The Impact of Screen Exposure on Screen Addiction and Sensory Processing in Typically Developing Children Aged 6-10 Years

As technology continues to develop, children are spending more time in front of screens, which can lead to significant problems. For children aged 5 years and above, screen time of 2 or more hours per day on average is considered problematic. This study aimed to investigate the impact of screen exposure on screen addiction and sensory processing in typically developing children aged 6-10 years. The study analyzed 74 children who had a screen exposure time of 2 h or more and 71 children who had a screen exposure time of less than 2 h. The Dunn Sensory Profile was used to evaluate sensory processing skills, and the Problematic Media Use Scale was used to measure screen addiction. The group with high screen exposure showed statistically significant differences in screen addiction, distraction, and sedentary factors (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found in other parameters. Based on these findings, it has been determined that excessive screen exposure leads to a more sedentary lifestyle, increased screen addiction, and distraction in typically developing children aged 6-10 years. It is important to consider the duration of screen exposure in typically developing children aged 6-10 years and to conduct further studies on this topic.

Larger corpus callosum volume is favorable for theory of mind development in healthy children

While previous research has demonstrated a link between the corpus callosum (CC) and theory of mind (ToM) abilities in individuals with corpus callosum agenesis (ACC), the relationship between CC volume and ToM remains unclear in healthy children. The present study examined whether CC volume influences children's performance on ToM tasks that assess their understanding of pretense, emotion recognition, and false beliefs. Forty children aged 6-12 years underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a cognitive test battery. We found that larger mid-anterior and central subsections of the CC significantly correlated with better ToM abilities. We could also demonstrate age- and sex-related effects, as the CC-ToM relationship differed between younger (6-8 years) and older (9-12 years) children, and between female and male participants. Importantly, the older children drove the association between the CC mid-anterior and central subsection volumes and ToM abilities. This study is the first to demonstrate that CC size is associated with ToM abilities in healthy children, underlining the idea that the CC plays a vital role in their socio-cognitive development. CC subsection volumes may thus not only serve as a measure of heterogeneity in neurodevelopmental populations known to exhibit socio-cognitive deficits, but also in typically developing children.

Clustering and Switching in Semantic Verbal Fluency: Their Development and Relationship with Word Productivity in Typically Developing Greek-Speaking Children and Adolescents

Performance in semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks, mainly measured by the number of words of a particular semantic category produced within a limited time, is a widely accepted measure of cognitive functioning used in the neuropsychological assessment of children and adults. Two strategic processes, Clustering and Switching (C&S) have been proposed to underlie fluency processes and affect performance in the task. However, few studies have reported on the development of those cognitive strategies and their relationship with word productivity in typically developing children. Even fewer studies have covered a broad developmental period from preschool to adolescence or measured the effect of contextual factors in this relationship. Based on a sample of 472 typically developing Greek-speaking children aged 4;0 to 16;11 years, we investigated the development of SVF performance and reported on the degree to which it is affected by C&S strategies, children's sex, and level of parental education. Results revealed a large effect of age on word productivity and on the use of C&S strategies. Two switching factors (number of clusters and number of switches) and two clustering factors (mean cluster size and a novel measure, maximum cluster size), appeared to be significantly associated with word productivity, with the largest effect being attributed to the two switching factors. C&S factors, together with children's age and parental education, predicted 91.7% of the variance in the SVF score. Children's sex was not found to have a significant effect on either word productivity or C&S strategies. Results are discussed for their theoretical implications on the strategic processes underlying word production in typically developing children.

The development of speech output processing skills in Greek-speaking children

There is a growing body of literature on phonological development in Greek-speaking children, either typically developing (TD) or with speech sound disorders (SSD). In this paper, a cross-sectional longitudinal approach was used to investigate the development of speech output processing skills in TD Greek-speaking preschool-aged children. Moreover, a group of Greek-speaking children with SSD were assessed to identify potential loci of impairment in atypical development. The developmental study involved two groups: group 1 (n = 16) aged 3;0-3;5 years and group 2 (n = 22) aged 4;6-5;0 years, assessed at three assessment points six months apart. Children with SSD (n = 15) aged 5;6-6;0 years were assessed to be compared with performance of group 2 TD children (at the third assessment point). Assessment tasks included (a) a picture naming task, (b) a task of real word repetition and (c) a task of nonword repetition. A strong time effect was found in both groups of TD children in the development of speech output processing abilities. Performance accuracy was higher on tasks including real words than nonwords; children performed more accurately on repetition rather than spontaneous naming of real words; repetition accuracy on 2-3 syllables items was significantly better than on 4-5 syllables items. Children with SSD were outperformed by TD children of the same age in all assessment tasks; lexicality and word length effect were found in the clinical group. Findings from the present study may be used as a starting point to diagnose children with speech production difficulties in Greece.

Brain reserve theory: Are adults with intellectual disability more vulnerable to age than peers with typical development?

BACKGROUND

Life expectancy is on rise and the intriguing question is: When does cognitive decline occur among adults with intellectual disability, compared to adults with typical development? This cross-sectional study examined cognitive performance of crystallised/fluid intelligence, working and long-term memory of adults with intellectual disability of etiologies other than Down syndrome (IQ 50-68) and adults with typical development (IQ 85-114) in four age cohorts (30-39; 40-49; 50-59; 60-69).

