Echolalia and Comprehension in Autistic Children.

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Roberts, Jacqueline M. A.

1989-01-01

The study with 10 autistic children (ages 4-17) found that those children with poor receptive language skills produced significantly more echolalic utterances than those children whose receptive skills were more age-appropriate. (Author/DB)

Autistic children and the object permanence task.

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Adrien, J L; Tanguay, P; Barthélémy, C; Martineaú, J; Perrot, A; Hameury, L; Sauvage, D

1993-01-01

Many mentally retarded autistic children can understand the concept of object permanence, but, in comparison to developmental-age matched normal children, the behavioral strategies they employ in carrying out the Casati-Lezine Object Permanence Test are deficient and lead to failure. These deficiencies appear unrelated to interference of stereotypic or other bizarre behavior in task performance. Similar problem-solving deficiencies can be found in mentally retarded children who are not autistic, suggesting that the deficiencies themselves are less related to the social-communication deficits of autistic children, but more to the general problem-solving difficulties found in children with a lower developmental quotient. Nevertheless, the qualitative analysis of results shows a tendency in autistic children, despite their better developmental level, to use less coordinated and regular sequences to solve the task than normal or mentally retarded children.

Footwear suitability in Turkish preschool-aged children.

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Yurt, Yasin; Sener, Gul; Yakut, Yavuz

2014-06-01

Unsuitable footwear worn in childhood may cause some foot problems by interfering normal development of foot. To compare footwear suitability rate of indoor and outdoor footwear at all points in preschool children and investigate factors which could affect footwear suitability. A cross-sectional survey study. A total of 1000 healthy preschool children (4-6 years old) participated in this study. Indoor and outdoor footwear of children were evaluated through Turkish version of Footwear Assessment Score. Effect of factors like age, sex, number of siblings, educational and occupational situation of parents, and behavior of school management about selecting footwear was investigated. Children got better footwear score for outdoor than indoor ones (p footwear score for both indoor and outdoor ones than girls (p footwear score was found in favor of children who were going to schools that gave guidance about selecting footwear for both indoor and outdoor in comparison to children going to other schools (p footwear for their children. Performing education programs and investigation of their effect with comprehensive follow-up studies in future is essential. This study reflects footwear habits of Turkish preschool children and factors affecting this issue. Results may give way to education programs about suitable footwear worn in childhood for healthy foot development. © The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics 2013.

Preschool-aged children's television viewing in child care settings.

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Christakis, Dimitri A; Garrison, Michelle M

2009-12-01

The goal was to quantify television viewing in day care settings and to investigate the characteristics of programs that predict viewing. A telephone survey of licensed child care programs in Michigan, Washington, Florida, and Massachusetts was performed. The frequency and quantity of television viewing for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children were assessed. With the exception of infants, children in home-based child care programs were exposed to significantly more television on an average day than were children in center-based programs (infants: 0.2 vs 0 hours; toddlers: 1.6 vs 0.1 hours; preschool-aged children: 2.4 vs 0.4 hours). In a regression analysis of daily television time for preschool-aged children in child care, center-based programs were found to have an average of 1.84 fewer hours of television each day, controlling for the other covariates. Significant effect modification was found, in that the impact of home-based versus center-based child care programs differed somewhat depending on educational levels for staff members; having a 2- or 4-year college degree was associated with 1.41 fewer hours of television per day in home-based programs, but no impact of staff education on television use was observed in center-based programs. For many children, previous estimates of screen time significantly underestimated actual amounts. Pediatricians should council parents to minimize screen time in child care settings.

Understanding Participation of Preschool-Age Children with Cerebral Palsy

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Chiarello, Lisa Ann; Palisano, Robert J.; Orlin, Margo N.; Chang, Hui-Ju; Begnoche, Denise; An, Mihee

2012-01-01

Participation in home, school, and community activities is a primary outcome of early intervention services for children with disabilities and their families. The objectives of this study were to (a) describe participation of preschool-age children with cerebral palsy (CP); (b) determine effects of sex, age, and gross motor function on intensity…

Low serum myeloperoxidase in autistic children with gastrointestinal disease

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Anthony J Russo

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Anthony J Russo1, Arthur Krigsman2, Bryan Jepson2, Andy Wakefield21Research Director, Health Research Institute/Pfeiffer Treatment Center, Warrenville, IL, USA; 2Thoughtful House Center for Children, Austin, TX, USAAim: To assess serum myeloperoxidase (MPO levels in autistic children with severe gastrointestinal (GI disease and to test the hypothesis that there is an association between serum MPO concentration and inflammatory GI disease, including antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA, previously seen in a subgroup of autistic children.Subjects and methods: Serum from 40 autistic children with chronic digestive disease (most with ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia (LNH and inflammation of the colorectum, small bowel and/or stomach, and 48 controls (12 age-matched autistic children with no GI disease, 20 age-matched children without autism or GI disease, and 16 nonautistic individuals with no family history of autism were tested using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays designed to quantitate serum MPO levels. MPO serum concentration of autistic children with GI disease was compared to GI disease severity (including LNH and erythema and presence of ANCA.Results: We found that a significant number of autistic children with chronic digestive disease had low serum levels of MPO. However, there was no significant relationship between these levels and severity of GI disease, including the presence of ANCA.Discussion: These results suggest a relationship between low MPO levels and GI disease seen in a subpopulation of autism spectrum disorders individuals. MPO concentration may therefore be a useful biomarker for GI disease in this group of autistic children.Keywords: autism spectrum disorders, autism, myeloperoxidase, GI disease, oxidative stress

Executive Functioning Skills in Preschool-Age Children With Cochlear Implants

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Beer, Jessica; Kronenberger, William G.; Castellanos, Irina; Colson, Bethany G.; Henning, Shirley C.; Pisoni, David B.

2014-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether deficits in executive functioning (EF) in children with cochlear implants (CIs) emerge as early as the preschool years. Method Two groups of children ages 3 to 6 years participated in this cross-sectional study: 24 preschoolers who had CIs prior to 36 months of age and 21 preschoolers with normal hearing (NH). All were tested on normed measures of working memory, inhibition-concentration, and organization-integration. Parents completed a normed rating scale of problem behaviors related to EF. Comparisons of EF skills of children with CIs were made to peers with NH and to published nationally representative norms. Results Preschoolers with CIs showed significantly poorer performance on inhibition-concentration and working memory compared with peers with NH and with national norms. No group differences were found in visual memory or organization-integration. When data were controlled for language, differences in performance measures of EF remained, whereas differences in parent-reported problems with EF were no longer significant. Hearing history was generally unrelated to EF. Conclusions This is the first study to demonstrate that EF deficits found in older children with CIs begin to emerge as early as preschool years. The ability to detect these deficits early has important implications for early intervention and habilitation after cochlear implantation. PMID:24686747

Echoing in Autistic Children: A Chronometric Study of Semantic Processing.

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Shapiro, Theodore; Lucy, Peter

1978-01-01

Explores the idea that echoing in autistics differs from normal imitation and represents a different species of production. Subjects were five autistic children, ranging in age from 3 years 10 months to 6 years 8 months, and two normal children, aged 2 years 6 months and 3 years 11 months. (MP)

The importance of stimulation of sensory perception by preschool-aged children with visual impairment

OpenAIRE

NOHAVOVÁ, Lenka

2014-01-01

This bachelor thesis engages in the topic "Stimulation of sense perception for sight-impaired children at preschool age". The theoretical section of the bachelor thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter focuses on the sight-impaired individual, the second chapter deals with the development of a preschool-aged child, the next chapter is concerned with the preschool education of sight-impaired children and the last chapter focuses on sense perception for those children. The main ...

The Preschool-Aged and School-Aged Children Present Different Odds of Mortality than Adults in Southern Taiwan: A Cross-Sectional Retrospective Analysis.

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Peng, Shu-Hui; Huang, Chun-Ying; Hsu, Shiun-Yuan; Yang, Li-Hui; Hsieh, Ching-Hua

2018-04-25

Background : This study aimed to profile the epidemiology of injury among preschool-aged and school-aged children in comparison to those in adults. Methods : According to the Trauma Registry System of a level I trauma center, the medical data were retrieved from 938 preschool-aged children (aged less than seven years), 670 school-aged children (aged 7⁻12 years), and 16,800 adults (aged 20⁻64 years) between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2016. Two-sided Pearson’s, chi-squared, and Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare categorical data. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Games-Howell post-hoc test was used to assess the differences in continuous variables among different groups of patients. The mortality outcomes of different subgroups were assessed by a multivariable regression model under the adjustment of sex, injury mechanisms, and injury severity. Results : InFsupppjury mechanisms in preschool-aged and school-aged children were remarkably different from that in adults; in preschool-aged children, burns were the most common cause of injury requiring hospitalization (37.4%), followed by falls (35.1%) and being struck by/against objects (11.6%). In school-aged children, injuries were most commonly sustained from falls (47.8%), followed by bicycle accidents (14%) and being struck by/against objects (12.5%). Compared to adults, there was no significant difference of the adjusted mortality of the preschool-aged children (AOR = 0.9; 95% CI 0.38⁻2.12; p = 0.792) but there were lower adjusted odds of mortality of the school-aged children (AOR = 0.4; 95% CI 0.10⁻0.85; p = 0.039). The school-aged children had lower odds of mortality than adults (OR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.06⁻0.74; p = 0.012), but such lower odds of risk of mortality were not found in preschool-aged children (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.29⁻1.81; p = 0.646). Conclusions : This study suggests that specific types of injuries from different injury mechanisms are predominant among preschool-aged

Correlation analysis of electronic products with myopia in preschool and school aged children

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Li-Li Sun

2016-02-01

Full Text Available AIM: To explore the influence of electronic products on myopia in preschool and school aged children, and the development regularities of myopia, to formulate reasonable guidelines for using eyes healthily, and lay a solid foundation for the prevention and control work. METHODS: This retrospective analysis enrolled 900 3～12 years old children from outpatients department, and all of them were established individualized archives, recording: uncorrected visual acuity, optometry, slit lamp, ophthalmoscopy, strabismus inspection results; recording eye usage condition on TVs, computers, mobile phones, iPad, homework, extra-curricular books. Statistical analyze the refractive status of each age group, the use of electronic products of different age groups and their correlation with refractive status. RESULTS: The number of preschool children with normal uncorrected visual acuity was more than that of early school-age children, and the difference was statistically significant(PP>0.05; the number of children aged 7～12(early school aged childrenwith myopia was more than that of children aged 3～6(preschool childrenand the difference was statistically significant(PCONCLUSION: For preschool children, it is necessary to conduct early screening, health guidance, the establishment of personalized medical records and one-to-one personalized guidance; it is also needed to avoid the arduous learning task with the stacking usage of eyes, to fight for myopia and to control the development of myopia. Therefore, to reduce the use of electronic products has become a topic worthy of further study.

Developing a medical picture book for reducing venipuncture distress in preschool-aged children.

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Tsao, Ying; Kuo, Hui-Chen; Lee, Hsui-Chuan; Yiin, Shuenn-Jiun

2017-10-01

Distress associated with needle-related procedures is a major concern in preschool-aged children nursing. This study developed a medical picture book for supporting preschool-aged children facing a venipuncture and determined the effectiveness of such a book intervention in decreasing behavioural distress. The picture book was designed in 3 stages: developing stories on medical situations, penning the text, and drafting the book. We conducted a quasiexperimental study to examine the effectiveness of the book. The behavioural distress of the control and picture book groups were assessed before, during, and after the intervention by using the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress-Revised (OSBD-R). We created a 12-page picture book, Sick Rui-Rui Bear, in which cartoon characters were depicted undergoing venipunctures, as a guide for vein injection and for facilitating positive venipuncture outcomes in preschool-aged children. Over time, the OSBD-R scores of the picture book group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P book be routinely read and used during venipunctures to decrease procedural distress in preschool-aged children. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Child Sustained Attention in Preschool-Age Children

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DiCarlo, Cynthia F.; Baumgartner, Jennifer J.; Ota, Carrie; Geary, Kelly

2016-01-01

This study examined the mean duration of child attention across three teaching conditions (child choice, adult choice, or adult presentation) of 63 preschool-age children. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare the means across the three teaching conditions, indicating a statistically significant difference between the teaching conditions.…

THE CAUSES AND THE COURSE OF CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE IN CHILDREN OF PRESCHOOL AGE

OpenAIRE

T. Yu. Abaseeva; T. E. Pankratenko; A. A. Burov; Kh. M. Emirova; A. L. Muzurov

2015-01-01

Background: Data on etiology and clinical course of CKD stage  3 to 5 in children of preschool  age could help obstetricians, pediatricians, and nephrologists with proper diagnostics and management of this condition and prediction of outcomes. Aim: To study causes and clinical features of CKD stage 3 to 5 in preschool  children. Materials and methods: The causes and clinical features of CKD stage 3 to 5 were investigated in 55 preschool children aged from 7 months  to 8 years. Twenty four had...

Snacking Patterns of Preschool-Aged Children: Opportunity for Improvement.

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Hutchinson, Joy M; Watterworth, Jessica C; Haines, Jess; Duncan, Alison M; Mirotta, Julia A; Ma, David W L; Buchholz, Andrea C

2018-03-01

Dietary patterns established in childhood track into adulthood. Despite this, little research has explored preschoolers' snacking. This study examined snacking patterns (frequency, quality, quantity) of preschool-aged boys and girls. Cross-sectional data were collected on 52 children (23 males; 3.4 ± 1.1 years of age; BMI 16.1 ± 1.4 kg/m 2 ) enrolled in the Guelph Family Health Study pilot. Parent-reported 3-day food records were analyzed for children's snacking patterns including frequency (number of snacking occasions per day), quantity (percent energy from snacks) and quality (inclusion of food groups from Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide, macronutrient distribution, sugary and salty snacks). Mann-Whitney U tests examined sex differences in snacking patterns. Ninety-six percent of children snacked daily, consuming a mean of 2.3 ± 0.7 snacks per day. Snacks accounted for one-third of daily energy. 78% of boys' versus 63% of girls' snacks contained a food group (P = 0.016). Boys consumed significantly fewer sugary snacks (0.5 ± 0.4 vs 0.9 ± 0.6 snacks per day, P = 0.016), although the percent of snack calories from sugar for both boys and girls was high (group mean 37.2 ± 6.7%). Nearly all preschoolers in this study snacked daily, and consumed a variety of snack foods. Boys' and girls' snacking preferences begin to diverge early in life. Preschool children should be encouraged to consume healthful snacks.

Coexisting Disorders and Problems in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Lotta Höglund Carlsson

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To analyze cooccurring disorders and problems in a representative group of 198 preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD who had had interventions at a specialized habilitation center. Methods. Parents and children were seen by a research team. Data were based on parental interviews, pediatric assessments, and tests of the child. Information on autistic symptoms, general cognitive function, speech and language, motor function, epilepsy, vision, hearing, activity level, behavior, and sleep was collected. Results. Three ASD categories were used: (1 autistic disorder (AD, (2 autistic-like condition (ALC or Asperger syndrome, and (3 one group with autistic symptoms/traits but not entirely all its criteria met for ASD. Children with autism had a mean of 3.2 coexisting disorders or problems, the ALC/Asperger group had a mean of 1.6, and children with autistic traits had a mean of 1.6. The most common disorder/problems in the total group pertained to language problems (78%, intellectual disability (ID (49%, below average motor function (37%, and severe hyperactivity/ADHD (33%. Conclusions. The results accord with the concept of early symptomatic syndromes eliciting neurodevelopmental clinical examination (ESSENCE, and highlight the need of considering ASD in a broad perspective taking also other cooccurring developmental disorders into account.

Emergent name-writing abilities of preschool-age children with language impairment.

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Cabell, Sonia Q; Justice, Laura M; Zucker, Tricia A; McGinty, Anita S

2009-01-01

The 2 studies reported in this manuscript collectively address 3 aims: (a) to characterize the name-writing abilities of preschool-age children with language impairment (LI), (b) to identify those emergent literacy skills that are concurrently associated with name-writing abilities, and (c) to compare the name-writing abilities of children with LI to those of their typical language (TL) peers. Fifty-nine preschool-age children with LI were administered a battery of emergent literacy and language assessments, including a task in which the children were asked to write their first names. A subset of these children (n=23) was then compared to a TL-matched sample to characterize performance differences. Results showed that the name-writing abilities of preschoolers with LI were associated with skills in alphabet knowledge and print concepts. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that only alphabet knowledge uniquely contributed to the variance in concurrent name-writing abilities. In the matched comparison, the TL group demonstrated significantly more advanced name-writing representations than the LI group. Children with LI lag significantly behind their TL peers in name-writing abilities. Speech-language pathologists are encouraged to address the print-related skills of children with LI within their clinical interventions.

Language Development in Preschool-Age Children Adopted from China.

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Roberts, Jenny A.; Pollock, Karen E.; Krakow, Rena; Price, Johanna; Fulmer, Kathleen C.; Wang, Paul P.

2005-01-01

This study examined the language development of 55 preschool-age children adopted from China who had resided in their permanent homes for approximately 2 years or longer. Slightly over 5% of the children scored below average on 2 or more measures from a battery of standardized speech-language tests normed on monolingual English speakers. However,…

Emergent literacy profiles of preschool-age children with specific language impairment.

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Cabell, Sonia Q; Lomax, Richard G; Justice, Laura M; Breit-Smith, Allison; Skibbe, Lori E; McGinty, Anita S

2010-12-01

The primary aim of the present study was to explore the heterogeneity of emergent literacy skills among preschool-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) through examination of profiles of performance. Fifty-nine children with SLI were assessed on a battery of emergent literacy skills (i.e., alphabet knowledge, print concepts, emergent writing, rhyme awareness) and oral language skills (i.e., receptive/expressive vocabulary and grammar). Cluster analysis techniques identified three emergent literacy profiles: (1) Highest Emergent Literacy, Strength in Alphabet Knowledge; (2) Average Emergent Literacy, Strength in Print Concepts; and (3) Lowest Emergent Literacy across Skills. After taking into account the contribution of child age, receptive and expressive language skills made a small contribution to the prediction of profile membership. The present findings, which may be characterized as exploratory given the relatively modest sample size, suggest that preschool-age children with SLI display substantial individual differences with regard to their emergent literacy skills and that these differences cannot be fully determined by children's age or oral language performance. Replication of the present findings with a larger sample of children is needed.

Objectively measured sedentary behavior in preschool children: comparison between Montessori and traditional preschools.

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Byun, Wonwoo; Blair, Steven N; Pate, Russell R

2013-01-03

This study aimed to compare the levels of objectively-measured sedentary behavior in children attending Montessori preschools with those attending traditional preschools. The participants in this study were preschool children aged 4 years old who were enrolled in Montessori and traditional preschools. The preschool children wore ActiGraph accelerometers. Accelerometers were initialized using 15-second intervals and sedentary behavior was defined as Montessori preschools, after adjusting for selected potential correlates of preschoolers' sedentary behavior. Children attending Montessori preschools spent less time in sedentary behavior than those attending traditional preschools during the in-school (44.4. min/hr vs. 47.1 min/hr, P = 0.03), after-school (42.8. min/hr vs. 44.7 min/hr, P = 0.04), and total-day (43.7 min/hr vs. 45.5 min/hr, P = 0. 009) periods. School type (Montessori or traditional), preschool setting (private or public), socio-demographic factors (age, gender, and socioeconomic status) were found to be significant predictors of preschoolers' sedentary behavior. Levels of objectively-measured sedentary behavior were significantly lower among children attending Montessori preschools compared to children attending traditional preschools. Future research should examine the specific characteristics of Montessori preschools that predict the lower levels of sedentary behavior among children attending these preschools compared to children attending traditional preschools.

Language Impairment in Autistic Children.

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Deaton, Ann Virginia

Discussed is the language impairment of children with infantile autism. The speech patterns of autistic children, including echolalia, pronomial reversal, silent language, and voice imitation, are described. The clinical picture of the autistic child is compared to that of children with such other disorders as deafness, retardation, and…

Ensemble perception of emotions in autistic and typical children and adolescents

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Themelis Karaminis

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Ensemble perception, the ability to assess automatically the summary of large amounts of information presented in visual scenes, is available early in typical development. This ability might be compromised in autistic children, who are thought to present limitations in maintaining summary statistics representations for the recent history of sensory input. Here we examined ensemble perception of facial emotional expressions in 35 autistic children, 30 age- and ability-matched typical children and 25 typical adults. Participants received three tasks: a an ‘ensemble’ emotion discrimination task; b a baseline (single-face emotion discrimination task; and c a facial expression identification task. Children performed worse than adults on all three tasks. Unexpectedly, autistic and typical children were, on average, indistinguishable in their precision and accuracy on all three tasks. Computational modelling suggested that, on average, autistic and typical children used ensemble-encoding strategies to a similar extent; but ensemble perception was related to non-verbal reasoning abilities in autistic but not in typical children. Eye-movement data also showed no group differences in the way children attended to the stimuli. Our combined findings suggest that the abilities of autistic and typical children for ensemble perception of emotions are comparable on average.

Risk Factors in Preschool Children for Predicting Asthma During the Preschool Age and the Early School Age: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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Bao, Yixia; Chen, Zhimin; Liu, Enmei; Xiang, Li; Zhao, Deyu; Hong, Jianguo

2017-11-18

The aim of this study was to identify risk factors of asthma among children asthma during the preschool age and early school age (≤ 10 years of age). MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases were searched until June 30, 2017. Prospective or retrospective cohort and case-control studies were included. Studies had to have evaluated risk factors or a predictive model for developing asthma in children ≤ 6 years of age or persistent asthma in early school age. A total of 17 studies were included in the analysis. Factors associated with developing asthma in children ≤ 10 years of age (both pre-school and early school age) included male gender (pooled OR = 1.70, P asthma (pooled OR = 2.20, P asthma in early school age (pooled OR = 1.51, P = 0.030 and pooled OR = 2.59, P asthma predictive models (e.g., API, PIAMA, PAPS) had relatively low sensitivity (range, 21% to 71.4%) but high specificity (range, 69% to 98%). The study found that male gender, exposure to smoke, atopic dermatitis, family history of asthma, history of wheezing, and serum IgE level ≥ 60 kU/l or having specific IgE were significantly associated with developing asthma by either preschool or early school age. Asthma predictive models can be developed by those risk factors.

Adapting a receptive vocabulary test for preschool-aged Greek-speaking children.

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Okalidou, Areti; Syrika, Asimina; Beckman, Mary E; Edwards, Jan R

2011-01-01

Receptive vocabulary is an important measure for language evaluations. Therefore, norm-referenced receptive vocabulary tests are widely used in several languages. However, a receptive vocabulary test has not yet been normed for Modern Greek. To adapt an American English vocabulary test, the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-II (ROWPVT-II), for Modern Greek for use with Greek-speaking preschool children. The list of 170 English words on ROWPVT-II was adapted by (1) developing two lists (A and B) of Greek words that would match either the target English word or another concept corresponding to one of the pictured objects in the four-picture array; and (2) determining a developmental order for the chosen Greek words for preschool-aged children. For the first task, adult word frequency measures were used to select the words for the Greek wordlist. For the second task, 427 children, 225 boys and 202 girls, ranging in age from 2;0 years to 5;11 years, were recruited from urban and suburban areas of Greece. A pilot study of the two word lists was performed with the aim of comparing an equal number of list A and list B responses for each age group and deriving a new developmental list order. The relative difficulty of each Greek word item, that is, its accuracy score, was calculated by taking the average proportion of correct responses across ages for that word. Subsequently, the word accuracy scores in the two lists were compared via regression analysis, which yielded a highly significant relationship (R(2) = 0.97; p word item from the two lists was a better fit. Finally, new starting levels (basals) were established for preschool ages. The revised word list can serve as the basis for adapting a receptive vocabulary test for Greek preschool-aged children. Further steps need to be taken when testing larger numbers of 2;0 to 5;11-year-old children on the revised word list for determination of norms. This effort will facilitate early identification and remediation

Gender labelling of toys in children of preschool age

OpenAIRE

Knapeková, Lívia

2016-01-01

The bachelor thesis deals with preschool children's play in the context of gender. The theoretical part is divided into three main chapters. The first one is devoted to the essence of play and its function for the child, the second one describes the main areas of child development at preschool age and the last chapter is devoted mainly to gender socialization and role of play in it. The practical part has the form of semi- structured interviews, which aimed to find out the extent of gender de...

Objectively measured sedentary behavior in preschool children: comparison between Montessori and traditional preschools

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Byun Wonwoo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study aimed to compare the levels of objectively-measured sedentary behavior in children attending Montessori preschools with those attending traditional preschools. Methods The participants in this study were preschool children aged 4 years old who were enrolled in Montessori and traditional preschools. The preschool children wore ActiGraph accelerometers. Accelerometers were initialized using 15-second intervals and sedentary behavior was defined as Results Children attending Montessori preschools spent less time in sedentary behavior than those attending traditional preschools during the in-school (44.4. min/hr vs. 47.1 min/hr, P = 0.03, after-school (42.8. min/hr vs. 44.7 min/hr, P = 0.04, and total-day (43.7 min/hr vs. 45.5 min/hr, P = 0. 009 periods. School type (Montessori or traditional, preschool setting (private or public, socio-demographic factors (age, gender, and socioeconomic status were found to be significant predictors of preschoolers’ sedentary behavior. Conclusions Levels of objectively-measured sedentary behavior were significantly lower among children attending Montessori preschools compared to children attending traditional preschools. Future research should examine the specific characteristics of Montessori preschools that predict the lower levels of sedentary behavior among children attending these preschools compared to children attending traditional preschools.

"Where Is My Daddy's House?" Preschool-Age Children of Divorce and Transitional Phenomena--A Study.

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Stirtzinger, Ruth

1986-01-01

Presents study comparing preschool-age children of divorce not living in family home (N=4) with children (N=4) remaining in home. Those not in home showed specific discrete longing for it. After divorce the family home may allow the preschool-age child the necessary mental image of access to both his parents despite decreasing family structure.…

Interactive use of communication by verbal and non-verbal autistic children.

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Amato, Cibelle Albuquerque de la Higuera; Fernandes, Fernanda Dreux Miranda

2010-01-01

Communication of autistic children. To assess the communication functionality of verbal and non-verbal children of the autistic spectrum and to identify possible associations amongst the groups. Subjects were 20 children of the autistic spectrum divided into two groups: V with 10 verbal children and NV with 10 non-verbal children with ages varying between 2y10m and 10y6m. All subjects were video recorded during 30 minutes of spontaneous interaction with their mothers. The samples were analyzed according to the functional communicative profile and comparisons within and between groups were conducted. Data referring to the occupation of communicative space suggest that there is an even balance between each child and his mother. The number of communicative acts per minute shows a clear difference between verbal and non-verbal children. Both verbal and non-verbal children use mostly the gestual communicative mean in their interactions. Data about the use of interpersonal communicative functions point out to the autistic children's great interactive impairment. The characterization of the functional communicative profile proposed in this study confirmed the autistic children's difficulties with interpersonal communication and that these difficulties do not depend on the preferred communicative mean.

