Learning set acquisition in autistic children.

Compared the performance of 19 autistic 5-13 yr olds (mean MA: 4 yrs, 3 mo) on an object discrimination learning set task with that of MA and IQ matched control groups of normal and retarded Ss. All but 2 of the autistic Ss acquired a learning set. About 1/2 of the Ss in each control group also acquired a learning set. However, the mean number of problems to criterion was similar for both the autistic and control groups of Ss who acquired a learning set. It is suggested that the superior performance of autistic Ss on a task which is believed to be related to MA indicates that the MA of these children may be higher than that which is usually obtained with standard measuring techniques. Results provided somewhat equivocal evidence for a relation between MA, IQ, and learning set formation in the normal and retarded Ss. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis and activity of partial retro-inverso analogs of the antimetastatic laminin-derived peptide, YIGSR-NH2

Very low birth weight (VLBW) children at school age show variability in their outcome, compared with normal birth weight children, although many early physical and health differences are equalized by middle childhood. Studies of nonhandicapped VLBW children have found a higher rate of school retention and school problems in this population. Differences in intelligence have been reported, although these are often confounded by socioeconomic factors such as educational level of the parent. Few studies today of children born in the late 1970s and early 1980s have related school age outcome to central nervous system (CNS) status, yet for learning disabilities or other neuropsychological deficits, this may be highly relevant. Better understanding of medical risk factors, however, will not affect the decisive influence of social factors on their expression in the school age child.     

A comparative study of speech perception in young severely retarded children and normally developing infants

The discrimination of minimally paired speech sounds by seven retarded children with a mean age of 3 years, 2 months and a mean IQ of 38.4 was compared with the discrimination performance of eight normally developing 7-month-old infants. Children and infants were tested using the Visually Reinforced Infant Speech Discrimination (VRISD) paradigm in which they were taught to respond with a head turn to a change in a repeating background auditory stimulus. Responses were reinforced by activation of an animated toy. All children proved to be conditionable and both groups evidenced discrimination of the speech contrasts tested. The data suggest that the retarded children have moree difficulty processing a contrast cued by rapid spectral changes (often associated with consonant discrimination) than they do a contrast cued by steady-state spectral information (often associated with the perception of slowly articulated vowels). The normally developing infants did not find rapid spectral cues mor difficult than steady-state cues These results parallel those of Tallal (1976) who found that dynamic cues were specifically difficult for dysphasic children (with normal nonverbal intelligence), but not for linguistically-normal elementary school children.     

Differences in attitudes toward sex-typed behavior of nonretarded and retarded children

The present study was an initial attempt at understanding gender constancy in retarded children. Stories about retarded or nonretarded boys or girls were given to teachers and caretakers of retarded children and teachers of nonretarded children. The stories described children in four sex-stereotyped activities. Respondents rated each child in the stories on scales of typicality and acceptability. Results indicated that, while nonretarded children were rated as typical when engaging in sex-appropriate, desirable play activities, retarded children were rated as typical when engaging in undesirable activities, regardless of sex appropriateness. Different professional groups appeared to use different criteria when judging the children in the stories.     

Learned helplessness in Black and White children identified by their schools as retarded and nonretarded: Performance deterioration in response to failure.

20 Black and 20 White children who had been identified as retarded and nonretarded but were similar in MA (110.2–214.3 mo) were administered concept formation problems designed to reveal use of strategies. When feedback was veridical the groups did not differ in their use of effective strategies, but when feedback became consistently negative the groups diverged markedly. Under negative feedback, retarded Ss showed striking deterioration in strategy usage, but nonretarded Ss showed no deterioration. Consistent with these findings, teachers rated retarded Ss as significantly more helpless than their nonretarded peers on a checklist of relevant school behavior. Additional findings suggest that Black retarded Ss may be more susceptible to helplessness than are their White counterparts. Finally, group differences in verbalizations during problem solving bore little relation to group differences in actual performance. Findings point to helplessness deficits in retarded children that may interfere significantly with expression of their actual abilities. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological examinations in childhood

Three groups of children aged 8-12 years have been investigated by a test battery to gain insight into the problems surrounding the relationship between cerebral and behavioral development. One group was of children with circumscribed cortical lesions, one was a group of dyslexics with neurologic anomalies, and the third was a control group of children without brain lesions. General test intelligence did not differ significantly in the three groups. Marked differences between the various lesion groups are observable in some tests but not in others. For example, the results of children with left temporal lesions in the verbal part of the intelligence test and in fresh language memory were inferior to those of all other lesion groups and the controls, while the dyslexics showed a similar if less marked deficit. Non-linguistic (figural) memory did not differ as between groups. On the other hand, children with right frontal lesions were notable for inferior results in a visual learning test and a classification test. In a linguistic-dichotic test all the groups of brain lesions and the dyslexics differed from the control group, a fact which suggests retarded development of hemispheric dominance for speech functions. From these provisional results it can be concluded that the brain areas do not all specialize simultaneously, and that compensation of cerebral lesions in relation to different functions probably results in retardation of overall brain development and anatomico-functional specialization.     

