Neurocognitive functioning of preschool children with uncomplicated epilepsy

Only few studies are available on the cognitive functioning of preschool children with uncomplicated epilepsy. The aim of this study was to describe the neurocognitive functioning of 3–6-year-old children with uncomplicated epilepsy. A subgroup of children with uncomplicated epilepsy from a population based cohort of preschool children with active epilepsy (N = 64) participated in the study. The neurocognitive functioning of these children (N = 13) was compared to that of matched healthy controls (N = 13). The Wechsler's Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence - Revised and the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment were administered. The intellectual functioning of the children with uncomplicated epilepsy was within normal range, but differed significantly from that of healthy controls, which was contrary to expectations. Statistically significant differences emerged between the study and the control group in Verbal IQ and Full Scale IQ, but no differences were found in Performance IQ. The children with uncomplicated epilepsy also had minor neurocognitive difficulties in verbal short-term memory (p <.01) compared to healthy children. The result suggests that uncomplicated epilepsy in preschool children may interfere with language and verbal short-term memory functions. Further studies with detailed neuropsychological assessments and follow-up time are needed to gain more insight into the developmental course of children with uncomplicated epilepsy. Also, because of the developmental risks reported in this study, psychological screening and detailed neuropsychological assessment are recommended in clinical practice.     

Applicability of a cognitive model of worry to children and adolescents

BackgroundIntolerance of uncertainly (IU), cognitive avoidance (CA) and positive beliefs about worry (PB) independently predict worry frequency in older adolescents and adults, and when targeted together in treatment produce significant reductions in both worry and anxiety in this age range. The present study addresses a gap in the literature by testing whether a cognitive model of excessive worry and anxiety incorporating these process variables is applicable to children and adolescents.MethodPrimary and secondary school students (n = 515; aged 7–19 years) completed modified self-report measures of worry frequency, anxiety, IU, CA and PB and a path analysis undertaken to test whether IU was a higher order variable for CA and PB and whether the relationship between IU/CA/PB and anxiety was mediated by worry frequency.ResultsSignificant (bivariate) correlations were observed between the measures of IU, PB, CA, worry and anxiety across the age range. However separate path models had to be fitted for children (aged 7–12 years) and adolescents (aged 13–19) with PB being dropped from the child model. CA was related to anxiety only through worry in children while IU showed direct paths to worry and anxiety in both children and adolescents.ConclusionsCognitive models of persistent worry in adults and older adolescents may, with some modification, have applicability to children. Further testing and refinement of these cognitive models of worry may lead to improvements in existing treatments for anxious youth.     

The Effects of Age,Sex and Alzheimer's Disease on Strategy Use During Verbal Fluency Tasks

ABSTRACT

Clustering and switching strategies during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks were investigated in healthy adults (n = 193, 86 males, 20–90 years) in young, middle-aged, young–old, and old–old age groups (Study 1). Older groups produced fewer total words and lower switching scores; males relied more on clustering and females on switching to produce equivalent output. In Study 2, early Alzheimer's disease participants, compared to healthy older adults, (n = 26 per group) produced fewer total words and smaller average clusters. Sex, age, and clinical differences on switching and clustering strategies support a dual processing model of verbal fluency.     

A 10-year prospective study of personality and reproductive success: Testing the mediating role of healthy living

Abstract

Objective: There is some evidence that personality relates to childbearing in adulthood but the importance of personality for reproductive capacity is unknown. This study explored cross-time associations between the major dimensions of trait personality and self-reported fertility and fecundity. Methods: A representative sample of young Australian adults [n?=?4501; age range ≈ 18–44 (women), 18–54 (men)] provided information on personality, fertility, fertility intentions, fecundity and lifestyle factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity) in 2006 and again in 2016. Older Australian adults [n?=?4359; age ≥?45 (women), ≥ 55 (men)] provided information on personality, lifestyle factors and completed fertility. Results: After controlling for sociodemographic factors, completed fertility was associated with higher agreeableness in both sexes, and lower conscientiousness and openness in women. In younger adults, higher levels of openness were associated with fewer children 10 years later in both sexes, and higher extraversion was associated with more children 10 years later in men. The association between fertility intentions and subsequent fertility was stronger among women scoring higher on conscientiousness, and women scoring higher on neuroticism were more likely to acquire medical or health difficulties in having children – an effect that was mediated by higher levels of cigarette smoking. Conclusions: The study provides initial evidence for an association between personality and the acquisition of difficulties in having children.     

