Reliability and predictive validity of the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment neurological scale

AIM: To assess reliability and predictive validity of the neurological scale of the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA), a recently developed assessment for infants aged 6 weeks to 12 months. METHOD: To assess reliability, three assessors independently rated video-recorded neurological assessments of 24 infants twice. Item difficulty and discrimination were determined. To evaluate predictive validity, 181 infants (median gestational age 30wks [range 22-41wks]; 92 males, 89 females) attending a non-academic outpatient clinic were assessed with SINDA's neurological scale (28 dichotomized items). Atypical neurodevelopmental outcome at 24 months or older corrected age implied a Bayley Mental Developmental Index or Psychomotor Developmental Index lower than 70 or a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP). Predictive values were calculated from SINDA (2-12mo corrected age, median 3mo) and typical versus atypical outcome. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients of intrarater and interrater agreement of the neurological score varied between 0.923 and 0.965. Item difficulty and discrimination were satisfactory. At 24 months or older, 56 children (31%) had an atypical outcome (29 had CP). Atypical neurological scores (below 25th centile, ≤21) predicted atypical outcome and CP with sensitivities of 89% and 100%, and specificities of 94% and 81% respectively. INTERPRETATION: SINDA's neurological scale is reliable and in a non-academic outpatient setting has a satisfactory predictive validity for atypical developmental outcome, including CP, at 24 months or older. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: The Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment's neurological scale has a good to excellent reliability. The scale has promising predictive validity for cerebral palsy. The scale has promising predictive validity for other types of atypical developmental outcome

Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment developmental and socio-emotional scales:reliability and predictive value in an at-risk population

AIM: To assess the reliability and predictive validity of the developmental and socio-emotional scales of the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA). METHOD: To assess reliability, two sets of three assessors forming eight assessor-pairs independently rated the developmental and socio-emotional scales of 60 infants. To evaluate predictive validity, 223 infants (gestational age 30wks [range 23-41wks]; 117 males, 106 females) attending a non-academic outpatient clinic were assessed by different assessors with SINDA's neurological, developmental, and socio-emotional scales. Atypical neurodevelopmental outcome at a corrected age of 24 months or older implied a Bayley Mental or Psychomotor Developmental Index score of less than 70 or neurological disorder (including cerebral palsy). Behavioural and emotional disorders were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Predictive values were calculated from SINDA (2-12mo corrected age, median 7mo) and typical versus atypical outcome, and for intellectual disability only (Mental Developmental Index <70). RESULTS: Assessors highly agreed on the developmental and socio-emotional assessments (developmental scores: Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ρ=0.972; single socio-emotional behaviour items: Cohen's κ=0.783-0.896). At 24 months or older, 65 children had atypical outcome. Atypical neurological scores predicted atypical outcome (sensitivity 83%, specificity 96%); atypical developmental scores predicted intellectual disability (sensitivity 77%, specificity 92%). Atypical emotionality and atypical self-regulation were associated with behavioural and emotional disorders. INTERPRETATION: SINDA's three scales are reliable, and have a satisfactory predictive validity for atypical developmental outcome at 24 months or older in a non-academic outpatient setting. SINDA's developmental scale has promising predictive validity for intellectual disability. SINDA's socio-emotional scale is a tool for caregiver counselling. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA)'s developmental and socio-emotional scales have excellent interrater reliability. Replication of the satisfactory validity of SINDA's neurological scale for atypical outcome

Effects of music therapy in the treatment of children with delayed speech development - results of a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Language development is one of the most significant processes of early childhood development. Children with delayed speech development are more at risk of acquiring other cognitive, social-emotional, and school-related problems. Music therapy appears to facilitate speech development in children, even within a short period of time. The aim of this pilot study is to explore the effects of music therapy in children with delayed speech development.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 18 children aged 3.5 to 6 years with delayed speech development took part in this observational study in which music therapy and no treatment were compared to demonstrate effectiveness. Individual music therapy was provided on an outpatient basis. An ABAB reversal design with alternations between music therapy and no treatment with an interval of approximately eight weeks between the blocks was chosen. Before and after each study period, a speech development test, a non-verbal intelligence test for children, and music therapy assessment scales were used to evaluate the speech development of the children.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to the baseline, we found a positive development in the study group after receiving music therapy. Both phonological capacity and the children's understanding of speech increased under treatment, as well as their cognitive structures, action patterns, and level of intelligence. Throughout the study period, developmental age converged with their biological age. Ratings according to the Nordoff-Robbins scales showed clinically significant changes in the children, namely in the areas of client-therapist relationship and communication.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that music therapy may have a measurable effect on the speech development of children through the treatment's interactions with fundamental aspects of speech development, including the ability to form and maintain relationships and prosodic abilities. Thus, music therapy may provide a basic and supportive therapy for children with delayed speech development. Further studies should be conducted to investigate the mechanisms of these interactions in greater depth.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>The trial is registered in the German clinical trials register; Trial-No.: DRKS00000343</p

Predictive value of subclinical autistic traits at age 14–15 months for behavioural and cognitive problems at age 3–5 years

