Late Bloomers Research Articles

From beginners to achievers: unlocking the late bloomers academic journey

This study investigates late bloomers—individuals who achieve academic success after initial struggles—in terms of setbacks, coping mechanisms, and support systems. Late bloomers commonly face challenges in subjects like mathematics and English due to conceptual gaps and insufficient foundational skills. Personalized tutoring and targeted educational strategies are crucial interventions for addressing these hurdles and fostering academic growth. Coping mechanisms focus on intrinsic motivation and resilience, including setting clear goals, cultivating supportive peer networks, and drawing inspiration from personal passions like animal enthusiasm, promoting perseverance in overcoming academic obstacles. Support systems from teachers and peers are essential in late bloomers' journeys, providing not only academic guidance but also crucial emotional support that influences their overall well-being. Enhancing teacher training and advocating for inclusive classroom practices are recommended to strengthen these support systems. Methodologically, this study synthesizes qualitative interviews and literature reviews to highlight effective strategies for empowering late bloomers to succeed academically and personally, emphasizing the importance of tailored support and fostering a positive learning environment.

Empowerment of Lifelong Learning Among Late Bloomers Youth in Malaysia

Lifelong learning is challenging for adolescents who have passed their prime age. Even many members of these groups are at risk of dropping out of higher education. This qualitative study employs in-depth interviews with twelve National University of Malaysia participants. The informants are selected via targeted sampling based on predetermined criteria. The study data are analysed thematically using three levels of encoding. The study reveals three significant challenges: workload, emotional pressure, and financial problems. Three action power strategies for youth overcoming obstacles are self-discipline, enhanced self-confidence, and wise conflict resolution.

602 Fetal ‘late bloomers’ – factors and outcomes associated with apparent resolution of fetal growth restriction

602 Fetal ‘late bloomers’ – factors and outcomes associated with apparent resolution of fetal growth restriction

Glial modulation of the parallel memory formation.

Actions from glial cells could affect the readiness and efficacy of learning and memory. Using a mouse cerebellar-dependent horizontal optokinetic response motor learning paradigm, short-term memory (STM) formation during the online training period and long-term memory (LTM) formation during the offline rest period were studied. A large variability of online and offline learning efficacies was found. The early bloomers with booming STM often had a suppressed LTM formation and late bloomers with no apparent acute training effect often exhibited boosted offline learning performance. Anion channels containing LRRC8A are known to release glutamate. Conditional knockout of LRRC8A specifically in astrocytes including cerebellar Bergmann glia resulted in a complete loss of STM formation while the LTM formation during the rest period remained. Optogenetic manipulation of glial activity by channelrhodopsin-2 or archaerhodopsin-T (ArchT) during the online training resulted in enhancement or suppression of STM formation, respectively. STM and LTM are likely to be triggered simultaneously during online training, but LTM is expressed later during the offline period. STM appears to be volatile and the achievement during the online training is not handed over to LTM. In addition, we found that glial ArchT photoactivation during the rest period resulted in the augmentation of LTM formation. These data suggest that STM formation and LTM formation are parallel separate processes. Strategies to weigh more on the STM or the LTM could depend on the actions of the glial cells.

Do Late Bloomers Exist Among Adjudicated Youth?: Examining Parental Factors and ADHD Symptomatology as Contributors to Protective Bud and Bloom Effects

Do Late Bloomers Exist Among Adjudicated Youth?: Examining Parental Factors and ADHD Symptomatology as Contributors to Protective Bud and Bloom Effects

Brief Report: Longitudinal Trajectory of Working Memory in School-Aged Children on the Autism Spectrum: Period of High Plasticity and "Late Bloomers".

