Nonverbal Problem Research Articles

The Prevention, Identification, and Cognitive Determinants of Math Difficulty.

This study examined the efficacy of preventive 1st-grade tutoring in mathematics, estimated the prevalence and severity of mathematics disability, and explored pretreatment cognitive characteristics associated with mathematics development. Participants were 564 first graders, 127 of whom were designated at risk (AR) for mathematics difficulty and randomly assigned to tutoring or control conditions. Before treatment, all participants were assessed on cognitive and academic measures. Tutoring occurred 3 times weekly for 16 weeks; treatment fidelity was documented; and math outcomes were assessed. Tutoring efficacy was supported on computation and concepts/applications, but not on fact fluency. Tutoring decreased the prevalence of math disability, with prevalence and severity varying as a function of identification method and math domain. Attention accounted for unique variance in predicting each aspect of end-of-year math performance. Other predictors, depending on the aspect of math performance, were nonverbal problem solving, working memory, and phonological processing.

Seizure-related factors and non-verbal intelligence in children with epilepsy: A population-based study from Western Norway

To study the relationship between seizure-related factors, non-verbal intelligence, and socio-economic status (SES) in a population-based sample of children with epilepsy. The latest ILAE International classifications of epileptic seizures and syndromes were used to classify seizure types and epileptic syndromes in all 6-12 year old children (N=198) with epilepsy in Hordaland County, Norway. The children had neuropediatric and EEG examinations. Of the 198 patients, demographic characteristics were collected on 183 who participated in psychological studies including Raven matrices. 126 healthy controls underwent the same testing. Severe non-verbal problems (SNVP) were defined as a Raven score at or <10th percentile. Children with epilepsy were highly over-represented in the lowest Raven percentile group, whereas controls were highly over-represented in the higher percentile groups. SNVP were present in 43% of children with epilepsy and 3% of controls. These problems were especially common in children with remote symptomatic epilepsy aetiology, undetermined epilepsy syndromes, myoclonic seizures, early seizure debut, high seizure frequency and in children with polytherapy. Seizure-related characteristics that were not usually associated with SNVP were idiopathic epilepsies, localization related (LR) cryptogenic epilepsies, absence and simple partial seizures, and a late debut of epilepsy. Adjusting for socio-economic status factors did not significantly change results. In childhood epilepsy various seizure-related factors, but not SES factors, were associated with the presence or absence of SNVP. Such deficits may be especially common in children with remote symptomatic epilepsy aetiology and in complex and therapy resistant epilepsies. Low frequencies of SNVP may be found in children with idiopathic and LR cryptogenic epilepsy syndromes, simple partial or absence seizures and a late epilepsy debut. Our study contributes to an overall picture of cognitive function and its relation to central seizure characteristics in a childhood epilepsy population and can be useful for the follow-up team in developing therapy strategies that meet the individual needs of the child with epilepsy.

Representation and working memory in early arithmetic

Working memory has been implicated in the early acquisition of arithmetic skill, but the relations among different components of working memory, performance on different types of arithmetic problems, and development have not been explored. Preschool and Grade 1 children completed measures of phonological, visual–spatial, and central executive working memory, as well as nonverbal and verbal arithmetic problems, some of which included irrelevant information. For preschool children, accuracy was higher on nonverbal problems than on verbal problems, and the best and only unique predictor of performance on the standard nonverbal problems was visual–spatial working memory. This finding is consistent with the view that most preschoolers use a mental model for arithmetic that requires visual–spatial working memory. For Grade 1 children, performance was equivalent on nonverbal and verbal problems, and phonological working memory was the best predictor of performance on standard verbal problems. For both age groups, problems with added irrelevant information were substantially more difficult than standard problems, and in some cases measures of the central executive predicted performance. Assessing performance on different components of working memory in conjunction with different types of arithmetic problems provided new insights into the developing relations between working memory and how children do arithmetic.

Genetic and environmental mediation of the relationship between language and nonverbal impairment in 4-year-old twins.

