Educational Implications Following Idiopathic Encephalopathy and Prolonged Coma: A Longitudinal Case Study

This paper explores standard considerations of accommodations for paediatric acquired brain injury (ABI) survivors as illustrated through an intensive case study. Specifically, we explore methods by which school systems can enhance a middle school student’s learning environment after losing 30 points in his intellectual functioning (IQ) following a rare coma recovery. For the purpose of this paper, coma is defined as a period following neurological injury or illness during which an individual does not open his/her eyes and does not have sleep–wake cycles. This case emphasises the use of current behavioural evidence-based treatments in young ABI patients. Multiple comparisons are especially beneficial in delineating the strength of intervention modalities and specific challenges unique to this population. Current data are of particular interest because measures of both pre- and post-morbid functioning are available, because of earlier school testing for a pre-existing learning disability. Finally, implications for prognosis and treatment of young ABI patients are discussed

Maternal Interaction Style in Affective Disordered, Physically Ill, and Normal Women

Affective style (AS) and communication deviance (CD) have been suggested as markers of dysfunctional family environments that may be associated with psychiatric illness. Studies have focused mainly on parental responses during family interactions when an offspring is the identified patient. The present study is unique in examining AS and CD in mothers with unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, or chronic physical illness, and in normal controls. The sample consisted of 64 mothers with children ages 8 to 16. Unipolar mothers were more likely to show negative AS than were any other maternal group. There were no group differences for CD. Chronic stress, few positive life events, and single parenting were associated with AS. CD was associated solely with lower socioeconomic status. Results suggest that dysfunctional interactions are determined not only by maternal psychopathology, but also by an array of contextual factors that are related to the quality of the family environment

Communication Styles of Children of Mothers with Affective Disorders, Chronic Medical Illness, and Normal Controls: A Contextual Perspective

Research has demonstrated impaired parent-child relationships in families with affective disorders. The present study examines the association of children\u27s interactional style during a direct conflict-solving task to both the mother\u27s interactional style and the child\u27s diagnostic status. The sample includes 63 children, ages 8 to 16, of mothers with affective disorders, chronic medical illness, and normal controls. Children\u27s dominant coping style profile (CS) (autonomous, neutral, or critical) was related to their mother\u27s affective style (AS) (benign or negative). Affective disorder in the child at 6-month followup was associated with a critical CS profile at intake, while the child\u27s nonaffective symptomatology was unrelated to CS. Findings indicate that children\u27s affective disturbance is linked to interpersonal deficits in affectively charged situations. Results suggest that the child\u27s CS is more strongly predicted by maternal AS than by either the child\u27s or the mother\u27s diagnostic status

Longitudinal Study of Diagnoses in Children of Women With Unipolar and Bipolar Affective Disorder

School-age children of unipolar depressed, bipolar, chronically medically ill, or normal women were diagnosed every 6 months for up to 3 years. Offspring of unipolar women had the highest rates of disorder at all evaluations, but children of bipolar and medically ill mothers also experienced significant rates of disorder. Observing diagnoses from both past lifetime and prospective follow-up assessments, it appeared that most children who had diagnoses had onsets in preadolescence and continued a chronic or intermittent course of disorder. Thus, risk to offspring of ill mothers is not transitory and indicates a pernicious course that commonly includes affective disorders alone or in combination with behavior and anxiety disorders

Family-Expressed Emotion, Childhood-Onset Depression, and Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: Is Expressed Emotion a Nonspecific Correlate of Child Psychopathology or a Specific Risk Factor for Depression?

Expressed emotion (EE) was examined, using the brief Five Minute Speech Sample measure, in families of (1) children with depressive disorders, (2) children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and (3) normal controls screened for the absence of psychiatric disorder. Consistent with the hypothesis of some specificity in the association between EE and the form of child disorder, rates of EE were significantly higher among families of depressed children compared to families of normal controls and families of children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Within the depressed group, the presence of a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder was associated with high levels of critical EE, underscoring the need to attend to comorbid patterns and subtypes of EE in future research

The Teacher\u27s Role in Facilitating Memory and Study Strategy Development in the Elementary School Classroom

The efforts of 69 elementary school teachers to instruct children in cognitive processing activities were observed. Although the teaching of such activities was relatively infrequent, it varied by grade (occurring more often in grades 2-3 than in higher or lower grades) and by the content of instruction. Teachers of grade 4 and above more often provided rationales for the use of cognitive strategies than did teachers of younger children. In a second study, children of three achievement levels were selected from classrooms in which teachers varied in their use of suggestions regarding cognitive processes. Subsequent to training in the use of a memory strategy, children\u27s performance on a maintenance trial was evaluated: Among average and low achievers, those whose teachers were relatively high in strategy suggestions showed better maintenance and more deliberate use of the trained strategy than did children whose teachers rarely made strategy suggestions. The role of school experience in the development of children\u27s memory skills is discussed

How Do Teachers Teach Memory Skills?

Research on teachers\u27 efforts to influence the ways in which children approach memory tasks and understand and regulate their own memory processes has been limited, possibly because of the restrictive views of memory held by cognitive theories that have previously guided research efforts. A more complex perspective on the memory skills that develop over the elementary school years has been elaborated by developmental psychologists and information-processing theorists, but their work has had limited influence on either teacher-training practices or research in teaching. In order to begin to apply this newer perspective to an understanding of classroom teaching processes, research needs to consider teacher practices and expectations for children\u27s learning and memory. A program of research that has been concerned with how teachers teach memory and metacognitive skills and with teachers\u27 views of memory processes is summarized in this article, and implications for teacher training are discussed

Social, Academic, and Behavioral Competence of Depressed Children: Relationship to Diagnostic Status and Family Interaction Style

This study compared the social adjustment and academic peifonnance of 15 psychiatrically hospitalized children with depression to 14 children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 20 nonnal community children, ages 7-14. The relationship between children\u27s interpersonal and academic competence and the quality of direct family interactions was also examined. Analyses revealed an association between children\u27s adaptive functioning and both diagnostic status and family transactional processes, as assessed by two 10-minute conflict-solving tasks. Major findings were as follows: (a) depressed children and children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders received similarly low ratings of social competence in comparison to normal controls; (b) academic peifonnance of depressed children was similar to nonnal controls and better than children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders; and (c) children with poorer social competence and more behavioral problems were more likely to have parents who showed negative affect during family problem-solving tasks. The implications of these results for understanding the relationship between psychiatric impairment and children\u27s social and academic development were discussed

Children with Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorders: Thought Disorder and Communication Problems in a Family Interactional Context

Thought disorder and communication patterns during an interactional task were examined in families of children with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (schizophrenia and schizo typal personality disorder), depressed children, and normal controls. Children with schizophreniaspectrum disorders showed significantly more thought disorder than their normal peers; levels of thought disorder among depressed children fell between those observed in the other two groups but did not differ significantly from either of them. Similarly, mothers of children with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders showed more thought disorder than mothers of normal control children but did not differ from mothers of depressed children. Children with schizotypal personality disorder did not differ from children with schizophrenia. These findings demonstrate that the thought disorder present in childhood-onset schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorders is manifest in an important social context, the family