Assessment of working memory in six- and seven-year-old children.

Using cognitive methods to fractionate functionally distinct aspects of short-term memory, a test battery was designed to tap the A. D. Baddeley and G. Hitch (1974) model of working memory. The battery was administered to 87 children aged 6 and 7 years; other standardized attainment measures were obtained for a subgroup of the children concurrently and 1 year later. Correlations between subtest scores indicated high construct validity for the central executive and phonological loop measures, although not for the visuospatial measures. Central executive scores shared unique associations with performance on the vocabulary, literacy, and arithmetic tests, whereas phonological loop scores shared specific associations with vocabulary knowledge only. The substantial internal and external validity of the test battery establishes its suitability for guiding detailed theoretical analyses of working memory function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of the frustration-aggression relation in children.

Describes an experiment with males in Grades 1-3 (N = 80) involving variations in level of frustration, type of model behavior, and model's outcomes. Neither initial level of frustration nor the female model's outcome had a significant effect on level of post-modeling aggression, although the model-behavior variable did have a significant impact. Ss rated by teachers as high in aggressive tendencies showed significantly greater increases in aggression in response to an aggressive model than Ss rated low in aggressive tendencies. (French summary) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined treatment for children with learning disorders.

The causes of learning disorders are numerous and, although some learning difficulties can be remedied by special educative measures only, many such problems, especially when they are more severe represent a disorder of the total personality. In such a case a diagnosis must be established by a team of different specialists. After a careful evaluation a treatment programme is planned and a choice is made among various specific therapies. Very often the treatment of learning disorders must take into account more or less important emotional factors. A combined approach of psychotherapy and remedial teaching is sometimes essential to attain some success in helping a child. Such a combination of treatments requires close cooperation between psychotherapist and special teacher. Their respective roles have to be frequently clarified and both gain in understanding of the child needs through mutual communication. Following the evolution of a child from two points of view demonstrates more and more clearly how the intellectual processes necessary for learning are subject to inhibiting patterns that are observed in neurotic defense mechanisms against emotional conflicts. In some instances this practical knowledge would be necessary to understand why a child does not profit from remedial measures and to determine how new techniques are to be used to help him. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer social status of children with anxiety disorders.

The peer social status of 6–13-year-old children with anxiety disorders was investigated. Sixteen children who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) criteria for anxiety disorders were compared with 26 children with conduct disorders and 45 nonreferred children. Anxiety-disorder children were liked significantly less than normal children, but anxious and conduct-disorder children did not differ from one another. The conduct-disorder group received more "like-least"" and "fight-most"" nominations than the anxious and nonreferred groups, which did not differ. Furthermore, the anxious group received the lowest social-impact scores (total like-most and like-least nominations) of any group and were most likely to fall in the socially neglected category of peer status. The lack of popularity of children with anxiety disorders may be limited to those with concurrent depression. Overall, these findings indicate that childhood anxiety disorders, at least when they coexist with depression, are associated with diminished peer popularity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleep disorders in children.

Many children experience some type of sleep problem. Often, these are transient problems with no long-lasting sequelae. But in certain cases, sleep problems may significantly impact on functioning and well-being. Sleep disorders in children can be classified into 2 major categories. Dyssomnias include those disorders that result in difficulty either initiating or maintaining sleep or involve excessive sleepiness. Parasomnias are disorders that disrupt sleep after it has been initiated but do not result in complaints of insomnia or excessive sleepiness. Even though sleep disorders in children are common, not enough is known. This article reviews the dyssomnias and parasomnias experienced by children, discusses methodological limitations of the studies reviewed, and presents future directions for research in this field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word learning in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been gaining attention, partly as an example of unusual developmental trajectories related to early neurobiological differences. The present investigation addressed the process of learning new words to explore mechanisms of language delay and impairment. The sample included 21 typically developing toddlers matched on expressive vocabulary with 21 young children with ASD. Two tasks were administered to teach children a new word and were supplemented by cognitive and diagnostic measures. In most analyses, there were no group differences in performance. Children with ASD did not consistently make mapping errors, even in word learning situations that required the use of social information. These findings indicate that some children with ASD, in developmentally appropriate tasks, are able to use information from social interactions to guide word–object mappings. This result has important implications for understanding of how children with ASD learn language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological abilities of young children with questionable brain disorders.