This study of 4-year-old twins investigated the genetic and environmental origins of comorbidity between language impairment and nonverbal ability by testing the extent to which language impairment in one twin predicted nonverbal ability in the co-twin. Impairment of language ability was defined as scores below the 15th percentile on a general language scale derived from a battery of diverse language tests. Four hundred thirty-six children, members of 160 monozygotic (MZ) and 131 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, were identified as language impaired. Language-impaired probands also suffered significant impairments in nonverbal ability. DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis showed evidence for substantial genetic mediation of the phenotypic relationship between language impairment and poor nonverbal ability in that language problems in one twin predicted poor nonverbal ability in the co-twin, much more so for MZ twins than for DZ twins. This finding held even when we excluded those children with language impairment whose nonverbal score indicated general cognitive delay. These results point to a general genetic factor that includes both language and nonverbal problems.

Neurodevelopmental vulnerability of the corpus callosum to childhood onset localization-related epilepsy

Recent research has suggested that childhood onset of localization-related (focal) temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with a generalized adverse effect on cognition and brain structure, especially cerebral white matter volume. This study examined the neurodevelopmental impact of childhood onset epilepsy on corpus callosum volume and the cognitive consequences of reduced cerebral connectivity. Healthy controls ( n = 15) and patients with temporal lobe epilepsy ( n = 32) were matched on gender and handedness, and childhood and adult onset epilepsy groups were matched on duration of epilepsy (mean = 19 years) but varied in neurodevelopmental age at onset of recurrent seizures. Results showed that childhood onset of temporal lobe epilepsy was associated with significant volumetric reduction of the corpus callosum compared to both late onset and healthy controls, with the latter two groups not differing from one another. The volumetric loss was most evident in posterior followed by anterior corpus callosum. Volumetric reduction of the corpus callosum in temporal lobe epilepsy was of clinical significance with smaller volumes associated with poorer performance on measures of nonverbal problem solving, immediate memory, speeded complex psychomotor ability and fine motor dexterity. These findings indicate that childhood onset of temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with an adverse neurodevelopmental impact on brain connectivity which is of clinical consequence and theoretical interest.

The Role of Early Parenting in Children's Development of Executive Processes

Using structural modeling, we examined the influence of mothers' verbal input that provided information about associations between objects and actions (scaffolding) at 3 and 4 years of age on children's 6-year executive processing skills. Executive processing skills were measured by search retrieval and independent goal-directed play tasks. A set of 4-year basic skills (language, memory, nonverbal problem solving) considered to be prerequisites for executive processing also were included. Patterns of influence across these variables were examined for 253 children who varied in neonatal complications and in their degree of risk for later developmental problems. Results showed that mothers' early verbal scaffolding at 3 years indirectly influenced both types of executive processing skills at 6 years by directly influencing children's language and nonverbal problem-solving skills at 4 years of age. Four-year scaffolding did not show direct influences on later executive processing skills. The provision of this form of maternal verbal input when children are rapidly developing language appears to support a set of basic skills necessary for later executive processing.

Behavior in term, small for gestational age preschoolers.

To evaluate whether being born small for gestational age (SGA) was associated with an increased frequency of preschool behavioral problems. Follow-up study at 5 years of age. A population based cohort of 318 term infants who were SGA, defined as having a birthweight less than the 15th percentile for gestational age, and without major handicap such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation, and a random control sample of 307 appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants. The Personality Inventory for Children and the Yale Children's Inventory (completed by the mothers), and child behavior during psychometric testing. Behavior problems was not more common among the SGA children. The results were not confounded by a wide range of parental demographic and child rearing factors, including maternal non-verbal problem solving abilities, child rearing style, and maternal psychological distress. However, the parental factors explained 13% of the variance in a summary score of child behavior compared to 1% explained by SGA vs. AGA status. The SGA children were not more sensitive to the negative impacts of parental risk factors than AGA controls. The study does not address the outcome of severely growth-retarded SGA infants. Being born moderately SGA is not a significant risk factor for preschool behavior problems.

Brain activity and cognitive status in pediatric patients: development of a clinical assessment protocol.