METHOD

The WAIS III^HEB and the Rey-AVLT were administered to both groups.

RESULTS

Four patterns of cognitive performance were found: (a) Vocabulary (crystallised intelligence), Spatial Span Forward and Retention yielded similar scores across all four age cohorts in participants with typical development and with intellectual disability. (b) Similarities, Raven and Digit Span Backward exhibit lower scores only in 50-59 or 60-69 compared to the 30-39 age cohort in both groups, (c) Digit Span Forward, Spatial Span Backward and Total Leaning (LTM) yielded lower scores in the 50-59 or 60-69 age cohorts in the typical group, but similar scores in participants with intellectual disability along the age cohorts, (d) Block Design (fluid intelligence) yielded a lower score in the 50-59 cohort versus lower scores only at ages 60-69 in participants with typical development.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest a possible parallel trajectory in age-related cognitive performance for individuals with and without intellectual disability in six measures, and a possible more preserved trajectory in fluid intelligence and some memory measures in adults with intellectual disability compared to their peers. Caution should be exercised regarding Digit and Spatial Span Backwards, which yielded a floor effect in participants with intellectual disability. The Cognitive Reserve Theory, the Safeguard Hypothesis and late maturation might serve as explanations for these findings.

Preliminary data on the development of emotion vocabulary in typically developing children (5-13 years) using an experimental psycholinguistic measure

Introduction

Vocabulary of emotion is integral to emotional development and emotional intelligence is associated with improved mental health outcomes. Many language disordered groups experience emotional difficulties; Developmental Language Disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and autism. However, (as in the case of autism) research tends to focus on assessing recognition of emotional states, rather than exploring labeling skills. Where labeling is assessed, measures have focused on early-acquired vocabulary (happy, sad, angry) or self/parent reporting. To date, no objective assessment has been made of vocabulary of emotion across childhood.

Methods

This study uses an experimental psycholinguistic measure, The Emotion Vocabulary: Expressive and Receptive ability measure (EVER) which includes two tasks (receptive vocabulary and word generation/expressive vocabulary). This measure has capacity to demonstrate vocabulary growth across age groups. 171 participants (5.0-13.11 years) completed The EVER Measure, alongside two closely matched standardized measures of basic language: BPVS (receptive vocabulary task) and CELF (word-association task). Assessments were completed online and en vivo (COVID testing restrictions dependent).

Results

As predicted, children's accuracy increased on both receptive and expressive emotion vocabulary tasks, in line with age at time of testing. EVER scores were significantly predicted by age and correlated with matched basic language scores. Secondary analysis provided preliminary findings on age of acquisition for specific emotion vocabulary items.

Discussion

The findings consequently demonstrate proof of concept for the use of The EVER Measure in assessing emotional vocabulary across childhood. This study provides important preliminary data on generating and recognizing emotion labels across typical child development. Critically, it extends current knowledge on emotion vocabulary acquisition into middle childhood, where linguistic ability is relatively mature. As such, findings have implications for research with potential clinical application in the assessment of older children, with either language or emotional differences or both. Findings demonstrate the need for a standardized tool, and its potential application in research and clinical practice is explored. A large-scale study offering proof of concept and reliability of The EVER Measure is indicated.

Pre-Attentional Effects on Global Precedence Processing in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Those with Typical Development on a Tablet-Based Modified Navon's Paradigm Task

This study aimed to characterize the pre-attentional effects on global precedence processing in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with typical development (TD). A sample of 17 participants, comprising eight children with ASD and nine TD children, were recruited for the study. A tablet-based assessment utilizing a global and local visual processing paradigm task was developed to investigate the participant's abilities. The task consisted of verbal instructions to locate and touch either a global or local figure, presented in five conditions: neutral, congruent, and incongruent. The percentage of correct answers and reaction time (RT) for each task were measured and analyzed statistically. Results revealed that children with ASD exhibited statistically significant differences in both the percentage of correct scores and RT among various conditions, while TD children displayed differences in RT but not in the percentage of correct answers. These findings suggest that conflicting processes affect both behavioral and cognitive processes in children with ASD, and that cognitive effort is still involved for children with TD, but does not affect behavioral processes. In children with ASD, the RT was the shortest in the congruent (report local figure) condition; in children with TD, the RT was the shortest in the congruent (report global figure) condition. This implies that children with TD exhibit a pre-attentive effect on global precedence processing, while children with ASD do not. These visual-processing-function characteristics may aid in screening for visual perception problems in children with ASD.

