Higher Mental Functions In Children Research Articles

ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ КОРРЕКЦИОННО-РАЗВИВАЮЩЕЙ РАБОТЫ С ДОШКОЛЬНИКАМИ С ОГРАНИЧЕННЫМИ ВОЗМОЖНОСТЯМИ ЗДОРОВЬЯ С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ НЕЙРОПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ

We consider the correctional possibilities of the neuropsychological approach in remedial for preschoolers with disabilities (on the example of a special case - preschoolers with specific language impairment). Deviations in other fields of cognitive development in defect structure of children with speech disorders complicate the remedy. The application of the neuropsychological approach allows including closely speech-related higher mental functions in the correctional process. In addition, preschoolers with specific language impairment have a lower level of development of some cognitive processes compared to normotypic peers. These features determine the holistic study of higher mental functions in children with specific language impairment and the active inclusion of neuropsychological technologies in the remedy. The use of the neuropsychological method enables to determine priority of strategies for children’s remedy with regard to the peculiarities of the structure of the defect and the leading disorder. As closer integration of disciplines studying children with developmental disabilities is currently required, the use of a neuropsychological approach aligns the speech therapy, psychological and clinical aspects of the diagnostic examination of preschoolers with disabilities. The integration contributes to the optimization of the entire process of diagnostic study of children with speech disabilities. Remedial work to overcome the specific language impairment should be based on the peculiarities of the internal structure of the speech defect and fulfilled on the basis of integrative technology that combines the speech therapy and psychological aspects of corrective action within a single system.

Children With Intellectual Disabilities: Challenges In Education

Educational policies aimed at school inclusion have led to increased enrollment of students with special education needs in mainstream schools. As a result, there is an increase in problems and challenges that children face while studying at school. The article aims to highlight some of the difficulties and challenges that elementary school children with intellectual disorder face while studying in a mainstream school. In this study, we have conducted a literature review that examines the level of development of higher mental functions in children with intellectual development problems: attention, perception, thinking, memory, speech.

Levels of neurocognitive response in the situation of organic brain damage of a child as a clinical and psychological problem

Aim. The article discusses the results of a psychological study of the development of mental functions in children with convulsive paroxysms in the anamnesis. In order to identify common patterns of mental dysontogenesis in children with cerebral organic pathology, the data obtained are compared with the results of other studies.
 Methods. As experimental research methods, methods of neuropsychological diagnosis of higher mental functions in children were used (Tsvetkova, 2002), the diagnostic complex Forecast and prevention of learning problems at school (Yasyukova, 2002). Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical analysis software.
 Results. The results of the study showed that the early onset of seizures in children is combined with impaired auditory perception, short-term speech memory, visual linear thinking and motor awkwardness. The prolonged presence of convulsive paroxysms in the history of a preschool child is associated with the pathology of the development of kinesthetic praxis, as well as speech functions and forms of thinking associated with speech. A significant number of seizures in the history of the disease has a more destructive and total effect on the brain of the child in comparison with the age of onset and the duration of the disease. The data obtained are similar to the results of psychological studies of children with other cerebral organic pathology. Consequently, pathological cerebral processes and conditions of various nature can lead to similar disorders in the development of mental functions, presumably those that are at the time the pathological factor begins in the sensitive period of development. This allows using the concept of levels of neurocognitive response in a situation of organic damage to the brain of a child.
 Conclusion. The picture of the mental development disorder of children with convulsive paroxysms in the anamnesis is mediated by the age of onset, the duration and massiveness of the disease. Children with various diseases of the central nervous system, presumably, have common patterns of mental dysontogenesis.

Эффективное взаимодействие педагога и нейропсихолога в инклюзивной образовательной среде. Диагностический этап. Часть 2

The technology of organizing of group-format neuropsychological diagnostics, instruments of neuropsychological diagnostics and correctional work, which allow providing timely corrective assistance to children with learning difficulties at school, described. The results of the joint work of teachers of Moscow school No. 1540 with the staff of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology of the Psychology Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University on inclusion of a neuropsychological approach in the school environment analyzed. The article demonstrates that the data obtained during the follow-up diagnosis and a small set of group neuropsychological tests can be used by a psychologist to get a general idea of deficits, as well as the strengths of the development of higher mental functions in children.