The effects of success and failure on the discrimination learning of normal and retarded children.

30 normal and 30 retarded children learned a 3-choice size discrimination following exposure to experimental tasks under conditions of success, failure, or neutrality. Both normal and retarded children learned more quickly following success and failure than under the neutral condition. In a 2nd study, 32 normal and 32 retarded children learned the same criterion task under success or failure conditions. Here, both success and failure again facilitated the performance of both normal and retarded Ss. Also, social responsivity interacted with intelligence and exeprimental conditions in influencing the children's learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendships of preschool children in mainstreamed playgroups.

The friendship patterns of 4-year-old mildly developmentally delayed and 3- and 4-year old nonhandicapped children participating in a series of mainstreamed playgroups were investigated. Results indicated that the majority of children in each of the three groups established a preference for a specific peer on the basis of a unilateral criterion, but only a small proportion of mildly delayed and 3-year-old nonhandicapped children were able to establish reciprocal friendships. The delayed group preferred nonhandicapped older children but were least preferred as friends overall by playgroup participants. For those nonhandicapped children meeting the friendship criteria, interactions with friends produced more advanced and positive social play in comparison with interactions with nonfriends. However, these differences did not occur for the mildly delayed group, suggesting that delayed children may not take advantage of the potential benefits associated with friendships. Possible reasons for these problems and the need to identify relevant social processes in friendship formation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paired-associate and serial learning in retarded readers.

Exp I examined 68 9-13 yr old retarded readers on a paired associate task using the anticipation method and a serial-learning task using the study-test method. Intratask correlations were highly significant for each task, but intertask correlations were negligible. However, the 2 tasks also differed in difficulty. Exp II, with 27 additional like Ss, tested whether serial learning was easier with the anticipation method and whether paired associate and serial learning performance remained unrelated when difficulty was comparable. Serial learning was significantly easier, scores were comparable to paired associate scores, and most paired associate and serial learning measures were highly correlated. It is concluded that the performance of retarded readers may be determined more by difficulty than by type of task. Anticipation methods may be preferable to study-test methods for such children. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual-motor functioning in children with phenylketonuria

Children with treated phenylketonuria (PKU) have been described as being at high risk for perceptual-motor dysfunction. In this study, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Bender Gestalt test were administered to 19 school age children with treated PKU and of average intelligence who have been off diet from five months to six years four months. Perceptual-motor performance was evaluated, and school functioning was rated by classroom teachers. Substantial impairment of perceptual-motor functioning as measured by the Bender Gestalt test and lower WISC performance IQs than verbal IQs were observed in children of average intelligence. Quality of dietary control was found to be associated with performance on the Bender Gestalt test. These findings suggest the possibility of a specific deficit that could seriously interfere with academic progress, but which is not signalled by obvious impairment of overall intellectual functioning.     

Assessment of perceived competence, motivational orientation, and anxiety in segregated and mainstreamed educable mentally retarded children.

Examined whether instruments designed to tap the self-system in normal IQ children could be used with retarded pupils. The Perceived Competence Scale for Children and scales assessing intrinsic vs extrinsic orientation in the classroom and school concerns were administered to 90 retarded children mainstreamed for socialization or academic purposes and to 36 retarded children who were taught in self-contained classrooms. All Ss were aged 9–12 yrs. For each measure, the 4- or 5-factor structure found for normal-IQ children was not obtained. However 2-factor solutions were revealed, leading to the identification of 6 constructs: General Competence, Popularity, Motivation for Hard Work, Autonomous Judgment, Concern About Evaluation, and Concern About Teacher Support. The failure to find differences between mainstreamed and self-contained Ss was related to the social comparison groups used. Mainstreamed Ss compared themselves with other mainstreamed retarded pupils, whereas self-contained Ss used other self-contained pupils as their comparison group. Findings highlight the need to revise instruments for use with the retarded and to obtain social comparison information. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Helplessness in children of depressed and nondepressed mothers.

Helpless behaviors in 5- to 7-year-old children of depressed and nondepressed mothers were assessed through direct observation, interviews, and teacher ratings. The affective tone the mothers set in a joint puzzle task and their tendency to encourage mastery or become intrusive when their children became frustrated at the task were also assessed. Although depressed mothers set a more negative affective tone than nondepressed mothers during solvable puzzles, there were few significant differences between the 2 groups of mothers and children. Still, mothers who were more negative and hostile and less able to encourage mastery in their children had children who exhibited more helpless behaviors in the puzzle task, who were less likely to endorse active problem-solving approaches to frustrating situations, and whose teachers rated the children as less competent and more prone to helpless behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Institutionalization and the effectiveness of social reinforcement: A three-year follow-up study.