Movement-related neuromagnetic fields in preschool age children.

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Cheyne, Douglas; Jobst, Cecilia; Tesan, Graciela; Crain, Stephen; Johnson, Blake

2014-09-01

We examined sensorimotor brain activity associated with voluntary movements in preschool children using a customized pediatric magnetoencephalographic system. A videogame-like task was used to generate self-initiated right or left index finger movements in 17 healthy right-handed subjects (8 females, ages 3.2-4.8 years). We successfully identified spatiotemporal patterns of movement-related brain activity in 15/17 children using beamformer source analysis and surrogate MRI spatial normalization. Readiness fields in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex began ∼0.5 s prior to movement onset (motor field, MF), followed by transient movement-evoked fields (MEFs), similar to that observed during self-paced movements in adults, but slightly delayed and with inverted source polarities. We also observed modulation of mu (8-12 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) oscillations in sensorimotor cortex with movement, but with different timing and a stronger frequency band coupling compared to that observed in adults. Adult-like high-frequency (70-80 Hz) gamma bursts were detected at movement onset. All children showed activation of the right superior temporal gyrus that was independent of the side of movement, a response that has not been reported in adults. These results provide new insights into the development of movement-related brain function, for an age group in which no previous data exist. The results show that children under 5 years of age have markedly different patterns of movement-related brain activity in comparison to older children and adults, and indicate that significant maturational changes occur in the sensorimotor system between the preschool years and later childhood. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Screening for elevated risk of liver disease in preschool children (aged 2-5 years) being seen for obesity management.

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Beacher, Daniel R; Ariza, Adolfo J; Fishbein, Mark H; Binns, Helen J

2014-01-01

Elevated alanine aminotransferase can heighten concern for the presence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in obese children. Guidelines recommend alanine aminotransferase screening of obese children start at the age of 10 years. We examined alanine aminotransferase values routinely obtained for tertiary obesity care among preschool (2-5 years) and school-age children. Medical records of children attending a tertiary obesity clinic and with alanine aminotransferase measured within 6 months of the initial visit were reviewed. Children with known genetic abnormalities were excluded. Children were grouped by age to focus attention on groups not covered by screening guidelines. Associations with elevated alanine aminotransferase (>30 IU/L) were examined. A total of 284 records were analyzed (73 preschool, 143 young school-age (6-9 years), 68 older school-age (10-11 years)). Children were primarily Hispanic and had body mass index ≥ 99th percentile (preschool children 92%, young school-age 73%, older school-age 59%). In all, 26% of preschool children had elevated alanine aminotransferase (young school-age 30%, older school-age 44%). Preschool children with elevated alanine aminotransferase had higher body mass index compared to preschool children with alanine aminotransferase ≤ 30 IU/L (median body mass index 27.8 kg/m(2) vs 24.0 kg/m(2); Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.003), but there was no disparity for elevated alanine aminotransferase related to Hispanic ethnicity. For older children, Hispanic ethnicity, not body mass index, predicted elevated alanine aminotransferase. Alanine aminotransferase elevation was common in these preschool children. Screening severely obese children for elevated alanine aminotransferase should begin at the age of 2 years.

Relationship between Social Cognition and Temperament in Preschool-Aged Children

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LaBounty, Jennifer; Bosse, Lindsey; Savicki, Stephanie; King, Jaline; Eisenstat, Sophie

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between temperament and social cognition, including theory of mind and emotion understanding, in 34 preschool-aged children (aged 3-4 years). Theory of mind was measured with a belief-desire reasoning assessment, and emotion understanding was measured with an affective…

Developing a Treatment Program for Obesity in Preschool Age Children: Preliminary Data

OpenAIRE

Boles, Richard E.; Scharf, Cynthia; Stark, Lori J.

2010-01-01

We developed and tested the feasibility of a behavioral intervention that utilizes clinic and home visitations to reduce overweight in preschool children above the 95th BMI percentile. Five families of preschool children ages 2 to 5 years with a BMI above the 95th percentile and one overweight parent were enrolled in a 24-week behavioral weight management program. Phase I, Intensive Treatment included 12 weekly sessions, alternating group-based clinic sessions and home settings. Phase II, Mai...

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

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Modry-Mandell, Kerri L.; Gamble, Wendy C.; Taylor, Angela R.

2007-01-01

We examined the impact of family emotional climate and sibling relationship quality on behavioral problems and adaptation in preschool-aged children. Participants were 63 mothers with a preschool-aged child enrolled in a Southern Arizona Head Start Program. Siblings were identified as children closest in age to target child. Mothers of…

Teenage outcomes after speech and language impairment at preschool age.

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Ek, Ulla; Norrelgen, Fritjof; Westerlund, Joakim; Dahlman, Andrea; Hultby, Elizabeth; Fernell, Elisabeth

2012-01-01

Ten years ago, we published developmental data on a representative group of children (n = 25) with moderate or severe speech and language impairment, who were attending special preschools for children. The aim of this study was to perform a follow-up of these children as teenagers. Parents of 23 teenagers participated in a clinical interview that requested information on the child's current academic achievement, type of school, previous clinical assessments, and developmental diagnoses. Fifteen children participated in a speech and language evaluation, and 13 participated in a psychological evaluation. Seven of the 23 teenagers had a mild intellectual disability, and another three had borderline intellectual functioning. Nine had symptoms of disorders on the autism spectrum; five of these had an autism spectrum disorder, and four had clear autistic traits. Six met criteria for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)/subthreshold ADHD. Thirteen of 15 teenagers had a moderate or severe language impairment, and 13 of 15 had a moderate or severe reading impairment. Overlapping disorders were frequent. None of the individuals who underwent the clinical evaluation were free from developmental problems. A large number of children with speech and language impairment at preschool age had persistent language problems and/or met the criteria for developmental diagnoses other than speech and language impairment at their follow-up as teenagers. Language impairment in young children is a marker for several developmental disorders, particularly intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder.

Decoding and Encoding Facial Expressions in Preschool-Age Children.

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Zuckerman, Miron; Przewuzman, Sylvia J.

1979-01-01

Preschool-age children drew, decoded, and encoded facial expressions depicting five different emotions. Accuracy of drawing, decoding and encoding each of the five emotions was consistent across the three tasks; decoding ability was correlated with drawing ability among female subjects, but neither of these abilities was correlated with encoding…

THE CAUSES AND THE COURSE OF CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE IN CHILDREN OF PRESCHOOL AGE

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T. Yu. Abaseeva

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Data on etiology and clinical course of CKD stage  3 to 5 in children of preschool  age could help obstetricians, pediatricians, and nephrologists with proper diagnostics and management of this condition and prediction of outcomes. Aim: To study causes and clinical features of CKD stage 3 to 5 in preschool  children. Materials and methods: The causes and clinical features of CKD stage 3 to 5 were investigated in 55 preschool children aged from 7 months  to 8 years. Twenty four had  CKD stage  3 to 4 and  31 children with endstage  CKD  were  on  peritoneal  dialysis. Results:96% of CKD stage 3 to 5 in preschool children were due  to  congenital/genetic kidney abnormalities. Predictors  of renal  replacement therapy  beginning in the first 5 years of life were as follows: antenatal detection of congenital  abnormalities  of the kidney and urinary tract, oligohydroamnion, high neonatal  BUN levels.  Anemia, hyperparathyroidism, arterial hypertension were more prevalent  in children on the dialysis stage of CKD, and myocardial hypertrophy and/or of the left ventricle dilatation were found in 26% of them. Forty two percent of children had growth retardation, and 40% had delayed  speech  development. Conclusion: The course CKD in preschool  children is characterized by a combination of typical metabolic  disorders with the growth  retardation (often dramatic and delayed mental development that significantly limits the possibilities of the social adaptation of these children and social activities of their parents. Participation  of  neuropsychiatrists,  clinical psychologists, and teachers, rather than pediatricians and  nephrologists only, is desirable  in management of preschool children with CKD stage 3 to 5.

Dynamic drawing characteristics of preschool and younger school age children

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Cvetković Andrijana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this research is to determine developmental characteristics of dynamic drawings of preschool and younger school age children. The sample consists of 90 typical developed children, aged between 6 and 9. The sample includes 47 (52.2% girls and 43 (47.8% boys from preschool institutions and elementary schools in Pirot and Belgrade. Action representation in dynamic drawings was evaluated using three types of drawings: a man who runs, a man shooting a ball and a man lifting a ball from the floor. We determined that a very small number of the respondents reaches the highest level of graphical representation of figures in motion, and that girl’s achievements are better than boy’s achievements. However, this result is on the border of statistical significance (p=0.052. Also, there is a statistically significant trend of progress to higher levels of action representation (p=0.000 with the increase in chronological age of the respondents.

Screening for autistic spectrum disorder in children aged 14-15 months. II: population screening with the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT). Design and general findings.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dietz, C.; Swinkels, S.H.N.; Daalen, E. van; Engeland, H.M. van; Buitelaar, J.K.

2006-01-01

A two-stage protocol for screening for autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) was evaluated in a random population of 31,724 children aged 14-15 months. Children were first pre-screened by physicians at well-baby clinics using a 4-item screening instrument. Infants that screened positive were then

Self-Recognition in Autistic Children.

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Dawson, Geraldine; McKissick, Fawn Celeste

1984-01-01

Fifteen autistic children (four to six years old) were assessed for visual self-recognition ability, as well as for object permanence and gestural imitation. It was found that 13 of 15 autistic children showed evidence of self-recognition. Consistent relationships were suggested between self-cognition and object permanence but not between…

Hippocampus and amygdala volumes in parents of children with autistic disorder.

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Rojas, Donald C; Smith, J Allegra; Benkers, Tara L; Camou, Suzanne L; Reite, Martin L; Rogers, Sally J

2004-11-01

Structural and functional abnormalities in the medial temporal lobe, particularly the hippocampus and amygdala, have been described in people with autism. The authors hypothesized that parents of children with a diagnosis of autistic disorder would show similar changes in these structures. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed in 17 biological parents of children with a diagnosis of DSM-IV autistic disorder. The scans were compared with scans from 15 adults with autistic disorder and 17 age-matched comparison subjects with no personal or familial history of autism. The volumes of the hippocampus, amygdala, and total brain were measured in all participants. The volume of the left hippocampus was larger in both the parents of children with autistic disorder and the adults with autistic disorder, relative to the comparison subjects. The hippocampus was significantly larger in the adults with autistic disorder than in the parents of children with autistic disorder. The left amygdala was smaller in the adults with autistic disorder, relative to the other two groups. No differences in total brain volume were observed between the three groups. The finding of larger hippocampal volume in autism is suggestive of abnormal early neurodevelopmental processes but is partly consistent with only one prior study and contradicts the findings of several others. The finding of larger hippocampal volume for the parental group suggests a potential genetic basis for hippocampal abnormalities in autism.

Systemic multimodal approach to speech therapy treatment in autistic children.

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Tamas, Daniela; Marković, Slavica; Milankov, Vesela

2013-01-01

Conditions in which speech therapy treatment is applied in autistic children are often not in accordance with characteristics of opinions and learning of people with autism. A systemic multimodal approach means motivating autistic people to develop their language speech skill through the procedure which allows reliving of their personal experience according to the contents that are presented in the their natural social environment. This research was aimed at evaluating the efficiency of speech treatment based on the systemic multimodal approach to the work with autistic children. The study sample consisted of 34 children, aged from 8 to 16 years, diagnosed to have different autistic disorders, whose results showed a moderate and severe clinical picture of autism on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale. The applied instruments for the evaluation of ability were the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and Ganzberg II test. The study subjects were divided into two groups according to the type of treatment: children who were covered by the continuing treatment and systemic multimodal approach in the treatment, and children who were covered by classical speech treatment. It is shown that the systemic multimodal approach in teaching autistic children affects the stimulation of communication, socialization, self-service and work as well as that the progress achieved in these areas of functioning was retainable after long time, too. By applying the systemic multimodal approach when dealing with autistic children and by comparing their achievements on tests applied before, during and after the application of this mode, it has been concluded that certain improvement has been achieved in the functionality within the diagnosed category. The results point to a possible direction in the creation of new methods, plans and programs in dealing with autistic children based on empirical and interactive learning.

Autism Spectrum Disorder Risk Factors and Autistic Traits in Gender Dysphoric Children

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VanderLaan, Doug P.; Leef, Jonathan H.; Wood, Hayley; Hughes, S. Kathleen; Zucker, Kenneth J.

2015-01-01

Gender dysphoria (GD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are associated. In 49 GD children (40 natal males), we examined ASD risk factors (i.e., birth weight, parental age, sibling sex ratio) in relation to autistic traits. Data were gathered on autistic traits, birth weight, parents' ages at birth, sibling sex ratio, gender nonconformity, age,…

Screening for elevated risk of liver disease in preschool children (aged 2–5 years being seen for obesity management

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Daniel R Beacher

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Elevated alanine aminotransferase can heighten concern for the presence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in obese children. Guidelines recommend alanine aminotransferase screening of obese children start at the age of 10 years. We examined alanine aminotransferase values routinely obtained for tertiary obesity care among preschool (2–5 years and school-age children. Methods: Medical records of children attending a tertiary obesity clinic and with alanine aminotransferase measured within 6 months of the initial visit were reviewed. Children with known genetic abnormalities were excluded. Children were grouped by age to focus attention on groups not covered by screening guidelines. Associations with elevated alanine aminotransferase (>30 IU/L were examined. Results: A total of 284 records were analyzed (73 preschool, 143 young school-age (6–9 years, 68 older school-age (10–11 years. Children were primarily Hispanic and had body mass index ≥ 99th percentile (preschool children 92%, young school-age 73%, older school-age 59%. In all, 26% of preschool children had elevated alanine aminotransferase (young school-age 30%, older school-age 44%. Preschool children with elevated alanine aminotransferase had higher body mass index compared to preschool children with alanine aminotransferase ≤ 30 IU/L (median body mass index 27.8 kg/m2 vs 24.0 kg/m2; Mann–Whitney U test, p = 0.003, but there was no disparity for elevated alanine aminotransferase related to Hispanic ethnicity. For older children, Hispanic ethnicity, not body mass index, predicted elevated alanine aminotransferase. Conclusion: Alanine aminotransferase elevation was common in these preschool children. Screening severely obese children for elevated alanine aminotransferase should begin at the age of 2 years.

Proprioceptive versus Visual Control in Autistic Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Masterton, B. A.; Biederman, G. B.

1983-01-01

The autistic children's presumed preference for proximal over distal sensory input was studied by requiring that "autistic," retarded, and "normal" children (7-15 years old) adapt to lateral displacement of the visual field. Only autistic Ss demonstrated transfer of adaptation to the nonadapted hand, indicating reliance on proprioception rather…

Urinary schistosomiasis among preschool-aged children in Sahelian rural communities in Mali

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Doumbo Ogobara K

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Mass chemotherapy with praziquantel is the main control strategy for schistosomiasis in Mali. However, in the national control programme for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, infants and preschool-aged children are overlooked in preventive chemotherapy campaigns. We therefore determined the prevalence and intensity of urinary schistosomiasis in children between the ages 1-4 years in three villages across Diema health district, a rural community with endemic schistosomiasis in Mali. For Schistosoma haematobium diagnosis, a single urine sample of 10 ml obtained from each child was subjected to the standard urine filtration method. Results Of the 338 children examined 173 (51.2% were infected. Both prevalence and intensity of infection varied significantly between communities (p Conclusion Our study showed that preschool children living closely to lakes across in Mali are at high risk to be infected by schistosomiasis and contributed largely to the transmission; therefore schistosomiasis control interventions should also target infants in addition to school children and adults in endemic areas.

Ferritin and iron levels in children with autistic disorder.

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Hergüner, Sabri; Keleşoğlu, Fatih Mehmet; Tanıdır, Cansaran; Cöpür, Mazlum

2012-01-01

Iron has an important role on cognitive, behavioral, and motor development. High prevalence of iron deficiency has been reported in autism. The aim of this study was to investigate iron status in a group of children with autistic disorder. The sample was composed of 116 children between 3 and 16 years with a diagnosis of autistic disorder according to DSM-IV criteria. Serum ferritin, iron, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, and red cell distribution width values were measured. We found that 24.1% of subjects had iron deficiency, and 15.5% had anemia. There was a significant positive correlation between age and ferritin and hematological measures. Results of this study confirmed that iron deficiency and anemia are common in children with autistic disorder. These findings suggest that ferritin levels should be measured in subjects with autism as a part of routine investigation.

ATTITUDES OF HEALTHY CHILDREN PARENTS TOWARDS HANDICAPPED CHILDREN AT THE PRE-SCHOOL AGE

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Ruzica KERAMICIEVA

1997-03-01

Full Text Available Since the 1970-ties, in the USA and Western and Eastern Europe, the model of segregated education has been abandoned, and nowadays the handicapped children attend regular schools all together with other healthy pupils. This , so called Integrative Pedagogy, proceeds from the mental hygiene aspects according to which the restrictive environment in special schools has not been a favorable one for the development of those children.The integrational process of these children in preschool institutions and schools has rather been difficult due to a number of reasons. As one of them, already mentioned and found in literature , has been the negative attitude of non-handicapped children parents towards those handicapped in their development.The problem of this research is to check and test the attitude of healthy children parents towards handicapped children at preschool age. This research shall also tend to analyze the origin of the such attitudes i. e. , whether they have been a result of an insufficient information and ignorance of the obstacles during development, or been produced by imitation of the environment, or due to an empathy, or even because of the fear that “ such a thing better never enter their home”, etc.We sincerely believe that, revealing the above parents’ attitudes and their origin, would certainly bring finding ways of their successful socialization and making the integrational process of handicapped children with their normal mates in preschool institutions easier.

Brief Report: Application of the TEACCH Program on Chinese Pre-School Children with Autism--Does Culture Make a Difference?

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Tsang, Sandra K. M.; Shek, Daniel T. l.; Lam, Lorinda L.; Tang, Florence L. Y.; Cheung, Penita M. P.

2007-01-01

A longitudinal study was conducted on 34 children with autism to evaluate the usefulness of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) program for Chinese pre-school children in Hong Kong. Eighteen children received full-time center-based TEACCH program training. The control group included 16…

Commitment to Classroom Model Philosophy and Burnout Symptoms among High Fidelity Teachers Implementing Preschool Programs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Coman, Drew; Alessandri, Michael; Gutierrez, Anibal; Novotny, Stephanie; Boyd, Brian; Hume, Kara; Sperry, Laurie; Odom, Samuel

2013-01-01

Teacher commitment to classroom model philosophy and burnout were explored in a sample of 53 teachers implementing three preschool models at high levels of fidelity for students with autism: Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH); Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and…

Emotional reactivity and regulation in preschool-age children who stutter.

Science.gov (United States)

Ntourou, Katerina; Conture, Edward G; Walden, Tedra A

2013-09-01

This study experimentally investigated behavioral correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation and their relation to speech (dis)fluency in preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not (CWNS) stutter during emotion-eliciting conditions. Participants (18 CWS, 14 boys; 18 CWNS, 14 boys) completed two experimental tasks (1) a neutral ("apples and leaves in a transparent box," ALTB) and (2) a frustrating ("attractive toy in a transparent box," ATTB) task, both of which were followed by a narrative task. Dependent measures were emotional reactivity (positive affect, negative affect), emotion regulation (self-speech, distraction) exhibited during the ALTB and the ATTB tasks, percentage of stuttered disfluencies (SDs) and percentage of non-stuttered disfluencies (NSDs) produced during the narratives. Results indicated that preschool-age CWS exhibited significantly more negative emotion and more self-speech than preschool-age CWNS. For CWS only, emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, self-speech) during the experimental tasks were predictive of stuttered disfluencies during the subsequent narrative tasks. Furthermore, for CWS there was no relation between emotional processes and non-stuttered disfluencies, but CWNS's negative affect was significantly related to nonstuttered disfluencies. In general, present findings support the notion that emotional processes are associated with childhood stuttering. Specifically, findings are consistent with the notion that preschool-age CWS are more emotionally reactive than CWNS and that their self-speech regulatory attempts may be less than effective in modulating their emotions. The reader will be able to: (a) communicate the relevance of studying the role of emotion in developmental stuttering close to the onset of stuttering and (b) describe the main findings of the present study in relation to previous studies that have used different methodologies to investigate the role of emotion in developmental

Anti-metallothionein IgG and levels of metallothionein in autistic children with GI disease

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A J Russo

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A J RussoMount Saint Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, MD, USAAim: To assess both serum concentration of metallotionein (MT and anti-metallothionein (anti-MT immunoglobulin G (IgG in autistic children with gastrointestinal (GI symptoms and controls, and to test the hypothesis that there is an association between the presence of MT, anti-MT IgG, and inflammatory GI disease seen in many children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD.Subjects and methods: ELISAs were used to measure serum MT and anti-MT IgG in 41 autistic children with chronic digestive disease (many with ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia [LNH] and inflammation of the colorectum, small bowel, and/or stomach, and 33 controls (17 age-matched autistic children with no GI disease and 16 age-matched children without autism or GI disease.Results: Ten of 41 autistic children with chronic digestive disease had high serum concentration of MT compared to only one of the 33 controls (p < 0.01. Thirteen of the 41 autistic children with chronic digestive disease had anti-MT IgG compared to only four of 33 controls (p < 0.01. Nine of 10 (90% of autistic children with GI disease with high MT levels had a regressive onset (compared to the expected 25 of 41, or 61%, in this group (p < 0.05, whereas only nine of 13 of the autistic children with GI disease and anti-MT IgG had a regressive onset (70% which was not significantly higher than the expected. We didn’t find any correlation between severity of GI disease and MT concentration or anti-MT IgG.Discussion: These results suggest a relationship between MT, anti-MT IgG and GI disease seen in many ASD individuals.Keywords: autism, metallothionein, anti-metallothionein, GI disease

An Insight into the Challenges Faced by Academic Women with Pre-School Age Children in Academic Life

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Günçavdi, Gizem; Göktürk, Söheyda; Bozoglu, Oguzhan

2017-01-01

This study aimed to explore the challenges academic women, especially those who were mothers of pre-school age children, went through. The main guiding question of this study was "How do academic mothers with pre-school age children survive in the academia from pregnancy through all the various stages of parenting and motherhood?". This…

Investigation of habitual pitch during free play activities for preschool-aged children.

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Chen, Yang; Kimelman, Mikael D Z; Micco, Katie

2009-01-01

This study is designed to compare the habitual pitch measured in two different speech activities (free play activity and traditionally used structured speech activity) for normally developing preschool-aged children to explore to what extent preschoolers vary their vocal pitch among different speech environments. Habitual pitch measurements were conducted for 10 normally developing children (2 boys, 8 girls) between the ages of 31 months and 71 months during two different activities: (1) free play; and (2) structured speech. Speech samples were recorded using a throat microphone connected with a wireless transmitter in both activities. The habitual pitch (in Hz) was measured for all collected speech samples by using voice analysis software (Real-Time Pitch). Significantly higher habitual pitch is found during free play in contrast to structured speech activities. In addition, there is no showing of significant difference of habitual pitch elicited across a variety of structured speech activities. Findings suggest that the vocal usage of preschoolers appears to be more effortful during free play than during structured activities. It is recommended that a comprehensive evaluation for young children's voice needs to be based on the speech/voice samples collected from both free play and structured activities.

Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children's Competitiveness Following a Competition.

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Hu, Yu; Zhu, Yi

2018-01-01

Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children's competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2-4 and 5-6 years) engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome), and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task) and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task) for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children's competitiveness.

Autistic disorder in 2 children with mitochondrial disorders.

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Tsao, Chang-Yong; Mendell, Jerry R

2007-09-01

Autistic disorder is a heterogeneous disorder. The majority of the cases are idiopathic, and only a small number of the autistic children have associated secondary diagnosis. This article reports 2 children with mitochondrial disorders associated with autistic disorder fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of the American Psychiatric Association Manual of Psychiatric Diseases, 4th edition, and briefly reviews the literature on autistic disorder associated with mitochondrial disorders.

Attention and Word Learning in Autistic, Language Delayed and Typically Developing Children

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Elena eTenenbaum

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Previous work has demonstrated that patterns of social attention hold predictive value for language development in typically developing infants. The goal of this research was to explore how patterns of attention in autistic, language delayed, and typically developing children relate to early word learning and language abilities. We tracked patterns of eye movements to faces and objects while children watched videos of a woman teaching them a series of new words. Subsequent test trials measured participants’ recognition of these novel word-object pairings. Results indicated that greater attention to the speaker’s mouth was related to higher scores on standardized measures of language development for autistic and typically developing children (but not for language delayed children. This effect was mediated by age for typically developing, but not autistic children. When effects of age were controlled for, attention to the mouth among language delayed participants was negatively correlated with standardized measures of language learning. Attention to the speaker’s mouth and eyes while she was teaching the new words was also predictive of faster recognition of the newly learned words among autistic children. These results suggest that language delays among children with autism may be driven in part by aberrant social attention, and that the mechanisms underlying these delays may differ from those in language delayed participants without autism.

DYNAMICS OF THE COMPELEX FORMS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN CHILDREN OF PRE-SCHOOL AGE (A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS)

OpenAIRE

VASILEVA Neli

2015-01-01

Introduction: Experimental data in preschool aged children proves the determining role of the auditory and visual processes for future reading skills, therefore the investigation of complex forms of visual perception in this age period is diagnostically important. Objectives: Basic aim of the research is assessment of the sensitive period for the non-verbal perceptive operations in pre-school aged children, and determination of subgroup with low results for non-verbal perception. Method...

Examination of the Social Behavior of 4 Age Old Preschool Children According to Teacher Views

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Dervişe AMCA

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this research is to compare the social behavior of children according to the teacher interviews. Screening model method has been used at this research which is one of the descriptive research methods. The study group of this research was created totally 691 children, from the age group of 4, which were observed at least 8 weeks objectively by 52 school teachers at 42 preschools in Nicosia, Kyrenia, Guzelyurt, Famagusta and Iskele which are under the Ministry of National Education of TRNC in the academic year of 2014-2015. In order to reach the demographics of the children of the study group: "Preschool Social Behaviour Questionnaire Form For Teachers" has been used to measures the children, school and family information form, relational aggression, physical aggression, prosocial behaviour and depressive feelings of age 4 group of preschool children. The data obtained through the surveys have been transmitted to the computer environment and in order to analyze the data, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 20.0 for Windows Evolution version has been used. Frequency tables were used to tell the demographic characteristics on children of the research and the social behavior in preschool scale and to realize the cyclic of their behaviour. The static identifier has been given on preschool children’s social behavior scale general and their scores than the average size of the subscale, standard deviation, minimum and maximum statics as identifier. According to the research findings: children with divorced parents compared to children with married parents have higher behavior of physical aggression, behavior of relational aggression and the show of depressive feelings besides lower levels of positive social behaviors.

Pressing Tasks in the Care of Children of Preschool and School Age

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Tseytlin, I

1960-01-01

...). It concerns pressing tasks of public health with regard to the care of children of pre-school and school age in order to strengthen the bond between school and life which also promotes the further...

