The effectiveness of parent – child interaction therapy for children with high functioning autism

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Parent - Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT; Eyberg et al, 1995) for young children (ages 3 to 7) with high functioning autism and clinically significant behavioral problems. Four children with their mothers received treatment as an A-B single-subject experimental design and their behavioral problems were assessed 6 times by the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Results showed decrease in behavioral problems for all participants following the implementation of PCIT. The implications of the findings, study limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed

Effect of iron and zinc supplementation on academic performance of primary school children

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: در رابطه با اثر مکمل های آهن و روی بر اعمال شناختی کودکان نتایج متناقضی وجود دارد. این مطالعه با هدف اثر این مکمل ها بطور جداگانه و توام بر توانایی های تحصیلی دانش آموزان ابتدایی انجام شد. روش بررسی: این مطالعه بصورت کار آزمایی بالینی دو سو کور بر روی 101 (61 دختر و 40 پسر) دانش آموز ابتدایی انجام گرفت. نمونه ها بطور تصادفی به 4 گروه: دریافت کننده مکمل آهن (20 میلی گرم آهن در روز)، دریافت کننده مکمل روی (20 میلی گرم روی در روز)، دریافت کننده مکمل آهن+روی (20 میلی گرم آهن و 20 میلی گرم روی) و گروه شاهد (هیچ دارویی دریافت نکرد) تقسیم و به مدت 4 ماه مکمل ها را دریافت نمودند. قبل و بعد از دادن مکمل ها توانایی های تحصیلی با استفاده از میانگین نمرات مستمر سه درس (ریاضی، امـــلاء و خواندن) و چک لیست معلم جان کوای (برای محاسبه اعتبار روش اندازه گیری) اندازه گیری شد. داده ها با استفاده از آزمون های آماری آنالیز واریانس یکراهه، t مستقل و t زوجی تجزیه و تحلیل شد. یافته ها: به ترتیب قبل و بعد از مداخله میانگین نمرات در گروه دریافت کننده آهن 47/2±29/17 و 35/2±95/17 (05/0

Cognitive Prerequisites in Development of Childhood Anxiety: An Integrative Literature Review and Thematic Analysis

It has been suggested that cognitive development affects the emotional experience of children, including anxiety. However, an evidence review is needed to extract cognitive prerequisites that contribute to the development of anxiety in children. The purpose of the study is to explore evidence on cognitive prerequisites involved in experiencing anxiety in children. Four electronic databases of Scopus, OVIDPsycINFO, PubMed, and ScienceDirect were comprehensively searched for 1900 to 2018, yielding 4,618 articles. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analysis (PRISMA) and inclusion and exclusion criteria, 25 articles were found as eligible. The analysis of literature identified 3 themes, including threat perception, future thinking, and generalization. It is suggested that these cognitive abilities may underlie anxiety. These results have important implications for better understanding the effect of cognitive prerequisites in anxiety phenomena and also could shed light on the explanation of anxiety in some disorders characterized by deficits in cognitive development

Global and Local Visual Processing: Influence of Perceptual Field Variables

The Global Precedence Effect (GPE) suggests that the processing of global properties of a visual stimulus precedes the processing of local properties. The generality of this theory was argued for four decades during different known Perceptual Field Variables. The effect size of various PFVs, regarding the findings during these four decades, were pooled in our recent meta-analysis study. Pursuing the study, in the present paper, we explore the effects of Congruency, Size, and Sparsity and their interaction on global advantage in two different experiments with different task paradigms; Matching judgment and Similarity judgment. Upon results of these experiments, Congruency and Size have significant effects and Sparsity has small effects. Also, the task paradigm and its interaction with other PFVs are shown significant effects in this study, which shows the prominence of the role of task paradigms in evaluating PFVs' effects on GPE. Also, we found that the effects of these parameters were not specific to the special condition that individuals were instructed to retinal stabilize. So, the experiments were more extendible to daily human behavior

Magnocellular based visual motion training improves reading in Persian

The visual magnocellular system is thought to play a crucial role in learning to read. Here therefore, we examined whether magnocellular based training could improve reading in children with visual reading problems. The participants were 24 male primary school students aged between 9-11 (Mean = 9.76, SD = 0.59) with specific reading difficulty. Experimental and control groups were matched for age, sex, educational level, IQ, reading abilities (measured by APRA), magnocellular performance as assessed by a random dot kinematogram (RDK) paradigm and recordings of their saccadic eye movements. The experimental group received twelve magnocellular based visual motion training sessions, twice a week over 6 weeks. During the same period, the control group played a video game with the help of a practitioner. All measures were made just prior to the training and were repeated at the 6th, 12th training session and one month later. The experimental group showed significant improvements in magnocellular function, visual errors and reading accuracy during the course of intervention. Follow-up assessment confirmed that these effects persisted one month later. Impaired magnocellular functioning appeared to be an important cause of poor reading in Persian. Hence magnocellular based training could help many children with specific reading difficulties. Also testing magnocellular function could be used as screening tool for detecting dyslexia before a child begins to fail at school

