Higher Verbal Ability Research Articles

Measuring autism with the ADOS-2 using a bifactor model.

The measurement of autism characteristics can be challenging due to variability of social impairments and restricted and repetitive behaviors or interests (RRBs). Psychometrically strong measures such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2) can improve our capacity for thorough autism assessment. The conceptualization of the ADOS-2 has been shaped by research exploring the structure of its items, which evaluate autism traits associated with social affect and RRBs. Continuously refining our understanding of these items and their relations to other characteristics, such as cognition, is crucial for more accurate autism assessment and diagnosis. This study used data from a sample of 188 school-age children with mostly average cognitive functioning referred for clinical autism evaluations to (1) test the dimensionality of the ADOS-2, Module 3 (appropriate for children with relatively higher verbal ability), across two sets of items (i.e., algorithm only, algorithm with three non-algorithm RRB items) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and (2) examine the relations of cognition to the dimensions tested in the ADOS-2. A bifactor model, featuring a general autism trait and two subfactors (RRB and Social Affect), provided superior fit for algorithm-only and algorithm with three non-algorithm items. Cognitive functioning was not significantlyrelated to the general or specific factors in the model with only algorithm items. While the findings support the validity of the ADOS-2, it may not fully capture RRBs among children referred for autism. This study enhances our understanding of the ADOS-2, highlighting the utility of a bifactor model for characterizing its dimensionality, measuring autism traits with minimal cognitive influence, and identifying its limitations in assessing RRBs.

Academic Self-problems of Candidate Teachers of Native Language: “I am not sure what or how to learn.” But I must be sure of what I can teach.”

Academic self-concept is an individuals’ self-definition using their experiences in the educational process or their views on their own skills and interests. This study aims to determine the academic self-perception of teacher candidates of native language. This study was conducted with a qualitative approach in a phenomenological design. The study group consisted of 10 female and 6 male native language teacher candidates at a university located in the eastern part of Turkey. During the data collection process, semi-structured interviews were conducted with open-ended questions, the data collected with a voice recorder was converted into a written text. Participant views were subjected to content analysis. The first, last, and focus codings were completed for “coder reliability;” and an external controller was also used. In this study, the data source was diversified with reminder notes and observation reports for stability and transparency. The findings revealed that most participants had high verbal abilities and interests, and weak numerical abilities and interests. Additionally, the views that they were unable to make the right choices in line with their abilities and interests and therefore could not achieve their academic self-concept and goals are remarkable.

Associations Between Joint Attention, Supported Joint Engagement and Language in TD Children and Children with ASD: Potential Sources of Individual and Group Differences in Language Outcomes

ABSTRACT Joint Attention (JA) and Supported Joint Engagement (Supported JE) have each been reported to predict later language development in typically developing (TD) children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this longitudinal study including 33 TD children (20 months at V1) and 30 children with ASD (33 months at V1), the contributions of JA and Supported JE to later language, assessed via standardized tests and spontaneous speech, were directly compared. Frequency and durations of JA and Supported JE episodes were coded from 30-minute interactions with caregivers; subsequent language skills were assessed two years later. JA duration in the ASD group significantly predicted later standardized and spontaneous language, most strongly in the low-verbal ASD subgroup. Supported JE measures did not positively predict later language in either group. These findings suggest that JA played a larger role with children with ASD with low-verbal abilities, but not with children with ASD with high-verbal abilities nor with the TD children. The current study adds to existing literature by providing further support for studying children with ASD as two subgroups based on their verbal abilities (high vs low), as well as directly comparing the effects of JA and Supported JE on later language development in such groups. Implications for further research are discussed.

Emotion matching task: Preliminary validation in Croatian sample

ABSTRACT The changed sentence: The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Emotion Matching Task (EMT) in a sample of Croatian preschool children. The Croatian version of the EMT was applied to 198 children (52% female), together with measures of verbal ability and social competence. The internal structure of the test, as well as its reliability, was confirmed. Simultaneous regression analysis showed that children with higher verbal abilities, older children, and girls had higher results on the EMT. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis related to the explanation of the variance of social competence with regard to age, sex, verbal ability, and EMT variables and showed that only the contribution of sex was significant. In conclusion, the EMT showed good reliability and adequate construct validity, while criterion validity was not confirmed. However, further research is needed using broader samples and other behavioural outcomes measures.

Teacher- and parent-reported trajectories of maladaptive behaviors among individuals with autism and non-spectrum delays.