Investigation of Environmental Problem Solving Skills of Preschool Age Children

Science.gov (United States)

Ulutas, Aysegül; Köksalan, Bahadir

2017-01-01

The study was conducted to determine problem-solving skills of preschool age children on environment as well as factors affecting this skill. For this purpose, quantitative and qualitative research methods were used together in the study and the research was designed in the screening model. This study is a descriptive type research since it…

Different Clinical Features and Lower Scores in Clinical Scoring Systems for Appendicitis in Preschool Children: Comparison with School Age Onset

OpenAIRE

Song, Chun Woo; Kang, Joon Won; Kim, Jae Young

2018-01-01

Purpose To clarify the clinical features of appendicitis in preschool children and to explore clinical appendicitis scoring systems in this age group. Methods We retrospectively collected data on 142 children, aged 10 years or younger, with confirmed diagnosis of appendicitis based on surgical and pathologic findings. Enrolled subjects were divided into two groups: Group 1 (preschool children aged ≤5 years, n=41) and Group 2 (school children aged >5 to ≤10 years, n=101). Data analyzed include...

Parental and grandparental ages in the autistic spectrum disorders: a birth cohort study.

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Jean Golding

2010-04-01

Full Text Available A number of studies have assessed ages of parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD, and reported both maternal and paternal age effects. Here we assess relationships with grandparental ages.We compared the parental and grandparental ages of children in the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, according to their scores in regard to 4 autistic trait measures and whether they had been given a diagnosis of ASD. Mean maternal and paternal ages of ASD cases were raised, but this appears to be secondary to a maternal grandmother age effect (P = 0.006: OR = 1.66[95%CI 1.16, 2.37] for each 10-year increase in the grandmother's age at the birth of the mother. Trait measures also revealed an association between the maternal grandmother's age and the major autistic trait-the Coherence Scale (regression coefficient b = 0.142, [95%CI = 0.057, 0.228]P = 0.001. After allowing for confounders the effect size increased to b = 0.217[95%CI 0.125, 0.308](P<0.001 for each 10 year increase in age.Although the relationship between maternal grandmother's age and ASD and a major autistic trait was unexpected, there is some biological plausibility, for the maternal side at least, given that the timing of female meiosis I permits direct effects on the grandchild's genome during the grandmother's pregnancy. An alternative explanation is the meiotic mismatch methylation (3 M hypothesis, presented here for the first time. Nevertheless the findings should be treated as hypothesis generating pending corroborative results from other studies.

Anthropometric assessment of a Middle Eastern group of autistic children

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Nagwa A Meguid; Wafaa A Kandeel; Khaled E Wakeel; Aly A El-Nofely

2014-01-01

Background: Growth abnormalities are uniquely associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, the extent to which growth abnormalities are present has hardly been investigated. The current study aims to compare the differences in anthropometric parameters in a group of autistic Egyptian children and the healthy normal population. Methods: We recruited 100 children with ASD from the Outpatient Clinic for "Autistic Children" at the Medical Research Hospital of Excellence, National Research Centre in Cairo, Egypt. They were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria of the American Psychiatric Association, Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, and Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Of these children at age of 3-10 years, 71 were males and 29 females. Eight anthropometric parameters were assessed in view of data of the healthy Egyptians of pertinent sex and age. Results: Weight and body mass index increased because of a signifi cant increase in subcutaneous fat thickness. This tendency with a probable decrease in muscle mass was more evident in male or in older children, likely resulting from sedentary life style and food selectivity. Conclusions: The Z head circumference score and its variance signifi cantly increased especially in males or older children, suggesting the relative overgrowth of the brain in a substantial percentage of Egyptian children with autism. We concluded that increased fat composition in Egyptian autistic children with decreased muscle mass necessitates tailoring a specially designed food supplementation program to ameliorate the severity of autism symptoms.

Systematic observation of play behavior in autistic children.

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Black, M; Freeman, B J; Montgomery, J

1975-12-01

The play behavior, defined as interaction with peers and objects, of five autistic children was systematically observed in four environments, i.e., a stark environment, a theraplay unit, a playroom, and an outside play deck. The preliminary results suggested that (1) with some children environment has little or no effect on their play behavior; (2) with multiple objects, autistic children frequently related to the objects rather than to their peers; (3) object play was most frequently at the manipulative stage and often included repetitive and negative behavior; (4) within a confined space with no objects present, autistic children frequently engaged in solitary repetitive behavior; and (5) within a confined space designed to facilitate a movement flow (theraplay), autistic children modeled and imitated and were involved in gross motor play together.

Autistic traits and neuropsychological performance in 6- to-10-year-old children: a population-based study.

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Hyseni, Fjola; Blanken, Laura M E; Muetzel, Ryan; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning; White, Tonya

2018-04-23

Clinical studies of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide evidence for poorer neuropsychological performance within specific domains compared to age, gender, and sometimes IQ-matched controls. Since recent evidence suggests that autistic symptoms form a spectrum that extends into the general population, it was our goal to evaluate the nature of the relationship between autistic traits and neuropsychological performance across the continuum in the general population. We examined neuropsychological performance across five different domains in 1019 6-to-10-year-old children participating in a population-based study of child development. Autistic traits were assessed when the children were 6 years of age using the Social Responsiveness Scale and ASD diagnoses were obtained via medical records. Neuropsychological functioning was measured using the NEPSY-II-NL and included the domains of attention and executive function, memory and learning, sensorimotor functioning, language, and visuospatial functioning. We found that children with higher autistic traits showed significantly lower neuropsychological performance in all domains investigated and that this association remained even after excluding children with the highest autistic traits or confirmed ASD. When comparing 41 children with confirmed ASD diagnosis to typically developing controls, children with ASD showed significantly lower neuropsychological performance across all domains. Taken together, our results suggest that children with both ASD and subclinical autistic traits have lower neuropsychological performance. Thus, this may provide an understanding of why some children without an ASD diagnosis may require some additional assistance within academic settings.

Mentally-Retarded Children of a Pre-School Age and the Development of Movement Skills

OpenAIRE

Morávková, Šárka

2006-01-01

The diploma work covers the issues of children with mental retardation in pre-school age aimed to the development of the movement abilities. It focuses on the relationships between the pre-school child with mental retardation and possibilities of developing its motor skills in context of an organized pre-school education. Theoretical part of the Diploma work indicates the development specifics of the indi- vidual due to mental retardation, describes mainly the movement development of the chil...

Affordances of Ditches for Children in Preschool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lerstrup, Inger Elisabeth; Møller, Maja Steen

2016-01-01

This study aims to expand understanding of the affordances provided by ditches in a Danish preschool context. Affordances are defined as the meaningful action possibilities of the environment. At a forest preschool, a group of 21 children aged approximately 3to 6.5 years accompanied by two to three...... offered varied and changing action possibilities for the preschool children. The paper discusses the possible incorporation of this largely unrecognized design element by planners and managers of green spaces and playgrounds for children in preschool....

Energy and nutrient intake in preschool and school age Mexican children: National Nutrition Survey 1999

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Barquera Simón

2003-01-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To estimate energy and nutrient intake and adequacy in preschool and school age Mexican children, using the National Nutrition Survey 1999 (NNS-1999. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty four-h dietary recalls from pre-school (n=1 309 and school (n=2 611 children obtained from a representative sub-sample of the NNS-1999 were analyzed. Intakes and adequacies were estimated and compared across four regions, socio-economic strata, and between urban and rural areas, and indigenous vs. non-indigenous children. RESULTS: Median energy intake in pre-school children was 949 kcal and in school children 1 377 kcal, with adequacies 150% in both age groups. The North and Mexico City regions had the highest fat intake and the lowest fiber intake. Children in the South region, indigenous children, and those in the lowest socio-economic stratum had higher fiber and carbohydrate intakes and the lowest fat intake. These children also showed the highest risks of inadequacies for vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, iron, zinc and calcium. CONCLUSIONS: Mexico is experiencing a nutrition transition with internal inequalities across regions and socio-economic strata. Food policy must account for these differences in order to optimize resources directed at social programs.

The student`s training to creating computer games for preschool-age children

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Мардарова И.К.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the special aspects of future kindergartner training to creating computer games for children of preschool age. The scratch-projects technology and recommendation for use at kindergarten pedagogical process are described in it.

Neologisms and Idiosyncratic Language in Autistic Speakers.

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Volden, Joanne; Lord, Catherine

1991-01-01

This study of 80 autistic (ages 6-18), mentally handicapped, and normal children found that more autistic subjects used neologisms and idiosyncratic language than age- and language-skill-matched control groups. More autistic children used words inappropriately that were neither phonologically nor conceptually related to intended English words than…

Dialogue Design for a Robot-Based Face-Mirroring Game to Engage Autistic Children with Emotional Expressions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chevalier, Pauline; Li, Jamy Jue; Ainger, Eloise; Alcorn, Alyssa M.; Babovic, Snezana; Charisi, Vicky; Petrovic, Suncica; Schadenberg, Bob Rinse; Pellicano, Elizabeth; Evers, Vanessa; Kheddar, Abderrahmane; Yoshida, Eiichi; Ge, Shuzhi Sam; Suzuki, Kenji; Cabibihan, John-John; Eyssel, Friederike; He, Hongsheng

2017-01-01

We present design strategies for Human Robot Interaction for school-aged autistic children with limited receptive language. Applying these strategies to the DE-ENIGMA project (large EU project addressing emotion recognition in autistic children) supported development of a new activity for in facial

Estimation of physical and mental development of children of the senior pre-school age

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Pasichnyk V.M.

2012-08-01

Full Text Available In this work is conducted physical and mental development of children of the senior preschool age. In the experiment, 90 children took part in the fifth year of life, among which 55 boys and 35 girls. It is noted that the children surveyed rate the physical development of the index corresponds to level - above the average. It was determined that the parameters of the functional state of preschool age children meet the age norm. It is revealed that in determining physical performance among boys set a good level, and satisfactory in girls. It is established that the results of physical fitness of boys is slightly higher than in girls. It was found that the diagnosis of the level of mental development in children fifth year of life, the average productivity and stability of attention, visual and auditory memory, visual-imagery and visual-thinking, and perception of speech correspond to the average level, and cognitive processes such as switching and distribution attention, imagination - a low level.

Growth measures among preschool-age Inuit children living in Canada and Greenland.

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Galloway, Tracey; Niclasen, Birgit V L; Muckle, Gina; Young, Kue; Egeland, Grace M

2012-12-01

The present study reports findings from a study of preschool-age Inuit children living in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland. We compare stature and obesity measures using cutoffs from the Centers for Disease Control and the International Obesity Task Force references. The sample is comprised of 1121 Inuit children (554 boys and 567 girls) aged 3-5 years living in Nunavut (n=376) and Nunavik (n=87), Canada, in the capital city of Nuuk, Greenland (n=86), and in Greenland's remaining towns and villages (n=572). Greenland Inuit children were significantly taller than their Canadian counterparts, with greatest height and weight observed among children from Nuuk. Overall prevalence of stunting was low with the three cutoffs yielding similar values for height-for-age z-scores. Obesity prevalence was higher among Canadian Inuit children than their Greenland counterparts. Inuit children have stature values consistent with those of the Centers for Disease Control reference and low prevalence of stunting, though geographic variability in mean stature values between Canadian and Greenlandic samples likely reflects differences in both socioeconomic status and genetic admixture. Obesity prevalence is high among both Canadian and Greenland Inuit preschoolers, with children living in the city of Nuuk exhibiting lower obesity prevalence than children living in either Nunavut or Nunavik, Canada or Greenland's towns and villages. Varying obesity prevalence may reflect varying degrees of food security in remote locations as well as the influence of stature and sitting height which have not been well studied in young Inuit children.

[Comparison of polysomnographic characteristics in preschool and school aged children with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome].

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yuanfeng; Lei, Fei; Du, Lina; Tang, Xiangdong; Yang, Linghui

2016-03-01

To compare the characteristics of polysomnography in preschool and school aged children with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). The clinical data were collected from October 2009 to October 2013 among children monitored in Sleep Medical Center of West China Hospital. Among them, 189 preschool aged (aged 3-5 years) and 211 school aged (aged 6-13 years) children with sleep breathing disorder, and 33 children complained with sleep talking as controls were enrolled and underwent polysomnography. According to apnea hyponea index (AHI), they were classified as primary snoring (AHIstage and N2 stage among groups (P>0.05). In preschool aged children, the percentage of N1 stage in the moderate/severe group was more than other three groups (moderate/severe group vs control group, primary snoring group, mild group: 24.7%±13.7% vs 17.0%±8.7%, 21.7%±12.4%, 20.9%±11.6%, all Pstage in the moderate/severe group was more than the control group (moderate/severe group vs control group: 18.0%±10.4% vs 12.0%±4.8%, Pstage in the moderate/severe group and the mild group were less than the control group (moderate/severe group, mild group vs control group: 28.3%±9.6%, 28.8%±8.8% vs 33.9%±13.0%, both Ppreschool and school aged children group, the arouse index in the moderate/severe group was higher than other three groups, the mean oxygen saturation and the lowest oxygen saturation in the moderate/severe group were lower than those of the other three groups, the differences were statistically significant (all Ppreschool children (r=-0.02, P>0.05). However, there was significance in school aged children (r=0.26, Ppreschool and school aged (r=0.42, 0.55, both Ppreschool children than in school aged children. The severity is mainly related to enlarged tonsils and adenoids. School aged children with OSAHS may be more susceptible to sleep structure disorder and the severity is mainly related to BMI.

Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Creativity: Comparative Study of the Art Works

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Maria Aleksandrovich

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to outline the findings of a pilot study, which compares drawings of typically developed preschool children and children with autistic spectrum disorders in the same age. In the study the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test (GHDT (1926; 1963 was used. In this study, the auto-portraits of children from two groups were analyzed concerning such categories as line, size, colour, details. For this the statistical analysis of variance was used. The results of the study show that there are no statistically significant differences in the drawings of studied groups according to the categories line, size, colour, details.

Levels of depression and anxiety among parents of autistic children

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Sunay Firat

2016-09-01

Results: Participants in the study were parents of 26 male (65% and 14 female (35% autistic children. The average age of the children was 62.9+/-16.6 months. .Mothers had higher levels of depression and anxiety scores. Mothers of autistic children who participated in the study received higher scores on depression, state anxiety and trait anxiety compared to fathers. Among mothers, a significant relationship was found between level of education and level of state anxiety. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that mothers have higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to fathers. This finding might be explained with reference to customs and traditions of the Turkish society in which the study was conducted, which require women to take more responsiblity for family matters. It is recommended that special education and rehabilitation centers provide counseling to parents about the effects of having an autistic children on their lives, and advise them on seeking psychological help if necessary. [Cukurova Med J 2016; 41(3.000: 539-547

Construct Validity of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition Test in Preschool Children with Respect to Age and Gender

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Jakub Kokštejn

2018-01-01

Full Text Available BackgroundThe Movement Assessment Battery for Children-second edition (MABC-2 Age Band 1 is widely used to identify preschoolers with motor difficulties. Despite unsatisfactory construct validity of the original three-factor model, MABC-2 (manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance, previous research has not considered possible age and gender differences throughout the entire preschool period.AimThe aim of this study was to verify the construct validity of the MABC-2 Age Band 1 in a population of Czech preschoolers with respect to age and gender.MethodsUsing data from 510 Czech preschoolers (3–6 years; 4.9 ± 1.1 years, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA were used for each age category and gender.ResultsThe goodness-of-fit indices of CFA supported the original three-factor model of the MABC-2 only in 3- and 4-year-old children, and in boys (3–6 years. Low factor loadings and ceiling effects of several test items (Drawing Trail, Walking Heels Raised, and Jumping on Mats seem to be a probable cause of weak fit indices in 5- and 6-year-old children and in girls (3–6 years.ConclusionThese results suggest that the MABC-2 can be a valid tool for assessing motor development and identifying motor difficulties among 3- to 4-year olds, and generally fits better for preschool boys in the Czech Republic. However, in 5- to 6-year olds, ceiling effects and a low power of discrimination was found for the Drawing Trail, Walking Heels Raised, and Jumping on Mats tests. Therefore, the three-factor model is not appropriate for all preschoolers, and separate norms should be established for each age and gender.

The Effect of Institutionalization on Psychomotor Development of Preschool Aged Children

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Giagazoglou, Paraskevi; Kouliousi, Chrysoula; Sidiropoulou, Maria; Fahantidou, Anna

2012-01-01

Development can be altered by several factors which can either facilitate or obstruct development. The aim of the current study was the examination and the detection of differences in the developmental profiles of preschool aged children living in conventional institution facilities (N = 28), in SOS villages (N = 20) and in natural family…

Biofilms for Babies: Introducing Microbes and Biofilms to Preschool-Aged Children

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Jillian M. Couto

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Microbes are beneficial to life on our planet as they facilitate natural processes such as global nutrient cycling in our environment. This article details a 30-minute activity to introduce pre-school children ranging from 3 to 5 years of age to microbes and biofilms in the natural environment.

Predictors of Intrusive Sexual Behaviors in Preschool-Aged Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tyler J; Lindsey, Rebecca A; Bohora, Som; Silovsky, Jane F

2018-04-10

Intrusive sexual behaviors (ISBs) are a specific type of problematic sexual behavior characterized by the invasive nature of the acts (e.g., touching others' private parts, attempting intercourse; Friedrich, 1997). The limited amount of research on ISBs has focused on sexual abuse history as the primary predictor. However, Friedrich, Davies, Feher, and Wright (2003) found that ISBs in children up to age 12 were related to four broad conceptual factors: (a) exposure to sexual content, (b) exposure to violent behavior, (c) family adversity, and (d) child vulnerabilities. The current study sought to replicate Friedrich's study using a clinical sample of 217 preschool-aged children (ages two to six). Results supported variables from within the child vulnerabilities construct (externalizing behaviors, β EXT  = 0.032, p = 0.001), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria met (β PTSD  = 0.177, p = 0.02), and an inverse relationship with age (β AGE  = -0.206, p = 0.024). These results highlight the importance of considering childhood behavioral patterns and reactivity to traumatic events as correlates of ISBs in young children.

Parental state anxiety correlates with preoperative anxiety in Chinese preschool children.

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Cui, Xulei; Zhu, Bo; Zhao, Jing; Huang, Yuguang; Luo, Ailun; Wei, Jing

2016-06-01

Preoperative anxiety in children is largely dependent on age and is influenced by anxiety level in parents. The current study compared the level of preoperative anxiety in preschool children versus school-aged children and its relationship with the state and trait anxiety of the parents. This study included 54 preschool children (2-5 years of age) and 48 school-age children (6-12 years) scheduled to receive ear, nose and throat, plastic or ophthalmologic surgeries. Preoperative anxiety of children was assessed in the holding area immediately prior to the surgery using a modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS). Compliance with anaesthesia induction was assessed using an Induction Compliance Checklist (ICC). The state and trait anxiety of the parent who accompanied the child was assessed using a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire. Both m-YPAS and ICC scores were higher in preschool children than in school-age children with significant correlation between the two measures. The STAI-S score of parents was higher in the preschool group than in the school-age group. No significant difference was found in STAI-T score between the two age groups. Children's m-YPAS score correlated with parental STAI-T score in both groups (rho = 0.297, P = 0.029 and rho = 0.338, P = 0.019, respectively) but only with STAI-S score in the preschool group (rho = 0.400, P = 0.003). Both preschool children and their parents are more anxious than school-age dyads prior to surgery. The anxiety level of the children correlates with state anxiety of the parents in preschool children but not in school-age children. © 2016 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Correlates of adiposity among Latino preschool children

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Childhood obesity is at record high levels in the US and disproportionately affects Latino children; however, studies examining Latino preschool children's obesity-related risk factors are sparse. This study determined correlates of Latino preschoolers' (ages 3-5 years) adiposity to inform future ob...

A Longitudinal Study of the TEACCH Program in Different Settings: The Potential Benefits of Low Intensity Intervention in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

D'Elia, Lidia; Valeri, Giovanni; Sonnino, Fabiana; Fontana, Ilaria; Mammone, Alessia; Vicari, Stefano

2014-01-01

We conducted a longitudinal study of 30 preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to evaluate the potential benefits of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH). Fifteen children following a low intensity TEACCH program were assessed four times for autism severity, adaptive…

Visual perspective taking impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Antonia F de C; Brindley, Rachel; Frith, Uta

2009-10-01

Evidence from typical development and neuroimaging studies suggests that level 2 visual perspective taking - the knowledge that different people may see the same thing differently at the same time - is a mentalising task. Thus, we would expect children with autism, who fail typical mentalising tasks like false belief, to perform poorly on level 2 visual perspective taking as well. However, prior data on this issue are inconclusive. We re-examined this question, testing a group of 23 young autistic children, aged around 8years with a verbal mental age of around 4years and three groups of typical children (n=60) ranging in age from 4 to 8years on a level 2 visual perspective task and a closely matched mental rotation task. The results demonstrate that autistic children have difficulty with visual perspective taking compared to a task requiring mental rotation, relative to typical children. Furthermore, performance on the level 2 visual perspective taking task correlated with theory of mind performance. These findings resolve discrepancies in previous studies of visual perspective taking in autism, and demonstrate that level 2 visual perspective taking is a mentalising task.

SNAP Participation in Preschool-Aged Children and Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity

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Simmons, Shannon; Alexander, Jeffrey L.; Ewing, Helen; Whetzel, Stephanie

2012-01-01

Background: An increased prevalence of overweight and obesity for adults on government-funded nutrition assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has been observed; however, this association among preschool-aged children is not well understood. Longitudinal research designs tracking changes in body mass…

Preschool and Primary School Influences on the Development of Children's Early Numeracy Skills between the Ages of 3 and 7 Years in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Anders, Yvonne; Grosse, Christiane; Rossbach, Hans-Gunther; Ebert, Susanne; Weinert, Sabine

2013-01-01

Few studies have investigated how preschool and primary school interact to influence children's cognitive development. The present investigation explores German children's numeracy skills between age 3 (1st year of preschool) and age 7 (1st year of primary school). We first identified the influence of preschool experience on development while…

Using Aberrant Behaviors as Reinforcers for Autistic Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Charlop, Marjorie H.; And Others

1990-01-01

Three experiments assessed the efficacy of various reinforcers to increase correct task responding in a total of 10 autistic children, aged 6-9. Of the reinforcers used (stereotypy, delayed echolalia, perseverative behavior, and food), task performance was highest with opportunities to engage in aberrant behaviors, and lowest with edible…

The Effectiveness of Managing Split Attention among Autistic Children

Science.gov (United States)

Aliee, Zeinab Shams; Jomhari, Nazean; Rezaei, Reza; Alias, Norlidah

2013-01-01

One of the most common problems in autistic children is split attention. Split attention prevents autism children from being able to focus attention on their learning, and tasks. As a result, it is important to identify how to make autistic individuals focus attention on learning. Considering autistic individuals have higher visual abilities in…

The effect of fine motor skills on handwriting legibility in preschool age children.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Sang-Min

2018-02-01

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that fine motor skills have on handwriting legibility in children of preschool age. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this study were 52 children of normal growth and development. In order to ascertain handwriting legibility, a Korean alphabet writing assessment was used; to measure fine motor skills, fine motor precision and manual dexterity, sub-items of BOT-2 were measured. Furthermore, in order to measure in-hand manipulation skills, a Functional Dexterity Test was conducted. [Results] The results of the study showed a high level of correlation between fine motor skills and handwriting legibility. The study revealed that the accuracy of hand and in-hand manipulation skills is factors that have an effect on handwriting legibility. [Conclusion] Through the current research, occupational therapists can provide activities that aid the development of fine motor precision and in-hand manipulation skills for children during the instruction and treatment of handwriting to preschool age children, which helps to conduct better legibility in their handwriting.

Parental and grandparental ages in the autistic spectrum disorders: a birth cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Golding, Jean; Steer, Colin; Pembrey, Marcus

2010-04-01

A number of studies have assessed ages of parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), and reported both maternal and paternal age effects. Here we assess relationships with grandparental ages. We compared the parental and grandparental ages of children in the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), according to their scores in regard to 4 autistic trait measures and whether they had been given a diagnosis of ASD. Mean maternal and paternal ages of ASD cases were raised, but this appears to be secondary to a maternal grandmother age effect (P = 0.006): OR = 1.66[95%CI 1.16, 2.37] for each 10-year increase in the grandmother's age at the birth of the mother. Trait measures also revealed an association between the maternal grandmother's age and the major autistic trait-the Coherence Scale (regression coefficient b = 0.142, [95%CI = 0.057, 0.228]P = 0.001). After allowing for confounders the effect size increased to b = 0.217[95%CI 0.125, 0.308](Pautistic trait was unexpected, there is some biological plausibility, for the maternal side at least, given that the timing of female meiosis I permits direct effects on the grandchild's genome during the grandmother's pregnancy. An alternative explanation is the meiotic mismatch methylation (3 M) hypothesis, presented here for the first time. Nevertheless the findings should be treated as hypothesis generating pending corroborative results from other studies.

Preschool Children's Conceptions of Moral and Social Rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Smetana, Judith G.

1981-01-01

Examined preschool children's conceptions of moral and conventional rules. Children judged the seriousness, rule contingency, rule relativism, and amount of deserved punishment for 10 depicted moral and conventional preschool transgressions. Constant across ages and sexes, children evaluated moral transgressions as more serious offenses and more…

The role of play in pre-school and younger school age children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kopas-Vukašinović Emina

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the importance of play for children’s development and learning in institutionalized preschool education, as well as the opportunities it provides concerning the organization of teaching activities with younger school age children. The paper is based on the theoretical framework emphasizing educational character of children’s play, as a specific form of learning. Notwithstanding occasional attempts within pedagogic theory to deny educational values of children’s play and to emphasize instruction as the only form of systematic learning, contemporary pedagogic views consider play an important part of school education. Learning through play at younger school age helps overcome the discontinuity between preschool and school education. Curriculum subject matter can be covered through carefully selected and prepared play activities within the existing system, providing the support, encouragement and guidance by the adults involved, including their proper knowledge of children’ age-related and psycho-physical characteristics. Play facilitates gradual change over from preschool to school developmental stage, free, spontaneous and creative expression and the development of children’s potential.

Predictors of Dietary Energy Density among Preschool Aged Children

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Nilmani N.T. Fernando

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Childhood obesity is a global problem with many contributing factors including dietary energy density (DED. This paper aims to investigate potential predictors of DED among preschool aged children in Victoria, Australia. Secondary analysis of longitudinal data for 209 mother–child pairs from the Melbourne Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial was conducted. Data for predictors (maternal child feeding and nutrition knowledge, maternal dietary intake, home food availability, socioeconomic status were obtained through questionnaires completed by first-time mothers when children were aged 4 or 18 months. Three 24-h dietary recalls were completed when children were aged ~3.5 years. DED was calculated utilizing three methods: “food only”, “food and dairy beverages”, and “food and all beverages”. Linear regression analyses were conducted to identify associations between predictors and these three measures of children’s DED. Home availability of fruits (β: −0.82; 95% CI: −1.35, −0.29, p = 0.002 for DEDfood; β: −0.42; 95% CI: −0.82, −0.02, p = 0.041 for DEDfood+dairy beverages and non-core snacks (β: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.20, p = 0.016 for DEDfood; β: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.15, p = 0.010 for DEDfood+dairy beverages were significantly associated with two of the three DED measures. Providing fruit at home early in a child’s life may encourage the establishment of healthful eating behaviors that could promote a diet that is lower in energy density later in life. Home availability of non-core snacks is likely to increase the energy density of preschool children’s diets, supporting the proposition that non-core snack availability at home should be limited.