Basic visual perceptual processes in children with typical development and cerebral palsy: The processing of surface,length, orientation,and position

The present study aims to assess how the processing of basic visual perceptual (VP) components (length, surface, orientation, and position) develops in typically developing (TD) children (n = 215, 4–14 years old) and adults (n = 20, 20–25 years old), and in children with cerebral palsy (CP) (n = 86, 5–14 years old) using the first four subtests of the Battery for the Evaluation of Visual Perceptual and Spatial processing in children. Experiment 1 showed that these four basic VP processes follow distinct developmental trajectories in typical development. Experiment 2 revealed that children with CP present global and persistent deficits for the processing of basic VP components when compared with TD children matched on chronological age and nonverbal reasoning abilities.     

Overoptimism about future knowledge: Early arrogance?

Abstract

Three studies explored whether young children (5–7 years) have more optimistic views of their future knowledge than older children (8–12 years) and adults. In Study 1, younger children were more likely than older children and adults to expect greater knowledge in both young and mature protagonists. Both groups of children saw knowledge rising at a faster rate into adulthood than adult participants did. All ages judged moral knowledge as much easier to acquire than other types of knowledge, such as artifacts. In Study 2, all children saw their own future knowledge in especially optimistic terms in comparison to ratings by adults, and the older children exhibited a self-enhancement bias. Study 3 found an overall preference for the acquisition of positively valenced future knowledge, particularly for the 8- to 12-year olds and in the domain of morality, suggesting pragmatic underpinnings for these judgments.     

The Conners Parent Rating Scale: Psychometric properties in typically developing 4- to 12-year-old Belgian French-speaking children

IntroductionThe Conners Parent Rating Scale – 48 items (CPRS) is one of the most widely used behavioral scales in clinical and research settings with children.ObjectiveThe principal aim of this study was to validate the five-factor structure of the French version of the CPRS in 4- to 12-year-old Belgian French-speaking children. Secondly, a sample of children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was assessed and their ADHD CPRS profile was examined.MethodsA total of 382 typically developing children from 4 to 12 years old were included in this study. Furthermore, 15 children (aged 6 to 12 years old) diagnosed with ADHD participated in this study.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis shows that the CPRS presents good psychometric properties and has a factor structure similar to the original version. Furthermore, the CPRS shows high rates of sensitivity and specificity when the ADHD and control group scores are compared.ConclusionsThis study confirms the original five-factor structure of the CPRS when used with French-speaking children. Our results highlight the fact that the CPRS is a reliable measure of parental perception of their children's disruptive behaviors, and encourage the use of culturally adapted normative data for 4- to 12-year-old children.     

Prospective memory training in young adults enhances trained-task but not transfer-task performance

ABSTRACT

Training and transfer effects of prospective memory training have not been assessed in healthy young adults yet. The present study examined the effects of an 8-day prospective memory training programme using the Virtual Week computer game in 18–24-year-old students. Using the performance of an active control group as comparison, the study revealed a significant short-lived beneficial training-induced effect on a nearest-transfer task consisting of a different version of the trained task. No evidence was obtained for transfer effects to other tasks measuring prospective memory (near transfer), or to tasks measuring various executive functions or general intelligence (far transfer). These results were compared to those from a previous study in which an identical training and testing protocol was used in 13–15-year-old adolescents. This study did reveal some evidence of near and far transfer. The results of the two studies combined suggest a greater potential for prospective memory training to induce beneficial transfer effects in young adolescents than in young adults.     

