Neurodevelopmental functioning in children being evaluated for heart transplant prior to 2 years of age

Cardiac defects represent the most common type of birth defect and children with these abnormalities are known to experience a variety of developmental and neuropsychological delays. Children receiving heart transplants may be at the highest risk for delays as they tend to represent the most severely ill patients with heart disease. This study investigates neurocognitive and adaptive functioning in 20 children under 2 years of age who were undergoing evaluation for heart transplant, comparing their performance to that of normative samples. The results indicate delays across various domains of neurocognition, including general cognitive, receptive language, expressive language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. In addition, adaptive and social-emotional functioning fell significantly below that of normative samples. No significant differences were found when comparing the test performance of patients with congenital heart defects (n = 12) to patients with cardiomyopathy (n = 8). Secondary analyses investigating the impact of genetic conditions, premature birth, and non-English language dominance showed minor changes in results across some domains, although this may have been due, at least in part, to decreased power to detect differences. Overall, this study’s results support the need for early evaluation, intensive intervention (e.g., speech, occupational, and physical therapy), and continued monitoring of these patients’ neurodevelopmental/neuropsychological functioning over time. Future research should examine longitudinal changes in development using both pre- and post-transplant data and should investigate the impact of early intervention.     

Harm: The counterfactual comparative account,the omission and pre-emption problems,and well-being

The concept of “harm” is ubiquitous in moral theorising, and yet remains poorly defined. Bradley suggests that the counterfactual comparative account of harm is the most plausible account currently available, but also argues that it is fatally flawed, since it falters on the omission and pre-emption problems. Hanna attempts to defend the counterfactual comparative account of harm against both problems. In this paper, I argue that Hanna’s defence fails. I also show how his defence highlights the fact that both the omission and the pre-emption problems have the same root cause – the inability of the counterfactual comparative account of harm to allow for our implicit considerations regarding well-being when assessing harm. While its purported neutrality with regard to substantive theories of well-being is one of the reasons that this account is considered to be the most plausible on offer, I will argue that this neutrality is illusory.     

Negative emotional appraisal selectively disrupts retrieval of expected outcome values required for goal-directed instrumental choice*

Stress induction reduces people's ability to modify their instrumental choices following changes in the value of outcomes, but the mechanisms underpinning this effect have not been specified because previous studies have lacked crucial control conditions. To address this, the current study had participants learn two instrumental responses for food and water, respectively, before water was devalued by specific satiety. Choice between these two responses was then measured in extinction, reacquisition and Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT) tests. Concurrently during these tests, a negative emotional appraisal group evaluated aversive images (stress induction), whereas a control group evaluated neutral images, at the same time as choosing between the two instrumental responses. Negative emotional appraisal abolished the impact of water devaluation on instrumental choice in the extinction test, but did not affect instrumental choice in the reacquisition or PIT tests. These findings suggest that negative emotional appraisal selectively impaired participants’ ability to retrieve the expected value of outcomes required to make goal-directed instrumental choices in the extinction test, and that this effect was not due to task disengagement, nullification of the devaluation treatment or impaired knowledge of response-outcome relationships.     

Practical Disadvantage,Socioeconomic Status,and Psychological Well-Being Within Families of Children with Severe Emotional Disturbance

Although socioeconomic status (SES) has been associated with a myriad of physical and psychological health indicators, it is arguably one of the most elusive constructs in the psychological literature. Most researchers agree that SES is complex and multidimensional; however, the majority of empirical studies that focus on SES do not measure (or attempt to measure) multiple components of the construct, instead focusing on one or two indicators of SES, most commonly household income and/or levels of education. This paper explores relationships among indicators of SES, disadvantage, and psychological well-being in two independent samples of families with children with severe emotional disturbances. In addition to utilizing two common SES indicators (parental education and income), we incorporated measures reflecting resource-related challenges of living, such as adequate food and housing. Based on analyses, we argue that such variables may better capture the challenges experienced by many families than traditional SES indicators. Findings also suggest that income and education relate to different aspects of family well-being, and solely using one or both of these variables may mask relevant relationships. Moreover, assessing practical, day-to-day challenges may permit a more nuanced picture of the relationships between factors associated with SES and indicators of well-being and adjustment.     

Reasoning About Race and Pedagogy in Two Preservice Science Teachers: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

This study describes the experiences of two preservice science teachers as they progress through their respective teacher education programs and uses critical race theory to examine the manner in which conceptions about race and its pedagogical implications change over time. Using a longitudinal case study method, participants' conceptual ecologies of race and pedagogy are mapped both before and after student teaching, and each case is analyzed for evidence of conceptual change in these areas. Findings show that conceptions about race and the pedagogical implications of race changed in ways that likely would have gone undetected in earlier studies because they did not result in wholesale changes in beliefs or teaching practice. This study suggests that the difficulty of fostering an understanding of structural racism and difference may often be underestimated, as revising one's model about race is mitigated strongly by learners' existing conceptual ecologies.     

The Instructional Hierarchy as a Model of Stimulus Control over Student <Emphasis Type="Italic">and</Emphasis> Teacher Behavior: We're Close but are We Close Enough?

As a stage-based model of learning, the Instructional Hierarchy offers a useful heuristic for organizing research on effective instructional strategies at different levels of skill proficiency. In this paper, we summarize and highlight the unique contributions of each empirical study presented in the special issue. We describe common methodological features across the studies that likely contributed to intervention effectiveness, and present several implications for research and practice.     

Associations between miscellaneous symptoms and symptom dimensions: an examination of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adults is a heterogeneous disorder associated with significant psychosocial impairment. Although factor analytic studies have identified symptom dimensions, these analyses do not capture the varied miscellaneous symptoms that fail to load on a specific dimension despite being functionally related. The present study sought to extend the findings of previous research in adults to a sample of youth with OCD (n=131). Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictive value of each of the four symptom factors (contamination symptoms, obsessions and checking, symmetry and ordering, and hoarding) to the miscellaneous OCD symptoms. The vast majority of miscellaneous symptoms (17 of the 18 symptoms) were associated with one or more symptoms factors (i.e., contamination symptoms, obsessions and checking, symmetry, and ordering). Hoarding was not related to any miscellaneous symptom. In addition to improving our understanding about the clinical presentation of pediatric OCD, findings also have important assessment (e.g., understanding which miscellaneous symptoms relate to certain dimensions) and treatment implications (e.g., hierarchy development).