Kansainvälisen adoption muutos Suomessa: aiempaa vähemmän lapsia mutta enemmän eriasteisia erityistarpeita

Kansainvälisen adoption kautta vuosittain Suomeen tulevien lasten määrä on pienentynyt sadoista lapsista kymmeniin, joista suurin osa on erityistarpeisia. Erityistarpeiden kirjo on laaja ja käsittää esimerkiksi leikkauksella korjattavia rakennepoikkeamia, sydänvikoja, kehitysviivästymiä ja aistiongelmia. Kun vuoden 2012 adoptiolaki rajoitti lasten ja vanhempien ikäeroa, siitä seurasi, että ulkomailta adoptoidaan myös aikaisempaa vanhempia lapsia, jopa kouluikäisiä. Kaikkia lapsia - myös terveitä - yhdistää vähintään yksi hylkäämiskokemus. Jotkut lapset ovat kokeneet useita hylkäämisiä, vaille jäämistä ja kaltoinkohtelua. Tämä tekee kansainväliseen adoptioon tulevista lapsista erityistarpeisia, joten adoptoituja kohtaavalta lääkäriltä vaaditaan erityisosaamista

Associations between lexicon and grammar at the end of the second year in Finnish children

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Kansainvälisen adoption muutos Suomessa : aiempaa vähemmän lapsia mutta enemmän eriasteisia erityistarpeita

Vertaisarvioitu.Kansainvälisen adoption kautta vuosittain Suomeen tulevien lasten määrä on pienentynyt sadoista lapsista kymmeniin, joista suurin osa on erityistarpeisia. Erityistarpeiden kirjo on laaja ja käsittää esimerkiksi leikkauksella korjattavia rakennepoikkeamia, sydänvikoja, kehitysviivästymiä ja aistiongelmia. Kun vuoden 2012 adoptiolaki rajoitti lasten ja vanhempien ikäeroa, siitä seurasi, että ulkomailta adoptoidaan myös aikaisempaa vanhempia lapsia, jopa kouluikäisiä. Kaikkia lapsia - myös terveitä - yhdistää vähintään yksi hylkäämiskokemus. Jotkut lapset ovat kokeneet useita hylkäämisiä, vaille jäämistä ja kaltoinkohtelua. Tämä tekee kansainväliseen adoptioon tulevista lapsista erityistarpeisia, joten adoptoituja kohtaavalta lääkäriltä vaaditaan erityisosaamista.Peer reviewe

Early lexical development of Finnish children: A longitudinal study

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Do the Temperamental Characteristics of Both Mother and Child Influence the Well-Being of Adopted and Non-Adopted Children?

(1) Background: For decades, the temperaments of infants and small children have been a focus of studies in human development and been seen as a potential contributor to children’s developmental patterns. However, less is known about the interplay between the temperamental characteristics of mothers and their children in the context of explaining variations in developmental outcomes. The aim of our study was to explore the associations—with or without genetic links—of the temperaments and psychological distress of mothers and the temperaments of children with behavioral problems in a group of internationally adopted children and their adoptive mothers and in a group of non-adopted children and their mothers. (2) Methods: Data (n = 170) were derived from the ongoing Finnish Adoption (FinAdo) follow-up study. The children included were under the age of 7 years; 74 were adopted internationally through legal agencies between October 2010 and December 2016, and the remaining 96 were non-adopted children living with their birth parents (biological group) recruited from day-care centers. We used Mary Rothbart’s temperament questionnaires to assess temperament, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to obtain data on the children’s behavioral/emotional problems and competencies, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) to assess parental psychological distress. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland, and written informed consent was obtained from the parents and the children themselves. (3) Results: The negative affectivities of both mothers and children were associated with the total CBCL and with both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors after adjusting for age, gender, and adoption status. Both relationships remained significant when tested simultaneously, suggesting additive effects. Maternal negative affect was associated with problem behavior irrespective of child extraversion/surgency. Child extraversion/surgency was associated with lower levels of all internalizing behavioral problems when adjusted for maternal sociability. Child negative affect was associated with all behavioral problem measures irrespective of maternal sociability or maternal psychological distress. Maternal distress was associated with child problem behaviors only in children with low extraversion/surgency. (4) Limitations: The sample size was relatively small, and the information was gathered solely with questionnaires. (5) Conclusions: The results of the study may be clinically significant. Child negative affect, maternal negative affect, and maternal experienced distress, combined with low child extraversion/surgency, may increase the risk of child problem behaviors in both adoptees and non-adoptees

Normative values for sleep parameters in pre-schoolers using actigraphy

Objective: There are currently no reference values for actigraphy-measured sleep length and fragmentation in preschool children. We created standardized parameters using a community sample. Methods: Ninety-seven 2-to-6-year-old children (56 boys) wore an actigraph on their non-dominant wrist for seven days. The data was extracted and scored, calculating total sleep time, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, fragmentation index, circadian rhythm length, cosine peak and light/dark ratio. Subjects were divided into groups of 2-3-year-olds, 4-5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and reference values were created using the 2.5th and the 97.5th percentiles. Results: Reference intervals were 7 h 23 min-9 h 47 min for 24-hour total sleep time, 0.2-48.4 min for sleep latency, 69-87% for sleep efficiency, 23-53% for fragmentation index, 23 h 39 min-24 h 24 min for circadian rhythm length, 12: 37-15: 53 for the timing of the cosine peak, and 1.14-5.63 for the light-dark ratio. With increasing age, daily sleep time, sleep latency, sleep fragmentation, and napping decreased. Conclusions: We were able to create previously non-established reference values, including trends with increasing age, on actigraphy-assessed sleep in preschool children. Significance: Sleep disorders in young children are easier to evaluate against normative data. (C) 2018 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Do the Temperamental Characteristics of Both Mother and Child Influence the Well-Being of Adopted and Non-Adopted Children?