When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness

Recent work identified a shift in judgments of moral praiseworthiness that occurs late in development: adults recognize the virtue of moral actions that involve resolving an inner conflict between moral desires and selfish desires. Children, in contrast, praise agents who do the right thing in the absence of inner conflict. This finding stands in contrast with other work showing that children incorporate notions of cost and effort into their social reasoning. Using a modified version of Starmans and Bloom's (2016) vignettes, we show that understanding the virtue of costly moral action precedes understanding the virtue of resolving inner conflict. In two studies (N = 192 children, range = 4.00–9.95 years; and N = 193 adults), we contrasted a character who paid a personal cost (psychological in Study 1, physical in Study 2) to perform a moral action with another who acted morally without paying a cost. We found a developmental progression; 8- and 9-year-old children and adults recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are psychologically or physically costly. Six- and 7-year-old children only recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are physically costly, but not actions that are psychologically costly. Moreover, neither adults nor children inferred that paying a cost to act morally required having a moral desire or resolving inner conflict. These results suggest that both adults and children conceptualize obligation as a direct motivational force on actions. They further suggest that costly choice—a hallmark of moral agency—is implicated in judgments of praiseworthiness early in development.     

Children and Adults Understand That Verbal Irony Interpretation Depends on Listener Knowledge

Two experiments investigated how absolute and relative distance shape adults’ and young children's ratings concerning the extent to which the term by describes the relation between locations. Three- and 4-year-old children and adults were asked to rate how well the word by described the relation between several blocks and a landmark. The blocks were arranged so that their absolute and relative distances from the landmark varied. All ages relied on absolute and relative distance between the blocks and the landmark when making by ratings; however, older children and adults showed more differentiated responses. These findings add to our growing understanding of how adults and young children use relative distance to understand the proximity term by.     

Inter-professional learning: initial observations of the art psychotherapy tools used in the post-qualifying postgraduate training in counselling children and young people

ABSTRACT

Children and young people (C&YP) counselling training and art psychotherapy training lead to two distinctive psychological therapy approaches; one is informed by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s Competences for work with children and young people (4–18 years) [BACP. (2019a). Competences for work with children and young people (4–18 years). Retrieved from https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/5863/bacp-cyp-competence-framework.pdf], the other by Health and Care Professions Council’s Standards of Proficiency for Arts Therapists [HCPC. (2013). Standards of proficiency - Arts therapists. Retrieved from http://www.hpc-uk.org/publications/index.asp?id=39#publicationSearchResults]. In this article we outline the training methods utilised on the Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling C&YP at a British University and share initial observations of how creative and arts-based therapeutic tools form an important part of the curriculum delivery. The aim of this paper is also to outline the role of intentionality application in the use of creative interventions in therapeutic practice.     

What do targeting positive views on ageing add to a physical activity intervention in older adults? Results from a randomised controlled trial

Objective: Physical activity is a key factor for healthy ageing, yet many older people lead a sedentary lifestyle. Traditional physical activity interventions do not consider the specific needs and views of older adults. As views on ageing are known to be related to health behaviours, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of prompting positive views on ageing within a physical activity intervention.

Design: Randomised controlled trial with three groups aged 65+: Intervention for physical activity with ‘views-on-ageing’-component (n?=?101; IGVoA), and without ‘views-on-ageing’-component (n?=?30; IG), and active control intervention for volunteering (n?=?103; CG).

Main outcome measures: Attitudes towards older adults and physical activity were assessed five weeks before intervention, two weeks, six weeks and 8.5?months after the intervention.

Results: Compared to the IG and CG, positive attitudes towards older adults increased in the IGVoA after the intervention. For IGVoA, the indirect intervention effect on change in activity via change in attitudes towards older adults was reliable.

Conclusion: A ‘views-on-ageing’-component within a physical activity intervention affects change in physical activity via change in views on ageing. Views on ageing are a promising intervention technique to be incorporated into future physical activity interventions for older adults.     

Are Older Adults More Dependent on Visual Information in Regulating Self-Motion Than Younger Adults?