Retrospectively Assessed Early Motor and Current Pragmatic Language Skills in Autistic and Neurotypical Children.

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Stevenson, Jennifer L; Lindley, Caitlin E; Murlo, Nicole

2017-08-01

Autistic individuals often struggle developmentally, even in areas that are not explicit diagnostic criteria, such as motor skills. This study explored the relation between early motor skills, assessed retrospectively, and current pragmatic language skills. Caregivers of neurotypical and autistic children, matched on gender and age, completed assessments of their child's early motor development and current language abilities. Early motor skills were correlated with later pragmatic language skills, and autistic children exhibited fewer motor skills than neurotypical children. In fact, motor skills were a better predictor of an autism spectrum diagnosis than were scores on a measure of current pragmatic language. These results highlight the important role of motor skills in autism spectrum disorders.

Distribution of ametropia in 1 170 preschool children with low vision

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Li-Li Sun

2016-03-01

Full Text Available AIM:To observe and study the distribution of ametropia in 1 170 preschool children with low vision.METHODS:Ten kindergartens in the urban area of Jinzhou were randomly selected. For the preschool children aged from 3 to 6, the vision conditions including sight test, ocular inspection, refraction status, conventional ophthalmic testing and stereo tests were conducted. The children with visionRESULTS:(1rates of abnormal vision were 6.37% in children aged 3,7.79% in those aged 4,15.24% in those aged 5 and 8.93% in those aged 6; abnormal rate in children aged 5 was significantly higher than those in the other age groups(PCONCLUSION:For preschool children with low vision, the abnormal rate is reduced with the increasing ages since the vision is gradually mature. Based on the results, hyperopia is the main causes for low vision in preschool children(aged from 3 to 6. Based on the factors of myopia, strabismus and amblyopia, it is important to conduct the general survey in curing eye diseases as early as possible.

The curious relation between theory of mind and sharing in preschool age children.

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Cowell, Jason M; Samek, Anya; List, John; Decety, Jean

2015-01-01

Young children have long been known to act selfishly and gradually appear to become more generous across middle childhood. While this apparent change has been well documented, the underlying mechanisms supporting this remain unclear. The current study examined the role of early theory of mind and executive functioning in facilitating sharing in a large sample (N = 98) of preschoolers. Results reveal a curious relation between early false-belief understanding and sharing behavior. Contrary to many commonsense notions and predominant theories, competence in this ability is actually related to less sharing. Thus, the relation between developing theory of mind and sharing may not be as straightforward as it seems in preschool age children. It is precisely the children who can engage in theory of mind that decide to share less with others.

The impact of group occupational therapy using a cueing system on executive function of preschool-aged children with brain lesions.

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Seo, Sang-Min

2018-02-01

[Purpose] This study investigates the effects of group occupational therapy using a cueing system on the executive function of preschool-aged children with brain lesions. [Subjects and Methods] Six preschool-aged children with brain lesions participated in this study. A 24-session occupational therapy program (1 session/week, 50 minutes/session) designed based on a cueing system was administered to examine the changes in the participants' executive function. The behavior rating inventory of executive function-preschool (BRIEF-P) was used to check the magnitude of improvement of executive functions after therapy. [Results] A Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed that occupational therapy significantly improved all domains, indices, and the global executive composite in the BRIEF-P. [Conclusion] The occupational therapy intervention incorporating a type of cognitive behavioral approach known as the cueing system may assist improving executive functions in preschool-aged children with brain lesions.

Assessment of symbolic function in Mexican preschool children

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N. R. Jiménez Barreto

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Development of symbolic function is an important psychological formation of pre-school age and reflects the possibility of the child to use signs and symbols in a conscious way. Assessment of symbolic function can be used as one of preparation for school indicators. The objective of the present study is to characterize the level of symbolic function development in Mexican pre-school children. 59 children were included in the study. The ages of the children were between 5 and 6 years and all of them belonged to sub-urban pre-school institution. All 59 children participated in this study for the first time. Our assessment consisted of specific tasks with symbolic means on materialized, perceptive and verbal levels. Each child was tested individually. Results showed an insufficient development of the symbolic function in all evaluated children. More than 78% of the children showed difficulties during performance in the tasks of assessment; their drawings were undifferentiated and had few essential characteristics. The obtained results show the necessity to implement developmental strategies in order to guarantee the formation of the ability of constant conscious sage of symbolic means at the end of pre-school age.

Neck Circumference to Assess Obesity in Preschool Children.

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Kondolot, Meda; Horoz, Duygu; Poyrazoğlu, Serpil; Borlu, Arda; Öztürk, Ahmet; Kurtoğlu, Selim; Mazıcıoğlu, Mümtaz M

2017-03-01

Limited information is available about the use of neck circumference (NC) to assess obesity in preschool children. This study aims to provide NC percentiles and determine the cut-off levels of NC as a measure to assess obesity in preschool children. The data were obtained from the Anthropometry of Turkish Children aged 0-6 years (ATCA-06) study database. A total of 21 family health centers were chosen and children aged 2-6 years old from all socioeconomic levels were randomly selected from the lists of district midwives; 1766 children (874 male and 892 female; 88.3% of sample size) were included in the study. The smoothed centile curves of NC were constructed by the LMS method. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to calculate cut-off points for NC using body mass index ≥95 th percentile. Mean NC was greater in males than females. Cut-off values for obesity were found to be statistically significant in both genders other than 3 years old boys. The NC percentiles of Turkish preschool children were slightly greater than those of other European preschool children in both genders. This difference disappeared around the adiposity rebound period. The 97th percentile values for Turkish preschool children continue to be greater in both genders. NC may be useful to define obesity in preschool children. Since ethnic and various other factors may have a role in incidence of obesity, local reference data are important in assessment of obesity.

Predictors of quality of life for fathers and mothers of children with autistic disorder.

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Dardas, Latefa Ali; Ahmad, Muayyad M

2014-06-01

A constant challenge for Quality of Life (QoL) research is tapping the most predictive indicators for a specific population. This study has sought to examine predictors of QoL for fathers and mothers of children with Autistic Disorder. Two multiple regression analyses were performed for fathers (N=70) and mothers (N=114) of children with Autistic Disorder. Six predictors were entered into the regression equation: Parental Distress (PD), Parent-Child Dysfunction Interaction (PCDI), Difficult Child Characteristics (DC), Household income, and the child's with Autistic Disorder age and number of siblings. The analyses revealed that only PD was a significant predictor for both parent's QoL, whereas DC, household income, and number of siblings were able to predict only mothers' QoL. To our knowledge, this is the first study to focus on predictors of QoL among both fathers and mothers of children with Autistic Disorder. The results from the current study can have several implications for professionals and researchers targeting the primary force contributing to the wellbeing of children with Autistic Disorder, the parents. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Audio Linguistic Disorders in Autistic Children

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Ashry, K. M., E-mail: kmashry@hotmail.com [Health Research Department, National Centre for Radiation Research and Technology. Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo (Egypt)

2012-07-01

Objective: To explore auditory function abnormalities and language disorder in autistic children. Twelve children with criteria of infantile autism were tested using Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), Immitancemetry, Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission Test (TEOAE), Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), Standardized Arabic Test of Early Language Development (for both receptive and expressive language). For comparison twlive normal children were chosen as control group. Statistically significant increase in hearing threshold level for the autistic children at low frequency region 250, 500 and 1000 Hz, significant reduction of the amplitude of TEOAE test and significant increase in wave I and V latency and I-V inter-peak latency at both RR 21.2 and 51.2 msec when compared to the control group. A positive correlation was found in this study between the changes in ABR latency and the severity of verbal disability. These resuts leed to the conclusion that Auditory dysfunction in autistic children can be verified through the presence of cochlear involvement and a delay in the brain stem transmission time in those patients. Disturbed verbal communication can be due to dysfunction in the auditory processing mechanisms.

Audio Linguistic Disorders in Autistic Children

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashry, K. M.

2012-01-01

Objective: To explore auditory function abnormalities and language disorder in autistic children. Twelve children with criteria of infantile autism were tested using Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), Immitancemetry, Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission Test (TEOAE), Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), Standardized Arabic Test of Early Language Development (for both receptive and expressive language). For comparison twlive normal children were chosen as control group. Statistically significant increase in hearing threshold level for the autistic children at low frequency region 250, 500 and 1000 Hz, significant reduction of the amplitude of TEOAE test and significant increase in wave I and V latency and I-V inter-peak latency at both RR 21.2 and 51.2 msec when compared to the control group. A positive correlation was found in this study between the changes in ABR latency and the severity of verbal disability. These resuts leed to the conclusion that Auditory dysfunction in autistic children can be verified through the presence of cochlear involvement and a delay in the brain stem transmission time in those patients. Disturbed verbal communication can be due to dysfunction in the auditory processing mechanisms

Daytime Secretion of Salivary Cortisol and Alpha-Amylase in Preschool-Aged Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

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Kidd, Sharon A.; Corbett, Blythe A.; Granger, Douglas A.; Boyce, W. Thomas; Anders, Thomas F.; Tager, Ira B.

2012-01-01

We examined daytime salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) secretion levels and variability in preschool-aged children with autism (AUT) and typically developing children (TYP). Fifty-two subjects (26 AUT and 26 TYP) were enrolled. Salivary samples were obtained at waking, midday, and bedtime on two consecutive days at three phases…

Preschool Children with ADHD

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J Gordon Millichap

2001-01-01

Differences in behavioral, social, and school functioning of 58 preschool-age (3 -5 years) children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and 36 normal controls were examined at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.

Assessing fears of preschool children with nighttime fears by a parent version of the fear survey schedule for preschool children.

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Kushnir, Jonathan; Gothelf, Doron; Sadeh, Avi

2015-01-01

Although excessive fears are common in preschool children, validated assessment tools for this age are lacking. Our aim was to modify and provide preliminary evidence of the utility of a preschoolers' fear screening tool, a parent-reported Fear Survey Schedule for Preschool Children (FSS-PC). 109 Israeli preschool children (aged 4-6 years) with chronic night time fears (NF) and 30 healthy children (controls) participated. The FSS-PC analysis included: 1) internal reliability, 2) correlations between FSS-PC scores and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) measures, 3) differences between NF and a comparison sample of FSS-PC scores, and 4) FSS-PC sensitivity in detecting change in NF following an intervention for NF. There were low-to-medium positive correlations between the FSS-PC scores and several internalizing scales of the CBCL measures. FSS-PC scores in the NF group were significantly higher than the control children's score. FSS-PC scores had adequate internal reliability and were also sensitive for detecting significant changes in fear levels following behavioral interventions. Unique cultural and environmental circumstances and specific study group. This new version of the FSS-PC may provide clinicians with a novel and useful screening tool for early assessment of fear- and anxiety-related phenomena of preschool children.

Relational Aggression in Children with Preschool-Onset Psychiatric Disorders

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Belden, Andy C.; Gaffrey, Michael S.; Luby, Joan L.

2012-01-01

Objective: The role of preschool-onset (PO) psychiatric disorders as correlates and/or risk factors for relational aggression during kindergarten or first grade was tested in a sample of 146 preschool-age children (age 3 to 5.11 years). Method: Axis-I diagnoses and symptom scores were derived using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment.…

FLUIDITY SPEECH FORMATION AS A QUALITATIVE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ORAL STATEMENT OF PRESCHOOL AGE CHILDREN WITH STUTTER

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E. A. Borisova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The research objective is to disclose the subject matter of speech therapy work focused on fluidity speech formation of preschool age children, suffering stutter. Stutter is a difficult disorder of articulation organs suchthat the tempo-rhythmical organisation of statements is distressed that leads to defects and failures of dialogue system, negatively influences on individual development of the child; more specifically it generates the mental stratifications, specific features of emotional-volitional sphere, and causes undesirable qualities ofcharacter such as shyness, indecision, isolation, negativism. The author notes that the problem of early stutter correction among junior preschool-aged children considered as topical and immediate issue. Methods. Concerning the clinical, physiological, psychological and psychologic-pedagogical positions, the author summarizes theoretical framework; an experimentally-practical approbation of an author's method of speech fluidity and stutter abolition of preschool children is described. Stage-by-stage process of correction,spontaneous and non-convulsive speech formation: 1. restraint mode application in order to decrease incorrect verbal output; 2. training exercises to long phonatory and speech expiration; 3. development of coordination and movements rhythm helping to pronounce words and phrases; 4. formation of situational speech, at first consisted of short sentences, then passing to long ones; 5. training to coherent text statements. The research demonstrates data analyses of postexperimental diagnostic examination of stuttering preschool children, proving the efficiency of the author’s applied method. Scientific novelty. The research findings demonstrate a specific approach to correction and stutter abolition of preschool children. Proposed author’s approach consists of complementary to each other directions of speech therapy work which are combines in the following way: coherent speech

Antenatal Training with Music and Maternal Talk Concurrently May Reduce Autistic-Like Behaviors at around 3 Years of Age.

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Ruan, Zeng-Liang; Liu, Li; Strodl, Esben; Fan, Li-Jun; Yin, Xiao-Na; Wen, Guo-Min; Sun, Deng-Li; Xian, Dan-Xia; Jiang, Hui; Jing, Jin; Jin, Yu; Wu, Chuan-An; Chen, Wei-Qing

2017-01-01

Antenatal training through music and maternal talk to the unborn fetus is a topic of general interest for parents-to-be in China, but we still lack a comprehensive assessment of their effects on the development of autistic-like behaviors during early childhood. During 2014-2016, 34,749 parents of children around the age of 3 years who were enrolled at kindergarten in the Longhua district of Shenzhen participated in this study. Self-administered questionnaires regarding demographics, antenatal music training, and maternal talk to the fetus during pregnancy were completed by the children's primary caregivers. Autistic-like behaviors were assessed using the Autism Behavioral Checklist. Tobit regression analyses revealed that antenatal music training and maternal talk to the fetus was associated with a reduction in autistic-like behaviors in children, with a dose-dependent relationship. Furthermore, factorial analysis of covariance indicated a significant interaction effect between antenatal music training and maternal talk to the fetus on the autistic-like behaviors and found that children who often experienced antenatal music training and maternal talk concurrently had the lowest risk of autistic-like behaviors, while children who were never exposed to maternal talk and only sometimes experienced antenatal music training had the highest risk. Our results suggest that antenatal training through both music and maternal talk to the unborn fetus might reduce the risk of children's autistic-like behaviors at around 3 years of age.

Do We Need Norms of Fitness for Children with Autistic Spectrum Condition?

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Place, Maurice; Dickinson, Kathleen; Reynolds, Joanna

2015-01-01

The increasingly sedentary habits of children, and rising obesity levels, are prompting concern for children's future health. Children with autistic spectrum condition (ASC) show a clear trend in this regard. Within school, an understanding of how an individual's fitness compares to age norms is important in order to design appropriate exercise…

Comparison between hearing screening-detected cases and sporadic cases of delayed-onset hearing loss in preschool-age children.

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Lü, Jingrong; Huang, Zhiwu; Ma, Yan; Li, Yun; Mei, Ling; Yao, Guoyin; Wang, Yu; Shen, Xiaoming; Wu, Hao

2014-04-01

This study aimed to compare the diagnosis and ages of intervention for cases of delayed-onset hearing loss identified sporadically or via a preschool hearing screening program. Retrospective study with the comparative analysis of two groups of children. Cases identified from screening were selected from 34 321 preschool children who underwent screening for delayed-onset hearing loss between October 2009 and May 2011. Sporadic cases of delayed-onset hearing loss were selected from pediatric clinical records. Cases from the first group were excluded from the latter to avoid duplication. Two groups were given the same questionnaire to record risk indicators, diagnosis, and age at intervention. The average age of 26 children at the time of diagnosis in the screening group (52.81 ± 13.23 months) was significantly earlier than in the 33 cases identified in the sporadic group (62.03 ± 12.86 months; p children with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss in the screening group (50.40 ± 10.76 months) was also earlier than in the sporadic group (62.73 ± 13.77 months; p hearing screening for preschool children with no significant symptoms of delayed-onset hearing loss.

Difference in children's gross motor skills between two types of preschools.

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Chow, Bik C; Louie, Lobo H T

2013-02-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of preschool type (public vs private) on motor skill performance in 239 (121 boys, 118 girls) preschool children ages 3 to 6.5 yr. Preschoolers were tested on 12 fundamental motor skills from the Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition and 11 anthropometrics (body height, weight, Body Mass Index, waist and hip girths, and body segment lengths). Analysis of variance controlled for anthropometrics and age indicated that children from private preschools performed better on locomotor skills than those from public preschools. However, no difference was found in object control skills. The results suggest that performance of locomotor skills by preschool children is affected by their schools' physical environment.

Nighttime Fears and Fantasy-Reality Differentiation in Preschool Children

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Zisenwine, Tamar; Kaplan, Michal; Kushnir, Jonathan; Sadeh, Avi

2013-01-01

Nighttime fears are very common in preschool years. During these years, children's fantasy-reality differentiation undergoes significant development. Our study was aimed at exploring the links between nighttime fears and fantasy-reality differentiation in preschool children. Eighty children (aged: 4-6 years) suffering from severe nighttime fears…

Do We Need Multiple Informants When Assessing Autistic Traits? The Degree of Report Bias on Offspring, Self, and Spouse Ratings

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Möricke, Esmé; Buitelaar, Jan K.; Rommelse, Nanda N. J.

2016-01-01

This study focused on the degree of report bias in assessing autistic traits. Both parents of 124 preschoolers completed the Social Communication Questionnaire and the Autism-spectrum Quotient. Acceptable agreement existed between mother and father reports of children's mean scores of autistic traits, but interrater reliability for rank-order…

The informative value of motor, mental, and moral qualities in the personality structure of preschool children aged 4 years

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Pangelova N.E.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The study was to determine the presence or usefulness of the main components of the relationship of physical and psycho-physiological state in the personality structure of children of preschool age. The experiment involved 107 children aged 4 years (54 male, 53 female. Factor analysis of the structure of the motor system, the intellectual and moral sphere of children. Found that it is determined six orthogonal factors. The results give reason to believe that the development of the physical, intellectual and moral sphere of children of this age is complex. The interpretation of these data in the pedagogical aspect suggests that pre-school children are becoming a person under the influence of biological and psychological factors. Their activation is possible in the process of physical education.

Oral health status of children with autistic disorder in Chennai.

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Vishnu Rekha, C; Arangannal, P; Shahed, H

2012-06-01

To assess the oral health status of autistic children in Chennai. Oral health status was assessed for 483 children with autism, solicited from special education schools, autistic child centres and therapy centres. Conditions assessed were plaque accumulation, gingival health, dental caries, malocclusion, developmental anomalies, oral injuries and restorations. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests of significance were used to compare groups. Proportions test was used to compare the significance of the parameters between boys and girls. Autistic children with primary dentition showed significantly higher incidence of dental caries (24%), when compared to other oral conditions. Children with mixed dentition had more gingivitis (50%) and children with permanent dentition had more gingivitis (48.96%) and malocclusion (71.15%). All the oral conditions were seen more in boys than girls. Autistic children have significantly poor oral hygiene and higher incidence of malocclusion and dental caries when compared to other oral conditions.

Obesity-Related Hormones in Low-Income Preschool-Age Children: Implications for School Readiness

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Miller, Alison L.; Lumeng, Carey N.; Delproposto, Jennifer; Florek, Brian; Wendorf, Kristin; Lumeng, Julie C.

2013-01-01

Mechanisms underlying socioeconomic disparities in school readiness and health outcomes, particularly obesity, among preschool-aged children are complex and poorly understood. Obesity can induce changes in proteins in the circulation that contribute to the negative impact of obesity on health; such changes may relate to cognitive and emotion…

Developmental risk factors in Vietnamese preschool-age children: Cross-sectional survey.

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Duc, Nguyen Huu Chau

2016-01-01

Early childhood development (ECD) strongly influences children's basic learning, school success, economic participation, social citizenry and health. Although some risk factors related to childhood development are documented, further exploration is necessary considering various sociodemographic, nutritional, and psychosocial factors. This study investigated factors affecting ECD in Vietnamese preschoolers. We used data from the representative, cross-sectional round of the Vietnam Multiple Indicator Clusters Survey 2011. Early Childhood Development Index questionnaires were administered to mothers of all children aged 36-59 months in the household (n = 1459). Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression were used in the analysis. In Vietnam, 17.2% of children did not reach their full developmental potential within the first 5 years. Children who had been breast-fed (AOR, 2.78; 95%CI: 1.28-6.02), attended preschool (AOR, 1.75; 95%CI: 1.28-2.39), were of major ethnicity (AOR, 2.41; 95%CI: 1.55-3.74), had a mother with secondary or higher education (AOR, 1.69; 95%CI: 1.19-2.38) and had relatives who engaged with them in four or more activities that promote learning (AOR, 1.55; 95%CI: 1.13-2.14) were more likely to have a normal developmental trajectory. Furthermore, children who experienced physical punishment and stunting were 0.69-fold (95%CI: 0.51-0.95) and 0.71-fold (95%CI: 0.51-0.98) less likely to be on track for ECD, respectively. The risk factors associated with delayed ECD were low level of maternal education; family ethnicity; lack of preschool attendance; relatives who did not engage with them in learning; physical punishment; not being breast-fed; and stunting. © 2015 Japan Pediatric Society.

Autistic traits and internet gaming addiction in Chinese children: The mediating effect of emotion regulation and school connectedness.

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Liu, Sha; Yu, Chengfu; Conner, Bradley T; Wang, Suiping; Lai, Weiping; Zhang, Wei

2017-09-01

This report details an 18-month longitudinal study designed to investigate the influence of autistic traits' on internet gaming addiction (IGA) in children. A total of 420 Chinese children (220 boys, Mean age=9.74±0.45) participated in the research. Autistic traits were measured in the 4th grade and emotion regulation, school connectedness and IGA measured in both the 4th and 5th grades. After controlling for age, sex, and sensation seeking, results showed that autistic traits were related to decreased emotion regulation, which in turn was related to lower school connectedness, which was related to increased IGA. The results suggest that improving emotion regulation and school connectedness could reduce the risk of IGA. As a result, these findings may inform intervention and prevention programs targeting children with IGA, especially among those with high levels of autistic traits. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Evaluation of Food Allergy on Behavior in Autistic Children

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Mohammad Reza Khakzad

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Despite many efforts, the etiology of autism remains unknown. Food allergy has been suggested as a pathogenic factor in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD. Our aim in this study was to determine whether food allergy could be considered as a risk factor for autistic children. Methods: Thirty-nine autistic children were examined by the skin prick test (SPT, and total serum IgE was evaluated by ELISA. SPTs were performed for egg whites, oranges, peanuts, tomatoes, tuna fish, walnuts, aubergines, melons, grapes, and cow milk. Parents and teachers were then asked to exclude these items from the childrens’ diets for six months. After the treatment period, the autistic children who tested positive for food allergies were re-assessed by a standard questionnaire to obtain further information about their medical histories. Results: Three of the study’s 39 autistic children (7.7% tested positive on the SPT. Total serum IgE levels were elevated in 56.4% of the subjects (mean=164±24.5, cut-off >155 IU/ml. The results showed a decreased mean in the childrens’ autistic behaviors on the Children Autism Rating Scale (CARS after both eight weeks and six months; however, this decrease was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Food allergy may play a role in the pathophysiology of autism. We conclude that avoidance of certain foods benefits the behavior of autistic children.

Language in low-functioning children with autistic disorder: differences between receptive and expressive skills and concurrent predictors of language.

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Maljaars, Jarymke; Noens, Ilse; Scholte, Evert; van Berckelaer-Onnes, Ina

2012-10-01

Language profiles of children with autistic disorder and intellectual disability (n = 36) were significantly different from the comparison groups of children with intellectual disability (n = 26) and typically developing children (n = 34). The group low-functioning children with autistic disorder obtained a higher mean score on expressive than on receptive language, whereas both comparison groups showed the reverse pattern. Nonverbal mental age, joint attention, and symbolic understanding of pictures were analyzed in relation to concurrent receptive and expressive language abilities. In the group with autistic disorder and intellectual disability, symbol understanding and joint attention were most strongly related to language abilities. Nonverbal mental age was the most important predictor of language abilities in the comparison groups.

Demographic correlates of children and adolescents with Autistic disorder

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Ayyoub Malek

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Comparison of the demographic characteristics of patients provides useful information to their identification. This study aimed to determine the demographic characteristics of children and adolescents with autistic disorder (AD. Methods: In this cross-sectional case-control study, 115 children and adolescents with AD were selected from Autism Society Rehabilitation Center in Tabriz, Iran, and 112 normal children and adolescents from the public schools, in 2014. The participants in both groups were matched regarding age and gender. Diagnosis of AD was performed using diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-4th edition (DSM-IV criteria and clinical diagnostic interviews by two child and adolescent psychiatrists. The demographic information of children and adolescents and their parents were collected from the medical records of children and interviews with their mothers. Results: Most of the children with autism had second or higher birth order and had families with more than three members. Mothers of children with autism had significantly lower levels of education and were mostly housewives. Fathers of autistic children mostly had high school diploma and fewer had university education, and most of them were employed. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the AD group and the control group regarding the average height and weight of children and the residence (urban or rural and age of parents at childbirth.Conclusion: The demographic characteristics of the two groups of children and adolescents with AD and normal controls were different from each other regarding family size, birth order, parent occupation, and parent education variables.

Brain white matter structure and language ability in preschool-aged children.

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Walton, Matthew; Dewey, Deborah; Lebel, Catherine

2018-01-01

Brain alterations are associated with reading and language difficulties in older children, but little research has investigated relationships between early language skills and brain white matter structure during the preschool period. We studied 68 children aged 3.0-5.6 years who underwent diffusion tensor imaging and participated in assessments of Phonological Processing and Speeded Naming. Tract-based spatial statistics and tractography revealed relationships between Phonological Processing and diffusion parameters in bilateral ventral white matter pathways and the corpus callosum. Phonological Processing was positively correlated with fractional anisotropy and negatively correlated with mean diffusivity. The relationships observed in left ventral pathways are consistent with studies in older children, and demonstrate that structural markers for language performance are apparent as young as 3 years of age. Our findings in right hemisphere areas that are not as commonly found in adult studies suggest that young children rely on a widespread network for language processing that becomes more specialized with age. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Importance of Efficacy: Using the Extended Parallel Process Model to Examine Factors Related to Preschool-Age Children Enrolled in Medicaid Receiving Preventive Dental Visits

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Askelson, Natoshia M.; Chi, Donald L.; Momany, Elizabeth T.; Kuthy, Raymond A.; Carter, Knute D.; Field, Kathryn; Damiano, Peter C.