It is unclear whether subclinical autistic traits at very young age are transient or stable, and have clinical relevance. This study investigated the relationship between early subclinical autistic traits and the occurrence of later developmental and behavioural problems as well as problems in cognitive and language functioning. Parents of infants aged 14–15 months from the general population completed the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT). Three groups of children with high, moderate, and low ESAT-scores (total n = 103) were selected. Follow-up assessments included the CBCL 1½–5 at age 3 years, and the SCQ, the ADI-R, the ADOS-G, a non-verbal intelligence test, and language tests for comprehension and production at age 4–5 years. None of the children met criteria for autism spectrum disorder at follow-up. Children with high ESAT-scores at 14–15 months showed significantly more internalizing and externalizing problems at age 3 years and scored significantly lower on language tests at age 4–5 years than children with moderate or low ESAT-scores. Further, significantly more children with high ESAT-scores (14/26, 53.8%) than with moderate and low ESAT-scores (5/36, 13.9% and 1/41, 2.4%, respectively) were in the high-risk/clinical range on one or more outcome domains (autistic symptoms, behavioural problems, cognitive and language abilities). Subclinical autistic traits at 14–15 months predict later behavioural problems and delays in cognitive and language functioning rather than later ASD-diagnoses. The theoretical implications of the findings lie in the pivotal role of early social and communication skills for the development of self-regulation of emotions and impulses. The practical implications bear on the early recognition of children at risk for behavioural problems and for language and cognitive problems

Developing "personality" taxonomies: Metatheoretical and methodological rationales underlying selection approaches, methods of data generation and reduction principles

Taxonomic "personality" models are widely used in research and applied fields. This article applies the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) to scrutinise the three methodological steps that are required for developing comprehensive “personality” taxonomies: 1) the approaches used to select the phenomena and events to be studied, 2) the methods used to generate data about the selected phenomena and events and 3) the reduction principles used to extract the “most important” individual-specific variations for constructing “personality” taxonomies. Analyses of some currently popular taxonomies reveal frequent mismatches between the researchers’ explicit and implicit metatheories about “personality” and the abilities of previous methodologies to capture the particular kinds of phenomena toward which they are targeted. Serious deficiencies that preclude scientific quantifications are identified in standardised questionnaires, psychology’s established standard method of investigation. These mismatches and deficiencies derive from the lack of an explicit formulation and critical reflection on the philosophical and metatheoretical assumptions being made by scientists and from the established practice of radically matching the methodological tools to researchers’ preconceived ideas and to pre-existing statistical theories rather than to the particular phenomena and individuals under study. These findings raise serious doubts about the ability of previous taxonomies to appropriately and comprehensively reflect the phenomena towards which they are targeted and the structures of individual-specificity occurring in them. The article elaborates and illustrates with empirical examples methodological principles that allow researchers to appropriately meet the metatheoretical requirements and that are suitable for comprehensively exploring individuals’ “personality”

Conceiving “personality”: Psychologist’s challenges and basic fundamentals of the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals

Scientists exploring individuals, as such scientists are individuals themselves and thus not independent from their objects of research, encounter profound challenges; in particular, high risks for anthropo-, ethno- and ego-centric biases and various fallacies in reasoning. The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) aims to tackle these challenges by exploring and making explicit the philosophical presuppositions that are being made and the metatheories and methodologies that are used in the field. This article introduces basic fundamentals of the TPS-Paradigm including the epistemological principle of complementarity and metatheoretical concepts for exploring individuals as living organisms. Centrally, the TPS-Paradigm considers three metatheoretical properties (spatial location in relation to individuals’ bodies, temporal extension, and physicality versus “non-physicality”) that can be conceived in different forms for various kinds of phenomena explored in individuals (morphology, physiology, behaviour, the psyche, semiotic representations, artificially modified outer appearances and contexts). These properties, as they determine the phenomena’s accessibility in everyday life and research, are used to elaborate philosophy-of-science foundations and to derive general methodological implications for the elementary problem of phenomenon-methodology matching and for scientific quantification of the various kinds of phenomena studied. On the basis of these foundations, the article explores the metatheories and methodologies that are used or needed to empirically study each given kind of phenomenon in individuals in general. Building on these general implications, the article derives special implications for exploring individuals’ “personality”, which the TPS-Paradigm conceives of as individual-specificity in all of the various kinds of phenomena studied in individuals

Antenatal treatment in two Dutch families with pyridoxine-dependent seizures

Contains fulltext : 88199.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Incidental reports suggest that antenatal treatment of pyridoxine dependent seizures (PDS) may improve neurodevelopmental outcome of affected patients. Two families with PDS are reported, both with two affected siblings. Antenatal treatment with pyridoxine was instituted during the second pregnancy in each family (50 and 60 mg daily from 3 and 10 weeks of gestation, respectively). Perinatal characteristics and neurodevelopmental outcome at 4 (Family A) and 12 (Family B) years of age were compared between the untreated and treated child within each family. Meconium-stained amniotic fluid was present in both first pregnancies and abnormal foetal movements were noticed in one. In the treated infants, pregnancy and birth were uncomplicated. In family A, postnatal pyridoxine supplementation prevented neonatal seizures. Both children in family A were hypotonic and started walking after 2 years of age; both had white matter changes on MRI, and the first child was treated for squint. IQ was 73 and 98 in the antenatally untreated and treated child, respectively. The second child in family B developed seizures on the seventh day, because pyridoxine maintenance therapy had not been instituted after birth. Seizures responded rapidly to pyridoxine supplementation. MRI showed large ventricles and a mega cisterna magna. IQ was 80 and 106 in the antenatally untreated and treated child respectively. Both children had normal motor development. These results suggest that antenatal pyridoxine supplementation may be effective in preventing intrauterine seizures, decreasing the risk of complicated birth and improving neurodevelopmental outcome in PDS.1 maart 201