compared to conduct-problem youth without LPE and community adolescents, and to test associations between brain activation and severity of callous-unemotional traits. We utilized a novel task, which asks subjects to repeatedly decide whether to accept offers where they will benefit but a beneficent other will be harmed. Behavior on this task has been previously associated with levels of prosocial emotions and severity of callous-unemotional traits, and is related to empathic concern. During fMRI acquisition, 66 male adolescents (21 conduct-problem patients with LPE, 21 without, and 24 typically-developing controls) played this novel game. Within typically-developing controls, we identified a network engaged during decision involving bilateral insula, and inferior parietal and medial frontal cortices, among other regions. Group comparisons using non-parametric (distribution-free) permutation tests demonstrated LPE patients had lower activation estimates than typically-developing adolescents in right anterior insula. Additional significant group differences emerged with our a priori parametric cluster-wise inference threshold. These results suggest measurable functional brain activation differences in conduct-problem adolescents with LPE compared to typically-developing adolescents. Such differences may underscore differential treatment needs for conduct-problem males with and without LPE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Subjective age and personality development: a 10-year study.

    PubMed

    Stephan, Yannick; Sutin, Angelina R; Terracciano, Antonio

    2015-04-01

    Personality theory and research typically focus on chronological age as a key indicator of personality development. This study examines whether the subjective experience of age is an alternative marker of the biomedical and psychosocial factors that contribute to individual differences in personality development. The present study uses data from the Midlife in the United States longitudinal survey (N = 3,617) to examine how subjective age is associated with stability and change in personality and the dynamic associations between subjective age and personality traits over a 10-year period. Regression analyses indicated that a younger subjective age at baseline was associated with increases in Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness; correlated changes were also found. The rank-order stability of Extraversion and Openness and overall profile consistency were higher among those with a younger subjective age at baseline and were also associated with the rate of subjective aging over time. The present study reveals that beyond chronological age, the age an individual feels is related to changes in characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Speech Acts During Friends' and Non-friends' Spontaneous Conversations in Preschool Dyads with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder versus Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit; Golan-Itshaky, Adi; Tubul-Lavy, Gila

    2017-05-01

    In this study, we videotaped two 10-min. free-play interactions and coded speech acts (SAs) in peer talk of 51 preschoolers (21 ASD, 30 typical), interacting with friend versus non-friend partners. Groups were matched for maternal education, IQ (verbal/nonverbal), and CA. We compared SAs by group (ASD/typical), by partner's friendship status (friend/non-friend), and by partner's disability status. Main results yielded a higher amount and diversity of SAs in the typical than the ASD group (mainly in assertive acts, organizational devices, object-dubbing, and pretend-play); yet, those categories, among others, showed better performance with friends versus non-friends. Overall, a more nuanced perception of the pragmatic deficit in ASD should be adopted, highlighting friendship as an important context for children's development of SAs.

  12. The Effect of Stimulus Valence on Lexical Retrieval in Younger and Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Blackett, Deena Schwen; Harnish, Stacy M; Lundine, Jennifer P; Zezinka, Alexandra; Healy, Eric W

    2017-07-12

    Although there is evidence that emotional valence of stimuli impacts lexical processes, there is limited work investigating its specific impact on lexical retrieval. The current study aimed to determine the degree to which emotional valence of pictured stimuli impacts naming latencies in healthy younger and older adults. Eighteen healthy younger adults and 18 healthy older adults named positive, negative, and neutral images, and reaction time was measured. Reaction times for positive and negative images were significantly longer than reaction times for neutral images. Reaction times for positive and negative images were not significantly different. Whereas older adults demonstrated significantly longer naming latencies overall than younger adults, the discrepancy in latency with age was far greater when naming emotional pictures. Emotional arousal of pictures appears to impact naming latency in younger and older adults. We hypothesize that the increase in naming latency for emotional stimuli is the result of a necessary disengagement of attentional resources from the emotional images prior to completion of the naming task. We propose that this process may affect older adults disproportionately due to a decline in attentional resources as part of normal aging, combined with a greater attentional preference for emotional stimuli.

  13. Parents' Translations of Child Gesture Facilitate Word Learning in Children with Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Dimitrova, Nevena; Özçalışkan, Şeyda; Adamson, Lauren B.

    2016-01-01

    Typically-developing (TD) children frequently refer to objects uniquely in gesture. Parents translate these gestures into words, facilitating children's acquisition of these words (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2007). We ask whether this pattern holds for children with autism (AU) and with Down syndrome (DS) who show delayed vocabulary development. We observed 23 children with ASD, 23 with DS, and 23 TD children with their parents over a year. Children used gestures to indicate objects before labeling them and parents translated their gestures into words. Importantly, children benefited from this input, acquiring more words for the translated gestures than the not translated ones. Results highlight the role contingent parental input to child gesture plays in language development of children with developmental disorders. PMID:26362150

  14. An independent evaluation of the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis

    PubMed Central

    Surovell, Todd A.; Holliday, Vance T.; Gingerich, Joseph A. M.; Ketron, Caroline; Haynes, C. Vance; Hilman, Ilene; Wagner, Daniel P.; Johnson, Eileen; Claeys, Philippe

    2009-01-01

    Based on elevated concentrations of a set of “impact markers” at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial from sedimentary contexts across North America, Firestone, Kennett, West, and others have argued that 12.9 ka the Earth experienced an impact by an extraterrestrial body, an event that had devastating ecological consequences for humans, plants, and animals in the New World [Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:16016–16021]. Herein, we report the results of an independent analysis of magnetic minerals and microspherules from seven sites of similar age, including two examined by Firestone et al. We were unable to reproduce any results of the Firestone et al. study and find no support for Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact. PMID:19822748

  15. An independent evaluation of the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis.

    PubMed

    Surovell, Todd A; Holliday, Vance T; Gingerich, Joseph A M; Ketron, Caroline; Haynes, C Vance; Hilman, Ilene; Wagner, Daniel P; Johnson, Eileen; Claeys, Philippe

    2009-10-27

    Based on elevated concentrations of a set of "impact markers" at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial from sedimentary contexts across North America, Firestone, Kennett, West, and others have argued that 12.9 ka the Earth experienced an impact by an extraterrestrial body, an event that had devastating ecological consequences for humans, plants, and animals in the New World [Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:16016-16021]. Herein, we report the results of an independent analysis of magnetic minerals and microspherules from seven sites of similar age, including two examined by Firestone et al. We were unable to reproduce any results of the Firestone et al. study and find no support for Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact.

  16. The mind behind the message: advancing theory-of-mind scales for typically developing children, and those with deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome.

    PubMed

    Peterson, Candida C; Wellman, Henry M; Slaughter, Virginia

    2012-01-01

    Children aged 3-12 years (n = 184) with typical development, deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome took a series of theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks to confirm and extend previous developmental scaling evidence. A new sarcasm task, in the format of H. M. Wellman and D. Liu's (2004) 5-step ToM Scale, added a statistically reliable 6th step to the scale for all diagnostic groups. A key previous finding, divergence in task sequencing for children with autism, was confirmed. Comparisons among diagnostic groups, controlling age, and language ability, showed that typical developers mastered the 6 ToM steps ahead of each of the 3 disabled groups, with implications for ToM theories. The final (sarcasm) task challenged even nondisabled 9-year-olds, demonstrating the new scale's sensitivity to post-preschool ToM growth. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  17. Geochemical proxies of North American freshwater routing during the Younger Dryas cold event

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Carlson, A.E.; Clark, P.U.; Haley, B.A.; Klinkhammer, G.P.; Simmons, K.; Brook, E.J.; Meissner, K.J.

    2007-01-01

    The Younger Dryas cold interval represents a time when much of the Northern Hemisphere cooled from ???12.9 to 11.5 kiloyears B.P. The cause of this event, which has long been viewed as the canonical example of abrupt climate change, was initially attributed to the routing of freshwater to the St. Lawrence River with an attendant reduction in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. However, this mechanism has recently been questioned because current proxies and dating techniques have been unable to confirm that eastward routing with an increase in freshwater flux occurred during the Younger Dryas. Here we use new geochemical proxies (??Mg/Ca, U/Ca, and 87Sr/86Sr) measured in planktonic foraminifera at the mouth of the St. Lawrence estuary as tracers of freshwater sources to further evaluate this question. Our proxies, combined with planktonic ??18Oseawater and ??13C, confirm that routing of runoff from western Canada to the St. Lawrence River occurred at the start of the Younger Dryas, with an attendant increase in freshwater flux of 0.06 ?? 0.02 Sverdrup (1 Sverdrup = 106 m3??s-1). This base discharge increase is sufficient to have reduced Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and caused the Younger Dryas cold interval. In addition, our data indicate subsequent fluctuations in the freshwater flux to the St. Lawrence River of ???0.06-0.12 Sverdrup, thus explaining the variability in the overturning circulation and climate during the Younger Dryas. ?? 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

  18. Pupillary Response and Phenotype in ASD: Latency to Constriction Discriminates ASD from Typically Developing Adolescents.

    PubMed

    Lynch, Georgina T F; James, Stephen M; VanDam, Mark

    2018-02-01

    Brain imaging data describe differences in the ASD brain, including amygdala overgrowth, neural interconnectivity, and a three-phase model of neuroanatomical changes from early post-natal development through late adolescence. The pupil reflex test (PRT), a noninvasive measure of brain function, may help improve early diagnosis and elucidate underlying physiology in expression of ASD endophenotype. Commonly observed characteristics of ASD include normal visual acuity but difficulty with eye gaze and photosensitivity, suggesting deficient neuromodulation of cranial nerves. Aims of this study were to confirm sensitivity of the PRT for identifying adolescents with ASD, determine if a phenotype for a subtype of ASD marked by pupil response is present in adolescence, and determine whether differences could be observed on a neurologic exam testing cranial nerves II and III (CNII; CNIII). Using pupillometry, constriction latency was measured serving as a proxy for recording neuromodulation of cranial nerves underlying the pupillary reflex. The swinging flashlight method, used to perform the PRT for measuring constriction latency and return to baseline, discriminated ASD participants from typically developing adolescents on 72.2% of trials. Results further confirmed this measure's sensitivity within a subtype of ASD in later stages of development, serving as a correlate of neural activity within the locus-coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. A brainstem model of atypical PRT in ASD is examined in relation to modulation of cranial nerves and atypical arousal levels subserving the atypical pupillary reflex. Autism Res 2018, 11: 364-375. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Milder forms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be difficult to diagnose based on behavioral testing alone. This study used eye-tracking equipment and a hand-held penlight to measure the pupil reflex in adolescents with "high functioning" ASD and in adolescents

  19. The Role of Morphological and Phonological Awareness in the Early Development of Word Spelling and Reading in Typically Developing and Disabled Arabic Readers.