Neuropsychological test data, including the WISC, the Wide Range Achievement Test, and the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, were collected on 31 6–8 yr olds with a history of serious illness or trauma suspected of causing brain injury. These Ss with questionable brain disorder were compared with a similar group of 31 Ss who had no history of possible brain disorder. Results show that 10 of the neuropsychological variables significantly differentiated Ss with questionable brain disorder from normals. Stepwise discriminant function analyses revealed that a select battery of 5 variables had a classification accuracy rate of 72.6%. The data show noteworthy deficits in Ss with questionable brain disorder, particularly in motor and visual-motor abilities and in functions involving the nondominant hand. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive determinants of resistance to deviation in seven-, nine-, and eleven-year-old children in low and high maturity of moral judgment.

Investigated rationale content, an assumed cognitive determinant of resistance to deviation in children, using a standard punishment paradigm with 120 7-, 9-, and 11-yr-old children. Sex of child, age of child, rationale focus, and rationale orientation were combined in a 2 * 3 * 2 * 2 factorial design with a female as a punitive agent. Maturity of moral judgment, sex of child, rationale focus, and rationale orientation were used as factors in another series of analyses. Rationales were significantly more effective with girls than boys, and response inhibition was greatest for intention-focused and person-oriented rationales. However, sex and age of the child were interacting factors. The data suggest that level of moral judgment influences moral behavior. Results are interpreted within a social learning as well as a cognitive developmental framework. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family functioning in families of children with anxiety disorders.

The authors examined maternal and paternal reports of family functioning and their relationship with child outcomes as well as the association between anxiety and depression in family members and family functioning. Results reveal that maternal and paternal reports of family functioning were both significantly associated with worse child outcomes, including child anxiety disorder (AD) severity, anxiety symptoms, and child global functioning. Maternal and paternal anxiety and depression predicted worse family functioning, whereas child report of anxiety and depression did not. Parents of children with ADs reported significantly worse family functioning and behavior control, but only fathers reported worse problem solving and affective involvement compared with fathers of children with no psychological disorders. Findings from this study suggest that paternal as well as maternal anxiety and depression play a role in worse family functioning in children with ADs and that unhealthier family functioning is associated with worse child outcomes in this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-care independence in children with neurological disorders: An interactional model of adaptive demands and executive dysfunction.

Objective: To describe a neuropsychological assessment model that proposes executive functioning as a key moderator in the development of self-care independence. Setting: Inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation facilities. Participants: Transition-age youths with congenital and acquired neurological disorders. Intervention: Transition to the adaptive roles and expectations of adulthood can be challenging for adolescents with neurological disorders and other chronic medical conditions. These individuals frequently encounter functional problems related to additional time requirements, new life skill demands, and increased need for organization and planning. In addition, the neuropsychological consequences of these disorders often include deficits in motor speed and coordination as well as executive control (including planning, organization, and working memory). Consideration of the integrity of executive function skills and the presence of atypical adaptive demands is crucial during planning for transition of individuals into self-care independence and development of an approach to assessment and intervention. Conclusions: Rehabilitation psychologists have the potential to improve the quality of life of adolescents with neurological disorders as they transition into adulthood by considering the "executive burden" posed to the individuals by various combinations of executive dysfunction and atypical adaptive demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of synesthesia.

This study was designed to investigate relations between synesthesia (the occurrence of imagery in one sense modality in response to sensations in another) and intellectual and personality functioning. Female (n?=?204) and male (n?=?170) subjects completed a visual-auditory synesthesia battery, paper-and-pencil synesthesia tests, the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and a brief intelligence test. The findings indicate generalized and continuously distributed individual differences in the tendency to represent sounds as colors in accordance with empirically derived norms. However, this ability is not related to individual differences in the reported vividness of the associated imagery or to intelligence. A moderate relation was found between vividness measures, particularly vividness of visual images associated with sound, and a tendency to enjoy and become involved in imaginative experiences as measured by the Absorption scale of the MPQ. Contrary to existing beliefs, vividness of synesthetic imagery was not found to be associated with personality dysfunction or with intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subgrouping children with familial phonologic disorders

Familial aggregation of speech and language disorders was examined as a basis of subgrouping children with phonologic disorders. Fifty-nine children with phonologic disorders were subgrouped according to whether or not other nuclear family members reported a history of speech/language disorders. Thirty-four subjects (58%) reported at least one other nuclear family member affected and 25 subjects (42%) reported no other nuclear family members affected. Groups were compared on measures of articulation, phonology, language, and oral motor skills to determine if the familial phonologic subgroup presented a unique profile of speech and language deficits. Significant group differences were not observed. However, children with positive nuclear family histories tended to perform more poorly than children without histories on all tasks, although not reaching significance. Although all parents were considered to have achieved normal adult articulation, parents of children with positive family histories also tended to perform more poorly than parents of children with negative histories. Results suggested that poorer oral motor coordination and productive phonology may distinguish individuals with familial phonologic disorders from individuals with phonologic disorders of unknown origin.     