2015-01-01

Early preventive dental visits are vital to the oral health of children. Yet many children, especially preschool-age children enrolled in Medicaid, do not receive early visits. This study attempts to uncover factors that can be used to encourage parents to seek preventive dental care for preschool-age children enrolled in Medicaid. The extended…

Schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminths among preschool-aged children in Chuahit, Dembia district, Northwest Ethiopia: prevalence, intensity of infection and associated risk factors

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Agersew Alemu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Intestinal schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis are the major public health problems globally. Compared with any other age group, pre-school aged children and school-aged children are the most exposed. There are few studies showing the burden of intestinal schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis among pre-school aged children in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminths and associated risk factors among preschool aged children of Chuahit and surrounding Kebeles, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods A community based cross sectional study was conducted from February 2 to March 27 2015. Four hundred one preschool-aged children were included in the study by using two stage cluster sampling technique. Pretested structured questionnaire was employed to collected data via face-to-face interview technique. A single stool specimen was collected, and a portion of the sample was processed by Kato Katz method. Results Of the total children, 141 (35.2 % harbored one or more intestinal helminthes. Schistosoma mansoni was found in 45 (11.2 % of preschool age children. Ascaris lumbricoides was the predominant isolate, 77 (19.2 % followed by S. mansoni, 45 (11.2 %. The least parasites isolated were Tania species, 2 (0.5 %. After adjusting for other variables, being mothers who did not have the habit of washing hands after toilet (AOR = 7.3, 95%CI: 2.97–17.95, being occupationally housewife mothers (AOR = 8.9, 95%CI: 2.27–25.4, using protected spring water as a main family source of water (AOR = 3.9, 95%CI: 1.2–12.3 and child habit of not wearing shoe (AOR = 1.91, 95%CI: 1.01–3.64 were significantly associated with high prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis among preschool-age children in Chuahit. Conclusion The current study showed that relatively higher level of STH and S. mansoni among preschool-aged children in

Schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminths among preschool-aged children in Chuahit, Dembia district, Northwest Ethiopia: prevalence, intensity of infection and associated risk factors.

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Alemu, Agersew; Tegegne, Yalewayker; Damte, Demekech; Melku, Mulugeta

2016-05-23

Intestinal schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis are the major public health problems globally. Compared with any other age group, pre-school aged children and school-aged children are the most exposed. There are few studies showing the burden of intestinal schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis among pre-school aged children in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminths and associated risk factors among preschool aged children of Chuahit and surrounding Kebeles, Northwest Ethiopia. A community based cross sectional study was conducted from February 2 to March 27 2015. Four hundred one preschool-aged children were included in the study by using two stage cluster sampling technique. Pretested structured questionnaire was employed to collected data via face-to-face interview technique. A single stool specimen was collected, and a portion of the sample was processed by Kato Katz method. Of the total children, 141 (35.2 %) harbored one or more intestinal helminthes. Schistosoma mansoni was found in 45 (11.2 %) of preschool age children. Ascaris lumbricoides was the predominant isolate, 77 (19.2 %) followed by S. mansoni, 45 (11.2 %). The least parasites isolated were Tania species, 2 (0.5 %). After adjusting for other variables, being mothers who did not have the habit of washing hands after toilet (AOR = 7.3, 95%CI: 2.97-17.95), being occupationally housewife mothers (AOR = 8.9, 95%CI: 2.27-25.4), using protected spring water as a main family source of water (AOR = 3.9, 95%CI: 1.2-12.3) and child habit of not wearing shoe (AOR = 1.91, 95%CI: 1.01-3.64) were significantly associated with high prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis among preschool-age children in Chuahit. The current study showed that relatively higher level of STH and S. mansoni among preschool-aged children in Chuahit. This finding calls for a need of public health education

Efficacy and Safety of Ivermectin Against Trichuris trichiura in Preschool- and School-Aged Children: A Randomized Controlled Dose-Finding Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Wimmersberger, David; Coulibaly, Jean T; Schulz, Jessica; Puchkow, Maxim; Huwyler, Jörg; N'Gbesso, Yves; Hattendorf, Jan; Keiser, Jennifer

2018-03-30

Although trichuriasis affects millions of children worldwide, recommended drugs lack efficacy and new treatment options are urgently needed. Ivermectin has promising potential to complement the anthelminthic armamentarium. A randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted in rural Côte d'Ivoire to provide evidence on the efficacy and safety of ascending oral ivermectin dosages in preschool-aged children and in schoolchildren infected with Trichuris trichiura. Primary outcome was cure rate on T. trichiura infection and secondary outcomes were safety, egg-reduction rates against T. trichiura infection, and cure and egg-reduction rates against other soil-transmitted helminth species. 126 preschool-aged and 166 school-aged children were included in an available case analysis. In preschool-aged children efficacy against T. trichiura did not differ between 200 µg/kg ivermectin and placebo as expressed in cure rates (20.9% [95% CI 11.9-52.8%] vs. 19.5% [95% CI 10.4-49.9%]) and geometric mean egg-reduction rates (78.6% [95% CI 60.1-89.5%] vs. 68.2% [95% CI 40.5 to 84.8%]). In school-aged children even a dose of 600 µg/kg ivermectin revealed a low cure rate (12.2% [95% CI 4.8-32.3%] and moderate egg-reduction rate (66.3% [95% CI 43.8-80.2%]. Only mild adverse events and no organ toxicity based on serum biomarkers was observed. Ivermectin can be administered safely to preschool-aged children suffering from trichuriasis. Given the low efficacy of ivermectin monotherapy against T. trichiura infection further research should investigate the optimal drug combinations and dosages with ivermectin against soil-transmitted helminthiasis. The trial is registered at www.isrctn.com, number ISRCTN15871729.

"Tunnel Vision": A Possible Keystone Stimulus Control Deficit in Autistic Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Rincover, Arnold; And Others

1986-01-01

Three autistic boys (ages 9-13) were trained to select a card containing a stimulus array comprised of three visual cues. Decreased distance between cues resulted in responses to more cues, increased distance to fewer cues. Distances did not affect the responding of children matched for mental and chronological age. (Author/JW)

Nutrition Knowledge Assessment of Preschool Children

OpenAIRE

Plum, Jane Meacham Jr.

1997-01-01

A game with food and nutrition related pictures was developed to provide an opportunity for a classroom teacher to interview preschool children for assessment of nutrition knowledge concepts. Specifically, knowledge of vegetable concepts which included identification of the food, the food group, the source, preparation methods and use by the body was measured. The assessment was administered to five groups of children (ages two and one-half to five years) in preschools and child care center...

Teenage outcomes after speech and language impairment at preschool age

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ek U

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Ulla Ek1, Fritjof Norrelgen3,4, Joakim Westerlund2, Andrea Dahlman5, Elizabeth Hultby5, Elisabeth Fernell61Department of Special Education, 2Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; 4Department of Clinical Neuroscience, 5CLINTEC/Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 6The Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg and the Research and Development Centre, Skaraborg Hospital, Skövde, SwedenAim: Ten years ago, we published developmental data on a representative group of children (n = 25 with moderate or severe speech and language impairment, who were attending special preschools for children. The aim of this study was to perform a follow-up of these children as teenagers.Methods: Parents of 23 teenagers participated in a clinical interview that requested information on the child's current academic achievement, type of school, previous clinical assessments, and developmental diagnoses. Fifteen children participated in a speech and language evaluation, and 13 participated in a psychological evaluation.Results: Seven of the 23 teenagers had a mild intellectual disability, and another three had borderline intellectual functioning. Nine had symptoms of disorders on the autism spectrum; five of these had an autism spectrum disorder, and four had clear autistic traits. Six met criteria for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/subthreshold ADHD. Thirteen of 15 teenagers had a moderate or severe language impairment, and 13 of 15 had a moderate or severe reading impairment. Overlapping disorders were frequent. None of the individuals who underwent the clinical evaluation were free from developmental problems.Conclusion: A large number of children with speech and language impairment at preschool age had persistent language problems and/or met the

Training Parents to Use the Natural Language Paradigm to Increase Their Autistic Children's Speech.

Science.gov (United States)

Laski, Karen E.; And Others

1988-01-01

Parents of four nonverbal and four echolalic autistic children, aged five-nine, were trained to increase their children's speech by using the Natural Language Paradigm. Following training, parents increased the frequency with which they required their children to speak, and children increased the frequency of their verbalizations in three…

Desired Outcomes for Children and Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Beresford, Bryony; Tozer, Rosemary; Rabiee, Parvaneh; Sloper, Patricia

2007-01-01

Within children's services, frameworks for assessing outcomes have been developed in the absence of consultation with children with autistic spectrum disorders and their parents. The research reported here worked with parents, other key adults and children with autistic spectrum disorders to identify desired outcomes. It found similarities with…

Hearing assessment in pre-school children with speech delay.

Science.gov (United States)

Psillas, George; Psifidis, Anestis; Antoniadou-Hitoglou, Magda; Kouloulas, Athanasios

2006-09-01

The purpose of this study was to detect any underlying hearing loss among the healthy pre-school children with speech delay. 76 children, aged from 1 to 5 years, underwent a thorough audiological examination consisting of tympanometry, free field testing, otoacoustic emission recordings and auditory brainstem responses (ABRs). If hearing was normal, then they were evaluated by a child neurologist-psychiatrist. According to our findings, the children were classified into 3 groups; those with normal hearing levels (group I, 52 children, 68.4%), sensorineural hearing loss (group II, 22 children, 28.9%) and conductive hearing loss (group III, 2 children, 2.6%). In group I, speech delay was attributed to pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), which represents high-functioning autistic children (37 cases). Other causes were specific language impairment (SLI)-expressive (3 cases), bilingualism (2 cases), and unknown etiology (10 cases). More than half (59%) of the children diagnosed with PDD evidenced significant language impairment limited to more than two words. Children with SLI-expressive and bilingualism used a maximum of two words. In group II, 13 children suffered from profound hearing loss in both ears, 3 from severe, 3 had profound hearing loss in one ear and severe in the other, 2 from moderate, and 1 had moderate in one ear and severe in the other. No child had mild sensorineural hearing loss. The children with profound hearing loss in at least one ear had total language impairment using no word at all (10 cases), or a maximum of two words (6 cases). When hearing loss was moderate to severe, then the speech vocabulary was confined to several words (more than two words-6 cases). Only two children suffering from conductive hearing loss both presented with complete lack of speech. A great number of healthy pre-school children with speech delay were found to have normal hearing. In this case, the otolaryngologist should be aware of the possible underlying clinical

[Parenting Stress in Mothers of Children with Down Syndrome in Preschool Age].

Science.gov (United States)

Sarimski, Klaus

2017-11-01

Parenting Stress in Mothers of Children with Down Syndrome in Preschool Age Research suggests that parenting stress is elevated in parents of children with intellectual disabilities. However, data are inconsistent if this holds true for parents of children with Down syndrome. As part of the Heidelberg Down syndrome study, 52 mothers of children with Down syndrome (mean age: 5 years) completed the German adaptation of the Parenting Stress Index. These results show significantly elevated stress scores in scales measuring demanding and less acceptable behavior of the children (child characteristics). Scores in scales measuring parent characteristics do not differ significantly from the norms. Global stress scores are associated with the degree of behavioral problems (SDQ) and adaptive competence (VABS-II). A regression analysis points to optimism as a dispositional trait of the mother which makes a significant contribution to the prediction of parenting stress scores. The implications for early intervention are discussed.

Mastering of musical rhythm by pre-school age children with speech disorders with the help of dance-correction program trainings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.B. Petrenko

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: It is known that regular listening to specially selected music develops children’s cognitive abilities. Musical influence optimizes many important functions of brain: increases mental workability; accelerates processing of information; improves short term memory. Besides, sensitivity of visual and hearing analyzers strengthens, as well as regulation of arbitrary movements; indicators of verbal and non verbal intellect improve. Purpose: to determine peculiarities of musical rhythm’s mastering by pre-school age children with speech disorders with the help of dance-correction program trainings. Material: the categories of the tested children: children of age - 4-5 and 5-6 years with speech disorders and healthy pre-school age children. Children of 4-5 years’ age composed: main group (n=12, control group (n=16; group of healthy children (n=24. For assessment of verbal thinking and rhythm-motor (or dance abilities we used complex of tests of constantly increasing difficulty. Results: we found that under influence of dance-correcting exercises activation of rhythm-motor abilities and development of cognitive functions happened in children. We also found main functional peculiarities of musical rhythm’s mastering by pre-school age children. It was determined that by the end of pedagogic experiment, main groups of children approached to groups of healthy peers by all tested characteristics. Conclusions: it is recommended to include correcting components (fit ball - dance gymnastic, tales-therapy, logo-rhythm trainings, and game fitness in trainings by choreographic program.

Relational Aggression in Children with Preschool Onset (PO) Psychiatric Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Belden, Andy C.; Gaffrey, Michael S.; Luby, Joan L.

2012-01-01

Objective The role of preschool onset (PO) psychiatric disorders as correlates and/or risk factors for relational aggression during kindergarten or 1st grade was tested in a sample of N = 146 preschool-age children (3 to 5.11). Method Axis-I diagnoses and symptom scores were derived using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment. Children’s roles in relational aggression as aggressor, victim, aggressive-victim, or non-aggressor/non-victim were determined at preschool and again 24 months later at elementary school entry. Results Preschoolers diagnosed with PO-psychiatric disorders were 3 times as likely as the healthy preschoolers to be classified aggressors, victims, or aggressive-victims. Children diagnosed with PO-disruptive, depressive, and/or anxiety disorders were at least 6 times as likely as children without PO-psychiatric disorders to become aggressive-victims during elementary school after covarying for other key risk factors. Conclusions Findings suggested that PO-psychiatric disorders differentiated preschool and school-age children’s roles in relational aggression based on teacher-report. Recommendations for future research and preventative intervention aimed at minimizing the development of relational aggression in early childhood by identifying and targeting PO-psychiatric disorders are made. PMID:22917202

Differences in balance in preschool children aged 1 and 3 years

OpenAIRE

Petrič, Melita

2016-01-01

The main part of motor development happens in the preschool period. This means that this period provides the foundation for specialised movement later in life. However, children at that age are the most susceptible to various influences from the environment, which affect motor as well as other areas of development, hence the expression comprehensive development of the child. From the teacher's perspective, comprehensive development means comprehensive planning and a challenge of determining i...

Green Settings for Children in Preschools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lerstrup, Inger Elisabeth

settings for preschools. The intent is to facilitate transfer of knowledge from preschools to planners and managers of green settings such as woodland, parks, green lots and playgrounds. The central concept applied is that of affordances, here defined as the meaningful action possibilities......This Danish study investigates the relationship between children in preschool (age range 3-6.5 years) and the outdoor environments they use. The main aim is to describe and analyse the outdoor features of significance for children’s activities and of importance for design and management of green...... between forest features and manufactured features, a detailed account of the affordances of ditches, and a description of the forest sites used by a Danish forest preschool. Children were attracted to features with changing and not fully explored action possibilities; forest features added variation...

[Sleep disturbances in children with autistic spectrum disorders].

Science.gov (United States)

Kelmanson, I A

2015-01-01

An association between sleep disorders and autistic spectrum disorders in children is considered. Characteristic variants of sleep disorders, including resistance to going to bed, frequent night awakenings, parasomnias, changes in sleep structure, primarily, the decrease in the percentage of rapid eye movement sleep, are presented. Attention is focused on the possibility of the direct relationship between sleep disturbance and the pathogenesis of autistic spectrum disorders. A role of pathological alterations in the production of neuromediators and morphological changes in the brain structures characteristic of autistic spectrum disorders in the genesis of sleep disorders in children is discussed. Possible non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches are suggested.

Teaching autistic children conversational speech using video modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Charlop, M H; Milstein, J P

1989-01-01

We assessed the effects of video modeling on acquisition and generalization of conversational skills among autistic children. Three autistic boys observed videotaped conversations consisting of two people discussing specific toys. When criterion for learning was met, generalization of conversational skills was assessed with untrained topics of conversation; new stimuli (toys); unfamiliar persons, siblings, and autistic peers; and other settings. The results indicated that the children learned through video modeling, generalized their conversational skills, and maintained conversational speech over a 15-month period. Video modeling shows much promise as a rapid and effective procedure for teaching complex verbal skills such as conversational speech. PMID:2793634

Antenatal Training with Music and Maternal Talk Concurrently May Reduce Autistic-Like Behaviors at around 3 Years of Age

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zeng-Liang Ruan

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Antenatal training through music and maternal talk to the unborn fetus is a topic of general interest for parents-to-be in China, but we still lack a comprehensive assessment of their effects on the development of autistic-like behaviors during early childhood. During 2014–2016, 34,749 parents of children around the age of 3 years who were enrolled at kindergarten in the Longhua district of Shenzhen participated in this study. Self-administered questionnaires regarding demographics, antenatal music training, and maternal talk to the fetus during pregnancy were completed by the children’s primary caregivers. Autistic-like behaviors were assessed using the Autism Behavioral Checklist. Tobit regression analyses revealed that antenatal music training and maternal talk to the fetus was associated with a reduction in autistic-like behaviors in children, with a dose-dependent relationship. Furthermore, factorial analysis of covariance indicated a significant interaction effect between antenatal music training and maternal talk to the fetus on the autistic-like behaviors and found that children who often experienced antenatal music training and maternal talk concurrently had the lowest risk of autistic-like behaviors, while children who were never exposed to maternal talk and only sometimes experienced antenatal music training had the highest risk. Our results suggest that antenatal training through both music and maternal talk to the unborn fetus might reduce the risk of children’s autistic-like behaviors at around 3 years of age.

Motor performance of preschool children

OpenAIRE

Karina Słonka; Manuela Dyas; Tadeusz Słonka; Tomasz Szurmik

2017-01-01

Introduction: Pre‑school age is a period of intensive development when children shape their posture, habits and motor memory. Movement is child's physiological need.  Motive activity supports not only physical development, but also psychical, intellectual and social.   Aim: The aim of the study is to assess motor ability in preschool children from the city of Opole and District Dobrzeń Wielki. Materials and methods: The research involved 228 children, aged 5 and 6. The method used in...

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING CHILDREN OF PRE-SCHOOL AGE THE SPORTS DANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VARNACOVA ELEONORA

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article exposes some conclusions about the influence of the sports dance on the multilateral development of a preschool child`s personality. The author presents methods and techniques used in the didactic activity of teaching-learning the sports dance in groups of children of under school age. At the same time, she outlines the methods of organizing systematically her classes and the fact that the teacher is free to choose the time when to deliver theoretical courses or have practical classes taking in consideration the children`s individual abilities.

Parenting approaches and digital technology use of preschool age children in a Chinese community.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Cynthia Sau Ting; Fowler, Cathrine; Lam, Winsome Yuk Yin; Wong, Ho Ting; Wong, Charmaine Hei Man; Yuen Loke, Alice

2014-05-07

Young children are using digital technology (DT) devices anytime and anywhere, especially with the invention of smart phones and the replacement of desktop computers with digital tablets. Although research has shown that parents play an important role in fostering and supporting preschoolers' developing maturity and decisions about DT use, and in protecting them from potential risk due to excessive DT exposure, there have been limited studies conducted in Hong Kong focusing on parent-child DT use. This study had three objectives: 1) to explore parental use of DTs with their preschool children; 2) to identify the DT content that associated with child behavioral problems; and 3) to investigate the relationships between approaches adopted by parents to control children's DT use and related preschooler behavioral problems. This exploratory quantitative study was conducted in Hong Kong with 202 parents or guardians of preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 attending kindergarten. The questionnaire was focused on four aspects, including 1) participants' demographics; 2) pattern of DT use; 3) parenting approach to manage the child's DT use; and 4) child behavioral and health problems related to DT use. Multiple regression analysis was adopted as the main data analysis method for identifying the DT or parental approach-related predictors of the preschooler behavioral problems. In the multiple linear regression model, the 'restrictive approach score' was the only predictor among the three parental approaches (B:1.66, 95% CI: [0.21, 3.11], p children also significantly increased the tendency of children to have behavioral problem (B:3.84, 95% CI: [1.66, 6.02], p children's cognitive and functional abilities are still in the developmental stage, parents play a crucial role in fostering appropriate and safe DT use. It is suggested that parents practice a combination of restrictive, instructive and co-using approaches, rather than a predominately restrictive

Feasibility of spirometry testing in preschool children.

Science.gov (United States)

Kampschmidt, Jordan C; Brooks, Edward G; Cherry, Debra C; Guajardo, Jesus R; Wood, Pamela R

2016-03-01

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of obtaining acceptable and reproducible spirometry data in preschool aged children (3-5 years) by technicians without prior experience with spirometry. Two technicians were trained to perform spirometry testing (ndd Easy on-PC) and to administer standardized questionnaires. Preschool aged children were enrolled from two Head Start centers and a local primary care clinic. Subjects were trained in proper spirometry technique and tested until at least two acceptable efforts were obtained or the subject no longer produced acceptable efforts. 200 subjects were enrolled: mean age 4.0 years (± 0.7 SD); age distribution: 51 (25.5%) 3 years old, 103 (51.5%) 4 years old, and 46 (23%) 5 years old. Fifty-six percent male and 75% Hispanic. One hundred thirty (65%) subjects produced at least one acceptable effort on their first visit: 23 (45%) for 3 years old, 67 (65%) for 4 years old, and 40 (87%) for 5 years old. The number of acceptable efforts correlated with age (r = 0.29, P spirometry results from the preschool aged children; the number of acceptable efforts correlated significantly with age. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Study on Gross Motor Skills of Preschool Children

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Joanne Hui-Tzu

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a creative movement program on gross motor skills of preschool children. Sixty children between the ages of 3 to 5 were drawn from the population of a preschool in Taichung, Taiwan. An experimental pretest-posttest control-group design was utilized. The children enrolled in the…

Language Maintenance and Loss in Preschool-Age Children of Mexican Immigrants: Longitudinal Study

Science.gov (United States)

Guiberson, Mark M.; Barrett, Karen C.; Jancosek, Elizabeth G.; Itano, Christine Yoshinaga

2006-01-01

In this study, the authors plotted the Spanish language usage of 10 preschool-age children over the course of 3 years and assigned them to one of two groups: language maintenance and language loss. The authors then compared the groups' scores on structured tasks, language behaviors, and language usage/exposure variables. They found that children…

Maternal and Child Predictors of Preschool Children's Social Competence

Science.gov (United States)

Diener, Marissa L.; Kim, Do-Yeong

2004-01-01

The present study examined child and maternal predictors of children's social competence in preschool. One hundred ten mothers and their preschool-aged children participated. Mothers completed parent reports of child temperament and self-regulation, and self-reports of maternal separation anxiety. Mothers' interactional style was coded from…

Impaired Antioxidant Status and Reduced Energy Metabolism in Autistic Children

Science.gov (United States)

Essa, M. M.; Braidy, N.; Waly, M. I.; Al-Farsi, Y. M.; Al-Sharbati, M.; Subash, S.; Amanat, A.; Al-Shaffaee, M. A.; Guillemin, G. J.

2013-01-01

Accumulating evidence suggests that oxidative stress induced mechanisms are believed to be associated with the pathophysiology of autism. In this study, we recruited 19 Omani autistic children with age-matched controls to analyze their plasma and serum redox status and the levels of ATP, NAD[superscript +] and NADH using well established…

MRI measurements of the brain stem and cerebellum in high functioning autistic children

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, Toshiaki; Tayama, Masanobu; Miyazaki, Masahito; Murakawa, Kazuyoshi; Kuroda, Yasuhiro

1994-01-01

To determine involvements of the brain stem and/or cerebellum in autism, we compared midsagittal magnetic resonance images of the brains of high functioning autistic children with those of normal controls. We found that the midbrain and medulla oblongata were significantly smaller in these autistic children than in the control children. The pons area did not differ between the two groups, nor was there any difference in the cerebellar vermis area. The ratio of the brain stem and cerebellum to the posterior fossa area did not differ significantly between the high functioning autistic and the control children. The development of the cerebellar vermis area was delayed in autistic children as compared with that in the control children. Thus, it was suggested that significant anatomical changes in the midbrain and medulla oblongata existed in the autistic children. (author)

MRI measurements of the brain stem and cerebellum in high functioning autistic children

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashimoto, Toshiaki; Tayama, Masanobu; Miyazaki, Masahito; Murakawa, Kazuyoshi; Kuroda, Yasuhiro [Tokushima Univ. (Japan). School of Medicine

1994-01-01

To determine involvements of the brain stem and/or cerebellum in autism, we compared midsagittal magnetic resonance images of the brains of high functioning autistic children with those of normal controls. We found that the midbrain and medulla oblongata were significantly smaller in these autistic children than in the control children. The pons area did not differ between the two groups, nor was there any difference in the cerebellar vermis area. The ratio of the brain stem and cerebellum to the posterior fossa area did not differ significantly between the high functioning autistic and the control children. The development of the cerebellar vermis area was delayed in autistic children as compared with that in the control children. Thus, it was suggested that significant anatomical changes in the midbrain and medulla oblongata existed in the autistic children. (author).

Efficacy of Attention Regulation in Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter: A Preliminary Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Kia N.; Conture, Edward G.; Walden, Tedra A.

2012-01-01

Purpose: This preliminary investigation assessed the attentional processes of preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) during Traditional cueing and Affect cueing tasks. Method: Participants consisted of 12 3- to 5-year-old CWS and the same number of CWNS (all boys). Both talker groups participated in two tasks of shifting and…

Optics workshops designed to preschool children (age 3 to 6 years)

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, Charvel; Solano, Cristina

2016-09-01

Since 2005, it was decided in Mexico that children have to start their formal education at the age of 3 years, two years earlier that in many other countries. This change was done to increase activities that enhance the social interaction and stimulus (knowledge and skills) of the students to prepare them to the next academic level. The main drawback of the developed curriculum for the younger children is that it does not include enough scientific activities. The work presented here is the answer of a particular initiative of some teachers to implement scientific workshops in optics. We have found that preschoolers are attracted to scientific activities if the material is presented in the right way. While design any scientific activity it is important to remember that young children want to know about their world without changing it, they have to experience the principle without memorizing, therefore the language used to describe concepts, ideas or terms has to be carefully chosen to avoid confuse preschoolers that can lose track of the activity. The scientific information has to be very clear and limited to a single physical principle and the concepts have to be presented in a way to include games as a learning activity that allow them to experience with the results.

