Development of the object concept in infancy

Piaget first observed and described the problems which young infants have in understanding the nature of objects forty years ago. Both his description and his analysis of the development of the object concept are still widely supported today. This thesis, while accepting the Piagetian description of the behaviours involved, suggests that Piaget's account of the underlying cognitive processes is no longer tenable. Alternative theories of object concept development which have been put forward in recent years are also examined and rejected. An identity theory of object concept development is proposed and a series of six interlinked experiments presented in an attempt to provide support for this theory. On the basis of these and the many other experiments reported in the literature, it is suggested that an identity theory alone can adequately cover the variety of appropriate and inappropriate object-related behaviours seen in the first two years of life

Social cognition in children with Down's syndrome: challenges to research and theory building

Characterising how socio-cognitive abilities develop has been crucial to understanding the wider development of typically developing children. It is equally central to understanding developmental pathways in children with intellectual disabilities such as Down's syndrome. While the process of acquisition of socio-cognitive abilities in typical development and in autism has received considerable attention, socio-cognitive development in Down's syndrome has received far less scrutiny. Initial work in the 1970s and 1980s provided important insights into the emergence of socio-cognitive abilities in the children's early years, and recently there has been a marked revival of interest in this area, with research focusing both on a broader range of abilities and on a wider age range. This annotation reviews some of these more recent findings, identifies outstanding gaps in current understanding, and stresses the importance of the development of theory in advancing research and knowledge in this field. Barriers to theory building are discussed and the potential utility of adopting a transactional approach to theory building illustrated with reference to a model of early socio-cognitive development in Down's syndrome. The need for a more extensive model of social cognition is emphasised, as is the need for larger-scale, finer-grained, longitudinal work which recognises the within-individual and within-group variability which characterises this population. The value of drawing on new technologies and of adapting innovative research paradigms from other areas of typical and atypical child psychology is also highlighted

Advances in structure elucidation of small molecules using mass spectrometry

The structural elucidation of small molecules using mass spectrometry plays an important role in modern life sciences and bioanalytical approaches. This review covers different soft and hard ionization techniques and figures of merit for modern mass spectrometers, such as mass resolving power, mass accuracy, isotopic abundance accuracy, accurate mass multiple-stage MS(n) capability, as well as hybrid mass spectrometric and orthogonal chromatographic approaches. The latter part discusses mass spectral data handling strategies, which includes background and noise subtraction, adduct formation and detection, charge state determination, accurate mass measurements, elemental composition determinations, and complex data-dependent setups with ion maps and ion trees. The importance of mass spectral library search algorithms for tandem mass spectra and multiple-stage MS(n) mass spectra as well as mass spectral tree libraries that combine multiple-stage mass spectra are outlined. The successive chapter discusses mass spectral fragmentation pathways, biotransformation reactions and drug metabolism studies, the mass spectral simulation and generation of in silico mass spectra, expert systems for mass spectral interpretation, and the use of computational chemistry to explain gas-phase phenomena. A single chapter discusses data handling for hyphenated approaches including mass spectral deconvolution for clean mass spectra, cheminformatics approaches and structure retention relationships, and retention index predictions for gas and liquid chromatography. The last section reviews the current state of electronic data sharing of mass spectra and discusses the importance of software development for the advancement of structure elucidation of small molecules

Carer knowledge and experiences with menopause in women with Intellectual Disabilities

Overall life expectancy for women with intellectual disabilities (ID) is now significantly extended, and many will live long enough to experience menopause. Little is known about how carers support women with ID through this important stage in their lives. This study investigated carer knowledge of how menopause affects women with ID under their care and how they may help them to cope with it. One-to-one interviews were undertaken with 69 carers (7 male/62 female) from a range of backgrounds, all with current responsibility for the care of one or more pre-, peri-, and/or postmenopausal women with ID. Carers reported difficulty in disentangling the psychological and physical consequences of the menopause from behaviors and symptoms arising from other causes. There was general recognition of the transitional importance of menopause and a widespread acknowledgment of the resilience that many women with ID show in coping with it. However, carers emphasized the need for health resources to be better tailored to the women's needs and for more relevant health education training for staff. The authors conclude that additional and new demands are placed on service provision as women with ID live longer. An increased awareness of health issues relating to menopause is needed, as are more appropriate and readily available relevant health education materials for women with ID in middle age

Experiences and perceptions of mothers of young people with and without additional support needs and autistic spectrum disorder in relation to behaviour, maternal stress, access to services and family quality of life

This research explores experiences and perceptions of mothers of adolescents and young adults (13-22yrs) with Additional Support Needs (ASN) in relation to stress, service provision and family and individual Quality of Life (QoL). A particular focus is the effect of having a family member with ASN who also has a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or where the young person with ASN may have an ASD which has not been diagnosed. Mothers of young people from 4 groups were recruited: i) those with ASN and no ASD (n=41), ii) those with ASN and a diagnosis of ASD (n=18), iii) those with ASN, no diagnosis of ASD but with a positive score on an ASD screening measure (n=17) and iv) typically developing controls (n=17). The mothers of young people with ASN (n=76) completed standardised questionnaires about family and individual QoL, stress, service provision, child behaviour and presence and severity of ASD traits. Twenty two of these mothers also took part in a semi-structured interview about coping with issues identified as most stressful by them in the stress questionnaire. The mothers of typically developing young people (n=17) completed standardised questionnaires on individual and family quality of life and on the behaviour of their similarly aged son or daughter. Data collected via these questionnaires showed that increased severity of ASD was associated with increased maternal stress, which in turn was associated with decreased family and maternal QoL. Mothers of typically developing young people had significantly higher individual and family QoL scores than each of the three other groups. The findings from the interviews supported the questionnaire results and gave further insight into mothers’ life experiences. Mothers identified many perceived barriers to their child’s progress including: lack of support and lack of co-ordinated service provision. The results suggest that mothers of young people with ASN experience lower individual and family quality of life than mothers of typically developing young people. Parenting an adolescent or young adult with ASN is perceived as stressful and that the presence of behaviour associated with ASD is additionally stressful. Possible reasons for differences in quality of life outcomes amongst the study groups are discussed. Implications for adequate services and recommendations for future research are suggested.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Emotion Recognition in Children With Down Syndrome: Influence of Emotion Label and Expression Intensity

Some children with Down syndrome may experience difficulties in recognising facial emotions, particularly fear, but it is not clear why, nor how such skills can best be facilitated. Using a photo-matching task, emotion recognition was tested in children with Down syndrome, children with non-specific intellectual disabilities and cognitively-matched typically-developing children (all groups N = 21) under four conditions: veridical vs exaggerated emotions and emotion-labelling vs generic task instructions. In all groups, exaggerating emotions facilitated recognition accuracy and speed, with emotion labelling facilitating recognition accuracy. Overall accuracy and speed did not differ in the children with Down syndrome, although recognition of fear was poorer than in the typically developing children and unrelated to emotion label use. Implications for interventions are considered