(1) Background: For decades, the temperaments of infants and small children have been a focus of studies in human development and been seen as a potential contributor to children’s developmental patterns. However, less is known about the interplay between the temperamental characteristics of mothers and their children in the context of explaining variations in developmental outcomes. The aim of our study was to explore the associations—with or without genetic links—of the temperaments and psychological distress of mothers and the temperaments of children with behavioral problems in a group of internationally adopted children and their adoptive mothers and in a group of non-adopted children and their mothers. (2) Methods: Data (n = 170) were derived from the ongoing Finnish Adoption (FinAdo) follow-up study. The children included were under the age of 7 years; 74 were adopted internationally through legal agencies between October 2010 and December 2016, and the remaining 96 were non-adopted children living with their birth parents (biological group) recruited from day-care centers. We used Mary Rothbart’s temperament questionnaires to assess temperament, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to obtain data on the children’s behavioral/emotional problems and competencies, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) to assess parental psychological distress. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland, and written informed consent was obtained from the parents and the children themselves. (3) Results: The negative affectivities of both mothers and children were associated with the total CBCL and with both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors after adjusting for age, gender, and adoption status. Both relationships remained significant when tested simultaneously, suggesting additive effects. Maternal negative affect was associated with problem behavior irrespective of child extraversion/surgency. Child extraversion/surgency was associated with lower levels of all internalizing behavioral problems when adjusted for maternal sociability. Child negative affect was associated with all behavioral problem measures irrespective of maternal sociability or maternal psychological distress. Maternal distress was associated with child problem behaviors only in children with low extraversion/surgency. (4) Limitations: The sample size was relatively small, and the information was gathered solely with questionnaires. (5) Conclusions: The results of the study may be clinically significant. Child negative affect, maternal negative affect, and maternal experienced distress, combined with low child extraversion/surgency, may increase the risk of child problem behaviors in both adoptees and non-adoptees

Neonatal brainstem auditory function associates with early receptive language development in preterm children

Aim: To study whether auditory function measured with brainstem auditory evoked potential and brainstem audiometry recordings in the neonatal period associates with language development 1 year later in preterm infants.Methods: This retrospective study included 155 preterm infants (birthweight ≤1500 g and/or birth ≤32 gestational weeks) born between 2007 and 2012 at the Turku University Hospital. Auditory function was recorded in neonatal period. Information of language development was gathered at the mean corrected age of 1 year by using the Finnish version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory.Results: Slower auditory processing (longer interpeak interval, IPI I-V) in the right ear in the neonatal brainstem auditory evoked potential recording associated with smaller receptive lexicon size at 1 year (P = .043). Infants with longer IPI I-V were more likely to have a deviant (≤17 words) receptive lexicon size (P = .033). The ab-sence of a contralateral response with right ear stimulation increased the risk for deviant lexicon size (P = .049).Conclusion: The results suggest that impaired auditory function in the neonatal pe-riod in preterm infants may lead to a poorer receptive language outcome 1 year later. Auditory pathway function assessment provides information for the identification of preterm children at risk for weak language development.Peer reviewe

The effects of maternal depression on their perception of emotional and behavioral problems of their internationally adopted children

Background Even though child psychopathology assessment guidelines emphasize comprehensive multi-method, multimodal, and multi-informant methodologies, maternal-report symptom-rating scales often serve as the predominant source of information. Research has shown that parental mood symptomatology affects their reports of their offspring's psychopathology. For example, the depression-distortion hypothesis suggests that maternal depression promotes a negative bias in mothers' perceptions of their children's behavioral and emotional problems. We investigated this difference of perception between adoptive mothers and internationally adopted children. Most previous studies suffer from the potential bias caused by the fact that parents and children share genetic risks. Methods Data were derived from the Finnish Adoption (FinAdo) survey study (a subsample of adopted children aged between 9 and 12 years, n = 222). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess emotional and behavioral problems and competences of the adopted children. The CBCL was filled in by the adopted children and the adoptive mothers, respectively. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the short version of the General Health Questionnaire. Results On average, mothers reported less total CBCL symptoms in their children than the children themselves (0.25 vs 0.38, p-value < 0.01 for difference). Mothers' depressive symptoms moderated the discrepancy in reporting internalizing symptoms (beta = - 0.14 and p-value 0.01 for interaction) and the total symptoms scores (beta = - 0.22 and p-value < 0.001 for interaction) and externalizing symptoms in girls in the CBCL. Limitations The major limitation of our study is its cross-sectional design and the fact that we only collected data in the form of questionnaires. Conclusions The results of our research support the depression-distortion hypothesis concerning the association of maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms in girls in a sample without genetic biasPeer reviewe

Do the early development of gestures and receptive and expressive language predict language skills at 5;0 in prematurely born very-low-birth-weight children?

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