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-spectrum developmental delays frequently exhibit maladaptive behaviors throughout the lifespan, which can have pervasive effects on quality of life. Maladaptive behaviors have been shown to change over time as a function of various individual-level factors (e.g., cognitive ability), yet research is primarily limited to parent-reported measures. To expand upon this work, the present study aimed to examine trajectories of teacher- and parent-reported maladaptive behaviors (i.e., hyperactivity, irritability, social withdrawal) and to test whether individual-level predictors (e.g., autism features, verbal intelligence quotient) and school-related predictors (e.g., teacher type, student-adult ratio, personal aide, school type) impact these trajectories among 165 individuals with ASD or non-spectrum delays from ages 9 to 18. Multilevel models revealed that, according to both teacher and parent report, participants showed the greatest improvement in hyperactivity, less but still notable improvement in irritability, and stable levels of social withdrawal over time. Higher verbal ability and fewer ASD features, in addition to mainstream school placement, emerged as important individual- and school-related differences associated with fewer maladaptive behaviors over time. The multi-informant perspective and longitudinal design provide novel insight into the manifestations of these maladaptive behaviors across different contexts and across time. Findings highlight the consistency of teacher- and parent-reported trajectories over time and further emphasize the importance of targeting maladaptive behaviors using a multisystem intervention approach in both school and home contexts.

Centering the Inner Experience of Autism: Development of the Self-Assessment of Autistic Traits.

Current tools for identifying autism are critiqued for their lack of specificity and sensitivity, especially in autistic people who are older, have higher verbal ability or significant compensatory skills, and are not cisgender boys. This may reflect the following: the historical focus of autism research on White (cisgender) male, upper and middle class children; limited interest in the inner, lived experience of autism; and the predominance of a deficit-based model of autism. We report here on the first attempt of which we are aware to develop a clinical self-report measure of autistic traits as described by autistic people. We believe this is an advance in methodology because prior work in the development of autistic trait/diagnostic measures has prioritized the perspectives of nonautistic clinicians and scientists. The measure was developed under the leadership of two autistic researchers and constructed by leveraging descriptions of autism by autistic people to generate items designed to encompass the range of the autistic experience, using strength-based, accessible language. The team utilized iterative feedback from a panel of autistic experts to refine and enhance the measure, called the Self Assessment of Autistic Traits (SAAT). It is intended for people 16 years or older and uses a format that is designed to increase its accessibility and acceptability for autistic respondents. Future work will report on the preliminary psychometrics of the SAAT, with a long-term goal of advancing our understanding of the inner autistic experience and enhancing the clinical and scientific assessment of autism.

Parent's ethnic-racial socialization practices in families with young children experiencing homelessness

Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) is an important developmental process that may have crucial significance for childrearing in families contending with discrimination or structural inequalities. Although the majority of families who experience homelessness are from historically marginalized populations in the United States, there is a dearth of research on ERS among families experiencing homelessness, particularly those with young children. To address this gap, the present study examined multiple dimensions of ERS reported by parents in a sample of families residing in an emergency shelter. Participants included 69 caregivers (84.1% female; Mage = 31.3; 69.6% Black/African American, 10.1% White/European American, 8.7% Native American/American Indian, 5.8% Multiracial, 5.8% Other) and their young children (63.8% male; Mage = 5.2; 63.8% Black/African American, 4.3% White/European American, 7.2% Native American/American Indian, 21.7% Multiracial, 2.9% Other). Results supported the hypothesis that caregivers experiencing homelessness would engage in ERS with their young children, with caregivers focusing more on cultural socialization than preparation for bias or promotion of mistrust. Families headed by 2 parents, who were employed, and had more children, engaged in more cultural socialization. Preparation for bias was related to child's ethnicity-race (Black), older age, higher verbal ability, and more siblings, whereas promotion of mistrust was related to parent attributes (e.g., older age, lower education). Unexpectedly, ERS was not related to parents’ income, distress, or perceived community discrimination, or to child gender. Results underscore the importance of understanding ERS in the contexts of sociocultural ecology and developmental timing.

Urban environment and cognitive and motor function in children from four European birth cohorts

BackgroundThe urban environment may influence neurodevelopment from conception onwards, but there is no evaluation of the impact of multiple groups of exposures simultaneously. We investigated the association between early-life urban environment and cognitive and motor function in children. MethodsWe used data from 5403 mother–child pairs from four population-based birth-cohorts (UK, France, Spain, and Greece). We estimated thirteen urban home exposures during pregnancy and childhood, including: built environment, natural spaces, and air pollution. Verbal, non-verbal, gross motor, and fine motor functions were assessed using validated tests at five years old. We ran adjusted multi-exposure models using the Deletion-Substitution-Addition algorithm. ResultsHigher greenness exposure within 300 m during pregnancy was associated with higher verbal abilities (1.5 points (95% confidence interval 0.4, 2.7) per 0.20 unit increase in greenness). Higher connectivity density within 100 m and land use diversity during pregnancy were related to lower verbal abilities. Childhood exposure to PM2.5 mediated 74% of the association between greenness during childhood and verbal abilities. Higher exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy was related to lower fine motor function (-1.2 points (-2.1, -0.4) per 3.2 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5). No associations were found with non-verbal abilities and gross motor function. DiscussionThis study suggests that built environment, greenness, and air pollution may impact child cognitive and motor function at five years old. This study adds evidence that well-designed urban planning may benefit children’s cognitive and motor development.