    PubMed

    Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor; Taha, Haitham

    2017-11-01

    The study is a cross-sectional developmental investigation of morphological and phonological awareness in word spelling and reading in Arabic in reading-accuracy disabled (RD) children and in age-matched typically developing (TR) controls in grades 1-4 (N = 160). Morphological awareness tasks targeted the root and word pattern derivational system of Arabic, in both the oral and the written modalities. Phonological awareness employed a variety of orally administered segmentation and deletion tasks. The results demonstrated early deficits in morphological awareness, besides deficits in phonological awareness, in RD children as compared with typically developing controls, as well as in word and pseudoword spelling and reading (voweled and unvoweled). While phonological awareness emerged as the strongest predictor of reading, morphological awareness was also found to predict unique variance in reading, and even more so in spelling, beyond phonological awareness and cognitive skills. The results demonstrate the early emergence of morphological awareness deficits, alongside phonological deficits in Arabic RD, as well as the role of morphological processing in early reading and spelling. These findings reflect the centrality of derivational morphology in the structure of the spoken and the written Arabic word. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  20. Exploring Interhemispheric Collaboration in Older Compared to Younger Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cherry, Barbara J.; Yamashiro, Mariana; Anderson, Erin; Barrett, Christopher; Adamson, Maheen M.; Hellige, Joseph B.

    2010-01-01

    Physical and Name Identity letter-matching tasks were used to explore differences in interhemispheric collaboration in younger and older adults. To determine whether other factors might also be related to across/within-hemisphere processing or visual field asymmetries, neuropsychological tests measuring frontal/executive functioning were…

  1. Motor and Tactile-Perceptual Skill Differences between Individuals with High-Functioning Autism and Typically Developing Individuals Ages 5-21

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abu-Dahab, Sana M. N.; Skidmore, Elizabeth R.; Holm, Margo B.; Rogers, Joan C.; Minshew, Nancy J.

    2013-01-01

    We examined motor and tactile-perceptual skills in individuals with high-functioning autism (IHFA) and matched typically developing individuals (TDI) ages 5-21 years. Grip strength, motor speed and coordination were impaired in IHFA compared to matched TDI, and the differences between groups varied with age. Although tactile-perceptual skills of…

  2. Mothers' Talk to Children with Down Syndrome, Language Impairment, or Typical Development about Familiar and Unfamiliar Nouns and Verbs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bird, Elizabeth Kay-Raining; Cleave, Patricia

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated how forty-six mothers modified their talk about familiar and unfamiliar nouns and verbs when interacting with their children with Down Syndrome (DS), language impairment (LI), or typical development (TD). Children (MLUs < 2·7) were group-matched on expressive vocabulary size. Mother-child dyads were recorded playing with…

  3. The Production of Finite and Nonfinite Complement Clauses by Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owen, Amanda J.; Leonard, Laurence B.

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore whether 13 children with specific language impairment (SLI; ages 5;1-8;0 [years;months]) were as proficient as typically developing age- and vocabulary-matched children in the production of finite and nonfinite complement clauses. Preschool children with SLI have marked difficulties with verb-related…

  4. Situation Selection and Modification for Emotion Regulation in Younger and Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Livingstone, Kimberly M; Isaacowitz, Derek M

    2015-11-01

    This research investigated age differences in use and effectiveness of situation selection and situation modification for emotion regulation. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests stronger emotional well-being goals in older age; emotion regulation may support this goal. Younger and older adults assigned to an emotion regulation or "just view" condition first freely chose to engage with negative, neutral, or positive material (situation selection), then chose to view or skip negative and positive material (situation modification), rating affect after each experience. In both tasks, older adults in both goal conditions demonstrated pro-hedonic emotion regulation, spending less time with negative material compared to younger adults. Younger adults in the regulate condition also engaged in pro-hedonic situation selection, but not modification. Whereas situation selection was related to affect, modification of negative material was not. This research supports more frequent pro-hedonic motivation in older age, as well as age differences in use of early-stage emotion regulation.

  5. The effects of sleep on episodic memory in older and younger adults.

    PubMed

    Aly, Mariam; Moscovitch, Morris

    2010-04-01

    Evidence on sleep-dependent benefits for episodic memory remains elusive. Furthermore we know little about age-related changes on the effects of sleep on episodic memory. The study we report is the first to compare the effects of sleep on episodic memories in younger and older adults. Memories of stories and personal events were assessed following a retention interval that included sleep and following an equal duration of wakefulness. Both older and younger adults have superior memory following sleep compared to following wakefulness for both types of material. Amount of forgetting of personal events was less during wakefulness in older adults than in younger adults, possibly due to spontaneous rehearsal. Amount of time spent sleeping correlated highly with sleep benefit in older adults, suggesting that quantity of total sleep, and/or time spent in some stages of sleep, are important contributors to age-related differences in memory consolidation or protection from interference during sleep.

  6. Situation Selection and Modification for Emotion Regulation in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Livingstone, Kimberly M.; Isaacowitz, Derek M.

    2016-01-01

    This research investigated age differences in use and effectiveness of situation selection and situation modification for emotion regulation. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests stronger emotional well-being goals in older age; emotion regulation may support this goal. Younger and older adults assigned to an emotion regulation or “just view” condition first freely chose to engage with negative, neutral, or positive material (situation selection), then chose to view or skip negative and positive material (situation modification), rating affect after each experience. In both tasks, older adults in both goal conditions demonstrated pro-hedonic emotion regulation, spending less time with negative material compared to younger adults. Younger adults in the regulate condition also engaged in pro-hedonic situation selection, but not modification. Whereas situation selection was related to affect, modification of negative material was not. This research supports more frequent pro-hedonic motivation in older age, as well as age differences in use of early-stage emotion regulation. PMID:26998196

  7. Exploration of older and younger British adults' performance on The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT).

    PubMed

    Burdon, Paul; Dipper, Lucy; Cocks, Naomi

    2016-09-01

    Social perception is an important skill. One assessment that is commonly used to assess social perception abilities is The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT). The only normative data available for this test are for Australian younger adults. Despite no normative data being available for British adults, the test is widely used in the UK with older and younger adults. There is a growing body of research that suggests that older adults have difficulty with skills associated with social perception. There is therefore a need to determine whether British adults, and more specifically British older adults, perform similarly to the Australian normative TASIT scores available in the manual. To explore the differences between older and younger British adults' performance on TASIT, and to determine whether younger and older British adults perform similarly to the data from Australian adults in TASIT manual. TASIT was administered to a total of 42 native British English speaking participants. The participants were split into two age groups 18-45 and 60-90 years. Comparisons were made between the two groups and the Australian data in TASIT manual. The younger British and Australian adults obtained similar scores on all parts of TASIT. The older British adults though, obtained significantly lower scores than the Australian younger adults on all parts of TASIT and when education was controlled for they obtained significantly lower scores than the British younger adults. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research that has found that older adults are worse than younger adults at social inferences. The findings of the current study suggest that caution should be used when using TASIT with older British adults to assess social perception abilities. © 2016 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

  8. The younger siblings of teenage mothers: a follow-up of their pregnancy risk.

    PubMed

    East, P L; Jacobson, L J

    2001-03-01

    This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time.

  9. The Younger Siblings of Teenage Mothers: A Follow-Up of Their Pregnancy Risk

    PubMed Central

    East, Patricia L.; Jacobson, Leanne J.

    2013-01-01

    This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters’ children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time. PMID:11269393

  10. Lower limb muscle volume estimation from maximum cross-sectional area and muscle length in cerebral palsy and typically developing individuals.

    PubMed

    Vanmechelen, Inti M; Shortland, Adam P; Noble, Jonathan J

    2018-01-01

    Deficits in muscle volume may be a significant contributor to physical disability in young people with cerebral palsy. However, 3D measurements of muscle volume using MRI or 3D ultrasound may be difficult to make routinely in the clinic. We wished to establish whether accurate estimates of muscle volume could be made from a combination of anatomical cross-sectional area and length measurements in samples of typically developing young people and young people with bilateral cerebral palsy. Lower limb MRI scans were obtained from the lower limbs of 21 individuals with cerebral palsy (14.7±3years, 17 male) and 23 typically developing individuals (16.8±3.3years, 16 male). The volume, length and anatomical cross-sectional area were estimated from six muscles of the left lower limb. Analysis of Covariance demonstrated that the relationship between the length*cross-sectional area and volume was not significantly different depending on the subject group. Linear regression analysis demonstrated that the product of anatomical cross-sectional area and length bore a strong and significant relationship to the measured muscle volume (R 2 values between 0.955 and 0.988) with low standard error of the estimates of 4.8 to 8.9%. This study demonstrates that muscle volume may be estimated accurately in typically developing individuals and individuals with cerebral palsy by a combination of anatomical cross-sectional area and muscle length. 2D ultrasound may be a convenient method of making these measurements routinely in the clinic. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Younger Children's (Three to Five Years) Perceptions of Being in a Health-Care Situation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stålberg, Anna; Sandberg, Anette; Söderbäck, Maja

    2016-01-01

    Younger children are common users of health-care services. Their perspective on a health-care situation and their ways of communication differ from that of adults. There is a shortness of research of younger children's perceptions of health-care situations. The knowledge that exists indicates the importance of involving the child's perspective to…

  12. Automatic Conversational Scene Analysis in Children with Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism and Typically Developing Peers

    PubMed Central

    Tavano, Alessandro; Pesarin, Anna; Murino, Vittorio; Cristani, Marco

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with Asperger syndrome/High Functioning Autism fail to spontaneously attribute mental states to the self and others, a life-long phenotypic characteristic known as mindblindness. We hypothesized that mindblindness would affect the dynamics of conversational interaction. Using generative models, in particular Gaussian mixture models and observed influence models, conversations were coded as interacting Markov processes, operating on novel speech/silence patterns, termed Steady Conversational Periods (SCPs). SCPs assume that whenever an agent's process changes state (e.g., from silence to speech), it causes a general transition of the entire conversational process, forcing inter-actant synchronization. SCPs fed into observed influence models, which captured the conversational dynamics of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome/High Functioning Autism, and age-matched typically developing participants. Analyzing the parameters of the models by means of discriminative classifiers, the dialogs of patients were successfully distinguished from those of control participants. We conclude that meaning-free speech/silence sequences, reflecting inter-actant synchronization, at least partially encode typical and atypical conversational dynamics. This suggests a direct influence of theory of mind abilities onto basic speech initiative behavior. PMID:24489674

  13. Rapid continental-scale vegetation response to the Younger Dryas Cool Episode

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peros, M.; Gajewski, K.; Viau, A.

    2006-12-01

    The Younger Dryas Cool Episode had rapid and widespread effects on flora and fauna throughout the Americas. Fossil pollen records document how plant communities responded to this event, although such data are generally only representative of changes at local- to regional-scales. We use a new approach to provide insight into vegetation responses to the Younger Dryas at a continental-scale, by focusing on data extracted for a single taxon (Populus poplar, cottonwood, aspen) from pollen diagrams throughout North America. We show that Populus underwent a rapid and continent-wide decline as the climate rapidly cooled and dried. At the termination of the Younger Dryas, Populus underwent another widespread decline, this time in response to competition from boreal and temperate taxa as the climate abruptly warmed. Late glacial-early Holocene pollen assemblages with high quantities of Populus pollen often lack modern analogues and thus confound quantitative paleoclimatic reconstructions; our results provide a context to interpret these assemblages. Furthermore, while Populus may continue to expand in the future in response to human disturbance and increasing temperatures, its sensitivity to competition may eventually put it at risk as global warming accelerates.

