TD Children Research Articles

Learning by observation and learning by doing in Down and Williams syndromes

New skills may be learned by active experience (experiential learning or learning by doing) or by observation of others' experience (learning by observation). In general, learning by observation reduces the time and the attempts needed to learn complex actions and behaviors. The present research aimed to compare learning by observation and learning by doing in two clinical populations with different etiology of intellectual disability (ID), as individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), with the hypothesis that specific profiles of learning may be found in each syndrome. To this end, we used a mixture of new and existing data to compare the performances of 24 individuals with DS, 24 individuals with WS and 24 typically developing children on computerized tasks of learning by observation or learning by doing. The main result was that the two groups with ID exhibited distinct patterns of learning by observation. Thus, individuals with DS were impaired in reproducing the previously observed visuo-motor sequence, while they were as efficient as TD children in the experiential learning task. On the other hand, individuals with WS benefited from the observational training while they were severely impaired in detecting the visuo-motor sequence in the experiential learning task (when presented first). The present findings reinforce the syndrome-specific hypothesis and the view of ID as a variety of conditions in which some cognitive functions are more disrupted than others because of the differences in genetic profile and brain morphology and functionality. These findings have important implications for clinicians, who should take into account the genetic etiology of ID in developing learning programs for treatment and education.

Development of Brain Network in Children with Autism from Early Childhood to Late Childhood

Extensive studies have indicated brain function connectivity abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is a lack of longitudinal or cross-sectional research focused on tracking age-related developmental trends of autistic children at an early stage of brain development or based on a relatively large sample. The present study examined brain network changes in a total of 186 children both with and without ASD from 3 to 11 years, an early and key development period when significant changes are expected. The study aimed to investigate possible abnormal connectivity patterns and topological properties of children with ASD from early childhood to late childhood by using resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) data. The main findings of the study were as follows: (1) From the connectivity analysis, several inter-regional synchronizations with reduction were identified in the younger and older ASD groups, and several intra-regional synchronization increases were observed in the older ASD group. (2) From the graph analysis, a reduced clustering coefficient and enhanced mean shortest path length in specific frequencies was observed in children with ASD. (3) Results suggested an age-related decrease of the mean shortest path length in the delta and theta bands in TD children, whereas atypical age-related alteration was observed in the ASD group. In addition, graph measures were correlated with ASD symptom severity in the alpha band. These results demonstrate that abnormal neural communication is already present at the early stages of brain development in autistic children and this may be involved in the behavioral deficits associated with ASD.

Spontaneous gaze selection and following during naturalistic social interactions in school-aged children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Using a novel naturalistic paradigm allowing participants the freedom to spontaneously select and follow gaze cues in their environment, this study extends previous research conducted with younger children to determine whether school-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 17) demonstrate abnormal gaze following relative to typically developing (TD, n = 15) children. The participant and experimenter played a series of games, during which the experimenter pseudorandomly averted her gaze toward a social target (person) or a nonsocial target (object). A significant finding was that, relative to TD children, children with ASD were slower to follow the experimenter's gaze relative to the start of the trial (social targets d = -.93 [-1.70, -.16], nonsocial targets d = -1.05 [-1.88, -.20]). When we analyzed the duration of glances to the experimenter, we found that the ASD group made longer glances relative to TD children, but only in the nonsocial target condition (social targets d = .01 [-.68, .71], nonsocial targets d = -.81 [-1.53, -.08]). Other analyses revealed patterns of gaze selection and following that may help interpret the main findings. Despite the differences in the timing of gaze selection and following, the most common type of responder in both groups was one who followed the experimenter's gaze on over half of the trials. This pattern of results argues against a clear deficit in social attention in school-age children with ASD and underscores the importance of measuring both the timing of distinct mechanisms of social attention and the context in which these behaviors occur. (PsycINFO Database Record

Parenting children with down syndrome: An analysis of parenting styles, parenting dimensions, and parental stress

BackgroundEffective parenting is vital for a child’s development. Although much work has been conducted on parenting typically developing children, little work has examined parenting children with Down syndrome. AimsThe purpose of the current study was to compare the parenting styles and dimensions in mothers of children with DS and mothers of TD children. Methods and proceduresThirty-five mothers of children with DS and 47 mothers of TD children completed questionnaires about parenting, parental stress, child behavior problems, and child executive function. Outcomes and resultsWe found that mothers of children with DS use an authoritative parenting style less and a permissive parenting style more than mothers of TD children. Additionally, we found that mothers of children with DS use reasoning/induction and verbal hostility less and ignoring misbehavior more than mothers of TD children. All of these differences, except for those of reasoning/induction, were at least partially accounted for by the higher levels of parental stress in the DS group. Conclusions and implicationsParenting interventions should be focused on reducing parental stress and training mothers to parent under stress in an effort to improve parenting techniques, which would, in theory, improve long-term child outcomes for children with DS.