Clinical reactivity to beef in children allergic to cow's milk

BACKGROUND: Cow's milk is one of the most common food allergens in children. Limited information is available on the prevalence of reactivity to a related food source, beef. The purposes of this study were to examine the prevalence of symptomatic sensitivity to beef in a selected pediatric population and to determine the frequency of concomitant reactivity to cow's milk and beef. METHODS: Children referred for assessment of atopic dermatitis and possible food hypersensitivity were evaluated for symptomatic reactivity to beef by double-blind placebo-controlled food challenges (DBPCFCs) and subsequent open feedings of beef. Sodium dodecyl-sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), immunoblot, and immunodot blot analyses were performed with patients' sera on preparations of beef extracts subjected to different cooking conditions: raw (no heating), medium, and well-cooked. RESULTS: Eleven of 335 children referred for evaluation of atopic dermatitis and possible food hypersensitivity were found to have symptomatic sensitivity to beef; eight were also sensitive to milk, as demonstrated in previous DBPCFCs. Eight patients reacted to beef during DBPCFC, and three tolerated beef in a DBPCFC and well-cooked beef in an open challenge but reacted to ingestion of less well-cooked beef. SDS-PAGE of raw beef revealed at least 24 protein fractions. Several protein bands in raw beef appeared to denature with heating. Bovine serum albumin and bovine gamma globulin were heat-labile in the beef extract, but six protein fractions persisted even after heating the beef extract for 2 hours at 85 degrees C. IgE from patients reacting to rare and well-cooked beef bound up to six of these heat-resistant fractions, but IgE from patients reacting only to rare beef failed to bind any of these fractions with one exception. In addition, patients reacting to rare and well-cooked beef had specific IgE to a 17.8 kd fraction, which was only weakly recognized by one patient reacting only to rare beef. CONCLUSIONS: Specific IgE antibodies to heat-labile beef proteins might explain why some patients can tolerate well-cooked beef but not medium-rare and rare beef. Patients reacting only to rare beef may not need to maintain a complete beef elimination diet.     

Personality characteristics of the mothers of children with disruptive behavior disorders.

The biological mothers of 100 outpatient children aged 6–13 years completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Mothers of children given DSM-III diagnoses of conduct disorder (CD; n?=?13) had significantly higher scores on MMPI scales associated with antisocial behavior (Psychopathic Deviate and Hypomania), histrionic behavior (Hypochondriasis and Hysteria), and disturbed adjustment (Schizophrenia). In contrast, the children"s diagnosis of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD/H; n?=?22) was not significantly associated with any maternal MMPI elevations, and the CD?×?ADD/H interactions were not significant for any MMPI scale. These results indicate that CD is linked to maternal personality disorder, but ADD/H is not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of phonetic symbolism.

Investigations concerning the accuracy of matching English words with their foreign equivalents showed that English could be matched with both the Japanese and Croatian equivalents at a level beyond chance expectancy. However, the correct equivalents among Japanese and Croatian word pairs were not matched at a significant level. "The latter finding was interpreted as being contrary to the hypothesis of the gestalt organization of trace systems, and the related hypotheses of phonetic symbolism and physiognomic language." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment of psychological disorders among urban children.

Reports on the prevalence of, treatment for, and factors associated with treatment for serious psychological impairment in urban children aged 6-18. 2 Manhattan samples were studied, the 1st a random cross-section of 1,034 families and the 2nd of 1,000 families receiving welfare (Aid to Dependent Children). A significantly greater number of welfare children were seriously impaired, but the referral rate and long-term treatment rate of children in the 2 samples were similar. Less than 50% of the seriously impaired children were referred, and only 1 in 5 received treatment of 6 mo or longer. Referral rates increased dramatically as mother's education increased, whether she did or did not receive welfare. Families who referred their children were colder, less punitive, and of higher social status. Implications of the findings and possible solutions of the imbalance between treatment and need are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)