  14. Sex-Typical Play: Masculinization/Defeminization in Girls with an Autism Spectrum Condition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knickmeyer, Rebecca C.; Wheelwright, Sally; Baron-Cohen, Simon B.

    2008-01-01

    We tested the hypothesis that prenatal masculinization of the brain by androgens increases risk of developing an autism spectrum condition (ASC). Sex-typical play was measured in n = 66 children diagnosed with an ASC and n = 55 typically developing age-matched controls. Consistent with the hypothesis, girls with autism did not show the…

  15. Relationship between Physiological and Parent-Observed Auditory Over-Responsiveness in Children with Typical Development and Those with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Takahashi, Hidetoshi; Nakahachi, Takayuki; Stickley, Andrew; Ishitobi, Makoto; Kamio, Yoko

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this study was to investigate relationships between caregiver-reported sensory processing abnormalities, and the physiological index of auditory over-responsiveness evaluated using acoustic startle response measures, in children with autism spectrum disorders and typical development. Mean acoustic startle response magnitudes in…

  16. Joint Attention in Parent-Child Dyads Involving Children with Selective Mutism: A Comparison between Anxious and Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nowakowski, Matilda E.; Tasker, Susan L.; Cunningham, Charles E.; McHolm, Angela E.; Edison, Shannon; St. Pierre, Jeff; Boyle, Michael H.; Schmidt, Louis A.

    2011-01-01

    Although joint attention processes are known to play an important role in adaptive social behavior in typical development, we know little about these processes in clinical child populations. We compared early school age children with selective mutism (SM; n = 19) versus mixed anxiety (MA; n = 18) and community controls (CC; n = 26) on joint…

  17. The Experiences of the Younger Supervisor: Implications for Organizations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanson, Lea

    2012-01-01

    With four generations in today's workforce, roles are being redefined to include a growing number of younger supervisor/older subordinate relationships, referred to as the intergenerational dyad. What current and limited literature exists about the intergenerational dyad exclusively addresses the issues of generational workplace differences…

  18. Younger and Older Users’ Recognition of Virtual Agent Facial Expressions

    PubMed Central

    Beer, Jenay M.; Smarr, Cory-Ann; Fisk, Arthur D.; Rogers, Wendy A.

    2015-01-01

    As technology advances, robots and virtual agents will be introduced into the home and healthcare settings to assist individuals, both young and old, with everyday living tasks. Understanding how users recognize an agent’s social cues is therefore imperative, especially in social interactions. Facial expression, in particular, is one of the most common non-verbal cues used to display and communicate emotion in on-screen agents (Cassell, Sullivan, Prevost, & Churchill, 2000). Age is important to consider because age-related differences in emotion recognition of human facial expression have been supported (Ruffman et al., 2008), with older adults showing a deficit for recognition of negative facial expressions. Previous work has shown that younger adults can effectively recognize facial emotions displayed by agents (Bartneck & Reichenbach, 2005; Courgeon et al. 2009; 2011; Breazeal, 2003); however, little research has compared in-depth younger and older adults’ ability to label a virtual agent’s facial emotions, an import consideration because social agents will be required to interact with users of varying ages. If such age-related differences exist for recognition of virtual agent facial expressions, we aim to understand if those age-related differences are influenced by the intensity of the emotion, dynamic formation of emotion (i.e., a neutral expression developing into an expression of emotion through motion), or the type of virtual character differing by human-likeness. Study 1 investigated the relationship between age-related differences, the implication of dynamic formation of emotion, and the role of emotion intensity in emotion recognition of the facial expressions of a virtual agent (iCat). Study 2 examined age-related differences in recognition expressed by three types of virtual characters differing by human-likeness (non-humanoid iCat, synthetic human, and human). Study 2 also investigated the role of configural and featural processing as a

  19. Looking around houses: attention to a model when drawing complex shapes in Williams syndrome and typical development.

    PubMed

    Hudson, Kerry D; Farran, Emily K

    2013-09-01

    Drawings by individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) typically lack cohesion. The popular hypothesis is that this is a result of excessive focus on local-level detail at the expense of global configuration. In this study, we explored a novel hypothesis that inadequate attention might underpin drawing in WS. WS and typically developing (TD) non-verbal ability matched groups copied and traced a house figure comprised of geometric shapes. The house was presented on a computer screen for 5-s periods and participants pressed a key to re-view the model. Frequency of key-presses indexed the looks to the model. The order that elements were replicated was recorded to assess hierarchisation of elements. If a lack of attention to the model explained poor drawing performance, we expected participants with WS to look less frequently to the model than TD children when copying. If a local-processing preference underpins drawing in WS, more local than global elements would be produced. Results supported the first, but not second hypothesis. The WS group looked to the model infrequently, but global, not local, parts were drawn first, scaffolding local-level details. Both groups adopted a similar order of drawing and tracing of parts, suggesting typical, although delayed strategy-use in the WS group. Additionally both groups drew larger elements of the model before smaller elements, suggested a size-bias when drawing. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Linguistic Pattern Analysis of Misspellings of Typically Developing Writers in Grades 1 to 9

    PubMed Central

    Bahr, Ruth Huntley; Silliman, Elaine R.; Berninger, Virginia W.; Dow, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Purpose A mixed methods approach, evaluating triple word form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Method Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in grades 1–9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected. Grade level effects were analyzed with trend analysis. Qualitative analyses determined frequent error types and how use of specific linguistic features varied across grades. Results Phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors were noted across all grades, but orthographic errors predominated. Linear trends revealed developmental shifts in error proportions for the orthographic and morphological categories between grades 4–5. Similar error types were noted across age groups but the nature of linguistic feature error changed with age. Conclusions Triple word-form theory was supported. By grade 1, orthographic errors predominated and phonological and morphological error patterns were evident. Morphological errors increased in relative frequency in older students, probably due to a combination of word-formation issues and vocabulary growth. These patterns suggest that normal spelling development reflects non-linear growth and that it takes a long time to develop a robust orthographic lexicon that coordinates phonology, orthography, and morphology and supports word-specific, conventional spelling. PMID:22473834

  1. Cerebellar contributions to biological motion perception in autism and typical development.

    PubMed

    Jack, Allison; Keifer, Cara M; Pelphrey, Kevin A

    2017-04-01

    Growing evidence suggests that posterior cerebellar lobe contributes to social perception in healthy adults. However, they know little about how this process varies across age and with development. Using cross-sectional fMRI data, they examined cerebellar response to biological (BIO) versus scrambled (SCRAM) motion within typically developing (TD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) samples (age 4-30 years old), characterizing cerebellar response and BIO > SCRAM-selective effective connectivity, as well as associations with age and social ability. TD individuals recruited regions throughout cerebellar posterior lobe during BIO > SCRAM, especially bilateral lobule VI, and demonstrated connectivity with right posterior superior temporal sulcus (RpSTS) in left VI, Crus I/II, and VIIIb. ASD individuals showed BIO > SCRAM activity in left VI and left Crus I/II, and bilateral connectivity with RpSTS in Crus I/II and VIIIb/IX. No between-group differences emerged in well-matched subsamples. Among TD individuals, older age predicted greater BIO > SCRAM response in left VIIb and left VIIIa/b, but reduced connectivity between RpSTS and widespread regions of the right cerebellum. In ASD, older age predicted greater response in left Crus I and bilateral Crus II, but decreased effective connectivity with RpSTS in bilateral Crus I/II. In ASD, increased BIO > SCRAM signal in left VI/Crus I and right Crus II, VIIb, and dentate predicted lower social symptomaticity; increased effective connectivity with RpSTS in right Crus I/II and bilateral VI and I-V predicted greater symptomaticity. These data suggest that posterior cerebellum contributes to the neurodevelopment of social perception in both basic and clinical populations. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1914-1932, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Trends in colorectal cancer incidence among younger adults-Disparities by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and subsite.

    PubMed

    Crosbie, Amanda B; Roche, Lisa M; Johnson, Linda M; Pawlish, Karen S; Paddock, Lisa E; Stroup, Antoinette M

    2018-06-22

    Millennials (ages 18-35) are now the largest living generation in the US, making it important to understand and characterize the rising trend of colorectal cancer incidence in this population, as well as other younger generations of Americans. Data from the New Jersey State Cancer Registry (n = 181 909) and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program (n = 448 714) were used to analyze invasive CRC incidence trends from 1979 to 2014. Age, sex, race, ethnicity, subsite, and stage differences between younger adults (20-49) and screening age adults (≥50) in New Jersey (NJ) were examined using chi-square; and, we compared secular trends in NJ to the United States (US). Whites, men, and the youngest adults (ages 20-39) are experiencing greater APCs in rectal cancer incidence. Rates among younger black adults, overall, were consistently higher in both NJ and the US over time. When compared to older adults, younger adults with CRC in NJ were more likely to be: diagnosed at the late stage, diagnosed with rectal cancer, male, non-white, and Hispanic. Invasive CRC incidence trends among younger adults were found to vary by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and subsite. Large, case-level, studies are needed to understand the role of genetics, human papillomavirus (HPV), and cultural and behavioral factors in the rise of CRC among younger adults. Provider and public education about CRC risk factors will also be important for preventing and reversing the increasing CRC trend in younger adults. © 2018 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Category Learning Strategies in Younger and Older Adults: Rule Abstraction and Memorization

    PubMed Central

    Wahlheim, Christopher N.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Little, Jeri L.

    2016-01-01

    Despite the fundamental role of category learning in cognition, few studies have examined how this ability differs between younger and older adults. The present experiment examined possible age differences in category learning strategies and their effects on learning. Participants were trained on a category determined by a disjunctive rule applied to relational features. The utilization of rule- and exemplar-based strategies was indexed by self-reports and transfer performance. Based on self-reported strategies, both age groups had comparable frequencies of rule- and exemplar-based learners, but older adults had a higher frequency of intermediate learners (i.e., learners not identifying with a reliance on either rule- or exemplar-based strategies). Training performance was higher for younger than older adults regardless of the strategy utilized, showing that older adults were impaired in their ability to learn the correct rule or to remember exemplar-label associations. Transfer performance converged with strategy reports in showing higher fidelity category representations for younger adults. Younger adults with high working memory capacity were more likely to use an exemplar-based strategy, and older adults with high working memory capacity showed better training performance. Age groups did not differ in their self-reported memory beliefs, and these beliefs did not predict training strategies or performance. Overall, the present results contradict earlier findings that older adults prefer rule- to exemplar-based learning strategies, presumably to compensate for memory deficits. PMID:26950225

  4. Re-designing scanning to reduce learning demands: the performance of typically developing 2-year-olds.

    PubMed

    McCarthy, John; Light, Janice; Drager, Kathryn; McNaughton, David; Grodzicki, Laura; Jones, Jonathan; Panek, Elizabeth; Parkin, Elizabeth

    2006-12-01

    Children with severe motor impairments who cannot use direct selection are typically introduced to scanning as a means of accessing assistive technology. Unfortunately, it is difficult for young children to learn to scan because the design of current scanning techniques does not always make explicit the offer of items from the selection array; furthermore, it does not provide explicit feedback after activation of the switch to select the target item. In the current study, scanning was redesigned to reduce learning demands by making both the offer of items and the feedback upon selection more explicit through the use of animation realized through HTML and speech output with appropriate intonation. Twenty typically developing 2-year-olds without disabilities were randomly assigned to use either traditional scanning or enhanced scanning to select target items from an array of three items. The 2-year-olds did not learn to use traditional scanning across three sessions. Their performance in Session 3 did not differ from that in Session 1; they did not exceed chance levels of accuracy in either session (mean accuracy of 20% for Sessions 1 and 3). In contrast, the children in the enhanced scanning condition demonstrated improvements in accuracy across the three 10-20-min sessions (mean accuracies of 22 and 48% for Sessions 1 and 3, respectively). There were no reliable differences between the children's performances with the two scanning techniques for Session 1; however, by Session 3, the children were more than twice as accurate using the enhanced scanning technique compared to the traditional design. Results suggest that by redesigning scanning, we may be able to reduce some of the learning demands and thereby reduce some of the instructional time required for children to attain mastery. Clinical implications, limitations, and directions for future research and development are discussed.

