The Retarded Child. A Guide for Parents,Teachers and Social Workers by Herta Loewy

Abstract

Emotional abuse in childhood, in contrast to physical or sexual abuse, is a form of maltreatment which has been slow to receive widespread discussion. Categorizing emotional abuse highlights the ongoing realities of emotionally abused individuals. The five categories introduced here help to classify developmental problems, create treatment plans, and identify preventive opportunities. After a discussion of these categories, representative case histories from therapy groups are presented. These case histories are then traced through major phases of group therapy conducted within a structured setting and occurring on a time-limited basis.     

Effect of Representational Distance Between Meanings on Recognition of Ambiguous Spoken Words

Previous research indicates that mental representations of word meanings are distributed along both semantic and syntactic dimensions such that nouns and verbs are relatively distinct from one another. Two experiments examined the effect of representational distance between meanings on recognition of ambiguous spoken words by comparing recognition of unambiguous words, noun–verb homonyms, and noun–noun homonyms. In Experiment 1, auditory lexical decision was fastest for unambiguous words, slower for noun–verb homonyms, and slowest for noun–noun homonyms. In Experiment 2, response times for matching spoken words to pictures followed the same pattern and eye fixation time courses revealed converging, gradual time course differences between conditions. These results indicate greater competition between meanings of ambiguous words when the meanings are from the same grammatical class (noun–noun homonyms) than when they are from different grammatical classes (noun–verb homonyms).     

Teaching a perspective‐taking component skill to children with autism in the natural environment

We evaluated procedures for teaching three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder the perspective‐taking component skill of tacting what others are sensing across all five senses: see, taste, feel, hear, and smell. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, we evaluated a training package consisting of multiple exemplar training, reinforcement, and error correction. The treatment package was implemented in the natural environment and was effective for teaching participants to tact what others sensed. Generalization across untrained stimuli and people was observed from baseline to posttraining for all participants. We discuss how this component skill may be related to teaching further skills related to perspective taking such as tacting what others know, predicting future behavior based upon one's beliefs, and creating false beliefs in others for the purpose of adaptive deceptive behaviors such as keeping secrets, surprises, and bluffing during games.     

Toward a Model Informed Consent Process for BRCA1 Testing: A Qualitative Assessment of Women's Attitudes

As an initial part of a project to develop a model informed consent process for BRCA1 testing, we conducted a series of focus groups. At the groups, women initially expressed great interest in testing, but their interest diminished after learning more. If offered testing, women would most want to learn about test accuracy, practical details of testing, and management options if the result was positive. Perceived benefits of testing included gaining information leading to risk reduction, relief of uncertainty, more responsible parenting, and assisting in research. Perceived risks included the discomfort and cost of the testing process itself, and anxiety after a positive result. The risk of possible insurance discrimination was rarely mentioned spontaneously. Many women would want their providers to make recommendations, rather than be nondirective about testing. We observed that women vary greatly in their informational and counseling needs, and suggest that the informed consent process should be individualized, taking into account a woman's perception and her preferences for how testing decisions should be made.     

The relationship of three measures of childhood depression to academic underachievement

Clinical features of depression (short attention span, lethargy, poor memory and shortened task persistence) appear to be incompatible with effective learning. This has led several investigators to suggest that depression is a significant cause of academic underachievement. The most adequate test of this hypothesis (Tesiny, Lefkowitz, & Gordon, 1980), however, found only small correlations between depression and academic achievement when neither IQ nor socioeconomic status were controlled. In the present study, three measures of childhood depression (Peer Nomination Inventory for Depression, Children's Depression Inventory, and an ad hoc teacher rating) were correlated with scores from the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and the Stanford Achievement Test. IQ was statistically controlled to provide a direct measure of underachievement and analyses were conducted separately for males, females, and the combined sample in a sample that was homogeneous for socioeconomic status. Although intercorrelations among the variables indicated that the sample was appropriate to test the hypothesis, only a few significant correlations were found. These findings suggest that if depression causes academic underachievement, it is a weak or uncommon effect.     

Perception of facial expressions

Three studies examined the nature of the contributions of each hemisphere to the processing of facial expressions and facial identity. A pair of faces, the members of which differed in either expression or identity, were presented to the right or left field. Subjects were required to compare the members of the pair to each other (experiments 1 and 2) or to a previously presented sample (experiment 3). The results revealed that both face and expression perception show an LVF superiority although the two tasks could be differentiated in terms of overall processing time and the interaction of laterality differences with sex. No clear-cut differences in laterality emerged for processing of positive and negative expressions.     

Reduction of perseverative errors in patients with schizophrenia using monetary feedback.

The influence of monetary feedback on Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST) performance of 14 male schizophrenics was investigated. Patients were administered the test under standard instructions and with monetary feedback in counterbalanced order. Monetary reinforcement reduced perseverative errors and increased correct responses (p less than .05). These findings suggest that the WCST perseverative errors of schizophrenics reflect motivational as well as cognitive factors.