Aging Effect on Manipulative Skills in Individuals With Down Syndrome

Deficits in motor performance have been well documented in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). However, only a few studies have focused on manipulative skills and older adults in this population. Given the associations between manipulative skills and daily living activities, more work is needed to examine the aging effect on individuals with DS. A total of 54 adults with DS participated in this study. The results indicated that older participants showed more lateralization than younger participants. They exhibited superior dominant hand preference compared to younger participants. In addition, participants with DS with high verbal ability had better performance in manual dexterity and handgrip force. Therefore, in the clinical setting, assessing mental age may help in identifying individuals with DS at a higher risk of motor impairment. Future work should examine additional determinants with a large sample size to understand the development of manipulative skills in individuals with DS. Furthermore, additional studies are needed to investigate the associations between mental age and other cognitive functions and motor performance in this population.

Sex Differences in Verbal Abilities in the Wechsler Tests: A Review

It has frequently been asserted that females have higher verbal abilities than males. A review of studies of sex differences in verbal abilities in the Wechsler tests shows there was no difference of Verbal IQ on the WPPSI for 4 to 6 year olds. On the WISC for 6 to 16 year olds, males obtained a higher median than females on the Verbal IQ of .16d, and in the WAIS tests for adults males obtained a higher median score than females of .28d. Males obtained higher average scores than females on the Information, Vocabulary, Arithmetic, Comprehension and Similarities subtests of WISC and WAIS.

Application of Latent Class Analysis to Identify Subgroups of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders who Benefit from Social Skills Training

With Latent Class Analysis applied on data of 98 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (9–12 years; 17 girls) participating in social skills training (SST) in a randomized controlled trial (Dekker et al. 2019), four subgroups were detected, based on social-communicative skills before, and response patterns to training. Two subgroups improved after SST. Characterizing the subgroups based on participant and intervention characteristics showed that improvement was related to lower parent-reported perceived difficulty of social-communicative skills at start, higher verbal ability, younger age and milder symptoms of ASD and anxiety. The lowest performing non-improving subgroup participated more often in SST without parent/teacher involvement, compared to all other subgroups. Response to SST in ASD seems to vary depending on participant characteristics.

Students’ Verbal Representation Abilities in Solving Geometry Problems

The research aims to identify the verbal representation ability of students in solving geometry problems. This method uses descriptive qualitative. The subjects of this study were 10 students of 8th grade at Islamic Junior High School 2 Sragen. The data were obtained through a test of mathematical representation abilities and interviews. The validity of the data in this study uses the triangulation method. This data analysis shows that 20% of students have high verbal representation ability, 30% of students have medium verbal representation ability, and 50% of students have low verbal representation ability. The results show that most students have low verbal representation ability. Students are still having trouble writing steps to solve problems using words. It is because students are not accustomed to communicating their ideas with written or verbal words.

Clinical and parental predictors of emotion regulation following cognitive behaviour therapy in children with autism.

Children with autism commonly experience difficulty controlling their emotions. Although existing treatments are successful in teaching critical emotion regulation skills, not all children improve. It is important to identify the factors that influence treatment response to be able to reach more children. This study aimed to identify child and parent characteristics that predict treatment response in a 10-week cognitive behaviour therapy treatment for children with autism, 8-12 years of age, and their parents. We found that youth who started the treatment with higher verbal abilities, who were more anxious in social situations, and had parents who were more anxious, were more likely to improve in learning new emotion regulation skills. We also found that children who had more physical discomforts or complaints before starting the treatment were less likely to improve in their negative expressions of emotion. Our study suggests that it is important for clinicians to promote active involvement and learning by avoiding complex language and to use more visual materials to supplement the learning process, and make sure that sessions are sensitive to the individual needs of participants.