Thought Disorder in Preschool Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchison, Amanda K; Kelsay, Kimberly; Talmi, Ayelet; Noonan, Kate; Ross, Randal G

2016-08-01

Preschool identification of and intervention for psychiatric symptoms has the potential for lifelong benefits. However, preschool identification of thought disorder, a symptom associated with long term risk for social and cognitive dysfunction, has received little attention with previous work limited to examining preschoolers with severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Using story-stem methodology, 12 children with ADHD and 12 children without ADHD, ages 4.0-6.0 years were evaluated for thought disorder. Thought disorder was reliably assessed (Cronbach's alpha = .958). Children with ADHD were significantly more likely than children without ADHD to exhibit thought disorder (75 vs 25 %; Fischer's Exact Test = .0391). Thought disorder can be reliably assessed in preschool children and is present in preschool children with psychiatric illness including preschool children with ADHD. Thought disorder may be identifiable in preschool years across a broad range of psychiatric illnesses and thus may be an appropriate target of intervention.

Toys for Preschool Children

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, Audrey

1977-01-01

In emphasizing the importance of play and toys in a child's development, this article describes the kinds of toys suitable for preschool children of all ages. Floor toys, building and hammering toys, transport, and imaginative and creative play are some of the topics covered. (JK)

A review of early influences on physical activity and sedentary behaviors of preschool-age children in high-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, Ana Cristina; Greaney, Mary L; Wallington, Sherrie F; Mesa, Tatiana; Salas, Carlos F

2017-07-01

Promoting physical activity (PA) is a key component of preventing and controlling childhood obesity. Despite well-documented benefits of PA, globally, rates of PA among young children have declined over the past decades, and most children are not accruing sufficient PA daily. Helping children develop the foundation for PA habits early in life is critical for the promotion of health in childhood and prevention of chronic diseases later in life, and will ultimately promote longer and healthier lives for individuals and the general population. The purpose of this review is to provide a synthesis of current evidence on influences on PA and sedentary behaviors of preschool-age children in high-income countries. A systematic review of three databases was performed. Studies conducted in high-income countries and published from 2000 onward that addressed influences on PA and sedentary behaviors of preschool-age children were identified and reviewed. Additionally, reference lists of identified articles and relevant published reviews were reviewed. Studies that met the following inclusion criteria were considered: (a) sample included preschoolers (age ≤5 years); (b) PA and/or sedentary behaviors or factors associated with PA and/or sedentary behaviors was assessed; (c) published in English; (d) used either quantitative or qualitative methods; and (e) conducted in a high-income country. Data were extracted from selected studies to identify influences on PA and sedentary behaviors of preschool-age children and organized using the social-ecological model according to multiple levels of influence. Results from included studies identify multiple factors that influence PA and sedentary behaviors of young children in high-income countries at the various levels of the social-ecological model including intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, organizational, and policy. Given pediatric nurses' role as primary care providers, and their frequent and continued contact with parents

Improper nutrition and diseases in pre-school children

OpenAIRE

Panova, Gordana; Taseva, Lence; Sumanov, Gorgi; Dzidrova, Violeta

2017-01-01

For healthy generation it is healthy and orderly development from early childhood. It needs proper nutrition, proper care and personal hygiene. Early childhood is the most vulnerable period in the development stage of man. Improper diet and disease in children from pre-school age are a problem for both children and parents. It is therefore important to undertake measures for proper nutrition and prevention of diseases. Described as improper diet affects children from pre-school...

Dietary patterns and nutritional status of pre-school children in Nairobi

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: To determine the dietary patterns and nutritional status of pre-school children in Nairobi, Kenya. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Pre-schools in Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: Three hundred and four pre-school children (149 males and 155 females) aged three to five years were assessed. Results: About 96% ...

Food additives and preschool children.

Science.gov (United States)

Martyn, Danika M; McNulty, Breige A; Nugent, Anne P; Gibney, Michael J

2013-02-01

Food additives have been used throughout history to perform specific functions in foods. A comprehensive framework of legislation is in place within Europe to control the use of additives in the food supply and ensure they pose no risk to human health. Further to this, exposure assessments are regularly carried out to monitor population intakes and verify that intakes are not above acceptable levels (acceptable daily intakes). Young children may have a higher dietary exposure to chemicals than adults due to a combination of rapid growth rates and distinct food intake patterns. For this reason, exposure assessments are particularly important in this age group. The paper will review the use of additives and exposure assessment methods and examine factors that affect dietary exposure by young children. One of the most widely investigated unfavourable health effects associated with food additive intake in preschool-aged children are suggested adverse behavioural effects. Research that has examined this relationship has reported a variety of responses, with many noting an increase in hyperactivity as reported by parents but not when assessed using objective examiners. This review has examined the experimental approaches used in such studies and suggests that efforts are needed to standardise objective methods of measuring behaviour in preschool children. Further to this, a more holistic approach to examining food additive intakes by preschool children is advisable, where overall exposure is considered rather than focusing solely on behavioural effects and possibly examining intakes of food additives other than food colours.

Use of Different Vegetable Products to Increase Preschool-Aged Children's Preference for and Intake of a Target Vegetable

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Wild, de Victoire W.T.; Graaf, de Kees; Jager, Gerry

2017-01-01

Background: Children's low vegetable consumption requires effective strategies to enhance preference for and intake of vegetables. Objective: The study compared three preparation practices for a target vegetable (spinach) on their effectiveness in increasing preschool-aged children's preference

Parenting Style Associated with Sedentary Behaviour in Preschool Children

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Schary, David P.; Cardinal, Bradley J.; Loprinzi, Paul D.

2012-01-01

There is an absence of studies exploring the relationship between parental style and sedentary behaviour in preschool-aged children. Given the link between parenting style and other health behaviours, and given that preschool children engage in relatively high levels of sedentary behaviour, this study's purpose was to examine if a preschool…

Children's Sense of Agency in Preschool: A Sociocultural Investigation

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Hilppö, Jaakko; Lipponen, Lasse; Kumpulainen, Kristiina; Rainio, Anna

2016-01-01

This socioculturally informed study investigated children's sense of agency in relation to their everyday life in preschool. The empirical data comprised focus groups reflection situations wherein Finnish preschool children (n. 19, aged 6-7) reflected on their everyday life with the help of photographs and drawings they made. Building on a…

Sentinel surveillance of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in preschool-aged and school-aged children in selected local government units in the Philippines: follow-up assessment.

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Belizario, Vicente Y; Totañes, Francis Isidore G; de Leon, Winifreda U; Ciro, Raezelle Nadine T; Lumampao, Yvonne F

2015-03-01

This study was a follow-up to the baseline nationwide survey of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in preschool-aged children in the Philippines and in school-aged children in selected sentinel sites to assess the Integrated Helminth Control Program of the Department of Health. The objective of the study was to describe the current prevalence and intensity of STH infections in preschool-aged and school-aged children in 6 sentinel provinces and to compare these data with baseline findings. A cross-sectional study design was used to determine the prevalence and intensity of STH infections. Parasitological assessment involved the examination of stool samples by the Kato-Katz method. Although parasitological parameters in the 2 age groups at follow-up showed significant reductions from the baseline, these parameters remained high despite 3 years of mass drug administration (MDA). Efforts toward achieving high MDA coverage rates, provision of clean water, environmental sanitation, and promotion of hygiene practices must be prioritized. © 2013 APJPH.

Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet on Rate of Achievement in Autistic Children in an Applied Behavioral Analysis Program.

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Gemmell, Melissa; Chambliss, Catherine

This study used both between-subjects and within-subjects analyses to examine the effects of a gluten-free diet on the academic achievement of autistic children. The between-subjects analysis included data from eight autistic children (ages 5 to 7) with four on a gluten-free diet and four serving as controls. The number of attempts needed before…

Age at introduction of ultra-processed food among preschool children attending day-care centers.

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Longo-Silva, Giovana; Silveira, Jonas Augusto C; Menezes, Rísia Cristina Egito de; Toloni, Maysa Helena de Aguiar

To identify the age of introduction of ultra-processed food and its associated factors among preschool children. Cross-sectional study carried out from March to June 2014 with 359 preschool children aged 17 to 63 months attending day-care centers. Time until ultra-processed food introduction (outcome variable) was described by the Kaplan-Meier analysis, and the log-rank test was used to compare the survival functions of independent variables. Factors associated with ultra-processed food introduction were investigated using the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. The results were shown as hazard ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals. The median time until ultra-processed food introduction was six months. Between the 3rd and 6th months, there is a significant increase in the probability of introducing ultra-processed food in the children's diet; and while the probability in the 3rd month varies from 0.15 to 0.25, at six months the variation ranges from 0.6 to 1.0. The final Cox proportional hazards model showed that unplanned pregnancy (1.32 [1.05-1.65]), absence of prenatal care (2.50 [1.02-6.16]), and income >2 minimum wages (1, 50 [1.09-2.06]) were independent risk factors for the introduction of ultra-processed food. Up to the 6th month of life, approximately 75% of preschool children had received one or more ultra-processed food in their diet. In addition, it was observed that the poorest families, as well as unfavorable prenatal factors, were associated with early introduction of ultra-processed food. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda.

Acute appendicitis in preschoolers: a study of two different populations of children

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Sivridis Efthimios

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective To assess the incidence and the risk factors implicated in acute appendicitis in preschoolers in our region. Methods Over a 7-year period, 352 children underwent appendectomy for suspected acute appendicitis. Of these, data for 23 children were excluded because no inflammation of the appendix was found on subsequent histology. Of the remaining 329, 82 were ≤ 5 years old (i.e., preschool children and 247 were 5-14 years old. These two groups of children were further divided according to their religion into Muslims and Christian Orthodox: 43 of the children aged ≤ 5 years were Muslims and 39 were Christian Orthodox. A household questionnaire was designed to collect data concerning age, gender, type of residence area, living conditions, vegetable consumption, and family history of surgery for acute appendicitis as preschool children. The removed appendices were also assessed histologically for the amount of lymphoid tissue. Results Acute appendicitis of preschoolers developed more frequently in Muslims (39.4% than in Christians (17.7%; p p p > 0.05. Conclusions In our region, the percentage of preschool-aged Muslim children with acute appendicitis was remarkably high. One possible explanation for this finding could be the higher amount of lymphoid tissue in the wall of the appendix in Muslim preschool children together with their low standard of hygiene.

The development of gender identity in the autistic child.

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Abelson, A G

1981-01-01

The Michigan Gender Identity Test (MGIT) was administered to 30 autistic children to determine whether autistic children could demonstrate a sense of gender identity. The results of the MGIT were correlated with other developmental indices obtained from the Alpern-Boll Developmental Profile. From this sample of autistics, a significant relationship was found between gender identity and mental age, chronological age, communication skills, physical skills, social skills, self-help skills and academic (cognitive skills.

Investigation of the refractive status of preschool children in Xiantao, Hubei Province

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Nian Guan

2014-12-01

Full Text Available AIM: To investigate the refractive status of the preschool children in Xiantao, Hubei Province in order to find out the abnormal refraction error beyond the physiological range. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we investigated preschool children in kindergartens and the scattered ones were 12 716(25 432 eyesranging from 6mo～6 years old. 1 581 children(3 162 eyeswere diagnosed ametropia by Suresight refractive screening instrument, which were confirmed again after mydriasis optometry. RESULTS: The incidence rate of ametropia in preschool children in Xiantao was 12.4%, and statistics showed no significant difference between boys and girls(P>0.05, but had differences of morbility rate among each age group(PCONCLUSION: The incidence rate of ametropia decreases with age increasing in the preschool children from 6mo～6 years old, which imply preschool children should have mydriasis optometry in order to find out amblyopia and other congenital eye disease.

Hyperlexia III: separating 'autistic-like' behaviors from autistic disorder; assessing children who read early or speak late.

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Treffert, Darold A

2011-12-01

Three conditions -- Hyperlexia (children who read early), Einstein syndrome (children who speak late), and "Blindisms" (in children with impaired vision) -- can present with "autistic-like" symptoms, traits, and behaviors that need to be differentiated from autistic disorder. Careful attention to that critical difference has important epidemiologic, etiologic, treatment, and outcome implications. This paper describes these conditions, makes suggestions for proper identification that can prevent unnecessary worry and distress for parents and other caregivers, and suggests appropriate management.

Preschool anxiety disorders predict different patterns of amygdala-prefrontal connectivity at school-age.

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Kimberly L H Carpenter

Full Text Available In this prospective, longitudinal study of young children, we examined whether a history of preschool generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and/or social phobia is associated with amygdala-prefrontal dysregulation at school-age. As an exploratory analysis, we investigated whether distinct anxiety disorders differ in the patterns of this amygdala-prefrontal dysregulation.Participants were children taking part in a 5-year study of early childhood brain development and anxiety disorders. Preschool symptoms of generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and social phobia were assessed with the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA in the first wave of the study when the children were between 2 and 5 years old. The PAPA was repeated at age 6. We conducted functional MRIs when the children were 5.5 to 9.5 year old to assess neural responses to viewing of angry and fearful faces.A history of preschool social phobia predicted less school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and the ventral prefrontal cortices to angry faces. Preschool generalized anxiety predicted less functional connectivity between the amygdala and dorsal prefrontal cortices in response to fearful faces. Finally, a history of preschool separation anxiety predicted less school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and the ventral prefrontal cortices to angry faces and greater school-age functional connectivity between the amygdala and dorsal prefrontal cortices to angry faces.Our results suggest that there are enduring neurobiological effects associated with a history of preschool anxiety, which occur over-and-above the effect of subsequent emotional symptoms. Our results also provide preliminary evidence for the neurobiological differentiation of specific preschool anxiety disorders.

The inclusion of disadvantaged children in preschool programs: The children’s rights and social responsibility

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Jager Jerneja

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Participation of at least 95% of children between the ages of 4 and the mandatory school age in high-quality preschool programs represents an important contribution to the achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy. Slovenia is not far from achieving this objective; however, if we consider participation in preschool programs from the perspective of the entire population of preschool children and the realisation of children’s rights, we note that nearly a quarter of children - among them (at least in the wider European area the most disadvantaged - have not realised the right to education. We studied the awareness of the importance of ensuring access to preschool programs for all children on a representative sample of 106 Slovenian preschool principals by means of quantitative pedagogical research. The results show a high percentage of disadvantaged children in the preschool areas and in the preschools themselves; on the other hand, only a low percentage (only one-third of preschools collect data about disadvantaged children and implement preschool programs for them; only one-fifth of preschools implement preschool programs for disadvantaged children. In order to act responsibly and enable all children the right to education, we must start devoting greater attention to identifying and including disadvantaged children in preschool programs.

Shared Reading Quality and Brain Activation during Story Listening in Preschool-Age Children.

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Hutton, John S; Phelan, Kieran; Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Dudley, Jonathan; Altaye, Mekibib; DeWitt, Tom; Holland, Scott K

2017-12-01

To explore the relationship between maternal shared reading quality (verbal interactivity and engagement) and brain function during story listening in at-risk, preschool-age children, in the context of behavioral evidence and American Academy of Pediatrics, recommendations. In this cross-sectional study, 22 healthy, 4-year-old girls from low socioeconomic status households completed functional magnetic resonance imaging using an established story listening task, followed by videotaped observation of uncoached mother-daughter reading of the same, age-appropriate picture book. Shared reading quality was independently scored applying dialogic reading and other evidence-based criteria reflecting interactivity and engagement, and applied as a predictor of neural activation during the functional magnetic resonance imaging task, controlling for income and maternal education. Shared reading quality scores were generally low and negatively correlated with maternal distraction by smartphones (P reading quality is positively correlated with brain activation supporting complex language, executive function, and social-emotional processing in at-risk, preschool-age children. These findings represent novel neural biomarkers of how this modifiable aspect of home reading environment may influence foundational emergent literacy skills, reinforce behavioral evidence and American Academy of Pediatrics, recommendations, and underscore the potential of dialogic reading interventions to promote healthy brain development, especially in at-risk households. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Parent Training and Emotion Socialization Program for Families of Hyperactive Preschool-Aged Children

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Herbert, Sharonne D.; Harvey, Elizabeth A.; Roberts, Jasmin L.; Wichowski, Kayla; Lugo-Candelas, Claudia I.

2013-01-01

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a parent training and emotion socialization program designed specifically for hyperactive preschoolers. Participants were 31 preschool-aged children whose parents were randomly assigned to a parent training (PT) or waitlist (WL) control group. PT parents took part in a 14-week parenting program that…

Design, development, and clinical validation of therapeutic toys for autistic children.

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Tseng, Kevin C; Tseng, Sung-Hui; Cheng, Hsin-Yi Kathy

2016-07-01

[Purpose] One of the characteristics of autistic children is social interaction difficulties. Although therapeutic toys can promote social interaction, however its related research remains insufficient. The aim of the present study was to build a set of cooperative play toys that are suitable for autistic children. [Subjects and Methods] This study used an innovative product design and development approach as the basis for the creation of cooperative play toys. [Results] The present study has successfully developed cooperative play toys. Compared to the traditional game therapy for autism, cooperative play toy therapy can significantly improve the interactions between autistic children and their peers. [Conclusion] The most critical design theme of cooperative play toys focuses on captivating the interest of autistic children. Based on the needs of the individual cases, the design of the therapeutic toy set was specifically tailored, i.e., by reinforcing the sound and light effects to improve the attractiveness of the toys. In the future, different play modes can be combined with this toy set to further enhance the degree of interaction of autistic children and improve their quality of life and social skills.

Conductive Hearing Loss in Autistic, Learning-Disabled, and Normal Children.

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Smith, Donald E. P.; And Others

1988-01-01

Repeated impedance measures were given over five weeks to 11 autistic, 20 learning-disabled, and 20 normal children. A repeated measures analysis of variance led to the conclusion that fluctuating, negative middle ear pressure greater than normal characterizes both autistic and learning-disabled children with the more abnormal pressures typical in…

Characteristics and Dental Experiences of Autistic Children in Saudi Arabia: Cross-Sectional Study

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Murshid, Ebtissam Z.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to report base line information about characteristics, and dental experiences of a group of autistic children in three major cities of Saudi Arabia. Most of the children (76.2%) included in the study were diagnosed with autism before the age of 5 years. More than half of the children (53.7%) had no previous dental…

Social interactions of autistic and nonhandicapped children during free play.

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McHale, S M

1983-01-01

Ten small groups of second and third graders participated in weekly play sessions with autistic children over a period of ten weeks. Observations of 28 nonhandicapped children indicated that the frequency of their social interaction and communication increased across the week of their daily visits. Autistic children displayed increases in social interaction and decreases in solitary behavior from the first to the tenth week of observation.

The Development of Experimentation and Evidence Evaluation Skills at Preschool Age

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Piekny, Jeanette; Grube, Dietmar; Maehler, Claudia

2014-01-01

Researchers taking a domain-general approach to the development of scientific reasoning long thought that the ability to engage in scientific reasoning did not develop until adolescence. However, more recent studies have shown that preschool children already have a basic ability to evaluate evidence and a basic understanding of experimentation. Data providing insights into when exactly in the preschool years significant gains in these abilities occur are scarce. Drawing on a sample of 138 preschool children, this longitudinal study therefore examined how children's ability to evaluate evidence and their understanding of experimentation develop between the ages of four and six. Findings showed that the ability to evaluate evidence was already well developed at age four and increased steadily and significantly over time as long as the pattern of covariation was perfect. In the case of imperfect covariation, the proportion of correct answers was low over the period of observation, but showed a significant increase between the ages of four and five. If the data did not allow relationship between variables to be inferred, the proportion of correct answers was low, with a significant increase between the ages of five and six. The children's understanding of experimentation increased significantly between the ages of five and six. The implications of these findings for age-appropriate science programs in preschool are discussed.

Fathers' Involvement with Their Preschool-Age Children: How Fathers Spend Time with Their Children in Different Family Structures

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Halme, Nina; Astedt-Kurki, Paivi; Tarkka, Marja-Terttu

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe how fathers (n = 263) spent time with their preschool-age children and to compare it in different family structures. Data were gathered by structured questionnaires. The instrument included five categories of variables for the time spent: the quantity of time, physical activities, fathers' attitude towards…

[Comparison of attachment-related social behaviors in autistic disorder and developmental disability].

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Akdemir, Devrim; Pehlivantürk, Berna; Unal, Fatih; Ozusta, Seniz

2009-01-01

This study examined social behaviors related to attachment in children with autistic disorder and the differences in these behaviors from those observed in developmentally disabled children. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment behaviors and clinical variables, such as age, cognitive development, severity of autism, language development, and mothers' attachment styles. The study group consisted of 19 children with autistic disorder (mean age: 37.9 +/- 6.8 months) and the control group consisted of 18 developmentally disabled children without autistic disorder that were matched with respect to age, gender, and cognitive development. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was administered to all the children by two child psychiatrists. Mothers completed the Relationships Scale Questionnaire (RSQ). Cognitive development of the children was assessed with the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale. Attachment behaviors of the children were evaluated with a modified Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). Attachment behaviors in the children with autistic disorder and in the children with developmental disabilities were similar. In contrast to the developmentally disabled group, the children with autistic disorder stayed closer toward their mothers compared with their responses to strangers. In the autistic disorder group, attachment behaviors were not associated with age, intelligence quotient, or mothers' attachment styles; however, a significant relationship between the severity of autism and the presence of speech was observed. Parents' understanding of the attachment needs and the attachment behaviors of their autistic children in the early stages of the disorder may lead to more secure attachment relationships and improved social development.

Predicting asthma in preschool children with asthma symptoms: study rationale and design

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Hafkamp-de Groen Esther

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In well-child care it is difficult to determine whether preschool children with asthma symptoms actually have or will develop asthma at school age. The PIAMA (Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy Risk Score has been proposed as an instrument that predicts asthma at school age, using eight easy obtainable parameters, assessed at the time of first asthma symptoms at preschool age. The aim of this study is to present the rationale and design of a study 1 to externally validate and update the PIAMA Risk Score, 2 to develop an Asthma Risk Appraisal Tool to predict asthma at school age in (specific subgroups of preschool children with asthma symptoms and 3 to test implementation of the Asthma Risk Appraisal Tool in well-child care. Methods and design The study will be performed within the framework of Generation R, a prospective multi-ethnic cohort study. In total, consent for postnatal follow-up was obtained from 7893 children, born between 2002 and 2006. At preschool age the PIAMA Risk Score will be assessed and used to predict asthma at school age. Discrimination (C-index and calibration will be assessed for the external validation. We will study whether the predictive ability of the PIAMA Risk Score can be improved by removing or adding predictors (e.g. preterm birth. The (updated PIAMA Risk Score will be converted to the Asthma Risk Appraisal Tool- to predict asthma at school age in preschool children with asthma symptoms. Additionally, we will conduct a pilot study to test implementation of the Asthma Risk Appraisal Tool in well-child care. Discussion Application of the Asthma Risk Appraisal Tool in well-child care will help to distinguish preschool children at high- and low-risk of developing asthma at school age when asthma symptoms appear. This study will increase knowledge about the validity of the PIAMA risk score and might improve risk assessment of developing asthma at school age in (specific subgroups

Abnormal lung function at preschool age asthma in adolescence?

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Lajunen, Katariina; Kalliola, Satu; Kotaniemi-Syrjänen, Anne; Sarna, Seppo; Malmberg, L Pekka; Pelkonen, Anna S; Mäkelä, Mika J

2018-05-01

Asthma often begins early in childhood. However, the risk for persistence is challenging to evaluate. This longitudinal study relates lung function assessed with impulse oscillometry (IOS) in preschool children to asthma in adolescence. Lung function was measured with IOS in 255 children with asthma-like symptoms aged 4-7 years. Baseline measurements were followed by exercise challenge and bronchodilation tests. At age 12-16 years, 121 children participated in the follow-up visit, when lung function was assessed with spirometry, followed by a bronchodilation test. Asthma symptoms and medication were recorded by a questionnaire and atopy defined by skin prick tests. Abnormal baseline values in preschool IOS were significantly associated with low lung function, the need for asthma medication, and asthma symptoms in adolescence. Preschool abnormal R5 at baseline (z-score ≥1.645 SD) showed 9.2 odds ratio (95%CI 2.7;31.7) for abnormal FEV1/FVC, use of asthma medication in adolescence, and 9.9 odds ratio (95%CI 2.9;34.4) for asthma symptoms. Positive exercise challenge and modified asthma-predictive index at preschool age predicted asthma symptoms and the need for asthma medication, but not abnormal lung function at teenage. Abnormal preschool IOS is associated with asthma and poor lung function in adolescence and might be utilised for identification of asthma persistence. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing ADHD Symptoms in Preschool Children: Use of the ADHD Symptoms Rating Scale.

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Phillips, Penny L.; Greenson, Jessica N.; Collett, Brent R.; Gimpel, Gretchen A.

2002-01-01

This study examined the psychometric and normative properties of the ADHD-Symptoms Rating Scale with preschool children. Results shed light on normative levels of ADHD behaviors and preschool children and suggested that preschoolers may present with a somewhat different symptom pattern than school-age children. Parents were more likely to endorse…

Sensory Subtypes in Preschool Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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Tomchek, Scott D; Little, Lauren M; Myers, John; Dunn, Winnie

2018-06-01

Given the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research has investigated how sensory features elucidate subtypes that enhance our understanding of etiology and tailored treatment approaches. Previous studies, however, have not integrated core developmental behaviors with sensory features in investigations of subtypes in ASD. Therefore, we used latent profile analysis to examine subtypes in a preschool aged sample considering sensory processing patterns in combination with social-communication skill, motor performance, and adaptive behavior. Results showed four subtypes that differed by degree and quality of sensory features, age and differential presentation of developmental skills. Findings partially align with previous literature on sensory subtypes and extends our understanding of how sensory processing aligns with other developmental domains in young children with ASD.

Family food involvement is related to healthier dietary intake in preschool-aged children.

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Metcalfe, Jessica Jarick; Fiese, Barbara H

2018-03-27

Children in the United States fall far short of meeting federal dietary recommendations. The unhealthy diets common amongst young children are of crucial public health concern, given that they can inhibit healthy development and are predictive of chronic diseases in adulthood. Research investigating behaviors that are related to dietary habits is crucial to allow a better understanding of the causes of unhealthy dietary practices. Involvement in food preparation is known to be associated with healthy dietary behaviors in school-aged children, but little is known about these behaviors and their correlates in younger children. The present study sought to examine the influences and correlates of involvement in family food preparation in children at ages three and four. Parents of preschool aged children (n = 497) completed surveys including information about demographic background, their children's family food involvement, dietary intake, mealtime routines, and problematic eating behaviors. Data were collected when children were three (wave one of the survey) and four years of age (wave two). Findings from this study indicate that family food involvement at age three is predictive of healthier dietary intake at age four (increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, decreased consumption of fast food). These findings indicate that family food involvement is predictive of healthier dietary behaviors in young children, and that outreach efforts focused on family food involvement in early childhood may improve children's dietary habits. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Fundamental movement skills among Australian preschool children.