49 familial retarded children who had been tested on a simple 2-part satiation game 3 years earlier were retested on the same game. The children were divided into high and low preinstitutional social deprivation groups, and 2 reinforcement conditions were employed. On the original testing a positive relationship was found between social deprivation experienced and the effectiveness of social reinforcement (p     

The measurement of overt aggression from fantasy.

"A set of specially devised pictures was individually administered to 118 boys aged 6-1 to 10-2 and the stories scored for five different categories of aggressive content. On the basis of teacher ratings of fighting behavior with age mates, the sample was divided into five groups differing in degree of overt aggressivity. The children who were rated as most likely to initiate fighting behavior produced significantly more fighting themes than those boys rated as extremely nonaggressive." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Lock Box: A measure of psychomotor competence and organized behavior in retarded and normal preschoolers.

The Lock Box, a large container with 10 latched compartments each housing a different toy, is a standardized method for evaluating the preschool child's approach to an unstructured situation. From the spontaneous behavior, coded over 6? min, scales were derived measuring psychomotor competence, organization of exploration, and aimlessness. The test was administered to 290 normal (mean IQ 111.4) and 91 retarded (mean IQ 58.1) children between the ages of 2 and 7 yrs. In the normal group, scores were highly correlated with CA but not with sex, socioeconomic status, or IQ. Retarded Ss performed significantly more poorly than normal Ss of similar age on all scales, with the greatest discrepancies apparent on an aimless actions scale. The excessive aimlessness of the retarded was evident when competence and tested intelligence were controlled. Findings are related to the development of orderly exploratory patterns in normal and retarded children. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The life satisfaction of nonnormal persons.

Tested the proposition that membership in a fixed-status class would be unrelated to life satisfaction. In 2 experiments, questionnaire responses of handicapped persons (144 and 46) were compared with those of normals (151 and 44). No differences were found along the dimensions of life satisfaction, frustration with life, and mood, while some evidence indicated that the handicapped were less suicidal, more religious, more oriented toward the generalized other, and felt their lives were more difficult. Handicapped Ss who acquired their defect did not differ from those born with it. In Exp III, the observed moods of 40 mentally retarded children (mean age = 13) were compared with those of 40 normals (mean age = 13) via a time-sampling procedure while they were in class and at recess at school. Parents and teachers responded to a rating scale indexing intelligence, social adjustment, and happiness for each S. Differences uncovered favored the intelligence and social adjustment of the normals and the happiness of the male retardates. Results are construed as demonstrating essential equivalence in life satisfaction for handicapped, retarded, and normal persons. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's beliefs about intelligence and school performance.

The study was designed, first, to explore associations among children's beliefs about intelligence and effort, goal orientations, self-reported learning strategies, and academic achievement. Assessments of all variables were conducted twice over 1 school year on 319 children in Grades 3–6. Results indicate that the belief that intelligence is relatively fixed was associated with the beliefs that performance is relatively stable and that intelligence is global in its effects on performance. This set of beliefs was differentiated from the belief that effort has positive effects on intelligence and performance. Children's beliefs in intelligence as fixed and affecting performance were negatively associated with academic achievement, but a path analysis provided only modest support for the hypothesis that the effect of such beliefs would be mediated by a performance goal orientation and accompanying superficial learning strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental ability and sociometric status among retarded children.

"A review of representative studies of the relation between ability and sociometric status among normal children, institutional retarded children, and noninstitutional retarded children, indicated high agreement with the generalization that individual ability is positively and significantly associated with choice status… . Studies that attend exclusively to the relation between intelligence and status should be avoided, while efforts to predict status within groups undergoing formaton or change should be increased." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Language comprehension in learning disabled children who perform poorly on memory span tests.

Conducted three studies of language comprehension skills in 9- and 10-year-old learning disabled (LD) children who have extreme difficulties retaining brief sequences of verbal information. The performance of this subgroup of LD children is contrasted with other LD subjects who perform normally on memory span tests and with normally achieving subjects. In Experiment 1 we showed that although children in the target subgroup had difficulties remembering the specific words and word order used in expository passages, they were not different from the two control groups in their comprehension of the passages. In Experiment 2 we showed that the gist recall of idea units from two folk tales was equally influenced in all groups by the thematic importance of the idea units being recalled. The primary inference was that the groups comprehended the stories equally well. Experiment 3 showed that children in the subgroup with memory limitations had more difficulty than children in the other two groups in following simple directions involving the manipulation of blocks. They were impaired in their ability to follow sequences of directions whether order of execution was important or not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)