Factors Affecting the Use of Pain-Coping Strategies in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy and Individuals with Typical Development

Many individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) suffer from pain and must develop pain-coping strategies, although the factors determining them are unknown. This observational study aims at exploring the association between different pain-coping strategies and factors such as age, sex, pain, health status, sleep or motor and cognitive function in individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing peers (TD). Main caregivers of 94 individuals with CP (age range = 6-69 years, mean age = 17.78 (10.05)) and the closest relative of 145 individuals with TD (age range = 6-51 years, mean age = 19.13 (12.87)) completed questionnaires on the previous topics (Parent Report of the PEDsQL Pediatric Coping Inventory, the Health Utility Index HUI-3, Epworth Sleepiness Score and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). Pain presence, duration, intensity, location and ratings of current and worst pain in the last week in an 11-point numerical rating scale were assessed in an interview. Global health was the best predictor the of use of any type of pain-coping strategy, including cognitive self-instruction, problem-solving, distraction, seeking social support and catastrophizing, in both individuals with CP and individuals with TD. However, different health attributes predicted their use in each population. Emotional health was the best predictor in individuals with CP, whereas cognition and pain were the best predictors in individuals with TD. Speech ability was a predictor in both groups. In conclusion, the assessment of health attributes such as emotional health and speech may help design specific interventions for enhancing self-efficacy and adaptive pain coping skills.

Effect of Physical Exercise in Real-World Settings on Executive Function of Typical Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of research on physical exercise in real-world settings on executive function of typical children and adolescents.

METHODS

The CNKI, WOS, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and SPORTDiscus databases were searched by computer. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included literature. Statistical analysis was performed using frequency and percentage and the χ² test.

RESULTS

A total of 49 articles was included. Acute (moderate intensity lasting 30-50 min) and long-term (interventions of moderate intensity of 30-50 min at least 3 times a week for 17 weeks or more) physical exercises in real-world settings have positive intervention effects on executive function. Furthermore, for acute interventions, closed skills are more efficient for inhibitory control, open skills are more efficient for working memory and cognitive flexibility, and open-continuous and closed-sequential skills are the most efficient; long-term interventions with open skills, sequential skills, and open-sequential skills are more effective.

CONCLUSION

Physical exercise in real-world settings has a good promotion effect on typical children and adolescents, and motor skills with open and/or sequential attributes are more helpful in improving executive function.

The Link Between Action Verb Processing and Action Observation: A Developmental Study

In this work we aimed to assess the typical link in human development between action observation and language. For this, we studied, in 68 children aged 5-11 years of age, how action verbs can prime action representation. While children 7-8 years of age benefited from a congruent action verb prime when they had to judge an image representing an action, this effect was not present in 5-6-year-olds. Thus, the link between language and action observation changes during development at about age 7. We discussed these findings in consideration of current theories proposed to account for the action-language link.

Effects of gestational age at birth on perinatal structural brain development in healthy term-born babies

Infants born in early term (37-38 weeks gestation) experience slower neurodevelopment than those born at full term (40-41 weeks gestation). While this could be due to higher perinatal morbidity, gestational age at birth may also have a direct effect on the brain. Here we characterise brain volume and white matter correlates of gestational age at birth in healthy term-born neonates and their relationship to later neurodevelopmental outcome using T2 and diffusion weighted MRI acquired in the neonatal period from a cohort (n = 454) of healthy babies born at term age (>37 weeks gestation) and scanned between 1 and 41 days after birth. Images were analysed using tensor-based morphometry and tract-based spatial statistics. Neurodevelopment was assessed at age 18 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III). Infants born earlier had higher relative ventricular volume and lower relative brain volume in the deep grey matter, cerebellum and brainstem. Earlier birth was also associated with lower fractional anisotropy, higher mean, axial, and radial diffusivity in major white matter tracts. Gestational age at birth was positively associated with all Bayley-III subscales at age 18 months. Regression models predicting outcome from gestational age at birth were significantly improved after adding neuroimaging features associated with gestational age at birth. This work adds to the body of evidence of the impact of early term birth and highlights the importance of considering the effect of gestational age at birth in future neuroimaging studies including term-born babies.

Families' Perceptions of the Motor Development and Quality of Life of Their Children Aged 0-3 Years during Home Confinement Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Descriptive Study

The child's interaction with the natural environment allows different learning opportunities and favors their motor development, which may be affected after a period of environmental deprivation, a consequence of home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of the study was to analyze the different areas of motor development, as well as the quality of life of children aged 0 to 3 years old after home confinement by COVID-19 and the possible correlation between both variables, and the influence of parental stimulation on motor development during this time of exclusive interaction with the immediate environment (home and family). A descriptive study was performed. A simple and anonymous questionnaire was created for parents of children between 0 and 3 years old who lived in Spain during the period of home confinement due to COVID-19 (March to June 2020). The measurement instrument used was a questionnaire made in "Google Forms", where the variables were collected: Motor development (measured through the Ages & Stages Questionnaire, ASQ3), Quality of life (assessed with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, PedsQL) and other variables, such as stimulation, performed during home confinement. Eighty-eight questionnaires were validated. The highest score in the motor development domains were obtained in children 2-3 years old. The motor domain of children aged 2-3 years old that obtained the highest score was communication (M = 54.69 ± 10.03) and the highest score in the quality of life was obtained in children aged 0-1 years old (M = 85.47 ± 12.39), also acquiring the lowest score in the emotional domain in all age groups (0-1, 1-2 and 2-3 years old). The assessment of motor development and quality of life after home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not determine low values, so it would not have been affected during this period of lack of interaction with the natural environment. Emphasizing that the emotional aspect within quality of life was the lowest score, this indicates that children from 0 to 3 years old need more emotional support in situations of variability of daily routines and of family stress.