While working memory (WM) is a powerful predictor for children's school outcomes, autistic children are more likely to experience delays. This study compared autistic children and their neurotypical peers' WM development over their elementary school years, including relative growth and period of plasticity. Using a nationally-representative dataset, latent growth models were built to examine periods of high plasticity and the relationship between children's performance upon school entry and their relative growth. While both groups made steeper gains during the early school years, autistic children's period of highest plasticity was prolonged by 1year, which suggests a larger window for interventions. Further, autistic children who started kindergarten with poorer WM were more likely to make rapid growth during the last 3years of elementary school, which is when their neurotypical peers' development started to plateau. Findings should prompt various stakeholders to examine interventions and instructions to maximize autistic children's growth in WM. Further, the continued support and monitoring by educators throughout autistic children's late childhood can be particularly beneficial for the "late-bloomers."

Late Bloomers: The Aggregate Implications of Getting Education Later in Life

Late Bloomers: The Aggregate Implications of Getting Education Later in Life

Growing Brains, Nurturing Minds-Neuroscience as an Educational Tool to Support Students' Development as Life-Long Learners.

Compared to other primates, humans are late bloomers, with exceptionally long childhood and adolescence. The extensive developmental period of humans is thought to facilitate the learning processes required for the growth and maturation of the complex human brain. During the first two and a half decades of life, the human brain is a construction site, and learning processes direct its shaping through experience-dependent neuroplasticity. Formal and informal learning, which generates long-term and accessible knowledge, is mediated by neuroplasticity to create adaptive structural and functional changes in brain networks. Since experience-dependent neuroplasticity is at full force during school years, it holds a tremendous educational opportunity. In order to fulfill this developmental and learning potential, educational practices should be human-brain-friendly and "ride" the neuroplasticity wave. Neuroscience can inform educators about the natural learning mechanisms of the brain to support student learning. This review takes a neuroscientific lens to explore central concepts in education (e.g., mindset, motivation, meaning-making, and attention) and suggests two methods of using neuroscience as an educational tool: teaching students about their brain (content level) and considering the neuro-mechanisms of learning in educational design (design level).

Late Bloomer Offending Patterns: Towards a Harder Empirical Definition—Commentary on Matsuda et al. (2022)

Matsuda et al. (2022) show that late bloomers also exist in self-report data. They use a “dynamic” definition of late bloomer offending pattern as they have concerns with definitions based on arbitrary age cutoff points. But the approach does not make the groups less arbitrary than hard definitions. In this commentary, I argue that a hard definition has important advantages and demonstrates an alternative using a hard definition while exploring heterogeneity within the late onset group.

Modeling gross motor developmental curves of extremely and very preterm infants using the AIMS home-video method

BackgroundMotor development is one of the first signals to identify whether an infant is developing well. For very preterm (VPT) infants without severe perinatal complications, little is known about their motor developmental curves. AimsExplore gross motor developmental curves from 3 until 18 months corrected age (CA) of VPT infants, and related factors. Explore whether separate profiles can be distinguished and compare these to profiles of Dutch term-born infants. Study designProspective cohort study with parents repeatedly recording their infant, using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) home-video method, from 3 to 18 months CA. SubjectsForty-two Dutch infants born ≤32.0 weeks gestational age and/or with a birthweight (BW) of <1500 g without severe perinatal complications. Outcome measuresGross motor development measured with the AIMS. ResultsIn total 208 assessments were analyzed, with 27 infants ≥five assessments, 12 with <four, and three with one assessment. Sigmoid-shaped gross motor curves show unidirectional growth and variability. No infant or parental factors significantly influenced motor development, although a trend was seen for the model where lower BW, five-minute Apgar score <7, and Dutch native-speaking parents were associated with slower motor development. Three motor developmental profiles of VPT infants were identified, early developers, gradual developers, and late bloomers, which until 12 months CA are comparable in shape and speed to profiles of Dutch term-born infants. ConclusionsVPT infants show great intra- and interindividual variability in gross motor development, with three motor profiles being distinguished. From 12 months CA onwards, VPT infants appear to develop at a slower pace. With some caution, classifying infants into motor developmental profiles may assist clinical decision-making.

Late bloomer or language disorder? Differences in toddler vocabulary composition associated with long-term language outcomes.

