In the beginning was the song: The complex multimodal timing of mother-infant musical interaction

In this commentary we raise three issues: (1) Is it motherese or song that sets the stage for very early mother-infant interaction? (2) Does the infant play a pivotal role in the complex temporal structure of social interaction? (3) Is the vocal channel primordial or do other modalities play an equally important role in social interaction

Introduction: Williams syndrome: A model for the neuroconstructivist approach

This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to serve as a paradigm for multidisciplinary, neuroconstructivist approaches to a wide range of other syndromes, taking the neurodevelopmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) as a model syndrome. It then discusses the neuroconstructivist approach to neurodevelopmental disorders. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented

Children's working understanding of the knowledge gained from seeing and feeling

In three Experiments, (N = 48 3- to 4-year olds; 100 3- to 5-year olds; 54 4-yearolds), children who could see or feel a target toy, recognized when they had sufficient information to answer “Which one is it?” and when they needed additional access. They were weaker at taking the informative modality of access when the choice was between seeing more of a partially visible toy and feeling it; at doing so when the target was completely hidden; and at reporting seeing or feeling as their source of knowledge of the target’s identity having experienced both. Working understanding of the knowledge gained from seeing and feeling (identifying the target efficiently) was not necessarily in advance of explicit understanding (reporting the informative source)

Environmental and genetic influences on neurocognitive development: the importance of multiple methodologies and time-dependent intervention

Genetic mutations and environmental factors dynamically influence gene expression and developmental trajectories at the neural, cognitive, and behavioral levels. The examples in this article cover different periods of neurocognitive development—early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood—and focus on studies in which researchers have used a variety of methodologies to illustrate the early effects of socioeconomic status and stress on brain function, as well as how allelic differences explain why some individuals respond to intervention and others do not. These studies highlight how similar behaviors can be driven by different underlying neural processes and show how a neurocomputational model of early development can account for neurodevelopmental syndromes, such as autism spectrum disorders, with novel implications for intervention. Finally, these studies illustrate the importance of the timing of environmental and genetic factors on development, consistent with our view that phenotypes are emergent, not predetermined

Understanding number line estimation in Williams syndrome and Down syndrome

Previous studies suggest that tasks dependent on the mental number line may be difficult for Williams Syndrome (WS) and Down Syndrome (DS) groups. However, few have directly assessed number line estimation in these groups. The current study assessed 28 WS, 25 DS and 25 typically developing (TD) participants in non-verbal intelligence, number familiarity, visuo-spatial skills and number line estimation. Group comparisons indicated no differences in number line estimation. However, the WS group displayed difficulties with visuo-spatial skills and the DS group displayed difficulties with number familiarity. Differential relationships between number line estimation and visuo-spatial/number familiarity skills were observed across groups. Data is discussed in the context of assessment of skills in neurodevelopmental disorders

Sensitivity to consciousness: the morphological knowledge and model of redescription representational

The present investigation is dedicated to the study of the Brazilian Portuguese children’s morphological knowledge and its relation with levels of mental representations as postulated by the Representational Redescription model (KARMILOFF-SMITH, 1992). The data consist of regularized verbal forms, changes of inflectional suffixes as well as lexical novelty (morphological variant forms) taken from spontaneous speech and of three morphological tests, which involve derivation and inflection of nonce words, extraction of nonce base from derived nonce words, and judgment of words as well as a metalinguistic explanation. The survey of the responses reveals morphological knowledge that goes from sensitivity – morphological variant forms – to linguistic awareness – morphology tests. Thus, the data pointed to the plausibility of all the different levels of representation across development. In our view, this work embodies a first step towards an explanation of the mental representations that underlie both the comprehension and production of children’s growing morphological knowledge and goes beyond the simple implicit/explicit dichotomy used in most previous work

Feasibility of undertaking off-site infant eye-tracking assessments of neuro-cognitive functioning in early-intervention centres

Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development are already identifiable in 6- to 9-month-old infants from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early SES-related differences in neuro-cognitive functioning requires the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is often difficult to persuade low-SES parents to come to a university setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention children’s centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the increasing portability of eye-tracking equipment, assessment of large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably trained early intervention staff. Here we report on a study involving 174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach, We report the processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment. We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself. We report the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of parents, and infants. We conclude that this approach has great potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide, provides sufficiently reliable data, and is engaging to staff, parents and infants

Attention deficits predict phenotypic outcomes in syndrome-specific and domain-specific ways

Attentional difficulties, both at home and in the classroom, are reported across a number of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, exactly how attention influences early socio-cognitive learning remains unclear. We addressed this question both concurrently and longitudinally in a cross-syndrome design, with respect to the communicative domain of vocabulary and to the cognitive domain of early literacy, and then extended the analysis to social behavior. Participants were young children (aged 4–9 years at Time 1) with either Williams syndrome (WS, N = 26) or Down syndrome (DS, N = 26) and typically developing controls (N = 103). Children with WS displayed significantly greater attentional deficits (as indexed by teacher report of behavior typical of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than children with DS, but both groups had greater attentional problems than the controls. Despite their attention differences, children with DS and those with WS were equivalent in their cognitive abilities of reading single words, both at Time 1 and 12 months later, at Time 2, although they differed in their early communicative abilities in terms of vocabulary. Greater ADHD-like behaviors predicted poorer subsequent literacy for children with DS, but not for children with WS, pointing to syndrome-specific attentional constraints on specific aspects of early development. Overall, our findings highlight the need to investigate more precisely whether and, if so, how, syndrome-specific profiles of behavioral difficulties constrain learning and socio-cognitive outcomes across different domains

Parent-child interaction as a dynamic contributor to learning and cognitive development in typical and atypical development / Influencia dinámica entre la interacción padre/madre-hijo y el aprendizaje y el desarrollo cognitivo en el desarrollo típico y atípico

Converging evidence suggests that parent-infant interaction is one of the most crucial formative influences on child development. In neurodevelopmental disorders, however, different timings and trajectories of development may add a layer of difficulty to the existing challenges of dyadic interaction. The current study therefore set out to compare the specific aspects of dyadic interaction (i.e., responsiveness, directiveness, attentiveness, positive affect, liveliness, mutuality and engagement) between parent-infant dyads with Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typical development. Video clips of parent-infant play interaction were rated using a validated tool, namely, the Social Interaction Measure for Parents and Infants. Significant effects emerged with respect to infant group on the quality of dyadic interaction, with the multiple comparison tests revealing differences between atypically and typically developing infant-parent dyads. The findings are discussed in relation to the effects of dyadic interaction on the linguistic and socio-cognitive development of atypical children