The Processing of Spanish Article-Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers

We assessed monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-Basque toddlers' sensitivity to gender agreement in correct vs. incorrect Spanish noun phrases (definite article + noun), using a spontaneous preference listening paradigm. Monolingual Spanish-learning toddlers exhibited a tendency to listen longer to the grammatically correct phrases (e.g., la casa; "the house"), as opposed to the incorrect ones (e.g., *el casa). This listening preference toward correct phrases is in line with earlier results obtained from French monolingual 18-month-olds (van Heugten & Christophe, 2015). Bilingual toddlers in the current study, however, tended to listen longer to the incorrect phrases. Basque was not a source of interference in the bilingual toddler's input as Basque does not instantiate grammatical gender agreement. Overall, our results suggest that both monolingual and bilingual toddlers can distinguish between the correct and incorrect phrases by 18 months of age; however, monolinguals and bilinguals allocate their attention differently when processing grammatically incorrect forms.

Investigating Cognitive Flexibility in Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The current study investigated cognitive flexibility in preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and those with typical development using the Reverse Categorization (RC) task and the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. We further examined the relationship between non-verbal mental age (NVMA) and the performance on the two tasks. While no significant difference in performance on the RC task between the two groups was found, significantly more children in the typical developing group passed the DCCS task than children in the ASD group. NVMA was found to correlate with performance in both tasks in the typical developing group but not in the ASD group. When the children were matched on NVMA, no differences in task performance between the two groups were found. The current study found the disparity in performance in two groups on the RC and the DCCS tasks, hence illuminating the importance related to the selection of tasks when studying cognitive flexibility in preschool children with ASD. The study also cast some light on the involvement of NVMA in the performance on the RC and DCCS tasks.

Performance of Swedish children on a dynamic motor speech assessment

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the performance of typically developing Swedish-speaking children on DYMTA (Dynamisk Motorisk Talbedömning), a Swedish dynamic motor speech assessment.Method: Participants were 94 children, 45 boys/49 girls (9/8 multilingual), with typical oral motor, speech, and language skills, between 37 and 106 months divided into five age-groups. They performed two speech motor assessments, DYMTA-A and DYMTA-B using dynamic assessment.Result: Typically developing children show good motor speech performance on targeted speech characteristics already at the age of three. DYMTA median total score was high for all ages; 90% of maximum or above. A significant correlation with age was found for DYMTA-A (p = 0.000, r = 0.49) and DYMTA-B (p = 0.000, r = 0.77). No significant differences were found across gender or concerning being mono- or multilingual.Conclusion: DYMTA is the first Swedish assessment tool designed to identify children with CAS. The results of this study demonstrate that typically developing Swedish children perform well on DYMTA and that the test has possible utility for both mono- and multilingual children.

Feeding Problems in Typically Developing Young Children, a Population-Based Study

Feeding problems have been estimated to occur in approximately 25–45% of normally developing children. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of feeding problems in typically developing young children in Greece. Child feeding behavior, parents’ feelings about their child’s feeding patterns, and parental feeding practices were also explored. Parents completed the Greek version of the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS). Data on 742 healthy, typically developing children aged two to seven years are presented. Overall, the majority of children in the sample showed high frequency of desirable mealtime behaviors and low frequency of undesirable mealtime behaviors. However, a significant proportion of the cohort presented with food neophobia and low consumption of vegetables. When applying test cut-off scores, it was found that 8.2% of the sample had abnormal Total Frequency Score (TFS) and 26.6% had abnormal Total Problem Score (TPS). The study showed that parent-reported feeding problems are quite common in children of typical development in Greece. Moreover, while the majority of the sample displayed a high frequency of favorable behaviors, specific child feeding behaviors are amenable to improvement.

Leg Movement Rate Pre- and Post-Kicking Intervention in Infants with Down Syndrome

AIM

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have delayed development and atypical movements including kicking. We hypothesized that a kicking intervention would significantly increase leg movement rate.

METHODS

Nine infants, 3-5 months old, with DS used a commercially available toy that encouraged kicking. The intervention was administered in their home for 20 minutes, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks. Leg movement rate was measured using Opal wearable sensors before and after the intervention. At post-test, a secondary analysis compared infants with DS to infants with typical development (TD).

RESULTS

Average leg movement rate increased significantly from pre to post intervention, from 2253 to 2645 movements per hour of awake time (p = 0.049). Compared to data from nine infants with TD, infants with DS had a significantly lower movement rate post intervention (p = 0.002).

CONCLUSION

The infants with DS demonstrated a higher leg movement rate following an in-home kicking intervention.

Acquisition of consonants among typically developing Akan-speaking children: A preliminary report

PURPOSE

Although Akan is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Ghana, very little is known about children's phonological development. This paper investigates the development of consonants in Akan among typically developing children aged 3-5 years.

METHOD

A list of 103 Akan words was compiled, sampling the full range of prosodic structures, sound positions, features and segments, and controlling for word familiarity. A native Akan speaker audio-recorded the 103 single-word productions from each of nine typically developing children aged 3-5 years. The child productions were transcribed and analysed following procedures used in a larger cross-linguistic study. The current study presents results on the acquisition of consonants across the various ages.