Children with delays in expressive language (late talkers) have heterogeneous developmental trajectories. Some are late bloomers who eventually "catch-up," but others have persisting delays or are later diagnosed with developmental language disorder (DLD). Early in development it is unclear which children will belong to which group. We compare the toddler vocabulary composition of late talkers with different long-term outcomes. The literature suggests most children with typical development (TD) have vocabularies dominated by names for categories organized by similarity in shape (e.g., cup), which supports a bias to attend to shape when generalizing names of novel nouns-a bias associated with accelerated vocabulary development. Previous work has shown that as a group, late talkers tend to say fewer names for categories organized by shape and are less likely to show a "shape bias" than TD children. Here, in a retrospective analysis of 850 children, we compared the vocabulary composition of groups of toddlers who were late bloomers or persisting late talkers. At Time 1 (13-27 months), the persisting late talkers said a smaller proportion of shape-based nouns than both TD children and late bloomers who "caught up" to typically sized vocabularies months later (18-38-months). Additionally, children who received a DLD diagnosis between 4 and 7 years said a significantly smaller proportion of shape-based nouns in year two than TD children and children with other diagnoses (e.g., dyslexia). These findings bring new insight into sources of heterogeneity amongst late talkers and offer a new metric for assessing risk. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Toddler vocabulary composition, including the proportion of names for categories organized by shape, like spoon, was used to retrospectively compare outcomes of late talking children Persisting Late Talkers said a smaller proportion of shape-based nouns during toddlerhood relative to Late Bloomers (late talkers who later caught up to have typically-sized vocabularies) Children with later DLD diagnoses said a smaller proportion of shape-based nouns during toddlerhood relative to children without a DLD diagnosis The data illustrate the cascading effects of vocabulary composition on subsequent language development and suggest vocabulary composition may be one important marker of persisting delays.

Differences in the semantic structure of the speech experienced by late talkers, late bloomers, and typical talkers.

The present study investigates the relation between language environment and language delay in 63 British-English speaking children (19 typical talkers (TT), 22 late talkers (LT), and 22 late bloomers (LB) aged 13 to 18 months. Families audio recorded daily routines and marked the new words their child produced over a period of 6 months. To investigate how language environments differed between talker types and how environments corresponded with children's developing lexicons, we evaluated contextual diversity-a word property that measures semantic richness-and network properties of language environments in tandem with developing vocabularies. The language environment experienced by the three talker types differed in their structural properties, with LT environments being least contextually diverse and least well-connected in relation to network properties. Notably, LBs' language environments were more like those of TTs. Network properties of language environments also correlate with the rate of vocabulary growth over the study period. By comparing differences between language environments and lexical network development, we also observe results consistent with contributions to lexical development from different learning strategies for expressive vocabularies and different environments for receptive vocabularies. We discuss the potential consequences that structural differences in parental speech might have on language development and the contribution of this work to the debate on quantity versus quality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Differences in the Semantic Structure of the Speech Experienced by Late Talkers, Late Bloomers, and Typical Talkers

Supplemental Material for Differences in the Semantic Structure of the Speech Experienced by Late Talkers, Late Bloomers, and Typical Talkers

Are Late Bloomers Real? Identification and Comparison of Late-Onset Offending Patterns from Ages 14-40.

Numerous studies have identified a late-onset pattern of offending, yet debate remains over whether this pattern is real or attributable to measurement error. The goal of the present study is to identify whether this late-onset trajectory exists. We used prospective longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study and group-based trajectory modeling to identify distinct developmental patterns in self-reported incidence of general delinquency from approximately ages 14 to age 31. We then examined and compared the means of general, violent, street, and property offending for individuals belonging to late bloomer, chronic, and low-level offending trajectories across three periods: 1) pre-onset (ages 14-17), 2) post-onset (ages 29-31), and, 3) for a subset of participants participating in a follow-up study, post-trajectory (ages 32-40). Results confirmed the existence of a distinct late bloomers offending trajectory characterized by low rates of delinquency throughout adolescence and high levels throughout adulthood. Furthermore, late bloomers had similar mean levels of delinquency as low-level offenders and that were considerably lower than chronic offenders in the pre-onset period and similar means of offending as chronic offenders that were considerably higher than low-level offenders in the post-onset and post-trajectory periods. Comparisons of these three groups on adolescent risk and protective factors indicated that late bloomers were more similar to individuals in the low-level trajectory and had fewer risk and more protective factors than individuals following a chronic trajectory. Contrary to prior work which attributes late-onset offending to reliance on official data which fails to detect adolescent offending, late bloomer offending appears to be a genuine phenomenon. These results lend greater support to dynamic theories of crime.