The purpose of this study was to test the validity of a new computerized task to assess children's cognitive problem-solving skills using the brain event-related potentials. This event-related potential-computerized cognitive problem-solving task does not require a child to give a verbal or motor (ie, pointing) response. The event-related potential waveforms were recorded from 20 typically developing children. Two nonverbal, problem-solving tasks (tasks 1 and 2) were developed for each of two age groups (5 and 6 years). For each task, single pictures, taken from an existing standardized test of nonverbal problem solving, were individually and sequentially presented on a computer screen. One of the seven pictures was classified as incongruent or outside category; it did not belong with the other pictures. As predicted, the event-related potential amplitudes were significantly larger to the outside- versus within-category pictures. This effect was found for tasks 1 and 2 for the 5- and 6-year-old children. Children as young as 5 years of age reliably exhibit brain activity, which can be used to infer cognitive problem-solving skill. This assessment paradigm may eventually serve as a clinically useful adjunct to a thorough neurologic and neurodevelopmental assessment of selected pediatric populations, such as those presenting with moderate-severe cerebral palsy whose expressive language and motor skills are notably impaired.

Cognitive development of term small for gestational age children at five years of age

AIMTo assess the relative significance for cognitive development of small for gestational age, parental demographic factors, and factors related to the child rearing environment.METHODSIQ of a population based cohort of...

Peer Collaboration on a Nonverbal Reasoning Task by Urban, Minority Students

An experimental study of collaborative reasoning in 86 7th-grade minority students from an urban, low-income school was conducted. The students completed items from the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence-Third Edition (TONI-3) and were asked to provide written explanations for their judgments. All students worked individually during the pretest and posttest phases of the study. During the experimental phase, some students worked independently while others worked in small, same-gender or mixed-gender groups. Significant improvements in judgments were evident during the experimental phase for all groups except the single-gender female group. The mixed-gender group reached the ceiling level of performance and outperformed both the students who worked independently and the collaborative, single-gender female group during the experimental phase. Posttest judgment scores declined and were not significantly different from pretest scores for any group. Significant improvements in written explanations for judgments were evident during the experimental phase and were maintained on the posttest by all groups. The students who collaborated had higher percentages of fully correct explanations on the posttest than students who worked alone. Collaborative experiences were beneficial for students' reasoning about unfamiliar, moderately difficult, nonverbal problems.

Strategic processing and episodic memory impairment in obsessive compulsive disorder.

There is evidence that nonverbal memory problems in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are mediated by impaired strategic processing. Although many studies have found verbal memory to be normal in OCD, these studies did not use tests designed to stress organizational strategies. This study examined verbal and nonverbal memory performance in 33 OCD patients and 30 normal control participants with the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test and the California Verbal Learning Test. OCD patients were impaired on verbal and nonverbal measures of organizational strategy and free recall. Multiple regression modeling indicated that free recall problems in OCD were mediated by impaired organizational strategies used during learning trials. Therefore, verbal and nonverbal episodic memory deficits in OCD are affected by impaired strategic processing. Results are consistent with neurobiological models proposing frontal-striatal system dysfunction in OCD.

Poor perception of nonverbal social–emotional cues in relatives of schizophrenic patients

The present study compared nonverbal social perception in relatives of schizophrenic patients ( n=21) with that of normal controls ( n=19). We hypothesized that relatives would display deficits in social perception and we sought to determine the skills that are associated with this deficit. Relatives performed significantly worse than controls on the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity Test (PONS), despite comparable performance on skills hypothesized to be related to nonverbal social perception: visual perception, nonverbal problem solving, facial recognition, facial affect recognition, naming, social judgment, and vigilance. To further explore the relationships among these skills, we calculated correlations between the PONS score and associated skills separately within both the relative and control groups and assessed whether the values of these correlations differed between groups. Correlations that differed significantly indicated a greater association, within relatives, between slower reaction times on vigilance tasks and poor PONS performance. Further research is needed to clarify the nature of this relationship, to better characterize social perception deficits in relatives, and to determine whether these perceptual deficits are part of the genetic diathesis to schizophrenia.

Poststroke depression correlates with cognitive impairment and neurological deficits.