RESULT

Preliminary results indicate that most consonants in Akan are mastered by age 4 or 5, similar to reports for other languages, although /w/ and /l/ showed late mastery, contrary to cross-linguistic observations. The rhotic /ɹ/ and consonants with secondary articulation were still developing at age 4 and showing a variety of mismatch patterns across children.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide preliminary information for developmentalists and speech-language pathologists on typical phonological development in Akan and contribute to a growing database on language acquisition in Niger-Congo languages.

Walking Speed of Children and Adolescents With Cerebral Palsy: Laboratory Versus Daily Life

The purpose of this pilot study was to compare walking speed, an important component of gait, in the laboratory and daily life, in young individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) and with typical development (TD), and to quantify to what extent gait observed in clinical settings compares to gait in real life. Fifteen children, adolescents and young adults with CP (6 GMFCS I, 2 GMFCS II, and 7 GMFCS III) and 14 with TD were included. They wore 4 synchronized inertial sensors on their shanks and thighs while walking at their spontaneous self-selected speed in the laboratory, and then during 2 week-days and 1 weekend day in their daily environment. Walking speed was computed from shank angular velocity signals using a validated algorithm. The median of the speed distributions in the laboratory and daily life were compared at the group and individual levels using Wilcoxon tests and Spearman's correlation coefficients. The corresponding percentile of daily life speed equivalent to the speed in the laboratory was computed and observed at the group level. Daily-life walking speed was significantly lower compared to the laboratory for the CP group (0.91 [0.58-1.23] m/s vs 1.07 [0.73-1.28] m/s, p = 0.015), but not for TD (1.29 [1.24-1.40] m/s vs 1.29 [1.20-1.40] m/s, p = 0.715). Median speeds correlated highly in CP (p < 0.001, rho = 0.89), but not in TD. In children with CP, 60% of the daily life walking activity was at a slower speed than in-laboratory (corresponding percentile = 60). On the contrary, almost 60% of the daily life activity of TD was at a faster speed than in-laboratory (corresponding percentile = 42.5). Nevertheless, highly heterogeneous behaviors were observed within both populations and within subgroups of GMFCS level. At the group level, children with CP tend to under-perform during natural walking as compared to walking in a clinical environment. The heterogeneous behaviors at the individual level indicate that real-life gait performance cannot be directly inferred from in-laboratory capacity. This emphasizes the importance of completing clinical gait analysis with data from daily life, to better understand the overall function of children with CP.

Comparing sleep patterns between children with autism spectrum disorder and children with typical development: A matched case-control study

LAY ABSTRACT

This study compared the sleep pattern between children with autism spectrum disorders and children with typical development using a matched case-control design (matched age, gender, and body mass index). Significant differences were found in night-time sleep duration (total amount of sleep at night), sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent asleep), sleep-onset latency (length of time that it takes to transit from awake to asleep), and wake after sleep onset (total amount of time spent awake after defined sleep onset). Findings showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had poorer sleep quality than children with typical development. Mechanisms underlying the differences should be further explored in order to develop an effective treatment intervention.

Functional brain connectivity changes across the human life span: From fetal development to old age

The dynamic of the temporal correlations between brain areas, called functional connectivity (FC), undergoes complex transformations through the life span. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of these changes in the nonpathological brain from fetal life to advanced age. After a brief description of the main methods, we propose that FC development can be divided into four main phases: first, before birth, a strong change in FC leads to the emergence of functional proto-networks, involving mainly within network short-range connections. Then, during the first years of life, there is a strong widespread organization of networks which starts with segregation processes followed by a continuous increase in integration. Thereafter, from adolescence to early adulthood, a refinement of existing networks in the brain occurs, characterized by an increase in integrative processes until about 40 years. Middle age constitutes a pivotal period associated with an inversion of the functional brain trajectories with a decrease in segregation process in conjunction to a large-scale reorganization of between network connections. Studies suggest that these processes are in line with the development of cognitive and sensory functions throughout life as well as their deterioration. During aging, results support the notion of dedifferentiation processes, which refer to the decrease in functional selectivity of the brain regions, resulting in more diffuse and less specialized FC, associated with the disruption of cognitive functions with age. The inversion of developmental processes during aging is in accordance with the developmental models of neuroanatomy for which the latest matured regions are the first to deteriorate.

Executive functions and drawing in young children with cerebral palsy: Comparisons with typical development

There is evidence that school-aged children with cerebral palsy (CP) may present deficits in executive functions (EF) greater than would be expected considering their intellectual ability. However, no studies have focused on characterizing EF in this group at an earlier critical period - the preschool years. Furthermore, and given evidence from typically-developing (TD) children, deficits in EF are associated with potential detrimental effects on social and educational development - which can include drawing. Our aim was to compare preschool children with CP, matched in chronological age and intellectual ability with a group of TD children, regarding their executive functioning and drawing abilities. In addition, we examined the relationships between these variables in each of the groups. Twenty-eight children were evaluated in executive functions and drawing tasks. Differences were found in some aspects of cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, but not in working memory. Additionally, the quality of the drawings was significantly poorer in the CP group. In the TD group, there was an association between greater inhibitory control (but not cognitive flexibility or working memory) and drawing quality. In the CP group, although non-significant, medium-sized correlations were observed between drawing and several aspects of executive functioning. Overall, our results suggest more similarities than differences in the executive functioning of children with CP (and preserved cognitive ability) and TD children. However, there were still important between-group differences in their drawing abilities. There was also a distinct pattern of associations between drawing and executive functions in the clinical group.

