Differences between children with attention deficit disorder,children with specific learning disabilities,and normal children

The study investigated the power of five measures to differentiate between children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), children with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), and normal children. The measures employed were the Conners Parent Questionnaire (CPQ), the Conners Teacher Questionnaire (CTQ), the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), the Porteus Mazes Test (PMT), and the Jumbled Numbers Game (JNG). The results indicated that the Conners Parent Questionnaire, Conners Teacher Questionnaire, Matching Familiar Figures Test, and the Porteus Mazes Test significantly discriminated between groups. The Conners Questionnaires were able to discriminate between all three groups and the MFFT and PMT were able to discriminate between ADD and normal children. A discriminant analysis indicated that the CPQ was the best predictor of group membership, followed in order by the CTQ PMT, and MFFT.     

Cross-cultural comparison of personality: Hungarian children and english children

1150 Hungarian boys and 1035 girls were given the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire translated into Hungarian. Product-moment correlations were factored by principal components methods, rotated by Varimax and then obliquely by Promax. Thirteen extra items, added for substitution if necessary, were included in this analysis. Very close agreement between the responses of British and Hungarian children were found for the Lie or Social Desirability scale, good agreement for Extraversion but less satisfactory agreement for Neuroticism and Psychoticism items. It is argued that the strength of the Lie score could well have interfered with the true responses for the other dimensions. Means and standard deviations for British and Hungarian children are given on scales comprised of items both groups have in common on their respective scoring keys, this being the only way the means can be compared.     

Time-out with children

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to determine the effect of an explanation prior to or after time-out on child compliance and on child disruptive behavior during time-out and (b) to determine the effect of brief parent training in time-out on child and parent behaviors. Thirty-two mother—child pairs served as subjects and were assigned to one of the following four groups: control, time-out only, explanation prior to time-out, or explanation following time-out. Each mother—child pair was observed for one session under pretraining, training, and posttraining conditions. The results indicated that time-out significantly increased compliance but the addition of an explanation did not further alter the effectiveness of time-out. Training in the use of time-out decreased the incidence of maternal interruptions but did not affect maternal responses that were not trained. Finally, following brief time-out training for noncompliance, the mothers used the procedure only 50% of the time following noncompliance.This study was supported in part by a University of Georgia Research Council grant.     

Fighting for children

Child abuse is a problem of national importance. Nationwide, billions of dollars are spent on the child welfare system, but child abuse rates remain high. At the federal level, new laws, such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act, the Foster Care Independence Act, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act, represent steps toward addressing the problem. However, increased efforts are needed to raise awareness of the problem of child abuse and to prevent it. Furthermore, more attention is needed to address the need for reform of the child welfare system and to involve the private sector in helping abused children.     

Disfluency data of German preschool children who stutter and comparison children

This study compared the disfluencies of German-speaking preschool children who stutter (CWS, N = 24) with those produced by age- and sex-matched comparison children who do not stutter (CWNS, N = 24). In accordance with Yairi and Ambrose's [Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N. (1992). A longitudinal study of stuttering in children: A preliminary report. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 755-760] guidelines the CWS group had a narrow age range (2-5 years) and were seen close to the reported time of their stuttering onset (average of 8 months). Furthermore, over 95% of the CWS group had not received any type of speech therapy intervention. Consistent with previous findings for English-speaking preschool children, 'stuttering-like' disfluencies (prolongations, blocks, part- and one-syllable word repetitions) were significantly more frequent in CWS (mean = 9.2%) than in CWNS (mean = 1.2%), whereas no significant group differences occurred with respect to 'normal' disfluencies. The number of iterations in stuttering-like disfluencies was also significantly higher in CWS (mean = 1.28 iterations) than in CWNS (mean = 1.09 iterations). In contrast to previous findings, a sub-group of children who have been stuttering for a shorter time (1-5 months) did not differ from a sub-group who had stuttered for a longer period (8-22 months). EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) describe how German-speaking preschool children who stutter and who do not stutter display stuttering-like and normal disfluencies including number of iterations; (2) explain how powerful classification measures for the diagnosis of stuttering are for German-speaking preschool children; (3) discuss how disfluency patterns of native English- and German-speaking children close to onset of stuttering differ.     

Temperament in children with Down syndrome and in prematurely born children

Parents of three groups of children completed the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). Participants were children with Down syndrome aged 4-11 years (n = 55), prematurely born children aged 5 years (n = 97), and a group of normally developing kindergarten children 5-7 years of age (n = 91). Mean levels and factor structures on the CBQ were compared between the three groups. The children with Down syndrome had less attentional focusing and expressed less inhibitory control and less sadness than the normally developing children. There were also group differences in temperament structures, especially a clearer emotional factor of "surgency" among the children with Down syndrome. The only significant difference in mean temperament scores between the premature children and the control group was that the former evinced less attentional focussing. The temperament structures in the Norwegian samples were very similar to those reported in earlier studies, conducted in China and the US.     

Insensitivity to children: Responses of undergraduates to children in problem situations

A study focused on insensitivity of adults to children was presented and discussed. The responses of 100 male and 100 female college undergraduates to hypothetical parent-child problem situations indicated a general lack of communication concerning the child's and their own feelings. However, when the problems involved adult needs being aroused and thwarted, theSs responses were both more insensitive and destructive than when the confrontation centered around only the child's aroused needs. In the latter case theSs did focus their communications more on the child's feelings and how he or she could express them. The results have implications for understanding effective adult behavior and reciprocal adult-child influences on the development of child-behavior dysfunctions.The research reported in this paper was supported in part by Grant MH 16444 from the U.S. Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health.The help of Lawrence Messe, Joel Aronoff, Luch Ferguson, and Albert Rabin is very gratefully acknowledged. We also wish to acknowledge the help of Kathy Barrie, Lew Borman, Deletha Crum, and Eli Karimi, who served as coders.