Reduced Prefrontal Cortex Activation in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder during Go/No-Go Task: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

Objective: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders in children and affects 3 to 5% of school-aged children. This study is to demonstrate whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can detect the changes in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-HB) in children with ADHD and typically developing children (TD children).Method: In this study, 14 children with ADHD and 15 TD children were studied. Metabolic signals of functional blood oxygen were recorded by using fNIRS during go/no-go task. A statistic method is used to compare the fNIRS between the ADHD children and controls.Results: A significant oxy-HB increase in the left frontopolar cortex (FPC) in control subjects but not in children with ADHD during inhibitory tasks. Moreover, ADHD children showed reduced activation in left FPC relative to TD children.Conclusion: Functional brain imaging using fNIRS showed reduced activation in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) of children with ADHD during the inhibition task. The fNIRS could be a promising tool for differentiating children with ADHD and TD children.

Simple Mindreading Abilities Predict Complex Theory of Mind: Developmental Delay in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Theory of mind (ToM) is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aims of this study were to: (i) examine the developmental trajectories of ToM abilities in two different mentalizing tasks in children with ASD compared to TD children; and (ii) to assess if a ToM simple test known as eyes-test could predict performance on the more advanced ToM task, i.e. comic strip test. Based on a sample of 37 children with ASD and 55 TD children, our results revealed slower development at varying rates in all ToM measures in children with ASD, with delayed onset compared to TD children. These results could stimulate new treatments for social abilities, which would lessen the social deficit in ASD.

Early Gesture Provides a Helping Hand to Spoken Vocabulary Development for Children with Autism, Down Syndrome, and Typical Development

ABSTRACTTypically developing (TD) children refer to objects uniquely in gesture (e.g., point at a cat) before they produce verbal labels for these objects (“cat”). The onset of such gestures predicts the onset of similar spoken words, showing a strong positive relation between early gestures and early words. We asked whether gesture plays the same door-opening role in word learning for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS), who show delayed vocabulary development and who differ in the strength of gesture production. To answer this question, we observed 23 18-month-old TD children, 23 30-month-old children with ASD, and 23 30-month-old children with DS 5 times over a year during parent–child interactions. Children in all 3 groups initially expressed a greater proportion of referents uniquely in gesture than in speech. Many of these unique gestures subsequently entered children’s spoken vocabularies within a year—a pattern that was slightly less robust for children with DS, whose word production was the most markedly delayed. These results indicate that gesture is as fundamental to vocabulary development for children with developmental disorders as it is for TD children.

Delayed Early Vocabulary Development in Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia.

This study aimed to gain more insight into the relation between vocabulary and reading acquisition by examining early growth trajectories in the vocabulary of children at family risk (FR) of dyslexia longitudinally. The sample included 212 children from the Dutch Dyslexia Program with and without an FR. Parents reported on their children's receptive and expressive vocabulary size at ages 17, 23, 29, and 35 months using the Dutch MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. Dyslexia status at the end of Grade 2 (8 years) rendered 3 groups: FR-dyslexic (n = 51), FR-nondyslexic (n = 92), and typically developing-nondyslexic (TD) children (n = 69). Repeated measures analyses showed that FR-dyslexic children had lower receptive vocabulary scores from 23 months onward and lower expressive scores from 17 months onward than FR-nondyslexic children. Latent growth curve modeling showed lower initial growth rates in FR-dyslexic children, followed by partial recovery, indicating a delayed increase in receptive and expressive vocabulary. FR-nondyslexic and TD children did not differ. Early deficits in receptive and expressive vocabulary are associated with later reading. Early vocabulary growth of FR-dyslexic children is characterized by a delay but not deviance of growth. Vocabulary can be considered an additional risk factor for dyslexia.