  5. Parents' Translations of Child Gesture Facilitate Word Learning in Children with Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Dimitrova, Nevena; Özçalışkan, Şeyda; Adamson, Lauren B

    2016-01-01

    Typically-developing (TD) children frequently refer to objects uniquely in gesture. Parents translate these gestures into words, facilitating children's acquisition of these words (Goldin-Meadow et al. in Dev Sci 10(6):778-785, 2007). We ask whether this pattern holds for children with autism (AU) and with Down syndrome (DS) who show delayed vocabulary development. We observed 23 children with AU, 23 with DS, and 23 TD children with their parents over a year. Children used gestures to indicate objects before labeling them and parents translated their gestures into words. Importantly, children benefited from this input, acquiring more words for the translated gestures than the not translated ones. Results highlight the role contingent parental input to child gesture plays in language development of children with developmental disorders.

  6. Efficacy and safety of tofacitinib in older and younger patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

    PubMed

    Curtis, Jeffrey R; Schulze-Koops, Hendrik; Takiya, Liza; Mebus, Charles A; Terry, Ketti K; Biswas, Pinaki; Jones, Thomas V

    2017-01-01

    Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We evaluated the efficacy and safety of tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg twice daily (BID), in patients with moderate to severe RA, aged ≥65 and <65 years. Data were pooled from five Phase 3 trials and, separately, from two open-label long-term extension (LTE) studies (data cut-off April, 2012). Patients received tofacitinib, or placebo (Phase 3 only), with/without conventional synthetic DMARDs (mainly methotrexate). Clinical efficacy outcomes from Phase 3 studies were evaluated at Month 3. Safety evaluations using pooled Phase 3 data (Month 12) and pooled LTE data (Month 24) compared exposure-adjusted incidence rates (IRs; with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]), in older versus younger patients. In Phase 3 and LTE studies, 15.3% (475/3111) and 16.1% (661/4102) of patients, respectively, were aged ≥65 years. Consequently, exposure to tofacitinib was lower in older versus younger patients in Phase 3 (259.2 vs. 1554.9 patient years [pt-yrs]) and LTE (962.1 vs. 5071.7 pt-yrs) studies. Probability ratios for ACR responses and HAQ-DI improvement from baseline ≥0.22 (Month 3) favoured tofacitinib and were similar in older and younger patients, with overlapping CIs. IRs for SAEs and discontinuations due to AEs were generally numerically higher in older versus younger patients, irrespective of treatment. Older patients receiving tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg BID had a similar probability of ACR20 or ACR50 response and, due to comorbidities, a numerically higher risk of SAEs and discontinuations due to AEs compared with younger patients.

  7. Distinct developmental profiles in typical speech acquisition

    PubMed Central

    Campbell, Thomas F.; Shriberg, Lawrence D.; Green, Jordan R.; Abdi, Hervé; Rusiewicz, Heather Leavy; Venkatesh, Lakshmi; Moore, Christopher A.

    2012-01-01

    Three- to five-year-old children produce speech that is characterized by a high level of variability within and across individuals. This variability, which is manifest in speech movements, acoustics, and overt behaviors, can be input to subgroup discovery methods to identify cohesive subgroups of speakers or to reveal distinct developmental pathways or profiles. This investigation characterized three distinct groups of typically developing children and provided normative benchmarks for speech development. These speech development profiles, identified among 63 typically developing preschool-aged speakers (ages 36–59 mo), were derived from the children's performance on multiple measures. These profiles were obtained by submitting to a k-means cluster analysis of 72 measures that composed three levels of speech analysis: behavioral (e.g., task accuracy, percentage of consonants correct), acoustic (e.g., syllable duration, syllable stress), and kinematic (e.g., variability of movements of the upper lip, lower lip, and jaw). Two of the discovered group profiles were distinguished by measures of variability but not by phonemic accuracy; the third group of children was characterized by their relatively low phonemic accuracy but not by an increase in measures of variability. Analyses revealed that of the original 72 measures, 8 key measures were sufficient to best distinguish the 3 profile groups. PMID:22357794

  8. Parenting in Families with a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and a Typically Developing Child: Mothers' Experiences and Cognitions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meirsschaut, Mieke; Roeyers, Herbert; Warreyn, Petra

    2010-01-01

    The parenting experiences of mothers in a family with a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a typically developing (TD) child were studied using a qualitative analysis of mothers' perceptions of the impact of autism on family and personal life. An additional quantitative comparison was performed to evaluate the effect of ASD on mothers'…

  9. Theory of Mind and Executive Function in Preschoolers with Typical Development versus Intellectually Able Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kimhi, Yael; Shoam-Kugelmas, Dana; Agam Ben-Artzi, Galit; Ben-Moshe, Inbal; Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit

    2014-01-01

    Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF), which may be linked because one domain (EF) affects the other (ToM). Group differences (ASD vs. typical development) were examined in both cognitive domains, as well as EF's associations and regressions with ToM. Participants…

  10. Mind and body: concepts of human cognition, physiology and false belief in children with autism or typical development.

    PubMed

    Peterson, Candida C

    2005-08-01

    This study examined theory of mind (ToM) and concepts of human biology (eyes, heart, brain, lungs and mind) in a sample of 67 children, including 25 high functioning children with autism (age 6-13), plus age-matched and preschool comparison groups. Contrary to Baron-Cohen [1989, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19(4), 579-600], most children with autism correctly understood the functions of the brain (84%) and the mind (64%). Their explanations were predominantly mentalistic. They outperformed typically developing preschoolers in understanding inner physiological (heart, lungs) and cognitive (brain, mind) systems, and scored as high as age-matched typical children. Yet, in line with much previous ToM research, most children with autism (60%) failed false belief, and their ToM performance was unrelated to their understanding of. human biology. Results were discussed in relation to neurobiological and social-experiential accounts of the ToM deficit in autism.

  11. Training Attentional Control and Working Memory--Is Younger, Better?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wass, S. V.; Scerif, G.; Johnson, M. H.

    2012-01-01

    Authors have argued that various forms of interventions may be more effective in younger children. Is cognitive training also more effective, the earlier the training is applied? We review evidence suggesting that functional neural networks, including those subserving attentional control, may be more unspecialised and undifferentiated earlier in…

  12. Neuroimaging correlates of parent ratings of working memory in typically developing children

    PubMed Central

    Mahone, E. Mark; Martin, Rebecca; Kates, Wendy R.; Hay, Trisha; Horská, Alena

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to investigate construct validity of parent ratings of working memory in children, using a multi-trait/multi-method design including neuroimaging, rating scales, and performance-based measures. Thirty-five typically developing children completed performance-based tests of working memory and nonexecutive function (EF) skills, received volumetric MRI, and were rated by parents on both EF-specific and broad behavior rating scales. After controlling for total cerebral volume and age, parent ratings of working memory were significantly correlated with frontal gray, but not temporal, parietal, or occipital gray, or any lobar white matter volumes. Performance-based measures of working memory were also moderately correlated with frontal lobe gray matter volume; however, non-EF parent ratings and non-EF performance-based measures were not correlated with frontal lobe volumes. Results provide preliminary support for the convergent and discriminant validity of parent ratings of working memory, and emphasize their utility in exploring brain–behavior relationships in children. Rating scales that directly examine EF skills may potentially have ecological validity, not only for “everyday” function, but also as correlates of brain volume. PMID:19128526

  13. Reflections of Distraction in Memory: Transfer of Previous Distraction Improves Recall in Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Thomas, Ruthann C.; Hasher, Lynn

    2012-01-01

    Three studies explored whether younger and older adults’ free recall performance can benefit from prior exposure to distraction that becomes relevant in a memory task. Participants initially read stories that included distracting text. Later, they studied a list of words for free recall, with half of the list consisting of previously distracting words. When the memory task was indirect in its use of distraction (Study 1), only older adults showed transfer, with better recall of previously distracting compared with new words, which increased their recall to match that of younger adults. However, younger adults showed transfer when cued about the relevance of previous distraction both before studying the words (Study 2) and before recalling the words (Study 3) in the memory test. Results suggest that both younger and older adults encode distraction, but younger adults require explicit cueing to use their knowledge of distraction. In contrast, older adults transfer knowledge of distraction in both explicitly cued and indirect memory tasks. Results are discussed in terms of age differences in inhibition and source-constrained retrieval. PMID:21843024

  14. Reflections of distraction in memory: transfer of previous distraction improves recall in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Ruthann C; Hasher, Lynn

    2012-01-01

    Three studies explored whether younger and older adults' free recall performance can benefit from prior exposure to distraction that becomes relevant in a memory task. Participants initially read stories that included distracting text. Later, they studied a list of words for free recall, with half of the list consisting of previously distracting words. When the memory task was indirect in its use of distraction (Study 1), only older adults showed transfer, with better recall of previously distracting compared with new words, which increased their recall to match that of younger adults. However, younger adults showed transfer when cued about the relevance of previous distraction both before studying the words (Study 2) and before recalling the words (Study 3) in the memory test. Results suggest that both younger and older adults encode distraction, but younger adults require explicit cueing to use their knowledge of distraction. In contrast, older adults transfer knowledge of distraction in both explicitly cued and indirect memory tasks. Results are discussed in terms of age differences in inhibition and source-constrained retrieval.

  15. Nanodiamonds and wildfire evidence in the Usselo horizon postdate the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary

    PubMed Central

    van Hoesel, Annelies; Hoek, Wim Z.; Braadbaart, Freek; van der Plicht, Johannes; Pennock, Gillian M.; Drury, Martyn R.