Older adults look at the ground more while they are walking than younger adults do. In the present study, the effect of blocking that exproprioceptive visual information on the walking pattern of older adults was investigated. The first 0.75 m of the floor in front of healthy young adults (n = 10, mean age = 26.0 years) and 2 groups of older adults (n = 10, mean age 65.7 years; and n = 9, mean age = 75.9 years) was occluded. The dependent variables were step velocity, step length, and step frequency. The effect of the manipulation on those kinematic variables increased with age. The older adults had a significant increase in velocity and step length. The possible use of optic flow information from the ground to regulate the velocity of self-motion is discussed.     

Short-term memory predictions across the lifespan: monitoring span before and after conducting a task

Our objective was to explore metamemory in short-term memory across the lifespan. Five age groups participated in this study: 3 groups of children (4–13 years old), and younger and older adults. We used a three-phase task: prediction–span–postdiction. For prediction and postdiction phases, participants reported with a Yes/No response if they could recall in order a series of images. For the span task, they had to actually recall such series. From 4 years old, children have some ability to monitor their short-term memory and are able to adjust their prediction after experiencing the task. However, accuracy still improves significantly until adolescence. Although the older adults had a lower span, they were as accurate as young adults in their evaluation, suggesting that metamemory is unimpaired for short-term memory tasks in older adults.

Highlights:

?We investigate metamemory for short-term memory tasks across the lifespan.

?We find younger children cannot accurately predict their span length.

?Older adults are accurate in predicting their span length.

?People’s metamemory accuracy was related to their short-term memory span.     

Developmental Changes in Young Children's Spatial Memory and Language in Relation to Landmarks

Two experiments investigated how young children and adults understand whether objects are by a landmark and remember their locations. Three- and 4-year-old children and adults were asked to judge whether several blocks were by a landmark. The blocks were arranged so that their absolute and relative distances from the landmark varied. Later, the blocks were removed, and participants were asked to place them in their original locations. All ages relied on relative distance between objects and a landmark when making by judgments; however, older children and adults showed systematic judgments. Relative distance also affected block placement, and systematicity increased across development. Children's understanding of the relative nature of by and their ability to remember locations precisely increased during the preschool years, indicating developmental changes in the adaptive combination of location cues for spatial language and memory.     

Emotional and behavioural features of preschool children born by Caesarean deliveries at maternal request

Background: Caesarean deliveries at maternal request (CDMRs) are becoming increasingly common. There is still lack of evidence on potential postponed effect(s) of CDMRs on children's emotional and behavioural features, although such a possibility has been repeatedly postulated. This study aimed at evaluation of the emotional and behavioural characteristics in preschool children born from CDMRs. Methods: The study involved apparently healthy 5-year-old children from the community setting (40 born from CDMRs and 40 age and sex matched vaginally born controls). Inclusion criteria were: first-born singletons, delivery at term, the only children in families, married parents, and appropriate household conditions, absence of any inborn abnormalities, disabilities, chronic and progressive diseases. Children attended preschool day-care centres at the time of the study. The mothers were also presented with the Child Behaviour Checklist for Ages 1.5–5 years (CBCL1.5/5) aimed at assessing children's emotional and behavioural characteristics. Results: Children born from CDMRs presented with significantly higher values (more problems) on the following empirically based scales: anxiety/depression, withdrawal and sleep problems. They had statistically significantly higher values on so-called internalizing problems, both in girls and in boys. Associations remained significant after adjustment for major potential confounders. Conclusion: Children born from CDMRs may face more emotional disturbances and sleep problems at preschool age.     

Learning strategy differentially impacts memory connections in children and adults

Even once children can accurately remember their experiences, they nevertheless struggle to use those memories in flexible new ways—as in when drawing inferences. However, it remains an open question as to whether the developmental differences observed during both memory formation and inference itself represent a fundamental limitation on children's learning mechanisms, or rather their deployment of suboptimal strategy. Here, 7–9-year-old children (N = 154) and young adults (N = 130) first formed strong memories for initial (AB) associations and then engaged in one of three learning strategies as they viewed overlapping (BC) pairs. We found that being told to integrate—combine ABC during learning—both significantly improved children's ability to explicitly relate the indirectly associated A and C items during inference and protected the underlying pair memories from forgetting. However, this finding contrasted with implicit evidence for memory-to-memory connections: Adults and children both formed A-C links prior to any knowledge of an inference test—yet for children, such links were most apparent when they were told to simply encode BC, not integrate. Moreover, the accessibility of such implicit links differed between children and adults, with adults using them to make explicit inferences but children only doing so for well-established direct AB pairs. These results suggest that while a lack of integration strategy may explain a large share of the developmental differences in explicit inference, children and adults nevertheless differ in both the circumstances under which they connect interrelated memories and their ability to later leverage those links to inform flexible behaviours.