Environmentally induced functional shifts in phytoplankton and their potential consequences for ecosystem functioning

Phytoplanktonic organisms are particularly sensitive to environmental change, and, as they represent a direct link between abiotic and biotic compartments within the marine food web, changes in the functional structure of phytoplankton communities can result in profound impacts on ecosystem functioning. Using a trait-based approach, we examined changes in the functional structure of the southern North Sea phytoplankton over the past five decades in relation to environmental conditions. We identified a shift in functional structure between 1998 and 2004 which coincides with a pronounced increase in diatom and decrease in dinoflagellate abundances, and we provide a mechanistic explanation for this taxonomic change. Early in the 2000s, the phytoplankton functional structure shifted from slow growing, autumn blooming, mixotrophic organisms, towards earlier blooming and faster-growing microalgae. Warming and decreasing dissolved phosphorus concentrations were linked to this rapid reorganization of the functional structure. We identified a potential link between this shift and dissolved nutrient concentrations, and we hypothesise that organisms blooming early and displaying high growth rates efficiently take up nutrients which then are no longer available to late bloomers. Moreover, we identified that the above-mentioned functional change may have bottom-up consequences, through a food quality-driven negative influence on copepod abundances. Overall, our study highlights that, by altering the phytoplankton functional composition, global and regional changes may have profound long-term impacts on coastal ecosystems, impacting both food-web structure and biogeochemical cycles.

Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z ∼ 0.8

Abstract We investigate the stellar populations for a sample of 161 massive, mainly quiescent galaxies at 〈z obs〉 = 0.8 with deep Keck/DEIMOS rest-frame optical spectroscopy (HALO7D survey). With the fully Bayesian framework Prospector, we simultaneously fit the spectroscopic and photometric data with an advanced physical model (including nonparametric star formation histories, emission lines, variable dust attenuation law, and dust and active galactic nucleus emission), together with an uncertainty and outlier model. We show that both spectroscopy and photometry are needed to break the dust–age–metallicity degeneracy. We find a large diversity of star formation histories: although the most massive (M ⋆ &gt; 2 × 1011 M ⊙) galaxies formed the earliest (formation redshift of z f ≈ 5–10 with a short star formation timescale of τ SF ≲ 1 Gyr), lower-mass galaxies have a wide range of formation redshifts, leading to only a weak trend of z f with M ⋆. Interestingly, several low-mass galaxies have formation redshifts of z f ≈ 5–8. Star-forming galaxies evolve about the star-forming main sequence, crossing the ridgeline several times in their past. Quiescent galaxies show a wide range and continuous distribution of quenching timescales (τ quench ≈ 0–5 Gyr) with a median of 〈 τ quench 〉 = 1.0 − 0.9 + 0.8 Gyr and of quenching epochs of z quench ≈ 0.8–5.0 ( 〈 z quench 〉 = 1.3 − 0.4 + 0.7 ). This large diversity of quenching timescales and epochs points toward a combination of internal and external quenching mechanisms. In our sample, rejuvenation and “late bloomers” are uncommon. In summary, our analysis supports the “grow-and-quench” framework and is consistent with a wide and continuously populated diversity of quenching timescales.