    2012-01-01

    The controversial Younger Dryas impact hypothesis suggests that at the onset of the Younger Dryas an extraterrestrial impact over North America caused a global catastrophe. The main evidence for this impact—after the other markers proved to be neither reproducible nor consistent with an impact—is the alleged occurrence of several nanodiamond polymorphs, including the proposed presence of lonsdaleite, a shock polymorph of diamond. We examined the Usselo soil horizon at Geldrop-Aalsterhut (The Netherlands), which formed during the Allerød/Early Younger Dryas and would have captured such impact material. Our accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates of 14 individual charcoal particles are internally consistent and show that wildfires occurred well after the proposed impact. In addition we present evidence for the occurrence of cubic diamond in glass-like carbon. No lonsdaleite was found. The relation of the cubic nanodiamonds to glass-like carbon, which is produced during wildfires, suggests that these nanodiamonds might have formed after, rather than at the onset of, the Younger Dryas. Our analysis thus provides no support for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. PMID:22547791

  16. Ideals and Category Typicality

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, ShinWoo; Murphy, Gregory L.

    2011-01-01

    Barsalou (1985) argued that exemplars that serve category goals become more typical category members. Although this claim has received support, we investigated (a) whether categories have a single ideal, as negatively valenced categories (e.g., cigarette) often have conflicting goals, and (b) whether ideal items are in fact typical, as they often…

  17. Younger Dryas Age advance of Franz Josef Glacier in the Southern Alps of New Zealand

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Denton, G.H.; Hendy, C.H.

    1994-06-03

    A corrected radiocarbon age of 11,050 [+-] 14 years before present for an advance of the Franz Josef Glacier to the Waiho Loop terminal moraine on the western flank of New Zealand's Southern Alps shows that glacier advance on a South Pacific island was synchronous with initiation of the Younger Dryas in the North Atlantic region. Hence, cooling at the beginning of the Younger Dryas probably reflects global rather than regional forcing. The source for Younger Dryas climatic cooling may thus lie in the atmosphere rather than in a North Atlantic thermohaline switch. 36 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

  18. Hormonal and intrauterine methods for contraception for women aged 25 years and younger.

    PubMed

    Krashin, Jamie; Tang, Jennifer H; Mody, Sheila; Lopez, Laureen M

    2015-08-17

    Women between the ages of 15 and 24 years have high rates of unintended pregnancy; over half of women in this age group want to avoid pregnancy. However, women under age 25 years have higher typical contraceptive failure rates within the first 12 months of use than older women. High discontinuation rates may also be a problem in this population. Concern that adolescents and young women will not find hormonal or intrauterine contraceptives acceptable or effective might deter healthcare providers from recommending these contraceptive methods. To compare the contraceptive failure (pregnancy) rates and to examine the continuation rates for hormonal and intrauterine contraception among young women aged 25 years and younger. We searched until 4 August 2015 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared hormonal or intrauterine methods of contraception in women aged 25 years and younger. Computerized databases included the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, POPLINE, CINAHL, and LILACS. We also searched for current trials via ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). We considered RCTs in any language that reported the contraceptive failure rates for hormonal or intrauterine contraceptive methods, when compared with another contraceptive method, for women aged 25 years and younger. The other contraceptive method could have been another intrauterine contraceptive, another hormonal contraceptive or different dose of the same method, or a non-hormonal contraceptive. Treatment duration must have been at least three months. Eligible trials had to include the primary outcome of contraceptive failure rate (pregnancy). The secondary outcome was contraceptive continuation rate. One author conducted the primary data extraction and entered the information into Review Manager. Another author performed an independent data extraction and verified the initial entry. For dichotomous outcomes, we computed the

  19. Short-term and long-term collaboration benefits on individual recall in younger and older adults

    PubMed Central

    Stern, Yaakov

    2011-01-01

    A recent study of younger adults suggests that, compared to repeated individual recall trials, repeated collaborative recall trials produce better individual recall after a short delay (Blumen & Rajaram, 2008). Our study was designed to determine if such collaboration benefits would remain after a one-week delay, in both younger and older adults. Sixty younger (M age = 24.60) and 60 older (M age = 67.35) adults studied a list of words and then completed either two collaborative recall trials followed by two individual recall trials, or four individual recall trials. A five-min delay was inserted between the first three recall trials. The fourth recall trial was administered 1 week later. Collaborative recall was completed in groups of three individuals working together. Both younger and older adults benefitted from repeated collaborative recall trials to a greater extent than repeated individual recall trials, and such collaboration benefits remained after a one-week delay. This is the first demonstration of collaboration benefits on later individual recall at delays as long as 1 week, in both younger and older adults. Findings are discussed within the context of the negative effects of collaboration associated with group memory (collaborative inhibition) and the positive effects of collaboration associated with later individual memory (collaboration benefits). PMID:21264617

  20. Short-term and long-term collaboration benefits on individual recall in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Blumen, Helena M; Stern, Yaakov

    2011-01-01

    A recent study of younger adults suggests that, compared to repeated individual recall trials, repeated collaborative recall trials produce better individual recall after a short delay (Blumen & Rajaram, 2008). Our study was designed to determine if such collaboration benefits would remain after a one-week delay, in both younger and older adults. Sixty younger (M age = 24.60) and 60 older (M age = 67.35) adults studied a list of words and then completed either two collaborative recall trials followed by two individual recall trials, or four individual recall trials. A five-min delay was inserted between the first three recall trials. The fourth recall trial was administered 1 week later. Collaborative recall was completed in groups of three individuals working together. Both younger and older adults benefitted from repeated collaborative recall trials to a greater extent than repeated individual recall trials, and such collaboration benefits remained after a one-week delay. This is the first demonstration of collaboration benefits on later individual recall at delays as long as 1 week, in both younger and older adults. Findings are discussed within the context of the negative effects of collaboration associated with group memory (collaborative inhibition) and the positive effects of collaboration associated with later individual memory (collaboration benefits).

  1. Time perspective and social preference in older and younger adults: Effects of self-regulatory fatigue.

    PubMed

    Segerstrom, Suzanne C; Geiger, Paul J; Combs, Hannah L; Boggero, Ian A

    2016-09-01

    Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that when perceived time in life is limited, people will prefer emotionally close social partners over less emotionally rewarding partners. Regulating social choices with regard to time perspective can make the best use of time with regard to well-being. However, doing so may depend on the self-regulatory capacity of the individual. Two studies, 1 with younger adults (N = 101) and 1 with younger (N = 42) and older (N = 39) adults, experimentally tested the effects of time perspective and self-regulatory fatigue on preferences for emotionally close partners and knowledgeable partners. In both studies and across younger and older adults, when self-regulatory fatigue was low, the perception of limited time resulted in a greater preference for close social partners relative to knowledgeable social partners. However, this shift was eliminated by self-regulatory fatigue. In Study 2, when fatigued, younger adults preferred close social partners to knowledgeable partners across time perspectives; older adults preferred close and knowledgeable partners more equally across time perspectives. These findings have implications for social decision-making and satisfaction among people who experience chronic self-regulatory fatigue. They also contradict previous suggestions that only younger adults are susceptible to self-regulatory fatigue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Time Perspective and Social Preference in Older and Younger Adults: Effects of Self-Regulatory Fatigue

    PubMed Central

    Segerstrom, Suzanne C.; Geiger, Paul J.; Combs, Hannah L.; Boggero, Ian A.

    2016-01-01

    Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that when perceived time in life is limited, people will prefer emotionally close social partners over less emotionally rewarding partners. Regulating social choices with regard to time perspective can make the best use of time with regard to well-being. However, doing so may depend on the self-regulatory capacity of the individual. Two studies, one with younger adults (N = 101) and one with younger (N = 42) and older (N = 39) adults, experimentally tested the effects of time perspective and self-regulatory fatigue on preferences for emotionally close partners and knowledgeable partners. In both studies and across younger and older adults, when self-regulatory fatigue was low, the perception of limited time resulted in a greater preference for close social partners relative to knowledgeable social partners. However, this shift was eliminated by self-regulatory fatigue. In Study 2, when fatigued, younger adults preferred close social partners to knowledgeable partners across time perspectives; older adults preferred close and knowledgeable partners more equally across time perspectives. These findings have implications for social decision-making and satisfaction among people who experience chronic self-regulatory fatigue. They also contradict previous suggestions that only younger adults are susceptible to self-regulatory fatigue. PMID:27243763

  3. Positive Outcomes Enhance Incidental Learning for Both Younger and Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Mather, Mara; Schoeke, Andrej

    2011-01-01

    Previous studies suggest that memory encoding is enhanced when people are anticipating a potential reward, consistent with the idea that dopaminergic systems that respond to motivationally relevant information also enhance memory for that information. In the current study, we examined how anticipating and receiving rewards versus losses affect incidental learning of information. In addition, we compared the modulatory effects of reward anticipation and outcome on memory for younger and older adults. Forty-two younger (aged 18–33 years) and 44 older (aged 66–92 years) adults played a game involving pressing a button as soon as they saw a target. Gain trials began with a cue that they would win $0.25 if they pressed the button fast enough, loss trials began with a cue that they would avoid losing $0.25 if they pressed the button fast enough, and no-outcome trials began with a cue indicating no monetary outcome. The target was a different photo-object on each trial (e.g., balloon, dolphin) and performance outcomes were displayed after the photo disappeared. Both younger and older adults recalled and recognized pictures from trials with positive outcomes (either rewarding or loss avoiding) better than from trials with negative outcomes. Positive outcomes were associated with not only enhanced memory for the picture just seen in that trial, but also with enhanced memory for the pictures shown in the next two trials. Although anticipating a reward also enhanced incidental memory, this effect was seen only in recognition memory of positive pictures and was a smaller effect than the outcome effect. The fact that older adults showed similar incidental memory effects of reward anticipation and outcome as younger adults suggests that reward–memory system interactions remain intact in older age. PMID:22125509

  4. Theory of Mind, Socio-Emotional Problem-Solving, Socio-Emotional Regulation in Children with Intellectual Disability and in Typically Developing Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baurain, Celine; Nader-Grosbois, Nathalie

    2013-01-01

    This study has examined the link between social information processing (SIP) and socio-emotional regulation (SER) in 45 children with intellectual disability (ID) and 45 typically developing (TD) children, matched on their developmental age. A Coding Grid of SER, focusing on Emotional Expression, Social Behaviour and Behaviours towards Social…

  5. The Impact of Executive Function Skills on Writing: A Comparison of Fifth-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities and Students with Typical Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nathan, Anne Michelle

    2009-01-01

    This study explored the relationship between verbal fluency skills and writing skills in developing writers. There were three research questions addressed: (1) Was there a difference between fifth-grade students who have a learning disability (LD) in written language and fifth-grade students with typical development (TD) on the Delis-Kaplan…

  6. Postural adjustment errors during lateral step initiation in older and younger adults

    PubMed Central

    Sparto, Patrick J.; Fuhrman, Susan I.; Redfern, Mark S.; Perera, Subashan; Jennings, J. Richard; Furman, Joseph M.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose was to examine age differences and varying levels of step response inhibition on the performance of a voluntary lateral step initiation task. Seventy older adults (70 – 94 y) and twenty younger adults (21 – 58 y) performed visually-cued step initiation conditions based on direction and spatial location of arrows, ranging from a simple choice reaction time task to a perceptual inhibition task that included incongruous cues about which direction to step (e.g. a left pointing arrow appearing on the right side of a monitor). Evidence of postural adjustment errors and step latencies were recorded from vertical ground reaction forces exerted by the stepping leg. Compared with younger adults, older adults demonstrated greater variability in step behavior, generated more postural adjustment errors during conditions requiring inhibition, and had greater step initiation latencies that increased more than younger adults as the inhibition requirements of the condition became greater. Step task performance was related to clinical balance test performance more than executive function task performance. PMID:25595953