Novel automated morphometric and kinematic handwriting assessment: A validity study in children with ASD and ADHD

ABSTRACTThis study presents construct validity for a novel automated morphometric and kinematic handwriting assessment, including (1) convergent validity, establishing reliability of automated measures with traditional manual-derived Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA), and (2) discriminant validity, establishing that the automated methods distinguish populations of children with previously reported impairments in handwriting. Results revealed standard (manual derived) MHA, and comparable automated handwriting scores were highly correlated, providing evidence for convergent validity. Participants in the discriminant validity study included 167 children (ages 7–12 years old; 65 typically developing [TD], 45 attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], and 57 autism spectrum disorder [ASD]). Repeated measures ANOVAs were employed to test for diagnostic differences across conditions and groups; follow-up correlations using letter form were conducted to identify associations between handwriting and neuropsychological performance. Diagnostic group comparisons provided evidence of discriminant validity, revealing elevated letter-form scores (worse performance) in children with ASD and ADHD groups compared to TD children; children with ASD showed the greatest letter-form impairment. These results provide strong evidence of construct validity for this novel automated handwriting assessment.

Contrasting Complement Control, Temporal Adjunct Control and Controlled Verbal Gerund Subjects in ASD: The Role of Contextual Cues in Reference Assignment.

This study examines two complex syntactic dependencies (complement control and sentence-final temporal adjunct control) and one pragmatic dependency (controlled verbal gerund subjects) in children with ASD. Sixteen high-functioning (HFA) children (aged 6–16) with a diagnosis of autism and no language impairment, matched on age, gender and non-verbal MA to one TD control group, and on age, gender and verbal MA to another TD control group, undertook three picture-selection tasks. Task 1 measured their base-line interpretations of the empty categories (ec). Task 2 preceded these sentence sets with a weakly established topic cueing an alternative referent and Task 3 with a strongly established topic cueing an alternative referent. In complement control (Ron persuaded Hermione ec to kick the ball) and sentence-final temporal adjunct control (Harry tapped Luna while ec feeding the owl), the reference of the ec is argued to be related obligatorily to the object and subject respectively. In controlled verbal-gerund subjects (VGS) (ec Rowing the boat clumsily made Luna seasick), the ec's reference is resolved pragmatically. Referent choices across the three tasks were compared. TD children chose the object uniformly in complement control across all tasks but in adjunct control, preferences shifted toward the object in Task 3. In controlled VGSs, they exhibited a strong preference for an internal-referent interpretation in Task 1, which shifted in the direction of the cues in Tasks 2 and 3. HFA children gave a mixed performance. They patterned with their TD counterparts on complement control and controlled VGSs but performed marginally differently on adjunct control: no TD groups were influenced by the weakly established topic in Task 2 but all groups were influenced by the strongly established topic in Task 3. HFA children were less influenced than the TD children, resulting in their making fewer object choices overall but revealing parallel patterns of performance. In this first study of three sub-types of control in ASD, we demonstrate that HFA children consult the same pragmatic cues to the same degree as TD children, in spite of the diverse pragmatic deficits reported for this population.

Investigating the Grammatical and Pragmatic Origins of Wh-Questions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Compared to typically developing children, children with autism (ASD) show delayed production of wh-questions. It is currently controversial the degree to which such deficits derive from social-pragmatic requirements and/or because these are complex grammatical structures. The current study employed the intermodal preferential looking (IPL) paradigm, which reduces social-pragmatic demands. The IPL paradigm can help distinguish these proposals, as successful comprehension promotes the “pragmatics-origins” argument whereas comprehension difficulties would implicate a “grammatical-origins” argument. Additionally, we tested both the linguistic and social explanations by assessing the contributions of children's early grammatical knowledge (i.e., SVO word order) and their social-pragmatic scores on the Vineland to their later wh-question comprehension. Fourteen children with ASD and 17 TD children, matched on language level, were visited in their homes at 4-month intervals. Comprehension of wh-questions and SVO word order were tested via IPL: the wh-question video showed a costumed horse and bird serving as agents or patients of familiar transitive actions. During the test trials, they were displayed side by side with directing audios (e.g., “What did the horse tickle?”, “What hugged the bird?”, “Where is the horse/bird?”). Children's eye movements were coded offline; the DV was their percent looking to the named item during test. To show comprehension, children should look longer at the named item during a where-question than during a subject-wh or object-wh question. Results indicated that TD children comprehended both subject and object wh-questions at 32 months of age. Comprehension of object-wh questions emerged chronologically later in children with ASD compared to their TD peers, but at similar levels of language. Moreover, performance on word order and social-pragmatic scores independently predicted both groups' later performance on wh-question comprehension. Our findings indicate that both grammar and social-pragmatics are implicated in the comprehension of wh-questions. The “grammatical-origins” argument is supported because the ASD group did not reveal earlier and stable comprehension of wh-questions; furthermore, their performance on SVO word order predicted their later success in linguistic processing of wh-questions. The “pragmatic-origins” argument is also supported because children's earlier socialization and communication scores strongly predicted their successful performance on wh-question comprehension.