Late bloomers: southern salmons’ life support

Biological diversity is important for keeping a community stable during environmental disturbances. But recently, scientists wondered whether members of a single species similarly benefit from diversity in individual characteristics, such as when they migrate? Most juvenile salmon spend many years in freshwater before heading out to sea to develop into adults. However, the Chinook of California's Central Valley live right at the species’ southern limit. With river temperatures that are too hot and dams that block access to the cooler rivers up in the mountains, habitat is hard to come by. Instead, most Californian juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean as early as their first winter to avoid the scorching summer heat. The exception is a small group of juveniles in northern California. They delay migration like the Chinook of Washington and Canada because they have access to the only two rivers in the state with tolerable summer temperatures (Mill and Deer Creeks). A team of scientists from the USA, UK and France led by Flora Cordoleani from the University of California Santa Cruz, USA, wanted to know whether this diversity in individual migration patterns might make the population flexible to climate change?From 2007 to 2018, Cordoleani and colleagues worked with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to investigate the life history of adult Chinook that had returned to Mill and Deer Creeks to spawn. The scientists had the enviable job of collecting ear bones (otoliths) from the carcasses of the recently deceased. Freshwater and saltwater leave distinct chemical fingerprints in the layers laid down each year as the otoliths grow, revealing exactly when the fish departed on their ocean odyssey. George Whitman of the University of California Davis, USA, Corey Phillis of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, USA, and Peter Weber of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA, used 123 of these precious bones to investigate their composition and to reconstruct the daily growth rates and timing of migration for each fish. The team then grouped the fish into one of the three migration strategies based on when they left Mill and Deer Creeks. Early-migrating fish waited 2 weeks before leaving the river of their birth, whereas intermediate-migrating fish waited 3 months and late-migrating fish waited 6.5 months before departing. They then figured out how many individuals of each migration type were returning as adults each year and whether the proportion of fish using each migration strategy changed from year to year.Correlating the fish's migration patterns with the weather, the team found that during wet years, roughly the same number of early, intermediate and late migrants returned to Mill and Deer Creeks. However, in years of extended drought and during ocean heatwaves, late migrants were essentially the only fish that could withstand the heat and return to the rivers of their birth (making up 77–100% of returning adults). California Chinook are all closely related, so this suggests that the late-migrating fish from Mill and Deer creeks can handle higher temperatures simply as a result of the environment they were raised in, rather than inheriting the ability to tolerate heat from their parents. With increased tolerance for high temperatures, these late-migrating individuals have a better chance of survival and act as the ‘life support’ for the northern California Chinook salmon during extreme climate years.Sadly, projected increases in global temperatures will make finding comfortable river homes even harder for these fish. Alyssa FitzGerald from the University of California Santa Cruz, USA, ran computer simulations to predict future temperatures in the Central Valley river system. If average water temperatures increase by 1.0°C by 2080, even the late-migrating juveniles would lose more than half of the rivers and streams they currently inhabit. However, Cordoleani and colleagues propose a simple solution to the problem: provide access to higher elevation streams currently above dams. Removing dams could as much as triple the rivers available for all Chinook. By having diverse migration patterns, these salmon are trying their best to keep their populations afloat in the face of climate change. But California Chinook still might not be able to keep up with increasing temperatures – at least not without our help.

Modeling a gross motor curve of typically developing Dutch infants from 3.5 to 15.5 months based on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale

BackgroundInterindividual variability in gross motor development of infants is substantial and challenges the interpretation of motor assessments. Longitudinal research can provide insight into variability in individual gross motor trajectories. PurposeTo model a gross motor growth curve of healthy term-born infants from 3.5 to 15.5 months with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) and to explore groups of infants with different patterns of development. MethodsA prospective longitudinal study including six assessments with the AIMS. A Linear Mixed Model analysis (LMM) was applied to model motor growth, controlled for covariates. Cluster analysis was used to explore groups with different pathways. Growth curves for the subgroups were modelled and differences in the covariates between the groups were described and tested. ResultsIn total, data of 103 infants was included in the LMM which showed that a cubic function (F(1,571) = 89.68, p < 0.001) fitted the data best. None of the covariates remained in the model. Cluster analysis delineated three clinically relevant groups: 1) Early developers (32%), 2) Gradual developers (46%), and 3) Late bloomers (22%).Significant differences in covariates between the groups were found for birth order, maternal education and maternal employment. ConclusionThe current study contributes to knowledge about gross motor trajectories of healthy term born infants. Cluster analysis identified three groups with different gross motor trajectories. The motor growth curve provides a starting point for future research on motor trajectories of infants at risk and can contribute to accurate screening.