  7. Postural adjustment errors during lateral step initiation in older and younger adults

    PubMed Central

    Sparto, Patrick J.; Fuhrman, Susan I.; Redfern, Mark S.; Perera, Subashan; Jennings, J. Richard; Furman, Joseph M.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose was to examine age differences and varying levels of step response inhibition on the performance of a voluntary lateral step initiation task. Seventy older adults (70 – 94 y) and twenty younger adults (21 – 58 y) performed visually-cued step initiation conditions based on direction and spatial location of arrows, ranging from a simple choice reaction time task to a perceptual inhibition task that included incongruous cues about which direction to step (e.g. a left pointing arrow appearing on the right side of a monitor). Evidence of postural adjustment errors and step latencies were recorded from vertical ground reaction forces exerted by the stepping leg. Compared with younger adults, older adults demonstrated greater variability in step behavior, generated more postural adjustment errors during conditions requiring inhibition, and had greater step initiation latencies that increased more than younger adults as the inhibition requirements of the condition became greater. Step task performance was related to clinical balance test performance more than executive function task performance. PMID:25183162

  8. Goal-setting, self-efficacy, and memory performance in older and younger adults.

    PubMed

    West, R L; Thorn, R M

    2001-01-01

    Research in field and laboratory settings has shown that goals lead to improved self-efficacy and performance, especially when individuals also receive positive feedback. The present study extended goal-setting theory to examine self-set goals and feedback in relation to younger and older adults' memory performance and self-efficacy. Following a baseline recall trial, participants completed three shopping list recall trials. Half of the participants were instructed to set goals for the three experimental trials, and half in each goal condition received performance feedback after each trial. Young adults' self-efficacy, clustering, and recall exceeded that of older adults. Goal setting increased self-efficacy for younger but not older adults, and it did not affect performance. Younger adults and participants in the feedback condition increased their goals across trials, as did participants for whom feedback indicated success. These data provide a first look at the motivational impact of feedback and self-set recall goals in memory aging. Additional study is needed to understand the interactive effects of type of feedback, memory task difficulty, and type of goal setting at different ages.

  9. The effect of exercise on affective and self-efficacy responses in older and younger women.

    PubMed

    Barnett, Fiona

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the self-efficacy and affective responses to an acute exercise bout in sedentary older and younger women to determine whether aging has an effect on affective states. Twenty-five sedentary younger (mean age = 19.9 yrs) and 25 older (mean age = 55.7 yrs) women completed an acute bout of exercise. Affective responses were measured before, during, and immediately following exercise. Self-efficacy responses were measured before and immediately following exercise. Positive engagement, revitalization, tranquility, Felt Arousal and Feeling Scale responses, and self-efficacy were all higher immediately following compared with before or during exercise for both groups of women. In addition, older women experienced higher overall positive engagement and lower physical exhaustion compared with younger women as well as higher tranquility and Feeling Scale responses immediately following exercise. This investigation found that an acute bout of moderate-intensity exercise produced more positive and fewer negative affective states in both younger and older women.

  10. Development of a computer program to generate typical measurement values for various systems on a space station

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Deacetis, Louis A.

    1987-01-01

    The elements of a simulation program written in Ada were developed. The program will eventually serve as a data generator of typical readings from various space station equipment involved with Communications and Tracking, and will simulate various scenarios that may arise due to equipment malfunction or failure, power failure, etc. In addition, an evaluation of the Ada language was made from the viewpoint of a FORTRAN programmer learning Ada for the first time. Various strengths and difficulties associated with the learning and use of Ada are considered.

  11. 19. View northwest of Tropic Chamber reciprocal compressors (typical), in ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    19. View northwest of Tropic Chamber reciprocal compressors (typical), in machine area. - Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center (NRDEC), Natick, Middlesex County, MA

  12. Science learning and literacy performance of typically developing, at-risk, and disabled, non-English language background students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Larrinaga McGee, Patria Maria

    Current education reform calls for excellence, access, and equity in all areas of instruction, including science and literacy. Historically, persons of diverse backgrounds or with disabilities have been underrepresented in science. Gaps are evident between the science and literacy achievement of diverse students and their mainstream peers. The purpose of this study was to document, describe, and examine patterns of development and change in the science learning and literacy performance of Hispanic students. The two major questions of this study were: (1) How is science content knowledge, as evident in oral and written formats, manifested in the performance of typically developing, at-risk, and disabled non-English language background (NELB) students? and (2) What are the patterns of literacy performance in science, and as evident in oral and written formats, among typically developing, at-risk, and disabled NELB students? This case study was part of a larger research project, the Promise Project, undertaken at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. The study involved 24 fourth-grade students in seven classrooms located in Promise Project schools where teachers were provided with training and materials for instruction on two units of science content: Matter and Weather. Four students were selected from among the fourth-graders for a closer analysis of their performance. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used to document, describe, and examine specific events or phenomena in the processes of science learning and literacy development. Important findings were related to (a) gains in science learning and literacy development, (b) students' science learning and literacy development needs, and (c) general and idiosyncratic attitudes toward science and literacy. Five patterns of science "explanations" identified indicated a developmental cognitive/linguistic trajectory in science

  13. The Impact of Presentation Format on Younger and Older Adults' Self-Regulated Learning.

    PubMed

    Price, Jodi

    2017-01-01

    Background/Study Context: Self-regulated learning involves deciding what to study and for how long. Debate surrounds whether individuals' selections are influenced more by item complexity, point values, or if instead people select in a left-to-right reading order, ignoring item complexity and value. The present study manipulated whether point values and presentation format favored selection of simple or complex Chinese-English pairs to assess the impact on younger and older adults' selection behaviors. One hundred and five younger (M age  = 20.26, SD = 2.38) and 102 older adults (M age  = 70.28, SD = 6.37) participated in the experiment. Participants studied four different 3 × 3 grids (two per trial), each containing three simple, three medium, and three complex Chinese-English vocabulary pairs presented in either a simple-first or complex-first order, depending on condition. Point values were assigned in either a 2-4-8 or 8-4-2 order so that either simple or complex items were favored. Points did not influence the order in which either age group selected items, whereas presentation format did. Younger and older adults selected more simple or complex items when they appeared in the first column. However, older adults selected and allocated more time to simpler items but recalled less overall than did younger adults. Memory beliefs and working memory capacity predicted study time allocation, but not item selection, behaviors. Presentation format must be considered when evaluating which theory of self-regulated learning best accounts for younger and older adults' study behaviors and whether there are age-related differences in self-regulated learning. The results of the present study combine with others to support the importance of also considering the role of external factors (e.g., working memory capacity and memory beliefs) in each age group's self-regulated learning decisions.

  14. The prone bridge test: Performance, validity, and reliability among older and younger adults.

    PubMed

    Bohannon, Richard W; Steffl, Michal; Glenney, Susan S; Green, Michelle; Cashwell, Leah; Prajerova, Kveta; Bunn, Jennifer

    2018-04-01

    The prone bridge maneuver, or plank, has been viewed as a potential alternative to curl-ups for assessing trunk muscle performance. The purpose of this study was to assess prone bridge test performance, validity, and reliability among younger and older adults. Sixty younger (20-35 years old) and 60 older (60-79 years old) participants completed this study. Groups were evenly divided by sex. Participants completed surveys regarding physical activity and abdominal exercise participation. Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference were measured. On two occasions, 5-9 days apart, participants held a prone bridge until volitional exhaustion or until repeated technique failure. Validity was examined using data from the first session: convergent validity by calculating correlations between survey responses, anthropometrics, and prone bridge time, known groups validity by using an ANOVA comparing bridge times of younger and older adults and of men and women. Test-retest reliability was examined by using a paired t-test to compare prone bridge times for Session1 and Session 2. Furthermore, an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to characterize relative reliability and minimal detectable change (MDC 95% ) was used to describe absolute reliability. The mean prone bridge time was 145.3 ± 71.5 s, and was positively correlated with physical activity participation (p ≤ 0.001) and negatively correlated with BMI and waist circumference (p ≤ 0.003). Younger participants had significantly longer plank times than older participants (p = 0.003). The ICC between testing sessions was 0.915. The prone bridge test is a valid and reliable measure for evaluating abdominal performance in both younger and older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Older and Younger Workers: The Equalling Effects of Health

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beck, Vanessa; Quinn, Martin

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the statistical evidence on the effects that ill health has on labour market participation and opportunities for younger and older workers in the East Midlands (UK). Design/methodology/approach: A statistical analysis of Labour Force Survey data was undertaken to demonstrate that health issues…

  16. Iconicity influences how effectively minimally verbal children with autism and ability-matched typically developing children use pictures as symbols in a search task.

    PubMed

    Hartley, Calum; Allen, Melissa L

    2015-07-01

    Previous word learning studies suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty understanding pictorial symbols. Here we investigate the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder and language-matched typically developing children to contextualize symbolic information communicated by pictures in a search task that did not involve word learning. Out of the participant's view, a small toy was concealed underneath one of four unique occluders that were individuated by familiar nameable objects or unfamiliar unnamable objects. Children were shown a picture of the hiding location and then searched for the toy. Over three sessions, children completed trials with color photographs, black-and-white line drawings, and abstract color pictures. The results reveal zero group differences; neither children with autism spectrum disorder nor typically developing children were influenced by occluder familiarity, and both groups' errorless retrieval rates were above-chance with all three picture types. However, both groups made significantly more errorless retrievals in the most-iconic photograph trials, and performance was universally predicted by receptive language. Therefore, our findings indicate that children with autism spectrum disorder and young typically developing children can contextualize pictures and use them to adaptively guide their behavior in real time and space. However, this ability is significantly influenced by receptive language development and pictorial iconicity. © The Author(s) 2014.

  17. Fatigue in Younger and Older Drivers: Effectiveness of an Alertness-Maintaining Task.

    PubMed

    Song, Woojin; Woon, Fu L; Doong, Alice; Persad, Carol; Tijerina, Louis; Pandit, Pooja; Cline, Carol; Giordani, Bruno

    2017-09-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an alertness-maintaining task (AMT) in older, fatigued drivers. Fatigue during driving increases crash risk, and previous research suggests that alertness and driving in younger adults may be improved using a secondary AMT during boring, fatigue-eliciting drives. However, the potential impact of an AMT on driving has not been investigated in older drivers whose ability to complete dual tasks has been shown to decline and therefore may be negatively affected with an AMT in driving. Younger ( n = 29) and older drivers ( n = 39) participated in a 50-minute simulated drive designed to induce fatigue, followed by four 10-minute sessions alternating between driving with and without an AMT. Younger drivers were significantly more affected by fatigue on driving performance than were older drivers but benefitted significantly from the AMT. Older drivers did not demonstrate increased driver errors with fatigue, and driving did not deteriorate significantly during participation in the AMT condition, although their speed was significantly more variable with the AMT. Consistent with earlier research, an AMT applied during fatiguing driving is effective in improving alertness and reducing driving errors in younger drivers. Importantly, older drivers were relatively unaffected by fatigue, and use of an AMT did not detrimentally affect their driving performance. These results support the potential use of an AMT as a new automotive technology to improve fatigue and promote driver safety, though the benefits of such technology may differ between different age groups.