Executive Function and Attention Performance in Children with ADHD: Effects of Medication and Comparison with Typically Developing Children

The emerging literature reports that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show deficits in executive functioning. To date, the combination of drug therapy with certain evidence-based non-medication interventions has been proven to be the most effective treatment for ADHD. There is a gap in the literature regarding comparing the executive functions (EF) of treatment naïve and medicated children with ADHD with both each other and typically developing children. Altogether, 50 treatment naïve and 50 medicated children with ADHD and 50 typically developing children between the ages of six and 12 were enrolled. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (Mini Kid) and the Test of Attentional Performance for Children (KiTAP) measures were employed. Treatment naïve children with ADHD showed weaker performance on most executive function measures (12 out of 15) than either the medicated ADHD group or the controls. There were no significant differences between the medicated ADHD children and typically developing children in most KiTAP parameters (10 out of 15). Executive function impairments were observable in treatment naïve ADHD children, which draws attention to the importance of treating ADHD. Future studies should focus on the specific effects of stimulant medication on executive functions.

Coherence and content of relating emotions to life events in autism spectrum disorder and typical development: a cross-sectional age study

Understanding one's own emotions is an important part of social-emotional development in early childhood. Few studies have looked at the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to relate their own emotions to previous life events. Our previous study showed that the description of events that elicited specific emotions is qualitatively and quantitatively different in ASD in comparison to typically developing (TD) pre-adolescents. The current study evaluated differences in coherence and content of responses to questions on emotions in ASD and TD in two age groups. The evaluation was based on the section on Emotions of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Module 3 test. The study included 96 boys, 48 diagnosed with ASD (IQ≥85) and 48 TD children, divided into younger (6:0-8:0y) and older (8:2-11:0y) groups. Young TD children were able to give coherent responses to questions on experiences that evoked basic emotions. Children with ASD gave fewer coherent responses and more 'no response' and 'odd' responses across the examined age range. Only in the TD group was the level of vocabulary associated with the number of coherent statements. TD children gave more responses with content related to interpersonal relationships, self-awareness and social events than children with ASD. Deficits in coherence and content of responses to questions on emotions related to previous life events derive from the core deficits of ASD. The significant quantitative and qualitative gap that exists between ASD and TD may be useful during the diagnostic process of ASD in childhood.

Changes in semantic fluency across childhood: Normative data from Australian-English speakers

PURPOSE

Verbal fluency tests are often used as part of an assessment battery to investigate children's lexical knowledge as well as executive function skills. To date, however, issues surrounding consistency of measurement cloud comparisons across studies, with the developmental performance of Australian-English speaking children also currently lacking. This study tracked verbal fluency development as measured by two semantic fluency tasks that included coding of fluency, clustering and switching type responses.

METHOD

Participants included 355 typically developing Australian-English speaking children (4-10 years) and 46 young adults. Total fluency was determined by the number of words produced for each category (Animals or Food), minus repetitions and rule violations. Semantic clusters (words generated within a subcategory) were coded while switches between single words or subcategories were differentiated and coded as either hard or cluster switches.

RESULT

Fluency showed consistent improvement over age. Cluster Switches and Hard Switches showed some evidence of a plateau in performance relative to fluency, but in opposite direction. Other measures showed no strong trends over age. Results were similar for both semantic categories.

CONCLUSION

Our results highlight the rich information available within a semantic fluency task and the importance of differentiating hard and cluster switches in paediatric samples.

Connectivity dynamics in typical development and its relationship to autistic traits and autism spectrum disorder

Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques have provided significant insights into developmental trajectories of human brain function. Characterizations of typical neurodevelopment provide a framework for understanding altered neurodevelopment, including differences in brain function related to developmental disorders and psychopathology. Historically, most functional connectivity studies of typical and atypical development operate under the assumption that connectivity remains static over time. We hypothesized that relaxing stationarity assumptions would reveal novel features of both typical brain development related to children on the autism spectrum. We employed a "chronnectomic" (recurring, time-varying patterns of connectivity) approach to evaluate transient states of connectivity using resting-state functional MRI in a population-based sample of 774 6- to 10-year-old children. Dynamic connectivity was evaluated using a sliding-window approach, and revealed four transient states. Internetwork connectivity increased with age in modularized dynamic states, illustrating an important pattern of connectivity in the developing brain. Furthermore, we demonstrated that higher levels of autistic traits and ASD diagnosis were associated with longer dwell times in a globally disconnected state. These results provide a roadmap to the chronnectomic organization of the developing brain and suggest that characteristics of functional brain connectivity are related to children on the autism spectrum.