The Shape Bias in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Potential Sources of Individual Differences.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate many mechanisms of lexical acquisition that support language in typical development; however, 1 notable exception is the shape bias. The bases of these children's difficulties with the shape bias are not well understood, and the current study explored potential sources of individual differences from the perspectives of both attentional and conceptual accounts of the shape bias. Shape bias performance from the dataset of Potrzeba, Fein, and Naigles (2015) was analyzed, including 33 children with typical development (M = 20 months; SD = 1.6), 15 children with ASD with high verbal abilities (M = 33 months; SD = 4.6), and 14 children with ASD with low verbal abilities (M = 33 months; SD = 6.6). Lexical predictors (shape-side noun percentage from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory; Fenson et al., 2007) and social-pragmatic predictors (joint attention duration during play sessions) were considered as predictors of subsequent shape bias performance. For children in the low verbal ASD group, initiation of joint attention (positively) and passive attention (negatively) predicted subsequent shape bias performance, controlling for initial language and developmental level. Proportion of child's known nouns with shape-defined properties correlated negatively with shape bias performance in the high verbal ASD group but did not reach significance in regression models. These findings suggest that no single account sufficiently explains the observed individual differences in shape bias performance in children with ASD. Nonetheless, these findings break new ground in highlighting the role of social communicative interactions as integral to understanding specific language outcomes (i.e., the shape bias) in children with ASD, especially those with low verbal abilities, and point to new hypotheses concerning the linguistic content of these interactions. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7299581.

Breastfeeding during infancy and neurocognitive function in adolescence: 16-year follow-up of the PROBIT cluster-randomized trial.

BackgroundEvidence on the long-term effect of breastfeeding on neurocognitive development is based almost exclusively on observational studies. In the 16-year follow-up study of a large, cluster-randomized trial of a breastfeeding promotion intervention, we evaluated the long-term persistence of the neurocognitive benefits of the breastfeeding promotion intervention previously observed at early school age.Methods and findingsA total of 13,557 participants (79.5% of the 17,046 randomized) of the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT) were followed up at age 16 from September 2012 to July 2015. At the follow-up, neurocognitive function was assessed in 7 verbal and nonverbal cognitive domains using a computerized, self-administered test battery among 13,427 participants. Using an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis as our prespecified primary analysis, we estimated cluster- and baseline characteristic-adjusted mean differences between the intervention (prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding promotion modelled on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative) and control (usual care) groups in 7 cognitive domains and a global cognitive score. In our prespecified secondary analysis, we estimated mean differences by instrumental variable (IV) analysis to account for noncompliance with the randomly assigned intervention and estimate causal effects of breastfeeding. The 16-year follow-up rates were similar in the intervention (79.7%) and control groups (79.3%), and baseline characteristics were comparable between the two. In the cluster-adjusted ITT analyses, children in the intervention group did not show statistically significant differences in the scores from children in the control group. Prespecified additional adjustment for baseline characteristics improved statistical precision and resulted in slightly higher scores among children in the intervention for verbal function (1.4 [95% CI 0.3–2.5]) and memory (1.2 [95% CI 0.01–2.4]). IV analysis showed that children who were exclusively breastfed for ≥3 (versus <3) months had a 3.5-point (95% CI 0.9–6.1) higher verbal function, but no differences were observed in other domains. While our computerized, self-administered cognitive testing reduced the cluster-level variability in the scores, it may have increased individual-level measurement errors in adolescents.ConclusionsWe observed no benefit of a breastfeeding promotion intervention on overall neurocognitive function. The only beneficial effect was on verbal function at age 16. The higher verbal ability is consistent with results observed at early school age; however, the effect size was substantially smaller in adolescence.PROBIT trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01561612

The longitudinal association between cognitive control capacities, suicidality, and depression during late adolescence and young adulthood

This study examined the association between cognitive control capacities, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and depressive symptoms during late adolescence and young adulthood. The sample included 4192 participants (55.5% female) from the United States who participated in Waves III (2001–2002; respondent age 18–26 years) and IV (2007–2008; respondent age 24–33 years) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Suicidality in late adolescence predicted depressive symptoms in young adulthood. Depressive symptoms were not predictive of later suicide ideation nor attempts. Working memory was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Higher verbal ability was associated with more suicidal thoughts but not attempts. Internal locus of control was associated with decreased depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts/attempts in young adulthood. Findings suggest that cognitive control capacities developed in adolescence differentially predict depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts in young adulthood.