  18. Gist-based memory for prices and "better buys" in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Flores, Cynthia C; Hargis, Mary B; McGillivray, Shannon; Friedman, Michael C; Castel, Alan D

    2017-04-01

    Ageing typically leads to various memory deficits which results in older adults' tendency to remember more general information and rely on gist memory. The current study examined if younger and older adults could remember which of two comparable grocery items (e.g., two similar but different jams) was paired with a lower price (the "better buy"). Participants studied lists of grocery items and their prices, in which the two items in each category were presented consecutively (Experiment 1), or separated by intervening items (Experiment 2). At test, participants were asked to identify the "better buy" and recall the price of both items. There were negligible age-related differences for the "better buy" in Experiment 1, but age-related differences were present in Experiment 2 when there were greater memory demands involved in comparing the two items. Together, these findings suggest that when price information of two items can be evaluated and compared within a short period of time, older adults can form stable gist-based memory for prices, but that this is impaired with longer delays. We relate the findings to age-related changes in the use of gist and verbatim memory when remembering prices, as well as the associative deficit account of cognitive ageing.

  19. A search for shocked quartz grains in the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hoesel, Annelies; Hoek, Wim Z.; Pennock, Gillian M.; Kaiser, Knut; Plümper, Oliver; Jankowski, Michal; Hamers, Maartje F.; Schlaak, Norbert; Küster, Mathias; Andronikov, Alexander V.; Drury, Martyn R.

    2015-03-01

    The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis suggests that multiple airbursts or extraterrestrial impacts occurring at the end of the Allerød interstadial resulted in the Younger Dryas cold period. So far, no reproducible, diagnostic evidence has, however, been reported. Quartz grains containing planar deformation features (known as shocked quartz grains), are considered a reliable indicator for the occurrence of an extraterrestrial impact when found in a geological setting. Although alleged shocked quartz grains have been reported at a possible Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary layer in Venezuela, the identification of shocked quartz in this layer is ambiguous. To test whether shocked quartz is indeed present in the proposed impact layer, we investigated the quartz fraction of multiple Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary layers from Europe and North America, where proposed impact markers have been reported. Grains were analyzed using a combination of light and electron microscopy techniques. All samples contained a variable amount of quartz grains with (sub)planar microstructures, often tectonic deformation lamellae. A total of one quartz grain containing planar deformation features was found in our samples. This shocked quartz grain comes from the Usselo palaeosol at Geldrop Aalsterhut, the Netherlands. Scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence imaging and transmission electron microscopy imaging, however, show that the planar deformation features in this grain are healed and thus likely to be older than the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary. We suggest that this grain was possibly eroded from an older crater or distal ejecta layer and later redeposited in the European sandbelt. The single shocked quartz grain at this moment thus cannot be used to support the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.

  20. The impact of breast cancer-specific birth cohort effects among younger and older Chinese populations.

    PubMed

    Sung, Hyuna; Rosenberg, Philip S; Chen, Wan-Qing; Hartman, Mikael; Lim, Wei-Yen; Chia, Kee Seng; Wai-Kong Mang, Oscar; Tse, Lapah; Anderson, William F; Yang, Xiaohong R

    2016-08-01

    Historically low breast cancer incidence rates among Asian women have risen worldwide; purportedly due to the adoption of a "Western" life style among younger generations (i.e., the more recent birth cohorts). However, no study has simultaneously compared birth cohort effects between both younger and older women in different Asian and Western populations. Using cancer registry data from rural and urban China, Singapore and the United States (1990-2008), we estimated age-standardized incidence rates (ASR), annual percentage change (EAPC) in the ASR, net drifts, birth cohort specific incidence rates and cohort rate ratios (CRR). Younger (30-49 years, 1943-1977 birth cohorts) and older women (50-79 years; 1913-1957 birth cohorts) were assessed separately. CRRs among Chinese populations were estimated using birth cohort specific rates with US non-Hispanic white women (NHW) serving as the reference population with an assigned CRR of 1.0. We observed higher EAPCs and net drifts among those Chinese populations with lower ASRs. Similarly, we observed the most rapidly increasing cohort-specific incidence rates among those Chinese populations with the lowest baseline CRRs. Both trends were more significant among older than younger women. Average CRRs were 0.06-0.44 among older and 0.18-0.81 among younger women. Rapidly rising cohort specific rates have narrowed the historic disparity between Chinese and US NHW breast cancer populations particularly in regions with the lowest baseline rates and among older women. Future analytic studies are needed to investigate risk factors accounting for the rapid increase of breast cancer among older and younger women separately in Asian populations. © 2016 UICC.

  1. Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period: new insights from coupled model experiments constrained by data assimilation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Renssen, Hans; Mairesse, Aurélien; Goosse, Hugues; Mathiot, Pierre; Heiri, Oliver; Roche, Didier M.; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Valdes, Paul J.

    2016-04-01

    The Younger Dryas cooling event disrupted the overall warming trend in the North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation. Climate change during the Younger Dryas was abrupt, and thus provides insights into the sensitivity of the climate system to perturbations. The sudden Younger Dryas cooling has traditionally been attributed to a shut-down of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation by meltwater discharges. However, alternative explanations such as strong negative radiative forcing and a shift in atmospheric circulation have also been offered. In this study we investigate the importance of these different forcings in coupled climate model experiments constrained by data assimilation. We find that the Younger Dryas climate signal as registered in proxy evidence is best simulated using a combination of processes: a weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, moderate negative radiative forcing and an altered atmospheric circulation. We conclude that none of the individual mechanisms alone provide a plausible explanation for the Younger Dryas cold period. We suggest that the triggers for abrupt climate changes like the Younger Dryas are more complex than suggested so far, and that studies on the response of the climate system to perturbations should account for this complexity. Reference: Renssen, H. et al. (2015) Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period. Nature Geoscience 8, 946-949.

  2. Charting the life course: age differences and validity of beliefs about lifespan development.

    PubMed

    Riediger, Michaela; Voelkle, Manuel C; Schaefer, Sabine; Lindenberger, Ulman

    2014-09-01

    This study examined how children (9 years), adolescents (13 to 15 years), younger adults (21 to 26 years), and older adults (70 to 76 years) chart age gradients of cognitive and social functioning from childhood to old age. Participants (N = 156) rated typical performance levels in different life phases for 10 aspects of cognitive and social functioning. Compared with older participants, children expected lower performance levels and higher temporal stability, particularly during adulthood and into old age, and showed lower interindividual consensus in their ratings. Individuals in all 4 age groups recognized that fluid cognitive abilities reach their developmental peak earlier in life and decline more steeply thereafter than crystallized cognitive abilities. Older adults and, to a lesser extent, children evaluated their own current functioning as being better than that of their typical age peers. Furthermore, older adults charted typical cognitive development in middle and earlier late adulthood more positively than the participants in the other 3 age groups, which possibly reflects a partial externalization of their own positive self-views and a self-enhancing bias. Comparisons with life span gradients of cognitive performance (McArdle, Ferrer-Caja, Hamagami, & Woodcock, 2002) suggest that the ratings of adolescents and younger adults were in better agreement with empirically observed average performance trajectories than the ratings of children and older adults. We conclude that beliefs about normative cognitive and social aspects of life span development emerge in late middle childhood, solidify into culturally shared scripts by mid-adolescence, and remain subject to further change into old age. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  3. Thinking inside the box: Spatial frames of reference for drawing in Williams syndrome and typical development.

    PubMed

    Hudson, Kerry D; Farran, Emily K

    2017-09-01

    Successfully completing a drawing relies on the ability to accurately impose and manipulate spatial frames of reference for the object that is being drawn and for the drawing space. Typically developing (TD) children use cues such as the page boundary as a frame of reference to guide the orientation of drawn lines. Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) typically produce incohesive drawings; this is proposed to reflect a local processing bias. Across two studies, we provide the first investigation of the effect of using a frame of reference when drawing simple lines and shapes in WS and TD groups (matched for non-verbal ability). Individuals with WS (N=17 Experiment 1; N=18 Experiment 2) and TD children matched by non-verbal ability drew single lines (Experiment One) and whole shapes (Experiment Two) within a neutral, incongruent or congruent frame. The angular deviation of the drawn line/shape, relative to the model line/shape, was measured. Both groups were sensitive to spatial frames of reference when drawing single lines and whole shapes, imposed by a frame around the drawing space. A local processing bias in WS cannot explain poor drawing performance in WS. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. 11. Detail view west from airlock chamber of typical refrigerator ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    11. Detail view west from airlock chamber of typical refrigerator door into Trophic Chamber. - Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center (NRDEC), Natick, Middlesex County, MA

  5. Examination of Sex Differences in a Large Sample of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development

    PubMed Central

    Reinhardt, Vanessa P.; Wetherby, Amy M.; Schatschneider, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Despite consistent and substantive research documenting a large male to female ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), only a modest body of research exists examining sex differences in characteristics. This study examined sex differences in developmental functioning and early social communication in children with ASD as compared to children with typical development. Sex differences in adaptive behavior and autism symptoms were also examined in children with ASD. Participants (n = 511) were recruited from the Florida State University FIRST WORDS® Project and University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center. Analyses did not reveal significant effects of sex or a diagnostic group by sex interaction, suggesting a similar phenotype in males and females early in development. Further research is needed to examine sex differences across development. PMID:25189824

  6. The Stability of Self-Reported Anxiety in Youth with Autism Versus ADHD or Typical Development.

    PubMed

    Schiltz, Hillary; McIntyre, Nancy; Swain-Lerro, Lindsay; Zajic, Matthew; Mundy, Peter

    2017-12-01

    Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for anxiety symptoms. Few anxiety measures are validated for individuals with ASD, and the nature of ASD raises questions about reliability of self-reported anxiety. This study examined longitudinal stability and change of self-reported anxiety in higher functioning youth with ASD (HFASD) compared to youth with symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and typical development (TD) using the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (March, 2012; March et al. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36(4):554-565, 1997). Diagnostic groups demonstrated comparable evidence of stability for most dimensions of anxiety. The HFASD group displayed higher anxiety than both comparison groups, especially physical symptoms. These findings have implications for identification and measurement of anxiety in ASD.