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Hardy, Louise L; King, Lesley; Farrell, Louise; Macniven, Rona; Howlett, Sarah

2010-09-01

Early childhood is a critical period for the development of fundamental movement skills (FMS). Children who do not master FMS are more likely to experience failure in the motor domain and less likely to participate in sport and games during childhood and adolescence. Studies among primary school aged children report low levels of FMS mastery indicating the need to implement FMS programs during the preschool years. Cross-sectional study of 425 children attending preschools in the Sydney, Australia in 2008. FMS were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 including locomotor (run, gallop, hop, horizontal jump) and object control (strike, catch, kick overhand throw) skills. Data were analysed using linear regression and chi-squared analyses. Total locomotor score was higher among girls compared with boys (pskills and boys had higher mastery of object control skills. These findings highlight the need to provide structured opportunities which facilitate children's acquisition of FMS, which may include providing gender separated games, equipment and spaces. That mastery of FMS is low in primary school children indicates the importance of early intervention programs in preschools. Preschools and child care centers hold promise as a key setting for implementing FMS programs.

Basal and Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Stimulated Plasma Cortisol Levels Among Egyptian Autistic Children: Relation to Disease Severity

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Hewedi Doaa H

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Autism is a disorder of early childhood characterized by social impairment, communication abnormalities and stereotyped behaviors. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA axis deserves special attention, since it is the basis for emotions and social interactions that are affected in autism. Aim To assess basal and stimulated plasma cortisol, and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH levels in autistic children and their relationship to disease characteristics. Methods Fifty autistic children were studied in comparison to 50 healthy age-, sex- and pubertal stage- matched children. All subjects were subjected to clinical evaluation and measurement of plasma cortisol (basal and stimulated and ACTH. In addition, electroencephalography (EEG and intelligence quotient (IQ assessment were done for all autistic children. Results Sixteen% of autistic patients had high ACTH, 10% had low basal cortisol and 10% did not show adequate cortisol response to ACTH stimulation. Autistic patients had lower basal (p = 0.032 and stimulated cortisol (p = 0.04 and higher ACTH (p = 0.01 than controls. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS score correlated positively with ACTH (r = 0.71, p = 0.02 and negatively with each of basal (r = -0.64, p = 0.04 and stimulated cortisol (r = -0.88, p Conclusions The observed hormonal changes may be due to a dysfunction in the HPA axis in autistic individuals. Further studies are warranted regarding the role of HPA axis dysfunction in the pathogenesis of autism.

Gender influences on preschool children's social problem-solving strategies.

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Walker, Sue; Irving, Kym; Berthelsen, Donna

2002-06-01

The authors investigated gender influences on the nature and competency of preschool children's social problem-solving strategies. Preschool-age children (N = 179; 91 boys, 88 girls) responded to hypothetical social situations designed to assess their social problem-solving skills in the areas of provocation, peer group entry, and sharing or taking turns. Results indicated that, overall, girls' responses were more competent (i.e., reflective of successful functioning with peers) than those of boys, and girls' strategies were less likely to involve retaliation or verbal or physical aggression. The competency of the children's responses also varied with the gender of the target child. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of gender-related social experiences on the types of strategies and behaviors that may be viewed as competent for boys and girls of preschool age.

Learning and Self-Stimulation in Mute and Echolalic Autistic Children.

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Chock, Patricia N.; Glahn, T. J.

1983-01-01

The effects of self-stimulation on task acquisition were studied in three mute low-functioning autistic and three echolic higher-functioning autistic children in multiple-baseline designs. The study found that the echolalic children were able to learn the task without external suppression of their self-stimulation but the mute Ss were not. (CL)

Efficacy and safety of praziquantel in preschool-aged children in an area co-endemic for Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium.

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Jean T Coulibaly

Full Text Available In sub-Saharan Africa the recommended strategy to control schistosomiasis is preventive chemotherapy. Emphasis is placed on school-aged children, but in high endemicity areas, preschool-aged children are also at risk, and hence might need treatment with praziquantel. Since a pediatric formulation (e.g., syrup is not available outside of Egypt, crushed praziquantel tablets are used, but the efficacy and safety of this treatment regimen is insufficiently studied.We assessed the efficacy and safety of crushed praziquantel tablets among preschool-aged children (<6 years in the Azaguié district, south Côte d'Ivoire, where Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium coexist. Using a cross-sectional design, children provided two stool and two urine samples before and 3 weeks after treatment. Crushed praziquantel tablets, mixed with water, were administered at a dose of 40 mg/kg. Adverse events were assessed and graded 4 and 24 hours posttreatment by interviewing mothers/guardians.Overall, 160 preschool-aged children had at least one stool and one urine sample examined with duplicate Kato-Katz thick smears and a point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (POC-CCA cassette for S. mansoni, and urine filtration for S. haematobium diagnosis before and 3 weeks after praziquantel administration. According to the Kato-Katz and urine filtration results, we found high efficacy against S. mansoni (cure rate (CR, 88.6%; egg reduction rate (ERR, 96.7% and S. haematobium (CR, 88.9%; ERR, 98.0%. POC-CCA revealed considerably lower efficacy against S. mansoni (CR, 53.8%. Treatment was generally well tolerated, but moderately severe adverse events (i.e., body and face inflammation, were observed in four Schistosoma egg-negative children.Crushed praziquantel administered to preschool-aged children at a dose of 40 mg/kg is efficacious against S. mansoni and S. haematobium in a co-endemic setting of Côte d'Ivoire. Further research is required with highly sensitive

The development of Self-control of Cognitive Activity in Preschool Age

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Chernokova T.E.,

2015-02-01

Full Text Available We discuss the problem of self-control formation in the context of metacognitive development of children. The hypothesis of the study was that in the preschool age, the structure of self-cognition begins to form, which includes anticipating, process and final self-control. The aim of the study was to identify the dynamics of self-control of cognitive activity in the preschool years. We used an experimental technique in which children were asked to identify the problem and plan of the learning activities, implement it and evaluate the results. The study involved 60 children aged 4 to 7 years. In all age groups higher rates of current and total self-control were found, but the most intensive dynamics were identified in terms of predictive self-control. In the preschool age children occasionally show a formal self-control. At the age of 5-6 years old, the children start to develop the self-control structure, and significant correlations were found between the indicators of current and final self. The most advanced children demonstrate meaningful self-control. This is due not only to the development of self-awareness, arbitrariness and traditionally described cognitive processes, but also to the development of dialectical thinking and metacognitions.

Sex and Age-Level Differences in Preschool Children in Walking Times on a Course and on a Balance Beam with Obstacles

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Aoki, Hiroki; Demura, Shin-ichi; Kasuga, Kosho; Xu, Ning

2015-01-01

This study aimed to examine sex and age-level differences in preschool children with respect to walking times on a course and on a balance beam with obstacles. Subjects were 324 healthy preschool children: 4-year-old boys (51) and girls (51), 5-year-old boys (50) and girls (60), and 6-year-old boys (62) and girls (50). A 5- or 10-cm-high obstacle…

DEVELOPMENT OF FINE MOTOR COORDINATION AND VISUAL-MOTOR INTEGRATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

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Haris MEMISEVIC

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Fine motor skills are prerequisite for many everyday activities and they are a good predictor of a child's later academic outcome. The goal of the present study was to assess the effects of age on the development of fine motor coordination and visual-motor integration in preschool children. The sample for this study consisted of 276 preschool children from Canton Sara­jevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We assessed children's motor skills with Beery Visual Motor Integration Test and Lafayette Pegboard Test. Data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA, followed by planned com­parisons between the age groups. We also performed a regression analysis to assess the influence of age and motor coordination on visual-motor integration. The results showed that age has a great effect on the development of fine motor skills. Furthermore, the results indicated that there are possible sensitive periods at preschool age in which the development of fine motor skills is accelerated. Early intervention specialists should make a thorough evaluations of fine motor skills in preschool children and make motor (rehabilitation programs for children at risk of fine motor delays.

Association of Folic Acid Supplementation During Pregnancy With the Risk of Autistic Traits in Children Exposed to Antiepileptic Drugs In Utero.

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Bjørk, Marte; Riedel, Bettina; Spigset, Olav; Veiby, Gyri; Kolstad, Eivind; Daltveit, Anne Kjersti; Gilhus, Nils Erik

2018-02-01

Strategies to prevent autism in children exposed to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy are important. To explore whether folic acid supplementation and folate status in pregnancy are associated with reduced risk of autistic traits owing to in utero AED exposure. The population-based, prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study approached Norwegian-speaking women attending routine ultrasonographic examinations from June 1999 through December 31, 2008 (163 844 of 277 702 women refused). No exclusion criteria were applied beyond language. Questionnaires during and after pregnancy, analysis of blood samples, and linkage to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway were performed. Children aged 18 to 36 months of women with available information on use of AEDs and of folic acid supplementation (n = 104 946) were included in the analysis from March 1, 2016, through June 13, 2017. Maternal folic acid supplementation 4 weeks before to 12 weeks after conception. Plasma folate concentration was analyzed at gestational weeks 17 to 19. Autistic traits were evaluated using the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers and Social Communication Questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) for autistic traits in children by maternal use vs nonuse of folic acid supplements were adjusted for maternal health and socioeconomic factors. Folate concentrations and folic acid doses were associated with the degree of autistic traits. The overall mean (SD) age of the 104 946 mothers of participating children was 29.8 (4.6) years, with complete information available for analysis in 103 868. Mean (SD) age of women with epilepsy who received AED treatment was 29.4 (4.9); women with epilepsy who did not receive AED treatment, 29.1 (4.9); and without epilepsy, 29.8 (4.6) years. In the 335 children exposed to AEDs, the risk for autistic traits was significantly higher at 18 months of age (adjusted OR [AOR], 5.9; 95% CI, 2.2-15.8) and 36 months of age (AOR, 7.9; 95% CI, 2.5-24.9) when

Modern technologies used in the process of physical education and rehabilitation for violations of posture and flat feet in children of older preschool age

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Sergey Futornyi

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose: analyze and summarize scientific information on the problem of technologies that are used in the process of physical education and rehabilitation for violations of posture and flat feet in children of older preschool age, according to special scientific and methodological literature. Material & Methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of literary and documentary sources included the use of a number of the following methods: the method of reconstruction, the method of apperceptions, aspect analysis, hermeneutic analysis, problem analysis. Results: despite a significant number of scientific studies on the prevention and correction of human posture disorders, recent results and their undoubted value for science and practice, it can be stated that the proposed technologies and methods do not fully allow to effectively cope with the steadily growing number of children senior preschool age with various functional disorders of the locomotor system. Conclusion: every year the number of children of senior preschool age with functional disorders of posture increases. Inadequate efficiency of health-improving measures for violations of the posture of children of senior preschool age by many researchers is due to the insufficiently developed technology for assessing her condition. Obtained data indicate the need to develop a technology for measuring and analyzing the level of the biogeometric profile of the posture of children aged 5–6 years in the frontal and sagittal planes.

Development of a Pitch Discrimination Screening Test for Preschool Children.

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Abramson, Maria Kulick; Lloyd, Peter J

2016-04-01

There is a critical need for tests of auditory discrimination for young children as this skill plays a fundamental role in the development of speaking, prereading, reading, language, and more complex auditory processes. Frequency discrimination is important with regard to basic sensory processing affecting phonological processing, dyslexia, measurements of intelligence, auditory memory, Asperger syndrome, and specific language impairment. This study was performed to determine the clinical feasibility of the Pitch Discrimination Test (PDT) to screen the preschool child's ability to discriminate some of the acoustic demands of speech perception, primarily pitch discrimination, without linguistic content. The PDT used brief speech frequency tones to gather normative data from preschool children aged 3 to 5 yrs. A cross-sectional study was used to gather data regarding the pitch discrimination abilities of a sample of typically developing preschool children, between 3 and 5 yrs of age. The PDT consists of ten trials using two pure tones of 100-msec duration each, and was administered in an AA or AB forced-choice response format. Data from 90 typically developing preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 yrs were used to provide normative data. Nonparametric Mann-Whitney U-testing was used to examine the effects of age as a continuous variable on pitch discrimination. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the significance of age on performance on the PDT. Spearman rank was used to determine the correlation of age and performance on the PDT. Pitch discrimination of brief tones improved significantly from age 3 yrs to age 4 yrs, as well as from age 3 yrs to the age 4- and 5-yrs group. Results indicated that between ages 3 and 4 yrs, children's auditory discrimination of pitch improved on the PDT. The data showed that children can be screened for auditory discrimination of pitch beginning with age 4 yrs. The PDT proved to be a time efficient, feasible tool for

Guelph Family Health Study's Home-Based Obesity Prevention Intervention Increases Fibre and Fruit Intake in Preschool-Aged Children.

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Mirotta, Julia A; Darlington, Gerarda A; Buchholz, Andrea C; Haines, Jess; Ma, David W L; Duncan, Alison M

2018-06-01

The Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) pilot was designed to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of a home-based obesity prevention intervention on health behaviours and obesity risk. The objective of this analysis was to determine the effect of the 6-month intervention on preschool-aged children's dietary intakes. Families with children aged 1.5-5 years old were randomized to receive one of the following: 4 home visits with a health educator as well as tailored emails and mailed incentives (4HV; n = 19 children); 2 home visits with a health educator as well as tailored emails and mailed incentives (2HV; n = 14 children); or general health advice through emails (control; n = 12 children). Three-day food records were completed by parents for their children before and after the 6-month intervention and analyzed for 3-day average intakes of energy, nutrients, and MyPlate food groups. After the 6-month intervention, the 4HV group had significantly higher fibre intake and the 4HV and 2HV groups had significantly higher fruit intake, both compared with the control group. This study provides support for a home-based intervention approach to improve the diet quality of preschool-aged children.

Do informal musical activities shape auditory skill development in preschool-age children?

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Putkinen, Vesa; Saarikivi, Katri; Tervaniemi, Mari

2013-08-29

The influence of formal musical training on auditory cognition has been well established. For the majority of children, however, musical experience does not primarily consist of adult-guided training on a musical instrument. Instead, young children mostly engage in everyday musical activities such as singing and musical play. Here, we review recent electrophysiological and behavioral studies carried out in our laboratory and elsewhere which have begun to map how developing auditory skills are shaped by such informal musical activities both at home and in playschool-type settings. Although more research is still needed, the evidence emerging from these studies suggests that, in addition to formal musical training, informal musical activities can also influence the maturation of auditory discrimination and attention in preschool-aged children.

The Second-Language Vocabulary Trajectories of Turkish Immigrant Children in Norway from Ages Five to Ten: The Role of Preschool Talk Exposure, Maternal Education, and Coethnic Concentration in the Neighborhood

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Rydland, Veslemoy; Grover, Vibeke; Lawrence, Joshua

2014-01-01

Little research has explored how preschools can support children's second-language (L2) vocabulary development. This study keenly followed the progress of twenty-six Turkish immigrant children growing up in Norway from preschool (age five) to fifth grade (age ten). Four different measures of preschool talk exposure (amount and diversity of…

DYNAMICS OF THE COMPELEX FORMS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN CHILDREN OF PRE-SCHOOL AGE (A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

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Neli VASILEVA

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Experimental data in preschool aged children proves the determining role of the auditory and visual processes for future reading skills, therefore the investigation of complex forms of visual perception in this age period is diagnostically important. Objectives: Basic aim of the research is assessment of the sensitive period for the non-verbal perceptive operations in pre-school aged children, and determination of subgroup with low results for non-verbal perception. Methods: The dynamics of the visual per-ception (visual gnosis in typically develop¬ing children were tested with an adapted version of the Poppelreuter-Ghent Test for figure-ground segregation. The total number of overlapping objects is 33, grouped accor¬ding to the level of difficulty. The children are given a group of objects separately in a following sequence and they should segregate and name the objects. Results: A number of 365 typically developing children without diagnosis of visual disorders and without corrected visus took part in the research. All children, aged 4, 5, and 6 from three different settlements attend state nursery schools and have Bulgarian as a mother tongue. A three-factor dispersion analysis was held to define the statistical significance of the independent factors age, gender and settlement. The research’s data define the 5 year olds as sensitive about the dynamics of the complex forms of visual perception, compared to the four year old children (pchildren (pchildren from the big town compared to the capital (pchildren at the age of six demonstrate a low rating

COMPETENCIA MATEMÁTICA EN NIÑOS EN EDAD PREESCOLAR - MATH COMPETENCY IN PRE-SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

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MYRIAM ESTHER ORTIZ PADILLA

2009-06-01

Full Text Available This study identifies the characteristics of Mathematical competency in pre-school age children in the Magdalena region. The population was represented by 101 children, to whom the Basic Mathematics Competency Test, Item 3, in its Spanish version, was administered. Quantitative methodology was used, from an empirical and analytical approach and a cross-sectional design was implemented. The results indicate that 31% of children evaluated obtaineda Mathematics Competency Global Index average, with 57% for descriptors: below averageand 22% above average. The private institutions placed a higher percentage of students aboveaverage. The sex and age variable does not provide significant differences.

The Effectiveness of Dialogic Reading in Increasing English Language Learning Preschool Children's Expressive Language

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Brannon, Diana; Dauksas, Linda

2014-01-01

The effectiveness of dialogic reading in increasing the literacy interactions between English language learning parents (ELL) and their preschool aged children and children's expressive language development were studied. Twenty-one ELL parents of preschool aged children received dialogic reading training every other week for a ten-week period.…

Can tactile sensory processing differentiate between children with autistic disorder and asperger's disorder?

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Ghanizadeh, Ahmad

2011-05-01

There are debates whether autistic disorder (autism) and Asperger's disorder are two distinct disorders. Moreover, interventional sensory occupational therapy should consider the clinical characteristics of patients. Already, commonalities and differences between Asperger's disorder and autistic disorder are not well studied. The aim of this study is to compare tactile sensory function of children with autistic disorder and children with Asperger's disorder. Tactile sensory function was compared between 36 children with autism and 19 children with Asperger's disorder. The two disorders were diagnosed based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, Text Revision. The parent-reported Tactile Dysfunction Checklist was used to assess the three aspects of hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, and poor tactile perception and discrimination. Developmental coordination was also assessed. Developmental coordination problems total score was not associated with group. The mean (standard deviation) score of tactile hyper-responsivity was not different between the groups. Tactile hyporesponsivity and poor tactile perception and discrimination scores were statistically higher in autistic disorder than Asperger's disorder group. These results for the first time indicated that at least some aspects of tactile perception can differentiate these two disorders. Children with autistic disorder have more tactile sensory seeking behaviors than children with Asperger's disorder. Moreover, the ability of children with autistic disorder for tactile discrimination and sensory perception is less than those with Asperger's disorder. Interventional sensory therapy in children with autistic disorder should have some characteristics that can be different and specific for children with Asperger's disorder. Formal intelligence quotient testing was not performed on all of the children evaluated, which is a limitation to this study. In some cases, a clinical estimation of

Family Analysis of Immunoglobulin Classes and Subclasses in Children with Autistic Disorder

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Mirko Spiroski

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Autistic disorder is a severe neurodevelopment disorder characterized by a triad of impairments in reciprocal social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and a pattern of repetitive stereotyped activities, behaviours and interests. There are strong lines of evidence to suggest that the immune system plays an important role in the pathogenesis of autistic disorder. The aim of this study was to analyze quantitative plasma concentration of immunoglobulin classes, and subclasses in autistic patients and their families. The investigation was performed retrospectively in 50 persons with autistic disorder in the Republic of Macedonia. Infantile autistic disorder was diagnosed by DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. Plasma immunoglobulin classes (IgM, IgA, and IgG and subclasses (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 were determined using Nephelometer Analyzer BN-100. Multiple comparisons for the IgA variable have shown statistically significant differences between three pairs: male autistic from the fathers (p = 0,001, female autistic from the mothers (p = 0,008, as well as healthy sisters from the fathers (p = 0,011. Statistically significant differences found between three groups regarding autistic disorder (person with autistic disorder, father/mother of a person with autistic disorder, and brother/sister independent of sex belongs to IgA, IgG2, and IgG3 variables. Multiple comparisons for the IgA variable have shown statistically significant differences between children with autistic disorder from the fathers and mothers (p < 0,001, and healthy brothers and sisters from the fathers and mothers (p < 0,001. Comparison between healthy children and children with autistic disorder from the same family should be tested for immunoglobulin classes and subclasses in order to avoid differences between generations.

Cognitive, Linguistic and Print-Related Predictors of Preschool Children's Word Spelling and Name Writing

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Milburn, Trelani F.; Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Weitzman, Elaine; Greenberg, Janice; Pelletier, Janette; Girolametto, Luigi

2017-01-01

Preschool children begin to represent spoken language in print long before receiving formal instruction in spelling and writing. The current study sought to identify the component skills that contribute to preschool children's ability to begin to spell words and write their name. Ninety-five preschool children (mean age = 57 months) completed a…

The Effects of Echolalia on Acquisition and Generalization of Receptive Labeling in Autistic Children.

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Charlop, Marjorie H.

1983-01-01

Two experiments, with about five autistic children (two to 14 years old) in each experiment, assessed the effects of autistic immediate echolalia on acquisition and generalization of receptive labeling tasks. These results indicated that echolalia faciliated generalization for echolalic autistic children but not for functionally mute autistic…

Spontaneous Lexical Alignment in Children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Their Typically Developing Peers

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Branigan, Holly P.; Tosi, Alessia; Gillespie-Smith, Karri

2016-01-01

It is well established that adults converge on common referring expressions in dialogue, and that such lexical alignment is important for successful and rewarding communication. The authors show that children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and chronological- and verbal-age-matched typically developing (TD) children also show spontaneous…

Reduced Incidence of Prevotella and Other Fermenters in Intestinal Microflora of Autistic Children

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Ilhan, Zehra Esra; Wallstrom, Garrick; LaBaer, Joshua; Adams, James B.; Krajmalnik-Brown, Rosa

2013-01-01

High proportions of autistic children suffer from gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, implying a link between autism and abnormalities in gut microbial functions. Increasing evidence from recent high-throughput sequencing analyses indicates that disturbances in composition and diversity of gut microbiome are associated with various disease conditions. However, microbiome-level studies on autism are limited and mostly focused on pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, here we aimed to define systemic changes in gut microbiome associated with autism and autism-related GI problems. We recruited 20 neurotypical and 20 autistic children accompanied by a survey of both autistic severity and GI symptoms. By pyrosequencing the V2/V3 regions in bacterial 16S rDNA from fecal DNA samples, we compared gut microbiomes of GI symptom-free neurotypical children with those of autistic children mostly presenting GI symptoms. Unexpectedly, the presence of autistic symptoms, rather than the severity of GI symptoms, was associated with less diverse gut microbiomes. Further, rigorous statistical tests with multiple testing corrections showed significantly lower abundances of the genera Prevotella, Coprococcus, and unclassified Veillonellaceae in autistic samples. These are intriguingly versatile carbohydrate-degrading and/or fermenting bacteria, suggesting a potential influence of unusual diet patterns observed in autistic children. However, multivariate analyses showed that autism-related changes in both overall diversity and individual genus abundances were correlated with the presence of autistic symptoms but not with their diet patterns. Taken together, autism and accompanying GI symptoms were characterized by distinct and less diverse gut microbial compositions with lower levels of Prevotella, Coprococcus, and unclassified Veillonellaceae. PMID:23844187

Reduced incidence of Prevotella and other fermenters in intestinal microflora of autistic children.

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Dae-Wook Kang

Full Text Available High proportions of autistic children suffer from gastrointestinal (GI disorders, implying a link between autism and abnormalities in gut microbial functions. Increasing evidence from recent high-throughput sequencing analyses indicates that disturbances in composition and diversity of gut microbiome are associated with various disease conditions. However, microbiome-level studies on autism are limited and mostly focused on pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, here we aimed to define systemic changes in gut microbiome associated with autism and autism-related GI problems. We recruited 20 neurotypical and 20 autistic children accompanied by a survey of both autistic severity and GI symptoms. By pyrosequencing the V2/V3 regions in bacterial 16S rDNA from fecal DNA samples, we compared gut microbiomes of GI symptom-free neurotypical children with those of autistic children mostly presenting GI symptoms. Unexpectedly, the presence of autistic symptoms, rather than the severity of GI symptoms, was associated with less diverse gut microbiomes. Further, rigorous statistical tests with multiple testing corrections showed significantly lower abundances of the genera Prevotella, Coprococcus, and unclassified Veillonellaceae in autistic samples. These are intriguingly versatile carbohydrate-degrading and/or fermenting bacteria, suggesting a potential influence of unusual diet patterns observed in autistic children. However, multivariate analyses showed that autism-related changes in both overall diversity and individual genus abundances were correlated with the presence of autistic symptoms but not with their diet patterns. Taken together, autism and accompanying GI symptoms were characterized by distinct and less diverse gut microbial compositions with lower levels of Prevotella, Coprococcus, and unclassified Veillonellaceae.

Joint Laxity in Preschool Children Born Preterm.

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Romeo, Domenico M; Velli, Chiara; Lucibello, Simona; Ferrantini, Gloria; Leo, Giuseppina; Brogna, Claudia; Cota, Francesco; Ricci, Daniela; Gallini, Francesca; Romagnoli, Costantino; Vento, Giovanni; Mercuri, Eugenio

2018-06-01

To evaluate the prevalence of joint laxity in children born preterm assessed in the first 2 years, the relationship between joint laxity and motor performance at preschool age, and possible changes over time in a subgroup of children followed longitudinally. The revised scale of Beighton Score was used to evaluate joint laxity in a population of 132 preschool children born preterm between 24 and 32 weeks of gestational age. All were assessed for joint laxity between 12 and 24 months of age. Children also performed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition between the age of 3 years and 6 months and 4 years; the age at onset of independent walking also was recorded. The total Beighton Score ranged between 0 and 8. Twenty percent of the cohort showed joint laxity. No differences related to sex or gestational age were observed. Children born preterm with joint laxity achieved later independent walking and achieved lower scores on Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition than those without joint laxity. In 76 children born preterm, an assessment for joint laxity was repeated once between 25 and 36 months and again after >36 months. No statistically significant difference was observed between the 3 assessments. The Beighton Score can be used to assess generalized joint laxity in children born preterm. As the presence of joint laxity influenced motor competences, the possibility to early identify these infants in the first 2 years is of interest to benefit from early intervention and potentially improve gross motor skills and coordination. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of a ketogenic diet in children with autistic behavior: pilot study.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evangeliou, A.; Vlachonikolis, I.; Mihailidou, H.; Spilioti, M.; Skarpalezou, A.; Makaronas, N.; Prokopiou, A.; Christodoulou, P.; Liapi-Adamidou, G.; Helidonis, E.; Sbyrakis, S.; Smeitink, J.A.M.

2003-01-01

A pilot prospective follow-up study of the role of the ketogenic diet was carried out on 30 children, aged between 4 and 10 years, with autistic behavior. The diet was applied for 6 months, with continuous administration for 4 weeks, interrupted by 2-week diet-free intervals. Seven patients could

Anemia and associated factors among Kuwaiti preschool children ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Anemia is a major nutritional health problem throughout the world. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and the factors associated with anemia among Kuwaiti children aged 4–5 years. Design: A sample of 578 Kuwaiti preschool children (4–5 years of age) and their mothers were selected from ongoing ...