The prevalence of poststroke depression is known to be high, but the knowledge of its neuropsychological correlates is limited. This 12-month prospective study was designed to evaluate the natural history of poststroke depression and to study its neuropsychological, clinical, and functional associates. We studied a series of 106 consecutive patients (46 women and 60 men, mean age 65.8 years) with acute first-ever ischemic stroke. The patients underwent a neurological, psychiatric, and neuropsychological examination at 3 and 12 months after the stroke. The psychiatric diagnosis of depression was based on DSM-III-R-criteria. Depression was diagnosed in 53% of the patients at 3 months and in 42% of the patients at 12 months after the stroke. The prevalence of major depression was 9% at 3 months and 16% at 12 months. There was an association between poststroke depression and cognitive impairment; the domains most likely to be defective in stroke-related depression were memory (P=0.022), nonverbal problem solving (P=0.039), and attention and psychomotor speed (P=0.020). The presence of dysphasia increased the risk of major depression. The depressive patients were more dependent in ADL and had more severe impairment and handicap than the nondepressive patients. More than half of the patients suffer from depression after stroke, and the frequency of major depression seems to increase during the first year. In addition to dysphasia, poststroke depression is correlated with other cognitive deficits. We emphasize the importance of psychiatric evaluation of stroke patients.

Total body irradiation: a neuropsychological risk factor in pediatric bone marrow transplant recipients

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) involves conditioning with cyclophosphamide and, for leukemic patients, total body irradiation (TBI). Based on the concern that this may lead to later neuropsychologic impairment in children, a longitudinal study was conducted. Thirty pediatric bone marrow transplant recipients, treated for leukemia or severe aplastic anemia (SAA), and their sibling donors, were given a neuropsychological examination in 1986 and 1988. A third follow-up study of patients treated before 12 years of age was undertaken in 1990-91. We present longitudinal data on patients treated with BMT when 3-11 (n = 15) and 12-17 (n = 11) years old. No neuropsychological deficits were found in the older group, or among non-irradiated SAA patients. In the first follow-up, children treated with BMT, including TBI at 3-11 years of age, performed less well than donors on tasks involving perceptual and fine-motor speed. In the second follow-up, this group of patients also demonstrated a slight deficit in non-verbal problem solving. An additional relative decline in verbal reasoning was noted in the third follow-up, 5.5-10 years after treatment. Alertness to signs of developmental difficulties in children treated with BMT, including TBI, is recommended.

Calculation abilities in young children with different patterns of cognitive functioning.

This study examined the arithmetic calculation abilities of kindergarten and first-grade children with different patterns of cognitive functioning: children with low language but adequate spatial abilities (Low Language; n = 33, male = 42%); children with low spatial but adequate language abilities (Low Spatial; n = 21, male = 42%); children with general delays (Delayed; n = 21, male = 48%); and children with no language or spatial impairments (Nonimpaired; n = 33, male = 48%). Each child was given a series of addition and subtraction calculations presented as nonverbal problems, story problems, and number-fact problems. Story problems and number-fact problems require mastery of conventional verbal symbols, whereas nonverbal problems do not. The findings show that nonverbal, story, and number-fact problem formats are differentially sensitive to variation in cognitive ability. The Low Language group performed significantly worse than the Nonimpaired group on story problems but not on nonverbal problems or number-fact problems. The Delayed group performed significantly worse than the Nonimpaired group on nonverbal problems as well as on story problems but not on number-fact problems. The Low Spatial group did not differ significantly from the Nonimpaired group on any of the three problem types, although the overall performance of these children was weaker. When we adjusted for finger use on number-fact problems, the Nonimpaired group outperformed both the Low Language and the Delayed groups but not the Low Spatial group. Thus, the finding that the Low Language and Delayed groups perform as well as the Nonimpaired group on number-fact problems is attributable to their greater finger use.

Loss of semantic memory: implications for the modularity of mind

Abstract We report a patient, PP, with semantic dementia who was studied longitudinally over two years. During this period she showed a progressive and profound loss of semantic memory affecting factual knowledge, vocabulary, and object knowledge via all sensory modalities. In the face of this near total dissolution of semantic memory, we have addressed the issue of the fate of other cognitive processes. Our findings suggest that nonverbal problem solving, auditory verbal and spatial short-term memory, the high-level visuo-perceptual abilities involved in object constancy, and some basic syntactic processes may operate independently of semantic memory and are therefore independent cognitive modules. In contrast, the integrity of both the phonological representations of words used to produce speech and the representations (or structural descriptions) used to recognise familiar objects appear ultimately to depend on semantic memory.