Differences between the production of [s] and [ʃ] in the speech of adults, typically developing children, and children with speech sound disorders: An ultrasound study

This study describes the criteria that are used in ultrasound to measure the differences between the tongue contours that produce [s] and [ʃ] sounds in the speech of adults, typically developing children (TDC), and children with speech sound disorder (SSD) with the phonological process of palatal fronting. Overlapping images of the tongue contours that resulted from 35 subjects producing the [s] and [ʃ] sounds were analysed to select 11 spokes on the radial grid that were spread over the tongue contour. The difference was calculated between the mean contour of the [s] and [ʃ] sounds for each spoke. A cluster analysis produced groups with some consistency in the pattern of articulation across subjects and differentiated adults and TDC to some extent and children with SSD with a high level of success. Children with SSD were less likely to show differentiation of the tongue contours between the articulation of [s] and [ʃ].

Does somatosensation change with age in children and adolescents? A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Somatosensory modalities, such as touch, proprioception and haptic ability, greatly influence the achievement of developmental milestones for children. Describing somatosensory impairment, natural variability and typical or expected developmental changes across age groups will help establish frameworks for intervention in clinical populations. This systematic review aimed to determine how different somatosensory modalities develop across childhood into adolescence to use as a point of reference for children at risk of somatosensory impairment.

METHODS

Searches of five electronic databases were undertaken through EBSCO-host (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and ERIC) for studies measuring at least one somatosensory modality in typically developing individuals between birth and 18 years and analysed by age. Characteristics of studies were collected including country of origin, sample size, demographics and outcome measure used. Quality assessment and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers.

RESULTS

Twenty three cross-sectional studies were included from a total of 188 articles retrieved: 8 examined aspects of touch, 5 proprioception and 10 haptic ability. Variability of study designs and variation in assessment tools precluded any formal meta-analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Somatosensation matures through childhood into adolescence; however, the present review found the pattern of somatosensory development varied depending on the assessment tool used and the aspect of somatosensation being measured, making it difficult to describe typical performance. There is a need for comprehensive assessment batteries to measure the somatosensation, including touch, proprioception and haptic ability, of children at risk of somatosensory impairment to aid in the development of effective interventions.

Comparison of a direct and an indirect approach for the functional assessment of insistence on sameness in a child with autism spectrum disorder and a typically developing child

OBJECTIVE

To compare indirect and direct functional assessment of insistence on sameness associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical development.

METHODS

Parents rated the function of insistence on sameness for a 6-year-old boy with ASD (Peter) and a typically developing 4-year-old boy (Nathan) using the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS). Ratings were compared to the results of a direct assessment.

RESULTS

The results of the assessment procedures were mainly consistent for Peter and suggested that his tendency to insist on sameness was maintained by sensory consequences. The finding of an attention function for Nathan in the play-based assessment was consistent with previous functional assessment studies surrounding typically developing children, but in contrast to the MAS.

CONCLUSION

While the play-based assessment may be more suitable for assessing the high rate insistence on sameness observed in individuals with ASD, the MAS may be more suitable for low rate insistence on sameness.

Relationship between repetitive behaviour and fear across normative development, autism spectrum disorder, and down syndrome

The present study had two aims: first to compare levels of restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) across two groups of typically developing (TD) children, and two disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS), and second to explore the relationship between fear and repetitive behaviours in these four groups. Parents of 41 offspring with ASD (M_age  = 123.39 months, SD_age  = 27.67), 38 offspring with DS (M_age  = 125.37 months, SD_age  = 45.71), 45 typically developing children matched to the mental age (MA) of the DS group (TD MA; M_age  = 51.13 months, SD_age  = 22.1), and 42 chronological age (TD CA; M_age  = 117.93 months, SD_age  = 22.91) matched TD children, completed measures of RRB and fear. ANOVAs revealed differences across the four groups on the RRB subscale scores: "Just Right" F(3,162) = 16.62, P < 0.001; Rigid Routines F(3,162) = 52.76, P < 0.001; Sensory behaviours F(3,162) = 23.26, P < 0.001. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that children with ASD had the highest RRB levels followed by DS, TD MA, and TD CA children. In children with ASD, higher levels of fear were related to higher RRB levels. Similar, albeit less strong, patterns of associations was found among DS and TD MA children but not in older TD CA children. This study provided evidence of a fear-RRB association in children with ASD, DS, and two groups of TD children. Autism Res 2017, 10: 502-507. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Animals may act as social buffers: Skin conductance arousal in children with autism spectrum disorder in a social context

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience high rates of social stress and anxious arousal. Preliminary evidence suggests that companion animals can act as buffers against the adverse effects of social stress in adults. We measured continuous physiological arousal in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children in a social context during four conditions: (a) a baseline of reading silently, (b) a scripted classroom activity involving reading aloud, (c) free play with peers and toys, and (d) free play with peers and animals (guinea pigs). Our results confirmed heightened arousal among children with ASD compared to TD children in all conditions, except when the animals were present. Children with ASD showed a 43% decrease in skin conductance responses during free play with peers in the presence of animals, compared to toys. Thus, animals may act as social buffers for children with ASD, conferring unique anxiolytic effects.