Research Highlights

• Children and adults view AB and BC pairs related through a shared item, B. This provides an opportunity for learners to connect A–C in memory.
• Being encouraged to integrate ABC during learning boosted performance on an explicit test of A–C connections (children and adults) and protected from forgetting (children).
• Children and adults differed in when implicit A–C connections were formed—occurring primarily when told to separately encode BC (children) versus integrate (adults), respectively.
• Adults used implicit A–C connections to facilitate explicit judgments, while children did not. Our results suggest developmental differences in the learning conditions promoting memory-to-memory connections.

     

Contextual Cueing Effects Across the Lifespan

The authors evaluated age-related variations in contextual cueing, which reflects the extent to which visuospatial regularities can facilitate search for a target. Previous research produced inconsistent results regarding contextual cueing effects in young children and in older adults, and no study has investigated the phenomenon across the life span. Three groups (6, 20, and 70 years old) were compared. Participants located a designated target stimulus embedded in a context of distractor stimuli. During exposure, the location of the target could be predicted from the location of the distracters in each display. During test, these predictable displays were intermixed with new displays that did not predict the target location. Response times to locating predictable relative to unpredictable targets were compared. All groups exhibited facilitation effects greater than 0 (95% CIs [.02, .11], d = .4; [.01, .12], d = .4; and [.01, .10], d = .4, for the children, young adults, and older adults, respectively) indicating that contextual cueing is robust across a wide age range. The relative magnitude of contextual cueing effects was essentially identical across the age range tested, F(2, 103) = 1.71, ηρ² = .02. The authors argue that a mechanism that uses environmental covariation is available to all age ranges, but the expression of the contextual cueing may depend on the way it is measured.     

Age-dependent variability in spatiotemporal gait parameters and the walk-to-run transition

Adolescents tend to exhibit more variability in their gait patterns than adults, suggesting a lack of gait maturity during this period of ongoing musculoskeletal growth and development. However, there is a lack of consensus over the age at which mature gait patterns are achieved and the factors contributing to gait maturation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate gait control and maturity in adolescents by determining if differences existed between adolescents and adults in a) the amount of spatiotemporal variability of walking and running patterns across a range of speeds, and b) how swiftly gait patterns are adapted to increasing gait speed during the walk-to-run transition. Forty-six adolescents (10–12-year-olds, n = 17; 13–14-year-olds, n = 12; and 15–17-year-olds, n = 17) and 12 young adults completed an incrementally ramped treadmill test (+0.2 km·h⁻¹ every 30 s) to determine the preferred transition speed (PTS) during a walk-to-run transition. Age-related differences in the variability of stride lengths and stride durations were assessed across 4 speeds (self-selected walking speed, PTS − 0.06 m·s⁻¹, PTS + 0.06 m·s⁻¹, PTS + 0.83 m·s⁻¹). Repeated measures ANOVAs (p < 0.05) compared coefficients of variation for these spatiotemporal parameters, while a one-way ANOVA compared the numbers of gait transitions and speed increments used to identify PTS between the adolescent groups and young adults. Compared to adults, 10–12yo exhibited more spatiotemporal variability during all gait conditions, while 13–17yo only exhibited more variability at PTS + 0.06 m·s⁻¹. No age-dependent pattern was observed in PTS values, but 10–12yo completed more gait transitions over more speed increments than 15–17yo and adults. The development of mature gait patterns is thus a progressive process, with walking maturing at an earlier age than running. As 10-12yo were unable to swiftly adapt gait patterns to the changing task demands, their control mechanisms of gait may not have fully matured yet.