Lexical‐processing efficiency leverages novel word learning in infants and toddlers

Children who rapidly recognize and interpret familiar words typically have accelerated lexical growth, providing indirect evidence that lexical processing efficiency (LPE) is related to word‐learning ability. Here we directly tested whether children with better LPE are better able to learn novel words. In Experiment 1, 17‐ and 30‐month‐olds were tested on an LPE task and on a simple word‐learning task. The 17‐month‐olds’ LPE scores predicted word learning in a regression model, and only those with relatively good LPE showed evidence of learning. The 30‐month‐olds learned novel words quite well regardless of LPE, but in a more difficult word‐learning task (Experiment 2), their LPE predicted word‐learning ability. These findings suggest that LPE supports word‐learning processes, especially when learning is difficult.     

Using Parent Target Problem Narratives to Evaluate Outcomes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - This paper examines the reliability and validity of parent target problems (PTPs) in a multi-site randomized controlled trial of parent training...     

The NSSI Paradox: Discussing and Displaying NSSI in an Online Environment

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is commonly shared online. In the offline world, secrecy is a sign of “real” or authentic self-injury; therefore, openly sharing NSSI in the online context could be considered a paradoxical behavior. We explored how users of an online NSSI site negotiated this apparent paradox. Contrary to our expectations, contributing text and photographs to an online site did not appear to compromise authentic identity. We suggest this was because they were presented in the form of an anonymous public display, which meant that posters could maintain their (secret) identity as individuals who genuinely engage in NSSI.     

Attainment and behavioral disturbance at 9 years: The influence of early and late life stress events

This paper presents data from a small-scale longitudinal study that examines the importance of life-stress events in early and late childhood for later attainment and behavioral disturbance. The study sample consists of 59 children, all of whom when first contacted lived in families with low incomes, of low social status, and little education. Therefore, all of the children can be considered disadvantaged, and the influence of life stress events can be assessed uncontaminated by differences in socio-economic status. At age 9 years, 21 of these children were assessed as disturbed, whereas 38 were not. The results presented suggest that life stress events in early childhood: (1) are of little importance in explaining variations in the behavior of either group of children; and (2) help to explain variations in the attainment of the disturbed, but not the other children. However, life-stress events in late childhood are (1) of considerable importance in explaining variations in the behavior of both the disturbed and other children; but (2) of little importance in explaining variations in the attainments of either group of children. The findings are discussed with reference to child, parent, and other factors that may act to protect vulnerable children against life event stress.     

Teaching students with autism spectrum disorder to tolerate haircutting

We describe intervention with 2 adolescent male students who had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and resisted haircutting performed by care providers at a residential school. The students were exposed to a graduated hierarchy of steps including the presence of hair clippers, and increased duration of hair clippers against their scalp and hair. Edible reinforcement was presented contingent on completion of a step without interfering behavior. Both students learned to tolerate all of the steps in the graduated hierarchy and a full haircut with maintenance at 2-, 4-, and 6-month follow-up. The study supports previous tolerance-training research with children and youth who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and resist personal care and hygiene routines.     

Reviews: Books Photography

RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS: THE EMERGENCE OF A TRADITION. Edited by Stephen A. Mitchell and Lewis Aron. 514 pp. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1999. $39.95. D.H. LAWRENCE AND THE PARADOXES OF PSYCHIC LIFE. By Barbara Ann Schapiro. 155 pp. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. $17.95. TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC: THE TRIUMPH OF THE IRRATIONAL. By Richard Stivers. 240 pp. New York: Continuum Press. 1999. $24. REFLECTIONS ON A RAVAGED CENTURY. By Robert Conquest. 317 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, $27.95. THE MYSTERIES WITHIN A SURGEON REFLECTS ON MEDICAL MYTHS. By Sherwin B. Nuland. 274 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, $24.00. DISEASE, PAIN, AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR. By Elisabeth Stenager and Egon Stenager. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Medical Press, 1998. $17.95. TRAUMA ASSESSMENTS: A CLINICIAN'S GUIDE. By E. B. Carlson. 307 pp. New York: The Guilford Press, 1997. $30. ON INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD: AN ELEMENTARY TEXTBOOK. By David A. Freedman, M.D. 247 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $27.95. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. By Mitch Albom. 192 pp. New York: Doubleday, 1997. $21. THE SORROWS OF THE QUAKER JESUS; JAMES NAYLER AND THE PURITAN CRACKDOWN ON THE FREE SPIRIT. By Leo Damrosch. 322 pp. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, $39.95. THE PASTORAL CARE OF DEPRESSION: A GUIDEBOOK. By Binford W. Gilbert. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 1998. $19.95. LEARNING DISABILITIES AND PSYCHIC CONFLICT: A PSYCHOANALYTIC CASEBOOK. By Arden Aibel Rothstein, Ph.D., and Jules Glenn, M.D. 504 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $78. HAUNTED CHILDREN: RETHINKING MEDICATION OF COMMON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS. By Arthur F. Roemmelt, MD. 196 pp. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. $17.95. NAVIGATING THE DEEP RIVER: SPIRITUALITY IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES. By Archie Smith, Jr. 181 pp. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1997. $15.95. AL-JUNUN: MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD. Edited by Ihsan Al-Issa. 382 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, 2000. $48. Witnessing the Lack of Sanctuary     

Stress Reactivity in Fire Fighters: An Exercise Intervention

This experiment was designed to investigate the efficacy of 16 weeks of exercise training as an intervention to reduce the psychophysiological response of fire fighters to psychological stress. Fifty-three members of the Austin Fire Department (AFD) were recruited as participants and were randomly assigned to either exercise on a rowing ergometer or to continue their present modes of exercise training. Psychological stress was induced by a computerized version of the AFD Strategy and Tactics Drill (STD), in which participants responded to a simulated fire scene. Participants completed the STD prior to and following the exercise intervention. Prior to training, the groups did not differ in their cardiovascular response to the STD. Significant group differences were observed after training, in which exercise-trained participants reacted with significantly lower pulse and mean arterial pressure than their counterparts in the control condition. Exercise participants also reported significantly less stress-related state anxiety and negative affect. Exercise training appears to be a useful intervention to reduce the response to fire-related psychological stress in fire fighters.