  7. Television, video game and social media use among children with ASD and typically developing siblings.

    PubMed

    Mazurek, Micah O; Wenstrup, Colleen

    2013-06-01

    This study examined the nature of television, video game, and social media use in children (ages 8-18) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, n = 202) compared to typically developing siblings (TD, n = 179), and relative to other activities. Parents completed measures assessing children's screen-based and other extracurricular activities. Children with ASD spent approximately 62% more time watching television and playing video games than in all non-screen activities combined. Compared with TD siblings, children with ASD spent more hours per day playing video games (2.4 vs. 1.6 for boys, and 1.8 vs. 0.8 for girls), and had higher levels of problematic video game use. In contrast, children with ASD spent little time using social media or socially interactive video games.

  8. Outcome and Process in Motor Performance: A Comparison of Jumping by Typically Developing Children and Those with Low Motor Proficiency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, Morgan D.; Saunders, John E.; Maschette, Wayne E.; Wilson, Cameron J.

    2013-01-01

    The motivation for this study was to explore a conceptual framework to understand the outcomes and processes of motor performance in children. Vertical jumping, a fundamental movement skill, was used to compare children (ages 6-12 years) who were typically developing (TD) and those identified as having low motor proficiency (LMP). Jumps were…

  9. Effect of Phonotactic Probability and Neighborhood Density on Word-Learning Configuration by Preschoolers with Typical Development and Specific Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gray, Shelley; Pittman, Andrea; Weinhold, Juliet

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: In this study, the authors assessed the effects of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on word-learning configuration by preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) and typical language development (TD). Method: One hundred thirty-one children participated: 48 with SLI, 44 with TD matched on age and gender, and 39…

  10. Perceptions of Distress in Young Children with Autism Compared to Typically Developing Children: A Cultural Comparison between Japan and Italy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Esposito, G.; Nakazawa, J.; Venuti, P.; Bornstein, M. H.

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates how adults in two contrasting cultures (Italian and Japanese) perceive episodes of crying of typically developing (TD) children and children with Autism Disorder (AD). Although cries of children with AD have been reported to elicit more distress in Western cultures, it is not known whether similar findings hold in Eastern…

  11. How multi segmental patterns deviate in spastic diplegia from typical developed.

    PubMed

    Zago, Matteo; Sforza, Chiarella; Bona, Alessia; Cimolin, Veronica; Costici, Pier Francesco; Condoluci, Claudia; Galli, Manuela

    2017-10-01

    The relationship between gait features and coordination in children with Cerebral Palsy is not sufficiently analyzed yet. Principal Component Analysis can help in understanding motion patterns decomposing movement into its fundamental components (Principal Movements). This study aims at quantitatively characterizing the functional connections between multi-joint gait patterns in Cerebral Palsy. 65 children with spastic diplegia aged 10.6 (SD 3.7) years participated in standardized gait analysis trials; 31 typically developing adolescents aged 13.6 (4.4) years were also tested. To determine if posture affects gait patterns, patients were split into Crouch and knee Hyperextension group according to knee flexion angle at standing. 3D coordinates of hips, knees, ankles, metatarsal joints, pelvis and shoulders were submitted to Principal Component Analysis. Four Principal Movements accounted for 99% of global variance; components 1-3 explained major sagittal patterns, components 4-5 referred to movements on frontal plane and component 6 to additional movement refinements. Dimensionality was higher in patients than in controls (p<0.01), and the Crouch group significantly differed from controls in the application of components 1 and 4-6 (p<0.05), while the knee Hyperextension group in components 1-2 and 5 (p<0.05). Compensatory strategies of children with Cerebral Palsy (interactions between main and secondary movement patterns), were objectively determined. Principal Movements can reduce the effort in interpreting gait reports, providing an immediate and quantitative picture of the connections between movement components. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Task Inhibition and Response Inhibition in Older vs. Younger Adults: A Diffusion Model Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Schuch, Stefanie

    2016-01-01

    Differences in inhibitory ability between older (64–79 years, N = 24) and younger adults (18–26 years, N = 24) were investigated using a diffusion model analysis. Participants performed a task-switching paradigm that allows assessing n−2 task repetition costs, reflecting inhibitory control on the level of tasks, as well as n−1 response-repetition costs, reflecting inhibitory control on the level of responses. N−2 task repetition costs were of similar size in both age groups. Diffusion model analysis revealed that for both younger and older adults, drift rate parameters were smaller in the inhibition condition relative to the control condition, consistent with the idea that persisting task inhibition slows down response selection. Moreover, there was preliminary evidence for task inhibition effects in threshold separation and non-decision time in the older, but not the younger adults, suggesting that older adults might apply different strategies when dealing with persisting task inhibition. N−1 response-repetition costs in mean RT were larger in older than younger adults, but in mean error rates tended to be larger in younger than older adults. Diffusion-model analysis revealed longer non-decision times in response repetitions than response switches in both age groups, consistent with the idea that motor processes take longer in response repetitions than response switches due to persisting response inhibition of a previously executed response. The data also revealed age-related differences in overall performance: Older adults responded more slowly and more accurately than young adults, which was reflected by a higher threshold separation parameter in diffusion model analysis. Moreover, older adults showed larger non-decision times and higher variability in non-decision time than young adults, possibly reflecting slower and more variable motor processes. In contrast, overall drift rate did not differ between older and younger adults. Taken together

  13. Self-Regulated Learning in Younger and Older Adults: Does Aging Affect Metacognitive Control?

    PubMed Central

    Price, Jodi; Hertzog, Christopher; Dunlosky, John

    2011-01-01

    Two experiments examined whether younger and older adults’ self-regulated study (item selection and study time) conformed to the region of proximal learning (RPL) model when studying normatively easy, medium, and difficult vocabulary pairs. Experiment 2 manipulated the value of recalling different pairs and provided learning goals for words recalled and points earned. Younger and older adults in both experiments selected items for study in an easy-to-difficult order, indicating the RPL model applies to older adults’ self-regulated study. Individuals allocated more time to difficult items, but prioritized easier items when given less time or point values favoring difficult items. Older adults studied more items for longer but realized lower recall than did younger adults. Older adults’ lower memory self-efficacy and perceived control correlated with their greater item restudy and avoidance of difficult items with high point values. Results are discussed in terms of RPL and agenda-based regulation models. PMID:19866382

  14. Younger Veterans - Older Veterans: A Comparison of Perceptions of Hospital Treatment, Problem Areas and Needs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dickman, Harold R.; Pearson, Helen J.

    The contention that younger veterans differ from their elders in their attitudes and expectations was shown to be an inaccurate generalization on the basis of this reported inquiry. Three general classes of informational data were collected from both younger and older veterans: (1) perception of hospital services; (2) patient problems and services…

  15. 6. Detail view north of typical window and loading door ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    6. Detail view north of typical window and loading door at east end of south elevation. - Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center (NRDEC), Natick, Middlesex County, MA

  16. The Relationships among Verbal Short-Term Memory, Phonological Awareness, and New Word Learning: Evidence from Typical Development and Down Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jarrold, Christopher; Thorn, Annabel S. C.; Stephens, Emma

    2009-01-01

    This study examined the correlates of new word learning in a sample of 64 typically developing children between 5 and 8 years of age and a group of 22 teenagers and young adults with Down syndrome. Verbal short-term memory and phonological awareness skills were assessed to determine whether learning new words involved accurately representing…

  17. Comparison of Nutritional Status between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children in the Mediterranean Region (Valencia, Spain)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marí-Bauset, Salvador; Llopis-González, Agustín; Zazpe, Itziar; Marí-Sanchis, Amelia; Morales Suárez-Varela, Maria

    2017-01-01

    This case-control study investigated nutrient intake, healthy eating index with 10 items on foods and nutrients, on 3-day food diaries and anthropometric measurements in 105 children with autism spectrum disorder and 495 typically developing children (6-9 years) in Valencia (Spain). Children with autism spectrum disorder were at a higher risk for…

  18. Comparing older and younger Japanese primiparae: fatigue, depression and biomarkers of stress.

    PubMed

    Mori, Emi; Maehara, Kunie; Iwata, Hiroko; Sakajo, Akiko; Tsuchiya, Miyako; Ozawa, Harumi; Morita, Akiko; Maekawa, Tomoko; Saeki, Akiko

    2015-03-01

    This cohort study of primiparae was conducted to answer the following questions: Do older (≧ 35 years) and younger (20-29 years) Japanese primiparous mothers differ when comparing biomarkers of stress and measures of fatigue and depression? Are there changes in fatigue, depression and stress biomarkers when comparing older and younger mothers during the postpartum period? The Postnatal Accumulated Fatigue Scale and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were administered in a time-series method four times: shortly after birth and monthly afterwards. Assays to measure biomarkers of stress, urinary 17-ketosteroids, urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroids and salivary chromogranin-A, were collected shortly after delivery and at 1 month postpartum in both groups and a third time in older mothers at the 4th month. Statistical testing showed very little difference in fatigue, depression or stress biomarkers between older and younger mothers shortly after birth or 1 month later. Accumulated fatigue and depression scores of older mothers were highest 1 month after delivery. Additional cohort studies are required to characterize physical/psychological well-being of older Japanese primiparae. © 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  19. Childhood Caregiving Roles, Perceptions of Benefits, and Future Caregiving Intentions among Typically Developing Adult Siblings of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nuttall, Amy K.; Coberly, Ben; Diesel, Sara J.

    2018-01-01

    Typically developing siblings (TDS) of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) frequently serve as caregivers during childhood, known as parentification, and primary caregivers for siblings in adulthood. In order to evaluate mechanisms linking these roles, we surveyed emerging-adult TDS (N = 108) about childhood parentification roles…

  20. How typical are 'typical' tremor characteristics? Sensitivity and specificity of five tremor phenomena.

    PubMed

    van der Stouwe, A M M; Elting, J W; van der Hoeven, J H; van Laar, T; Leenders, K L; Maurits, N M; Tijssen, M A J

    2016-09-01

    Distinguishing between different tremor disorders can be challenging. Some tremor disorders are thought to have typical tremor characteristics: the current study aims to provide sensitivity and specificity for five 'typical' tremor phenomena. Retrospectively, we examined 210 tremor patients referred for electrophysiological recordings between January 2008 and January 2014. The final clinical diagnosis was used as the gold standard. The first step was to determine whether patients met neurophysiological criteria for their type of tremor. Once established, we focused on 'typical' characteristics: tremor frequency decrease upon loading (enhanced physiological tremor (EPT)), amplitude increase upon loading, distractibility and entrainment (functional tremor (FT)), and intention tremor (essential tremor (ET)). The prevalence of these phenomena in the 'typical' group was compared to the whole group. Most patients (87%) concurred with all core clinical neurophysiological criteria for their tremor type. We found a frequency decrease upon loading to be a specific (95%), but not a sensitive (42%) test for EPT. Distractibility and entrainment both scored high on sensitivity (92%, 91%) and specificity (94%, 91%) in FT, whereas a tremor amplitude increase was specific (92%), but not sensitive (22%). Intention tremor was a specific finding in ET (85%), but not a sensitive test (45%). Combination of characteristics improved sensitivity. In this study, we retrospectively determined sensitivity and specificity for five 'typical' tremor characteristics. Characteristics proved specific, but few were sensitive. These data on tremor phenomenology will help practicing neurologists to improve distinction between different tremor disorders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.