Mothers' and Children's Story-Telling: A Study of Dyads with Typically Developing Children and Children with ASD.

The production of specific mental state terms types and functions by caregivers and their TD children and caregivers and their children with ASD were assessed in two contexts: a parent's story-telling task and a child's story-telling task. Caregivers of children with ASD produced less causal talk and proportionally less desire and cognitive talk than did caregivers of TD children. When focusing only on variation in our ASD sample, caregivers' and children's production of different mental state references varied with context and were predicted by different child characteristics (i.e., theory of mind, autism severity, language level). We conclude that caregivers are likely adjusting different aspects of mental state input depending on different aspects of child development although these adjustments may not always be optimal.

Identification of bilingual children with Specific Language Impairment in France

Abstract We report on the usefulness of three LITMUS tools in distinguishing bilingual children with SLI (Bi-SLI) from bilingual children with typical development (Bi-TD), in France: LITMUS-NWR-FR (non-word repetition), LITMUS-SR-FR (sentence repetition), and LITMUS-PABIQ (parental questionnaire). 82 bilingual children, aged 5–8, who had all been exposed to both French and either Arabic, Portuguese or Turkish, recruited both in ordinary schools and in SLP practices, were divided into Bi-TD (n = 61) and Bi-SLI (n = 21) groups based on parental questionnaire (LITMUS-PABIQ) information and standardized language scores in each language. Monolingual controls included 17 children with SLI and 37 TD children. NWR and SR significantly distinguished between the Bi-TD and the Bi-SLI children, and there was minimal impact of different factors related to bilingual development on children’s performance.

Story-related discourse by parent–child dyads: A comparison of typically developing children and children with language impairments

Abstract The engagement of two groups of parents and preschoolers while sharing a wordless picture book and an interactive e-book are described, specifically comparing children with typically developing language (TD) versus children with language impairments (LI). Parent–child dyads were video recorded in a laboratory (TD group, n = 10 ) or at a clinical site (LI group, n = 10 ) while sharing a wordless picture book (WL condition) and an e-book (EB condition). Our assessment focused on the areas of (1) child persistence and (2) child verbal engagement (length of turns, verbal responses to parental prompts, gestural responses). The LI group spent more time with the WL book than the TD group, which was unexpected due to prior reports of poor engagement with print books by LI children; therefore we speculate that children with LI engage with books to the extent that the language demands of the book and the interaction are adapted to the child’s linguistic capabilities. The LI and TD groups showed similar levels of nonverbal engagement with the EB. Parents in the EB condition behaved differently: parents of TD children coordinated their talk with their child’s actions and perceptions; parents of LI children increased the number of questions and demands for responses markedly, whereas their children reduced the proportion of verbal responses significantly in comparison with the WL condition. Further research is required to develop guidelines for effective sharing of e-books with children with LI.

Neuropsychological Performance of Egyptian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

This study examined the neuropsychological functioning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and comorbid ASD and ADHD (ASD + ADHD), using five domains of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY): Attention and Executive Functions, Language, Visuospatial Processing, Sensorimotor Functions, and Memory and Learning. The participants were 6- to 12-year-old Egyptian children with ASD (n = 17), ASD + ADHD (n = 15), ADHD (n = 37), and typical development (TD; n = 29). TD children scored highest on the NEPSY domains, then children with ADHD, followed by children with ASD and ASD + ADHD. Children with ASD or ASD + ADHD performed significantly poorer than TD children on all NEPSY domains. Children with ADHD exhibited significantly poorer performance than TD children on NEPSY domains of Attention and Executive Function, Language, and Memory and Learning. Also, both ASD and ASD + ADHD groups scored significantly lower than ADHD group on all other NEPSY domains except Visuospatial Processing. There were no significant differences between ASD and ASD + ADHD groups on NEPSY. Compared to TD children, our results suggest that ADHD symptoms in children with ASD may worsen the ability to plan, hand motor coordination, and memorizing names. Nevertheless, the presence of ADHD symptoms may mitigate the difficulties that children with ASD exhibit in other neuropsychological areas, such as verbal fluency, hand praxis, finger gnosis, and face memory.