Включение детей с особыми образовательными потребностями и нормативно развивающихся детей в совместное решение учебных задач (на примере решения задач на понимание мультипликативных отношений)

This article presents results of an experimental study on inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) and normally developing children in the process of joint solving of learning tasks depending on the type of interaction and relationships between children and between children and adult. The hypothesis was that the inclusion and development of higher mental functions in children with SEN can occur in specially organized learning interactions with other children and the adult that contribute to the emergence and development of child-adult communities. It is shown that the interactions between participants, the processes of communication and mutual understanding that develop under these conditions mediate the transition from the orientation on the objective characteristics of the problem to the analysis of the very ways of joint problem-solving. The relationship of the processes revealed in our study (means of interaction, communication and mutual understanding) characterise 4 types of child-adult communities and also serves as an integral indicator of the children’s inclusion in joint problem-solving. The results of the study are important for understanding the processes that affect the inclusion of children with SEN in learning situations, as well as for understanding the sources and mechanisms of mental development in social interactions. It is shown that the evolving interactions and relationships between the children and adults promote the development of higher mental functions in the participants of these interactions.

Computerized Neuropsychological Assessment in 6–9 Years-old Children

The article presents a new computer-based test battery of neuropsychological assessment in 6–9-year-old children. The battery consists of seven tests for assessing executive functions, functions of activation regulation, functions of visual-spatial information and auditory information processing. The following tests are describedin the article: the Dots task, two-colored Schulte–Gorbov tables, Corsi block span test and Understanding of Similar Sounding Words test. The battery is developed in the software platform ‘MSU-Practice’ (http://psychosoft.ru). The system allows researchers to conduct the tests, collect data and analyze them. In addition, it includes cloud service to support the collaboration of different research groups. A total of 21 preschoolers, 52 first-graders and 114 second-graders took part in a pilot study. All three groups of children took the four computer tests and went through a neuropsychological assessment adapted for children between the ages of 5 and 9. The correlation analysis showed consistency between the results of the computertests and the results of the neuropsychological assessments. This allowed us to conclude that the new computer methodology is sufficiently sensible and valid to assess different components of higher mental functions in children.
 Keywords: neuropsychology, higher mental functions, primary school children, cognitive functions, computer-based tests

Quality of life of children with epilepsy (neuropsychiatric and social aspects)

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases in childhood and adolescence. It is on the third place in the structure of diseases of the nervous system. The social significance of this disease is determined by the highest percentage in disability of patients. Currently, many leading national and foreign epileptologists expresses the same opinion that the one of the most important purposes in helping patients with epilepsy is to improve their quality of life. Cognitive disorders play a leading role in disturbances of patients’ adaptation in the community, so their role can be more considerable in disability than seizures, thus impairing the quality of life. The most common cognitive disorders in patients with epilepsy include memory impairment, retarded intellectual development and attention deficit disorder. In recent years, a special interest is given to the introduction of neuropsychological methods in studying the brain organization of higher mental functions in children with epilepsy. Analysis of neuropsychological features and characteristics of cognitive disorders with various forms of idiopathic epilepsy is of particular interest.

Регуляция активности у детей с трудностями обучения по данным нейропсихологического обследования

