Reading-disabled hyperactive children: A distinct subgroup of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity?

Mixed hyperactive/reading-disabled children, selected from a large sample of hyperactive children, were compared to pure hyperactive children on demographic, behavioral, and neuropsychological measures. Children in the Mixed group were reading-disabled relative to age and IQ; those in the Pure group had achievement scores that were average relative to age and IQ. The Mixed group was significantly older than the Pure group; there were no differences in gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Behaviorally, the groups did not differ significantly on teacher ratings or on psychiatric ratings of aggression. The Mixed group had a significantly higher Performance IQ, whereas the Pure group had a significantly higher Verbal IQ and performed better on measures of cognitive impulsivity. Several other measures failed to distinguish the groups. The data give minimal support to the notion that pure hyperactive and mixed hyperative/reading-disabled children constitute distinct subgroups of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity.This research was supported in part by Mental Health Clinical Research Grant MH-30906 and by U. S. Public Health Service Grant MH-18579.     

Predicting school performance of preschool children from parent reports

Parents of 391 preschool children ages 49 to 64 months completed a brief developmental inventory as part of a preschool screening program operated by an urban school district. The 28-item developmental inventory assessed adaptive behavior and language development. In addition, preschool children were administered the Minneapolis Preschool Screening Instrument. Teacher ratings of kindergarten performance the following year provided criterion data to validate the screening measures. Correlations with the overall teacher rating [the mean of nine ratings] were .40 for the adaptive behavior scale and .57 for the language scale. Validity figures for the developmental inventory were significantly higher for low SES than for high SES children, for older children [57 to 64 months] than for younger children [49 to 56 months], and for firstborn children than for younger siblings. No effects were found by sex. While a positive relationship between parent reports of developmental functioning and early school performance was clearly established, validity levels did not justify use of parent information as a sole source of preschool screening information.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.     

Telephone counseling and crisis intervention: A review

The empirical research pertaining to the effectiveness of telephone counseling and referral systems personnel was critically reviewed. The assessment was organized according to several evaluation strategies that researchers have utilized to evaluate effectiveness. These strategies included, for example, client self-reports, client "shows" versus "no-shows" following referral, data pertaining to suicide rates, counselor ratings of personal effectiveness, and phone workers' ability to offer empathy to clients. It was concluded that discussions of effectiveness should be constrained by a careful consideration of the specific index of efficacy chosen by investigators as well as methodological issues associated with current research in this area. There is reason to believe that the availability of telephone crisis services may be related to reduced suicide rates among young white females. Also, there is a significant need to empirically associate counseling technique and indices of effectiveness with substantive measures of client outcome in future research. Additional topics reviewed include the probable differential effectiveness of lay workers with various presenting problems of clients, and the role that training and maturity seem to play in successful interventions. Guidelines for the use of evaluation techniques which coincide with service goals are also offered.     

The formalin test and the opioid nature of stress-induced analgesia

Exposure to electric shock produces an analgesic reaction (SIA) that is reversed by opiate antagonists ("opioid" SIA) under some conditions but not under other conditions ("nonopioid" SIA). A number of studies using tail-flick to radiant heat as the measure of pain sensitivity have found that a small number of shocks lead to nonopioid SIA, while a large number of shocks produce opioid SIA. In contrast, a small number of shocks have been reported to produce opioid SIA when the Formalin test was used to measure pain reactivity. However, the Formalin test involves administering a chronic pain stimulus (injection of Formalin into the paw) for an extended period before the shocks. Here it is reported that this "preexperimental" stress is sufficient to convert the SIA after a small number of shocks measured by tail-flick to the opioid form.     

Acquisition and retention of gestures by apraxic patients

The purpose of this study was to examine whether apraxic-aphasic patients with parietal lesions had difficulty learning lists of gestures and whether the performance deficits they displayed resulted from an inability either to consolidate this information in memory or to retrieve the information once stored. The findings indicate that apraxic-aphasic patients do have difficulty acquiring lists of gestures. This inability to reproduce gestural information was not associated with a retrieval disorder, but instead the apraxic-aphasic subjects could not consolidate the information in memory.