Executive, language, or both? An examination of the construct validity of verbal fluency measures

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether phonemic and semantic verbal fluency were more related to aspects of language processing than executive functioning (EF). An exploratory factor analysis was performed on a college-aged sample of 320 healthy participants using principle axis factoring and promax rotation on nine measures of EF. The first three factors, labeled: working memory, fluid reasoning, and shifting/updating, were extracted and used as latent executive variables. Participants were also split into low, medium, and high phonemic and semantic verbal fluency ability groups. Phonemic and semantic fluency correlated similarly across all three extracted EF factors and word knowledge. Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVAs), there was a main effect for both phonemic and semantic verbal fluency groups and all outcome variables (i.e., the EF factors and word knowledge). Tukey HSD post hoc analyses showed that those in the low verbal fluency ability groups had significantly lower scores across all outcome measures compared to the high verbal fluency ability groups. Across all analyses, semantic fluency had stronger relations with the EF factors, signifying a large executive component involved in the task. Both phonemic and semantic fluency were similarly related to multiple dimensions of EF and word knowledge and should be considered executive language tasks.

Identifying Dyslexia Risk in Student-Athletes: A Preliminary Protocol for Concussion Management.

Learning disability (LD) has been identified as a potential risk factor for a sport-related concussion, yet students with LD are rarely included in concussion research. Here, we draw special attention to dyslexia, a common but often underdiagnosed LD. Reading and learning problems commonly associated with dyslexia are often masked by protective factors, such as high verbal ability or general intelligence. Hence, high-achieving individuals with dyslexia may not be identified as being in a high-risk category. To ensure that students with dyslexia are included in LD concussion research and identified as LD in baseline testing, we provide athletic trainers with an overview of dyslexia and a preliminary screening protocol that is sensitive to dyslexia, even among academically high-achieving students in secondary school and college.

174.1 Neurocognition and Transition to Psychosis: Baseline Functioning in the Second Phase of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study

Background: Neurocognition is a central characteristic of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Identifying the pattern and severity of neurocognitive functioning during the “near-psychotic,” prodromal, clinical high-risk (CHR) state is necessary to develop accurate predictors of psychosis and more effective, early interventions. Our goal was to identify core neurocognitive dysfunctions associated with the CHR phase, measure the ability of neurocognitive tests to predict the transition to psychosis, and determine whether the neurocognitive deficits are robust or explained by potential confounders. Methods: A case–control study carried out by a consortium of 8 university-based, outpatient programs studying the psychosis prodrome in North America. Baseline neurocognitive functioning was collected from 2008 to 2012 in the second phase of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS-2). CHR individuals (n = 689) and healthy controls (HCs, n = 264), ages 12–35 received testing. We evaluated neurocognitive differences between those who did and did not transition to psychosis, differences between medicated and unmedicated groups, and time to conversion. Nineteen neuropsychological tests and four factors derived from factor analysis were studied. Results: The factors were Executive Function/Visual-Spatial, Verbal, Attention/Working Memory (WM), and Declarative Memory. Amongst widespread mild to moderate impairments, CHR individuals were significantly impaired compared to HCs on Attention/WM and Declarative Memory. CHR converters had large Declarative Memory and Attention/Working Memory deficits (Cohen’s d = ~.8, P < .001) compared to controls and were significantly worse on these dimensions than non-converters. In Cox regression, impaired Declarative Memory and high Verbal (premorbid) ability in addition to age, site, and positive psychotic symptoms, significantly predicted time to conversion in those who later transitioned to psychosis. The pattern of impairments could not be accounted for by premorbid or current general cognitive ability, medications, current depression, alcohol or cannabis abuse. Conclusion: Neurocognitive impairment is a robust characteristic of CHR individuals, especially those who later develop psychosis. Tests tapping Verbal and Visual Declarative Memory and attention/WM were most sensitive to imminent psychosis among those at CHR. Interventions targeting the enhancement of neurocognitive functioning are warranted in this population.

Associations Between Peer Functioning and Verbal Ability Among Children With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

We examined the extent to which children’s skilled understanding and production of appropriate language (verbal ability) may relate to their peer functioning. Participants included two independent samples of children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; Study 1, N = 124; Study 2, N = 137) who were administered a standardized intelligence test to generate verbal ability scores. Teacher ratings on the Cooperation and Assertion subscales of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), teacher estimates of peer acceptance, parent ratings of conflict and disengagement on playdates, and peer sociometric ratings of liking were obtained. In both Study 1 and Study 2, after statistical control of ADHD diagnostic status, disruptive behavior comorbidities, and gender, higher verbal ability was associated with better peer functioning on the teacher-reported SSRS subscales and parent ratings of conflict and disengagement on playdates. In Study 2, interaction effects suggested that the positive association between verbal ability and good peer functioning existed for boys but not for girls. For children with ADHD (but not comparison children), better verbal ability was associated with higher teacher-reported peer acceptance but lower peer sociometric liking. Implications of these findings for conceptualization of peer problems, assessment, and intervention are discussed.