Temporal immunological marker risk model for predicting severity of COVID-19 outcomes: early risers, late bloomers and general giants

Treatment strategies for severe COVID-19 presentations have improved. However, predicting severity early remains a challenge, as the onset of deterioration is highly variable and difficult to recognise. Patients showing late deterioration are particularly affected by limited treatment options. A

Of Sound Mind and Memory: On Wills and Language and Lawyers and Love

Of Sound Mind and MemoryOn Wills and Language and Lawyers and Love Judith Claire Mitchell (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Photo by Archives New Zealand [End Page 30] Preamble I, _____________, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, hereby declare this to be my Last Will and Testament. … Before I became a writer of novels, I was a writer of wills at the oldest law firm in Rhode Island. The firm was founded by two attorneys in 1818, but by the time I was hired as an estate planning paralegal, 160 years had passed and there were now fifty-some lawyers, almost all male, a like number of staff, almost all female, and a roster of prominent clients, almost all inanimate. The clients were banks and hospitals, manufacturers and developers, municipalities and Brown University. [End Page 31] But one of the few services the firm performed for actual individuals was the work I did in the Trusts and Estates department. If you needed a will, especially in those days when there were no downloadable legal forms because there wasn't any Internet, you could call us. One of the lawyers would meet with you, have you fill out a questionnaire—your family members, your assets, your wishes. Then he'd give the questionnaire to me, and I'd determine and prepare the kind of will and other estate-planning instruments you needed. I was twenty-six when I arrived and meant to stay for only a short while, only until I figured out who I was supposed to be. But I was slow—"I've heard of late bloomers," my second husband would one day say to me, "but, honey, you're kale"—and I wound up staying nearly twenty years. Even then, when I left to get an MFA at a two-year program in the Midwest, I thought I was taking a leave of absence, that I'd get my degree and return to Providence and my job, where I'd write wills by day, novels by night. Had I not stumbled into a university teaching position, that's almost certainly what I'd have done. Would maybe be doing right now. But I got this tenure-track gig in Wisconsin, and I never returned. So I guess it was good that, even though the understanding was that I'd be back, the firm went ahead and threw me a going-away party. Toward the end of it, workday blurring into evening, one of the attorneys came up to me. He was drinking white wine from a mug with the firm's name stenciled on it. "Just what the world needs," he said. "Another poet." I told him not to worry, that I was leaving to write fiction, not poetry. "But, of course," I said, "I've been writing poetry all along." He rolled his eyes, held the mug out as if in a toast, but it was just sarcasm. "Only you," he said, "could look at a will and see poetry." Article First: Payment of Expenses I direct my executor to pay my just debts and funeral expenses, the expenses of my last illness, and the expenses of administering my estate. … So maybe the poetry doesn't exactly jump out at you. If wills really were poems, wouldn't there be more concision? Less obfuscation? When contemplating the just debts of the dying, wouldn't a poet suggest that these debts might include the unremittable: love unexpressed, moral obligations unfulfilled? When writing of last illnesses and funerals, wouldn't [End Page 32] poets fume or fret or express regret? Wouldn't there be at least a little raging, raging against the "dying of the light"? And yet, when you think about it, the will is essentially the story of a person called, in good old allegorical fashion, Testator, and Testator is on a journey. At every stop along the way, something that once mattered is cast away. Sell my home, Testator says. Give away the bed I slept in and the wedding ring I wore. Divide my wealth among those I leave behind. Burn my body and let others care for my...