Dynamic Assessment of Figurative Language of Children in the Autistic Spectrum: The Relation to Some Cognitive and Language Aspects

The objectives of this study were to examine (a) differences in figurative language, analogical reasoning, executive functions (EF), theory of mind (ToM), and local/central coherence (LCC) of children with high-functioning autism (HFA; n = 32) and typically developing (TD; n = 32) children; (b) improvement of figurative language using dynamic assessment; and (c) prediction of proverbial understanding by the cognitive variables. A sample of 5- to 11-year-old children with HFA was pair matched with a group of TD children on age, gender, vocabulary, and socioeconomic status (SES). Participants were administered tests of proverbial understanding, metaphorical construction, analogies, language ability, EF, LCC, and ToM. TD children scored higher than children with HFA on all tests. In the HFA group, proverbial understanding was predicted by LCC and verbal ability and in the TD group by metaphorical construction and EF. These findings refute the argument that figurative language among HFA is a function of only verbal ability.

“Didn’t I just say that?” Comparing parent report and spontaneous speech as indicators of grammatical development

BackgroundThe Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales use parental report to examine communication and social skills in children with typical and atypical development, and exhibit high reliability when compared against overall direct testing. However, findings are mixed comparing Vineland communication/language scores with experimenter-administered tests of language. MethodsThe current study breaks new ground in comparing Vineland reports with direct observation of children’s speech by (a) individual items and (b) level of child functioning, focusing on usage of wh-questions, verb tenses, negation, pronouns and noun-verb combinations. Both ‘high-verbal’ (HV) and ‘middle-verbal’ (MV) children with ASD are included, as well as a language-matched TD group. ResultsThe results revealed that parent report on the Vineland varies in accuracy of capturing the production of grammatical items by young children with ASD and TD children. While parents’ assessment of their child’s production of noun-verb combinations and ‘who/why’ was highly accurate, children’s production of pronouns was under-rated by parents. Additionally, parents of HV children also under-rated their child’s production of past regular verbs. ConclusionUnderestimation of these grammatical elements could lead to mistaken conclusions about their development in ASD or in individual children.

Object relative clauses in Dutch-speaking children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA)

Abstract Previous studies show that Direct Object Scrambling (DOS) is impaired in Dutch-speaking children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA). However, as DOS can be considered a syntax-pragmatics interface phenomenon, it is unclear whether DOS errors are due to impaired syntax or impaired pragmatics. In order to shed light on this question, the current study investigates Object Relative Clauses (ORC), assumed to involve syntactic object placement (as in DOS), but not pragmatics, in children with HFA. We examine the elicited production, comprehension and judgment of ORCs in 25 Dutch-speaking children with HFA (age 6–14) and 25 TD matches with comparable non-verbal reasoning scores. Results reveal no differences between groups, but show that, similar to TD children (and adults), children with HFA use passives and animacy to disambiguate ORCs. The TD-HFA similarity indicates that the syntactic part of DOS is unimpaired in children with HFA and suggests problems with the pragmatic part.

Validity and reliability of the Functional Dexterity Test in children

Study DesignClinical measurement study. IntroductionThe Functional Dexterity Test (FDT) has not been validated in children. Purpose of the StudyTo determine reliability and validity of the FDT in a pediatric population. MethodsIntraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICCs) were used to calculate interrater and test-retest reliability in typically developing children. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to compare FDT speed with the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JHFT) and with 2 activities of daily living tasks to establish validity in children with congenital hand differences. ResultsThe FDT demonstrated excellent interrater (ICC, 0.99) and test-retest (ICC, 0.90) reliability. Pearson correlation coefficients exceeded 0.67 for JHFT subsets of fine dexterity and were all less than 0.66 for JHFT subsets of gross grasp. Correlations with the activities of daily living tasks were good to excellent. FDT speeds in TD children exceeded those of children with congenital hand differences (P < .001), demonstrating discriminant validity. DiscussionChildren with congenital hand differences are often treated early in life, making it important to reliably assess hand function of these young children to distinguish developmental change from changes due to interventions. The FDT can reliably measure functional progress over time, help clinicians monitor the efficacy of treatment, and provide families realistic feedback on their child’s progress. ConclusionThe FDT is a valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of fine motor dexterity in children.

EMG Signals Analysis of BF and RF Muscles In Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) During Walking

This paper presents the analysis of Electromyography (EMG) signals at lower limb muscles during walking. The muscles of Biceps Femoris (BF) and Rectus Femoris (RF) were examined between ASD and TD children. The EMG signals pattern will be observed over one gait cycle and the statistical analysis will be used to compare the significant difference of two muscles between ASD and TD children. The result shows that there are significant differences in RF muscle for both ASD and TD children at 70% of gait cycle (p value is equal to 0.007) and at 90% of gait cycle (p value is equal to 0.023). From this result, the RF muscle shall be considered as the vital muscle for rehabilitation plan.