In this paper we study the problem of weak processes regulating the activity in primary school children with learning disabilities. The study was conducted on children with severe learning difficulties (from 1 to 4-5 grades), and on the sample of first graders with varying success in learning. The main method was Luria’s neuropsychological assessment adapted for 5 – 9 years old children (Akhutina et al., 2008/2012; Polonskaya, 2007). It is shown that the children of both samples can be divided into three groups according to the function states that regulate the activity: children with hyperactivity-impulsivity disorder, children with fatigue and low tempo characteristics, and children without a significant deficit of the unit I functions. The close relationship of unit I functions deficit and school performance was demonstrated. It was revealed that children with hyperactivity disorder characterized by severe weakness of programming and controlling processes and visual and visual-spatial functions (with weak left analytical hemisphere and right-hemisphere which is responsible for holistic strategies of processing information). Children with sluggish cognitive tempo are characterized by less pronounced weakness in programming and controlling functions and also by prominent audioverbal and kinesthetiс difficulties (weakness of the left hemisphere which is responsible for analytical strategy of processing information). Various components of higher mental functions in children with learning disabilities show uneven age dynamics: from 1 to 4-5 grade the symptoms of fatigue, low rate and kinesthetic difficulties practically do not manifest positive dynamics in contrast to all other components of the higher mental functions.

DYNAMICS OF HIGHER MENTAL FUNCTION CHANGES IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH PARTIAL FORMS OF EPILEPSY IN CLINICAL REMISSION

Study aim : to study the dynamics of changes of higher mental functions in children and adolescents with partial epilepsy forms. Study participants and methods . The study involved patients 6-16 years of age (15 people). Complex neuropsychological examination of the higher mental functions was conducted in children and adolescents with localized (focal, partial) epilepsy forms. Repeated neuropsychological examination was conducted 1 year later to reveal changes in the preregistered symptoms. Results . The most frequent and pronounced disorders in the primary examination were spatial, kinesthetic and constructive praxis disorders, visual-spatial and acoustic-nonvoice gnosis disorders, increased inhibition of traces, audio-verbal and visual memory constriction, defective order of reproducing words (figures) in stimulus sequence (transient errors), spatial errors in visual-constructive thinking, paragraphia. Thus, higher intensity of symptoms of the functional cerebral block II was registered. Repeated examination 1 year later showed slight changes in symptoms characterizing cerebral block II disorders; more serious changes affected symptoms connected with disorders in cerebral blocks III and I. Conclusions : symptom complexes of the functional block II, directly connected to epileptic nidi, appeared to be more resistant and hardly amenable to involution.

Specific Features of Monitoring of Higher Mental Functions in Children with Abnormal Intellectual and Speech Development

Specific Features of Monitoring of Higher Mental Functions in Children with Abnormal Intellectual and Speech Development

Medical engineering technologies for diagnosis and correction of higher mental functions in children and adolescents

This is an introductory article for this issue of the journal prepared on the basis of the proceedings of the Scientific-and-Practical Conference on Problems in Instrumental Evaluation of Higher Mental Functions and Dysfunctions in Children and Adolescents by using computer-aided test systems (medical engineering technologies developed at the turn of millennia). The paper deals with the analysis of the themes of the conference, its composition, and issues examined.

Medical engineering computer technologies for testing cognitive functions in children

Studies of higher mental functions in children are shown to present great difficulties in many parameters. Analysis has provided a number of requirements for medical devices and complexes and principles of their construction. Based on these data, the authors have developed and put computer test systems into practice, their advantages being shown. The studies of cognitive functions in children by using computer test systems are dealt with.

Relationship between mental maturity and higher mental functions in children of preschool age

Relationship between mental maturity and higher mental functions in children of preschool age

Instruments for psychophysiological examination of higher mental functions in children and adolescents—from devices and systems to medical engineering technologies of diagnosis, rehabilitation, and monitoring

Instruments for psychophysiological examination of higher mental functions in children and adolescents—from devices and systems to medical engineering technologies of diagnosis, rehabilitation, and monitoring

Effect of transplantation of human fetal tissues on the development of higher mental functions in children with Down's syndrome

Voluntary movements and acts, attention, memory, and reasoning were examined by Luriya's neuropsychological method in 30 children with Down's syndrome aged 4 to 10 years. The intellectual development of the children was assessed using the Wechsler scale. The results indicated a reliable improvement of spontaneous and purposeful cognitive activity, mental agility, speech, and nonverbal reasoning in the Down's syndrome children who had received a human fetal tissue transplant in comparison with the control group.