Inter-word variability of Hungarian affricates /ʦ, ʧ/ in the speech of monolingual children with and without language disorders

This study focuses on the characteristics of inter-word variability (IWV) with respect to two Hungarian affricates (/ʦ, ʧ/) produced by children with typical language development (children with TD) aged 3;0-5;11, and those with primary expressive language disorders (children with LD) with the mean age of 6;7. IWV is described in terms of frequency of occurrence, the segments realised in place of the targets and the error patterns resulting in variable production. Findings revealed that variability is characteristic of the production of /ʧ/ in younger children with TD, and of both affricates in children with LD. Beside some similarities, children with TD and those with LD differed from each other in the way in which variable productions emerged. Children with TD committed errors typical of their age, and their IWV mostly reflected developmental changes. Children with LD, however, demonstrated some indicators of phonological disorders such as the persistence of normal simplifications and chronological mismatch.

Investigating the interaction between low and intermediate levels of spatial vision at different periods of development

Although much research has investigated the visual development of lower (local) and higher levels (global) of processing in isolation, less is known about the developmental interactions between mechanisms mediating early- and intermediate-level vision. The objective of this study was to evaluate the development of intermediate-level vision by assessing the ability to discriminate circular shapes (global) whose contour was defined by different local attributes: luminance and texture. School-aged children, adolescents, and adults were asked to discriminate a deformed circle (radial frequency patterns or RFP) from a circle. RFPs varied as a function of (a) number of bumps or curvatures (radial frequency of three, five, and 10) and (b) the physical attribute (luminance or texture) that defined the contour. Deformation thresholds were measured for each radial frequency and attribute condition. In general, results indicated that when compared to adolescents and adults children performed worse only when luminance-defined shapes had fewer curvatures (i.e., three and five), but for texture-defined shapes, children performed worse across all types of radial frequencies (three, five, and 10). This suggests that sensitivity to global shapes mediated by intermediate level vision is differentially affected by the type of local information defining the global shape at different periods of development.

fMRI of syntactic processing in typically developing children: structural correlates in the inferior frontal gyrus

Development of syntactic processing was examined to evaluate maturational processes including left language lateralization functions and increased specialization of brain regions important for syntactic processing. We utilized multimodal methods, including indices of brain activity from fMRI during a syntactic processing task, cortical thickness measurements from structural MRI, and neuropsychological measures. To evaluate hypotheses about increasing lateralization and specialization with development, we examined relationships between cortical thickness and magnitude and spatial activation extent within the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and its right hemisphere homologue. We predicted that increased activation in the left and decreased activation in the right IFG would be associated with increased syntactic proficiency. As predicted, a more mature pattern of increased thickness in the right pars triangularis was associated with decreased activation intensity and extent in the right IFG. These findings suggest a maturational shift towards decreased involvement of the right IFG for syntactic processing. Better syntactic skills were associated with increased activation in the left IFG independent from age, suggesting increased specialization of the left IFG with increased proficiency. Overall, our findings show relationships between structural and functional neurodevelopment that co-occur with improved syntactic processing in critical language regions of the IFG in typically developing children.

Developmental trajectories of the corpus callosum in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

BACKGROUND

It was recently found that the development of typical patterns of prefrontal, but not posterior, cortical asymmetry is disrupted in right-handed youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using longitudinal data, we tested the hypothesis that there would be a congruent disruption in the growth of the anterior corpus callosum, which contains white matter tracts connecting prefrontal cortical regions.

METHODS

Areas of five subregions of the corpus callosum were quantified using a semiautomated method from 828 neuroanatomic magnetic resonance scans acquired from 236 children and adolescents with ADHD (429 scans) and 230 typically developing youth (399 scans), most of whom had repeated neuroimaging. Growth rates of each diagnostic group were defined using mixed-model linear regression.

RESULTS

Right-handed participants with ADHD showed a significantly higher rate of growth in the anterior-most region of the corpus callosum (estimated annual increase in area of .97%, SEM .12%) than their typically developing peers (annual increase in area of .32% SEM .13%; t = 3.64, p = .0003). No significant diagnostic differences in growth rates were found in any other regions in right-handed participants, and no significant diagnostic differences were found in non-right-handed participants.

CONCLUSIONS

As hypothesized, we found anomalous growth trajectories in the anterior corpus callosum in ADHD. This disrupted anterior callosal growth may reflect, or even drive, the previously reported disruption in the development of prefrontal cortex asymmetry. The finding documents the dynamic, age-dependent nature of callosal and congruent prefrontal cortical abnormalities characterizing ADHD.

fork": examining central coherence in autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and typical development with a linguistic task

A local processing bias, referred to as "weak central coherence," has been postulated to underlie key aspects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little research has examined whether individual differences in this cognitive style can be found in typical development, independent of intelligence, and how local processing relates to executive control. We present a brief and easy-to-administer test of coherence requiring global sentence completions. We report results from three studies assessing (a) 176 typically developing (TD) 8- to 25-year-olds, (b) individuals with ASD and matched controls, and (c) matched groups with ASD or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The results suggest that the Sentence Completion Task can reveal individual differences in cognitive style unrelated to IQ in typical development, that most (but not all) people with ASD show weak coherence on this task, and that performance is not related to inhibitory control. The Sentence Completion Task was found to be a useful test instrument, capable of tapping local processing bias in a range of populations.