Anxiety, concerns and COVID-19: Cross-country perspectives from families and individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the mental health and well-being of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) and of their families worldwide. However, there is insufficient evidence to understand how different factors (e.g., individual, family, country, children) have impacted on anxiety levels of families and their children with NDCs developed over time. METHODS: We used data from a global survey assessing the experience of 8043 families and their children with NDCs (mean of age (m) = 13.18 years, 37% female) and their typically developing siblings (m = 12.9 years, 45% female) in combination with data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the University of Oxford, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook, to create a multilevel data set. Using stepwise multilevel modelling, we generated child-, family- and country-related factors that may have contributed to the anxiety levels of children with NDCs, their siblings if they had any, and their parents. All data were reported by parents. RESULTS: Our results suggest that parental anxiety was best explained by family-related factors such as concerns about COVID-19 and illness. Children’s anxiety was best explained by child-related factors such as children’s concerns about loss of routine, family conflict, and safety in general, as well as concerns about COVID-19. In addition, anxiety levels were linked to the presence of pre-existing anxiety conditions for both children with NDCs and their parents. CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows that across the globe there was a raise in anxiety levels for both parents and their children with NDCs because of COVID-19 and that country-level factors had little or no impact on explaining differences in this increase, once family and child factors were considered. Our findings also highlight that certain groups of children with NDCs were at higher risk for anxiety than others and had specific concerns. Together, these results show that anxiety of families and their children with NDCs during the COVID-19 pandemic were predicted by very specific concerns and worries which inform the development of future toolkits and policy. Future studies should investigate how country factors can play a protective role during future crises

The Effectiveness of Sensory-Motor Integration on Clumsiness in Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Introduction: One of the most important problems of children with nonverbal learning disabilities is clumsiness and poor coordination. This issue prevents children’s academic achievement and socio-emotional development. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of sensory-motor integration on clumsiness in children with nonverbal learning disabilities. Materials and Methods: The present study was performed through pre-test and post-test. For this purpose, 7 children with nonverbal learning disabilities (4 boys and 3 girls) in grades 2 to 5 of elementary school in Tehran, Iran, were selected using non-random sampling method. The Lincoln-Oseretsky motor scale was completed before and after the intervention and the data were analyzed using Wilcoxon test. Results: Sensory-motor integration had a positive significant effect on balance (P = 0.017), rough motor skills (P = 0.018), fine motor skills (P = 0.016), bilateral coordination (P = 0.012), and total clumsiness score (P = 0.016). Conclusion: The results showed that sensory-motor integration caused a significant difference in clumsiness in children with nonverbal learning disabilities and improved their motor skills in the four areas of balance, rough motor skills, fine motor skills, and bilateral coordination

Attentional Demand of Speech in Children and Adolescents with Developmental Stuttering

Background & Objective: Stuttering is a prevalent disorder in children and adolescents. Because attention is the only fuel resource for cognitive functions and the language have high cognitive functions, then it is possible that speech difficulties are related to attention deficit. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attentional demand of speech in children and adolescents with developmental stuttering. Materials & Methods: It is a dependent measurement study though which 30 school students (8-13 yr.) were selected by convenience sampling and speech therapist´s detection from Shahriyar. The instruments were used in this research consist of: a text for reading, a device for recording of speech, and stuttering severity instrument-3 (SSI-3). The research was implemented in two conditions: single task (only reading) and dual task (reading along finger tapping task). The data were analyzed using T- test. Results: Findings show that stuttering severity increased in dual task condition (divided attention). Conclusion: This result suggests that a decreased attentional capacity in children with developmental stuttering cause an increase in the number of stuttering words. With a better understanding of attentional functions of stuttering people as an important cognitive variables, we can take a step toward recognizing cognitive vulnerability of disorder. Therefore, intervention programs for children with developmental stuttering should pay attention to cognitive deficits and prior to speech interventions, the cognitive deficits should be eliminated with neuropsychological implements. With the improvement of neurological base of speech which is the first point of that in the brain, the considerable improvement may be seen in the stuttering severity

The training imitation of on improving the ability of mind reading in children with high functioning autism disorder

This study discusses the effect of training from imitation of emotional facial actions on improving the ability of mind reading in children with autism. This study was of the experimental type with the single test design and covered the society of all the children with high functioning autism disorder between 1393-92 who for receiving the specialized services, had consulted with the centers located in Teheran. With a targeted sampling, three 5 to 7 year old children were chosen. The assessments were done in five steps; two weeks before starting the treatment, one day before starting the treatment, after five sessions of treatment, after 12 sessions of treatment, one day after finishing the treatment and finally, the follow up step (four weeks after finishing the treatment). The means used in test was the observer mind reading test, 38 theory of mind questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the single test design. The results obtained by analyzing the diagrams shows that the performance of participants in observer mind reading test, 38 theory of mind questionnaire has improved significantly. Also, the amount of effect showed that this training program had been effective in promoting the mind reading. This study showed that using the training based on imitation supports the children with high functioning autism disorder in restoring some levels of theory of mind and after applying the intervention, the skills of mind reading has improved significantly in these children