A mental model for early arithmetic.

The authors examined young children's ability to solve nonverbal calculation problems in which they must determine how many items are in a hidden array after items have been added into or taken away from it. Earlier work showed that an ability to reliably solve such problems emerges earlier than verbal calculation ability but did not examine when it first appears. The authors propose that the ability to solve such problems involves domain-general symbolic processes similar to those involved in symbolic play and the use of physical models. Hence the ability to calculate should appear at about 2 years and should be related to overall level of intellectual competence. The authors show that the ability to reliably solve nonverbal calculation tasks emerges only after 2 years of age and that performance on nonverbal calculation problems is highly related to overall level of intellectual competence in children between 3 and 4 years of age.

Measuring the learning potential of abstinent alcoholics

The performance of 89 Finnish alcoholics was measured on a Vygotskian test of learning potential. There were four questions to analyse: (1) can the performance of alcoholics be improved by means of instruction in non-verbal problem solving tasks; (2) how extensive is the transfer effect; (3) how does the duration of abstinence affect test performance; (4) how does the actual performance level affect post-test results? Results indicated that instruction had a clear positive effect on the performance of alcoholics in simple tasks, but no transfer effect was evident in the more complex tasks. The duration of abstinence had no general effect. Although analysis of the mean scores of time-level groups showed some improvement in performance with increasing duration of abstinence, intra-group deviation was so high that the trends were not statistically significant. The subjects' actual performance level, on the other hand, was a very relevant factor. This was particularly evident in complex transfer tasks.

Development of calculation abilities in young children

This study investigates the development of skills for solving verbally and nonverbally presented calculation problems in children between 4 and 6 years of age. Identical addition and subtraction calculations were presented in three problem-type formats: nonverbal problems, story problems, and number-fact problems. The nonverbal problems involved presenting sets of physical referents that were then transformed either by adding or removing elements. The child saw the initial set and the number of elements that were added or removed, but not the final set. The task was to construct an array that contained the number of elements in the final set. The story problems and number-fact problems were presented orally, without props. Results indicate that children as young as 4 years of age have some success on the nonverbal problems, showing that they can transform sets by adding or subtracting elements. In contrast, children do not achieve comparable levels of success on the story problems or number-fact problems until 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 years of age. Moreover, throughout the age range tested, children performed better on nonverbal problems than on either story problems or number-fact problems. These results suggest that children's earliest ability to add and subtract is based on experiences combining and separating sets of objects in the world and that this ability precedes the development of conventional verbal methods of calculating.

Differential calculation abilities in young children from middle- and low-income families.

This study examined the performance of 42 middle- and 42 low-income kindergarten children on arithmetic calculations presented in a nonverbal format as well as in 3 different verbal formats. On the nonverbal task, the child was shown an initial set of disks, which was then hidden with a cover. The set was transformed by adding or removing disks. After the transformation, the child's task was to construct an array of disks that contained the same number of disks as in the final hidden set. A significant interaction between income level and task format was obtained. Although middle-income children performed better than low-income children on each of the verbal calculation tasks, the 2 income groups did not differ in performance on the nonverbal calculation task. The findings suggest that the nonverbal task format is less sensitive to socioeconomic variation than are the verbal task formats. A number of contextual variables can affect a young child's performance on arithmetic tasks, including the amount of verbal understanding required by the task, the nature of the quantitative terminology used in the task, and the availability of object referents (Gelman & Gallistel, 1978; Gelman & Massey 1987). In fact, our work on the development of calculation abilities in young children has shown that children's performance on addition and subtraction problems varies according to the nature of the task (Levine, Jordan, & Huttenlocher, 1992). In this prior study, middle-class children between 4 and 6 years of age were given identical addition and subtraction calculations in three different formats: nonverbal problems, story problems, and number-fact problems. On the nonverbal calculation task, the child was shown a set of physical referents that were then hidden with a box used as a cover. The hidden set was transformed either by adding or subtracting elements through an opening in the side of the box. After the transformation, the child's task was to construct an array with the same number of elements that were in the final set. The child was never allowed to see the entire set that the experimenter had produced. This ensured that an addition or