Professional Competences of Preschool Teachers for Working with Gifted Young Children in Slovenia

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Sonja ČOTAR KONRAD

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Recognizing giftedness in young preschool children presents an important challenge to all educators. Because giftedness needs nurturing, the aim of the research was to emphasize the importance of gifted children’s right to adequate educational opportunities, which will stimulate the optimal development of their potentials. In order to achieve the latter, appropriately qualified preschool teachers are needed, in both diagnostic (the identification of the preschool gifted children and educational field. The main purpose of the study (N=180 was to analyse professional qualifications and attitudes of preschool teachers in the area of identifying and working with gifted children from age 2 to age 6. The non–experimental causal method was used. The results of the research in Slovenia show the following problems: preschool teachers are inadequately informed about the issues concerning working with gifted children; they tend to have low self-competence in identifying personal characteristics of gifted children and in the appropriate use of teaching strategies when working with them; they stress the necessity for further education and professional training in the field of gifted children education.

Computer Use by Preschool Children: Rethinking Practice as Digital Natives Come to Preschool

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Zevenbergen, Robyn; Logan, Helen

2008-01-01

This paper reports on the outcomes of a survey implemented in a large regional community of Australia. The survey was completed by parents of children aged four-five years and attending local early childhood centres. The survey identified the types of access and use of computers by preschool children. It was found that the children of the…

Factors of the active listening of preschool children

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Purić Daliborka S.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Active listening is a communication skill which is crucial for the development of cooperative relationships in the group, culture of friendship and fellowship, it is also important for the development of literacy skills and talent for speaking. Furthermore, it contributes to the improvement of the level of knowledge, skills and school achievement, as well as to the development of self-confidence of children. Developing of active listening is an important task in the activities with children of preschool age. In this paper, the author, wanting to determine the importance of the factors of active listening of preschool children, examines how preschool teachers (N = 198: (a evaluate the importance of certain elements of active listening that relate to the speaker and the listener, and (b estimate their role in the process of developing active listening skills of preschool children as an essential element of successful interpersonal communication. Results of the survey show that preschool teachers attach greater importance to the factors of active listening related to the listener (attention, listening skill, interest in the subject, than to the factors related to the speaker (motivation for listening, quality of the narrative. More than two-thirds of surveyed preschool teachers (172 or 86.9% define its impact on the stimulation of active listening of children as significant. Work experience and professional qualifications as independent variables significantly influence the attitudes of preschool teachers about the importance of their impact in stimulating active listening. Preschool teacher is a key element of the training of preschool children in the area of the basic communication skills of active listening. In this sense, the results of our survey show that in the context of academic study programs for education of preschool teachers special attention is given to the communication skills and to their role in the development of active listening

The Relationship between Parenting Stress and Behavior Problems of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

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Osborne, Lisa A.; Reed, Phil

2009-01-01

Two 9- to 10-month-Iong studies (N = 137) examined the interaction between parenting stress and behavior problems in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Study 1 focused on very young children, and Study 2 employed a wider range of child ages; both studies assessed these factors at 2 points in time. The researchers noted a strong…

Oral Health among Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Case-Control Study

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Du, Rennan Y; Yiu, Cynthia K. Y.; King, Nigel M.; Wong, Virginia C. N.; McGrath, Colman P. J.

2015-01-01

Aim: To assess and compare the oral health status of preschool children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Methods: A random sample of 347 preschool children with autism spectrum disorder was recruited from 19 Special Child Care Centres in Hong Kong. An age- and gender-matched sample was recruited from mainstream preschools as the control…

Analogical Reasoning Ability in Autistic and Typically Developing Children

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Morsanyi, Kinga; Holyoak, Keith J.

2010-01-01

Recent studies (e.g. Dawson et al., 2007) have reported that autistic people perform in the normal range on the Raven Progressive Matrices test, a formal reasoning test that requires integration of relations as well as the ability to infer rules and form high-level abstractions. Here we compared autistic and typically developing children, matched…

Validation of an age-modified caries risk assessment program (Cariogram) in preschool children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holgerson, Pernilla Lif; Twetman, Svante; Stecksèn-Blicks, Christina

2009-01-01

OBJECTIVES: (i) To validate caries risk profiles assessed with a computer program against actual caries development in preschool children, (ii) to study the possible impact of a preventive program on the risk profiles, and (iii) to compare the individual risk profiles longitudinally. MATERIAL...... of sugar. The majority of the children who changed category displayed a lowered risk at 7 years. The intervention program seemed to impair the predictive abilities of Cariogram. CONCLUSION: A modified Cariogram applied on preschool children was not particularly useful in identifying high caries risk...

Risperidone Versus Methylphenidate in Treatment of Preschool Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

OpenAIRE

Arabgol, Fariba; Panaghi, Leily; Nikzad, Vahid

2015-01-01

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common psychiatric diagnosis among preschool children. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the Risperidone treatment compared to Methylphenidate (MPH) in preschool children with ADHD. Patients and Methods: Thirty three outpatient preschool children, aged 3-6 years, diagnosed with ADHD (The diagnosis of ADHD was established by two child and adolescent psychiatrists according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria), participated i...

Gender Differences in the Relationship between Attention Problems and Expressive Language and Emerging Academic Skills in Preschool-Aged Children

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Zevenbergen, Andrea A.; Ryan, Meghan M.

2010-01-01

This study examined the relationship between attention problems and expressive language and academic readiness skills in preschool-aged children from middle-class families. Forty-three children (44% female) were assessed individually for expressive language skills and knowledge of basic academic concepts (e.g. colours, letters and numbers). The…

A Preliminary Study of Low-Income African American Fathers' Play Interactions with Their Preschool-Age Children.

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Fagan, Jay

1996-01-01

Examined play interactions of 33 low-income African American fathers with their preschool-age children in relation to the fathers' psychological characteristics, love for the child's mother, employment status, education, and coresidence with the child. The fathers' self-esteem was the best predictor of play interactions. Coresidence with the child…

Epidemiology and management of insomnia in children with autistic spectrum disorders.

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Miano, Silvia; Ferri, Raffaele

2010-04-01

Insomnia is the predominant sleep concern in children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), and its nature is most likely multifactorial, with neurochemical (abnormalities in serotonergic transmission or melatonin levels), psychiatric (anxiety), and behavioral (poor sleep habits) etiological factors involved. Children with ASD experience sleep problems similar to those of typically developing children, although the prevalence is markedly higher, occurring in 44-83% of school-aged children with ASD. Caregivers usually report that insomnia is the most frequent sleep disorder, described as disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep, restless sleep, bedtime resistance, co-sleeping, alterations of sleep hygiene, and early awakenings in the morning. Many actigraphic studies have added information on sleep disorders, confirming the questionnaire findings in the majority of cases. There are relatively few polysomnographic data for ASD, compared with questionnaire studies, and most of these studies reported a reduction in total sleep time and more undifferentiated sleep in the youngest patients. These findings were associated with several sleep microstructure alterations during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and with non-REM (NREM) sleep microstructure changes that appeared to be related to cognitive impairment rather than to the autistic core. Moreover, few data about other less frequent sleep disorders, such as periodic limb movements disorder and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, bruxism, and the influence of epilepsy and EEG abnormalities, are available. Both pharmacologic and behavioral interventions have been suggested for the treatment of sleep problems in autistic children. The most common types of behavioral interventions are complete extinction (removing reinforcement to reduce a behavior) and various forms of graduated extinction. Melatonin has shown promising results in the treatment of insomnia in children with ASD. Although controlled studies are limited

Perceptions of Prospective Pre-School Teachers Regarding Children's Right to Participate in Classroom Activities

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Koran, Nihan; Avci, Neslihan

2017-01-01

This study investigates the behaviours of pre-school teachers working with children aged between 4 and 6 years with regard to their right to participate in classroom activities. In this context, pre-school teacher's negative or positive applications regarding children's participation rights were revealed. Furthermore, preschool teachers'…

FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN NORTHWEST ENGLAND.

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Foulkes, J D; Knowles, Z; Fairclough, S J; Stratton, G; O'Dwyer, M; Ridgers, N D; Foweather, L

2015-08-01

This cross-sectional study examined fundamental movement skill competency among deprived preschool children in Northwest England and explored sex differences. A total of 168 preschool children (ages 3-5 yr.) were included in the study. Twelve skills were assessed using the Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Motor Skills Protocol and video analysis. Sex differences were explored at the subtest, skill, and component levels. Overall competence was found to be low among both sexes, although it was higher for locomotor skills than for object-control skills. Similar patterns were observed at the component level. Boys had significantly better object-control skills than girls, with greater competence observed for the kick and overarm throw, while girls were more competent at the run, hop, and gallop. The findings of low competency suggest that developmentally appropriate interventions should be implemented in preschool settings to promote movement skills, with targeted activities for boys and girls.

Anxiety disorders and behavioral inhibition in preschool children: a population-based study.

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Paulus, Frank W; Backes, Aline; Sander, Charlotte S; Weber, Monika; von Gontard, Alexander

2015-02-01

This study assessed the prevalence of anxiety disorders in preschool children and their associations with behavioral inhibition as a temperamental precursor. A representative sample of 1,342 children aged 4–7 years (M = 6;1, SD = 4.80) was examined with a standardized parental questionnaire, including items referring to anxiety disorders at the current age and behavioral inhibition at the age of 2 years. The total prevalence of anxiety disorders was 22.2 %. Separation anxiety (SAD) affected 7 %, social phobia (SOC) 10.7 %, specific phobia (PHOB) 9.8 % and depression/generalized anxiety (MDD/GAD) 3.4 % of children. The prevalence of most types of anxiety was higher in girls except for separation anxiety, which affected more boys. Behavioral inhibition in the second year of life was associated with all types of anxiety. Anxiety disorders are common but frequently overlooked in preschool children. Different subtypes can be differentiated and are often preceded by behavioral inhibition. Assessment, prevention and treatment of anxiety disorders are recommended in preschool children.

Comorbidities in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia

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Gooch, Debbie; Hulme, Charles; Nash, Hannah M; Snowling, Margaret J

2015-01-01

Background Comorbidity among developmental disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder is common. This study explores comorbid weaknesses in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia with and without language impairment and considers the role that comorbidity plays in determining children’s outcomes. Method The preschool attention, executive function and motor skills of 112 children at family risk for dyslexia, 29 of whom also met criteria for language impairment, were assessed at ages 3 ½ and 4 ½. The performance of these children was compared to the performance of children with language impairment and typically developing controls. Results Weaknesses in attention, executive function and motor skills were associated with language impairment rather than family risk status. Individual differences in language and executive function are strongly related in the preschool period and preschool motor skills predicted unique variance (4%) in early reading skills over and above children’s language ability. Conclusion Comorbidity between developmental disorders can be observed in the preschool years: children with language impairment have significant and persistent weaknesses in motor skills and executive function compared to those without language impairment. Children’s early language and motor skills are predictors of children’s later reading skills. PMID:24117483

Predicting ADHD in school age when using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in preschool age

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rimvall, Martin K; Elberling, Hanne; Rask, Charlotte Ulrikka

2014-01-01

Indicated prevention of ADHD may reduce impairment and need of treatment in youth. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief questionnaire assessing child mental health, reported to be a valid screening instrument for concurrent ADHD. This study aimed to examine the validity o...... can identify a group of children with highly increased risk of later being diagnosed and/or treated for ADHD in school age....... of using the SDQ in preschool age to predict ADHD in school age in a longitudinal design. The study population included 2,315 children from the Copenhagen child cohort 2000 with no prior history of clinically diagnosed ADHD, who were assessed at age 5-7 years by the SDQ completed by parents and preschool...... regression analyses estimated the risk of later ADHD diagnosis for screen-positive children. A total of 2.94% of the study population were clinically diagnosed and/or were treated with central stimulants for ADHD before age 11-12. Children with possible/probable disorder according to the SDQ hyperactivity...

Relationship Between Parents and Preschool Children

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Nilgun Ongider

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Parents play a key role in the emotional development of child especially in preschool age. There are many related factors in the relationship of child and parent. It is important to understand children’s subjective experiences with their parents. Temperamental characteristics of the mother have an important role to play in the quality of this relationship. Most parents desire to have deep, intimate relationships between their children. Also, children need emo-tional closeness, safety and security. Attachment is the strong emotional bond that develops between child and primary caregiver. The secure attachment style increases the emotional development of child positively and it may serve as a protective factor for psychological well-being. Children’s well-being often depends on how children perceive or interpret their parents behaviors. Poor parenting practices represent some of the most risk factors for psychological problems in childhood. There are many research results show that correlation between the parental negative attitudes and the psychopathology of the children. The present study aimed to review the relationship between parent and preschool children.

An Evaluation of the Preschool PATHS Curriculum on the Development of Preschool Children

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Hughes, Cerian; Cline, Tony

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), an early years curriculum designed to improve children's social and emotional competence, and reduce problem behaviour. Fifty-seven children aged three to four years took part in the study over one academic year. The control group (Group 1) received…

Neurotensin is increased in serum of young children with autistic disorder

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Angelidou Asimenia

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Autism spectrum disorders (ASD are a group of pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in early childhood. They are associated with a set of "core symptoms" that include disabilities in social interaction skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as repetitive and stereotypic behaviors. There is no definite pathogenetic mechanism or diagnostic tests. Many children with ASD also have "allergic-like" symptoms, but test negative implying mast cell activation by non-allergic triggers. We measured by Milliplex arrays serum levels of 3 neuropeptides that could stimulate mast cells in children with autistic disorder (n = 19; 16 males and 3 females; mean age 3.0 ± 0.4 years and healthy, unrelated controls (n = 16; 13 males and 3 females; mean age 3 ± 1.2 years. Only neurotensin (NT was significantly increased from 60.5 ± 6.0 pg/ml in controls to 105.6 ± 12.4 pg/ml in autistic disorder (p = 0.004. There was no statistically significant difference in the serum levels of β-endorphin or substance P (SP. NT could stimulate immune cells, especially mast cells, and/or have direct effects on brain inflammation and ASD.

Neurotensin is increased in serum of young children with autistic disorder.

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Angelidou, Asimenia; Francis, Konstantinos; Vasiadi, Magdalini; Alysandratos, Konstantinos-Dionysios; Zhang, Bodi; Theoharides, Athanasios; Lykouras, Lefteris; Sideri, Kyriaki; Kalogeromitros, Dimitrios; Theoharides, Theoharis C

2010-08-23

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in early childhood. They are associated with a set of "core symptoms" that include disabilities in social interaction skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as repetitive and stereotypic behaviors. There is no definite pathogenetic mechanism or diagnostic tests. Many children with ASD also have "allergic-like" symptoms, but test negative implying mast cell activation by non-allergic triggers. We measured by Milliplex arrays serum levels of 3 neuropeptides that could stimulate mast cells in children with autistic disorder (n = 19; 16 males and 3 females; mean age 3.0 ± 0.4 years) and healthy, unrelated controls (n = 16; 13 males and 3 females; mean age 3 ± 1.2 years). Only neurotensin (NT) was significantly increased from 60.5 ± 6.0 pg/ml in controls to 105.6 ± 12.4 pg/ml in autistic disorder (p = 0.004). There was no statistically significant difference in the serum levels of β-endorphin or substance P (SP). NT could stimulate immune cells, especially mast cells, and/or have direct effects on brain inflammation and ASD.

Efficacy of Folic Acid Supplementation in Autistic Children Participating in Structured Teaching: An Open-Label Trial.

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Sun, Caihong; Zou, Mingyang; Zhao, Dong; Xia, Wei; Wu, Lijie

2016-06-07

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are recognized as a major public health issue. Here, we evaluated the effects of folic acid intervention on methylation cycles and oxidative stress in autistic children enrolled in structured teaching. Sixty-six autistic children enrolled in this open-label trial and participated in three months of structured teaching. Forty-four children were treated with 400 μg folic acid (two times/daily) for a period of three months during their structured teaching (intervention group), while the remaining 22 children were not given any supplement for the duration of the study (control group). The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) and Psychoeducational Profile-third edition (PEP-3) were measured at the beginning and end of the treatment period. Folic acid, homocysteine, and glutathione metabolism in plasma were measured before and after treatment in 29 autistic children randomly selected from the intervention group and were compared with 29 age-matched unaffected children (typical developmental group). The results illustrated folic acid intervention improved autism symptoms towards sociability, cognitive verbal/preverbal, receptive language, and affective expression and communication. Furthermore, this treatment also improved the concentrations of folic acid, homocysteine, and normalized glutathione redox metabolism. Folic acid supplementation may have a certain role in the treatment of children with autism.

Outdoor environmental assessment of attention promoting settings for preschool children.

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Mårtensson, F; Boldemann, C; Söderström, M; Blennow, M; Englund, J-E; Grahn, P

2009-12-01

The restorative potential of green outdoor environments for children in preschool settings was investigated by measuring the attention of children playing in settings with different environmental features. Eleven preschools with outdoor environments typical for the Stockholm area were assessed using the outdoor play environment categories (OPEC) and the fraction of visible sky from play structures (sky view factor), and 198 children, aged 4.5-6.5 years, were rated by the staff for inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive behaviors with the ECADDES tool. Children playing in large and integrated outdoor areas containing large areas of trees, shrubbery and a hilly terrain showed less often behaviors of inattention (pOPEC can be useful when to locate and develop health-promoting land adjacent to preschools.

Early language mediates the relations between preschool inattention and school-age reading achievement.

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O'Neill, Sarah; Thornton, Veronica; Marks, David J; Rajendran, Khushmand; Halperin, Jeffrey M

2016-05-01

Early inattention is associated with later reading problems in children, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear. We investigated whether the negative relation between preschoolers' ADHD symptoms and 8-year-old reading achievement is directly related to the severity of inattention or is mediated by early language skills. Children (n = 150; 76% boys) were evaluated at 3 time points: preschool (T1), mean (SD) age = 4.24 (.49) years; 1 year later (T2), mean (SD) age = 5.28 (.50) years; and during school age (T3), mean (SD) age = 8.61 (.31) years. At T1, parents' Kiddie-SADS responses were dimensionalized to reflect ADHD severity. Children completed the Language domain of the NEPSY (i.e., A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment) at T1 and again at T2. At T3, children completed the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition Word Reading, Pseudoword Decoding, Reading Comprehension, and Spelling subtests, and their teachers completed ratings of Reading and Written Expression performance in school. The mediating effect of T2 Language on the relation between preschool Inattention and age 8 Reading was examined using the nonparametric bootstrapping procedure, while controlling for T1 Language. Language ability at T2 mediated the path from preschool inattention (but not hyperactivity/impulsivity) to 8-year-old reading achievement (both test scores and ratings) after controlling for preschoolers' language ability. Early attentional deficits may negatively impact school-age reading outcomes by compromising the development of language skills, which in turn imperils later reading achievement. Screening children with attentional problems for language impairment, as well as implementing early intervention for both attentional and language problems may be critical to promote reading achievement during school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of pivotal response treatment on social skill of 6-11 years old autistic children of Hamedan

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Fereshteh Mohammad Zaheri

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Autism is a lifetime developmental disability that determines with sever problem in social relations, communication and behavior. Regarding social interaction difficulties of these children and weakness of social skill interventions in creation of motivation. In this study we tried to examine effect pivotal response treatment method on social skill of autistic children.Material & Methods: In this randomized control trial (RCT study, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 autistic participants (6 to 11 years old that matched based on age, gender and mean length utterance, from especial clinics of Hamedan’s autistic persons selected and placed randomly in one of groups of intervention and control. Sessions was administered individually, lasting for 60 minutes and 2 days a week for 3 months. Both groups of children were tested before and after intervention by CCC (children’s communication checklist to assess social skill. Data analysis was done through descriptive statistics tests and covariance analysis.Results: Findings of study showed (according to covariance analysis between before and after of intervention in two groups there is significant changes in social skill’s ability in intervention group.Conclusion: The result of these study indicated effect of pivotal response treatment on social skills in autistic children, therefore this method recommended for speech and language pathologist.

More active pre-school children have better motor competence at school starting age: an observational cohort study.

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Barnett, Lisa M; Salmon, Jo; Hesketh, Kylie D

2016-10-10

Almost half of young children do not achieve minimum recommendations of 60 daily minutes in physical activity. Physical activity is potentially an important determinant of the development of motor competence in children. This study is one of very few longitudinal studies in this area and the first to investigate early childhood physical activity as a predictor of subsequent motor skill competence. Children were assessed as part of the Melbourne InFANT Program longitudinal cohort study at 19 months, 3.5 years and 5 years. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (accelerometry) was assessed at each time point. At age 5, children were also assessed in actual (Test of Gross Motor Development-2) and perceived motor competence (Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence). General linear models were performed with all 12 skills (six object control and six locomotor skills), both actual and perceived, at age 5 as the respective outcome variables. Predictor variables alternated between MVPA at 19 months, 3.5 years and 5 years. Based on standardized TGMD-2 scores most children were average or below in their skill level at age 5. MVPA at 19 months was not a predictor of actual or perceived skill at age 5. MVPA at 3.5 years was associated with actual locomotor skill (B = 0.073, p = 0.033) and perceived total skill at 5 years of age (B = 0.059, p = 0.044). MVPA was not a predictor of actual or perceived object control skill at any age. Parents and preschool staff should be informed that more time in MVPA as a preschool child contributes to locomotor skill and to perceptions of skill ability in a child of school starting age. Understanding this relationship will assist in intervention development.

More active pre-school children have better motor competence at school starting age: an observational cohort study

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Lisa M. Barnett

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Almost half of young children do not achieve minimum recommendations of 60 daily minutes in physical activity. Physical activity is potentially an important determinant of the development of motor competence in children. This study is one of very few longitudinal studies in this area and the first to investigate early childhood physical activity as a predictor of subsequent motor skill competence. Methods Children were assessed as part of the Melbourne InFANT Program longitudinal cohort study at 19 months, 3.5 years and 5 years. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA (accelerometry was assessed at each time point. At age 5, children were also assessed in actual (Test of Gross Motor Development-2 and perceived motor competence (Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence. General linear models were performed with all 12 skills (six object control and six locomotor skills, both actual and perceived, at age 5 as the respective outcome variables. Predictor variables alternated between MVPA at 19 months, 3.5 years and 5 years. Results Based on standardized TGMD-2 scores most children were average or below in their skill level at age 5. MVPA at 19 months was not a predictor of actual or perceived skill at age 5. MVPA at 3.5 years was associated with actual locomotor skill (B = 0.073, p = 0.033 and perceived total skill at 5 years of age (B = 0.059, p = 0.044. MVPA was not a predictor of actual or perceived object control skill at any age. Conclusion Parents and preschool staff should be informed that more time in MVPA as a preschool child contributes to locomotor skill and to perceptions of skill ability in a child of school starting age. Understanding this relationship will assist in intervention development.

The second-language vocabulary trajectories of Turkish immigrant children in Norway from ages five to ten: the role of preschool talk exposure, maternal education, and co-ethnic concentration in the neighborhood.

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Rydland, Veslemøy; Grøver, Vibeke; Lawrence, Joshua

2014-03-01

Little research has explored how preschools can support children's second-language (L2) vocabulary development. This study keenly followed the progress of twemty-six Turkish immigrant children growing up in Norway from preschool (age five) to fifth grade (age ten). Four different measures of preschool talk exposure (amount and diversity of teacher-led group talk and amount and diversity of peer talk), as well as the demographic variables of maternal education and co-ethnic concentration in the neighborhood, were employed to predict the children's L2 vocabulary trajectories. The results of growth analyses revealed that maternal education was the only variable predicting children's vocabulary growth during the elementary years. However, teacher-led talk, peer talk, and neighborhood predicted children's L2 vocabulary skills at age five, and these differences were maintained up to age ten. This study underscores the importance of both preschool talk exposure (teacher-led talk and peer talk) and demographic factors on L2 learners' vocabulary development.

Reducing maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder using the early start denver model.

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Fulton, Elizabeth; Eapen, Valsamma; Crnčec, Rudi; Walter, Amelia; Rogers, Sally

2014-01-01

The presence of maladaptive behaviors in young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can significantly limit engagement in treatment programs, as well as compromise future educational and vocational opportunities. This study aimed to explore whether the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) treatment approach reduced maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with ASD in a community-based long day care setting. The level of maladaptive behavior of 38 children with ASD was rated using an observation-based measure on three occasions during the intervention: on entry, 12 weeks post-entry, and on exit (post-intervention) over an average treatment duration of 11.8 months. Significant reductions were found in children's maladaptive behaviors over the course of the intervention, with 68% of children showing a treatment response by 12 weeks and 79% on exit. This change was accompanied by improvement in children's overall developmental level as assessed by the Mullen scales of early learning, but not by significant changes on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II or Social Communication Questionnaire. Replication with a larger sample, control conditions, and additional measures of maladaptive behavior is necessary in order to determine the specific factors underlying these improvements; however, the findings of the present study suggest that the ESDM program may be effective in improving not only core developmental domains, but also decreasing maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with ASD.

Cognitive functions in preschool children with specific language impairment.

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Reichenbach, Katrin; Bastian, Laura; Rohrbach, Saskia; Gross, Manfred; Sarrar, Lea

2016-07-01

A growing body of research has focused on executive functions in children with specific language impairment (SLI). However, results show limited convergence, particularly in preschool age. The current neuropsychological study compared performance of cognitive functions focused on executive components and working memory in preschool children with SLI to typically developing controls. Performance on the measures cognitive flexibility, inhibition, processing speed and phonological short-term memory was assessed. The monolingual, Caucasian study sample consisted of 30 children with SLI (Mage = 63.3 months, SD = 4.3 months) and 30 healthy controls (Mage = 62.2 months, SD = 3.7 months). Groups were matched for age and nonverbal IQ. Socioeconomic status of the participating families was included. Children with SLI had significantly poorer abilities of phonological short-term memory than matched controls. A tendency of poorer abilities in the SLI group was found for inhibition and processing speed. We confirmed phonological short-term memory to be a reliable marker of SLI in preschoolers. Our results do not give definite support for impaired executive function in SLI, possibly owing to limited sensitivity of test instruments in this age group. We argue for a standardization of executive function tests for research use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and cognitive skills of preschool children.

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Thomaidis, L; Choleva, A; Janikian, M; Bertou, G; Tsitsika, A; Giannakopoulos, G; Anagnostopoulos, D C

2017-01-01

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) constitutes a neurobehavioral disorder which may potentially adversely affect children's wellbeing and academic achievement. The onset of symptoms is present prior to 12 years of age, and often the symptoms are evident in the preschool years. In fact, it has been suggested that screening for ADHD symptoms may be initiated as early as four years of age. Preschool children with ADHD have been shown to present with poor pre-academic skills and might be at increased risk for numerous school-related problems, including functional impairment during elementary school years and persistent poor academic performance thereafter. Although preschool years are characterized by rapid cognitive growth, preschoolers with ADHD may present with poorer cognitive and neuropsychological functioning. Due to the early onset of ADHD symptoms, exploring the cognitive correlates of this condition among preschool children is thought to be of notable importance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate any association between ADHD symptoms and cognitive skills among preschool children. A cross-sectional study was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 4,480 preschool children. ADHD symptoms were assessed though interviews with parents and teachers based on DSM-IV-TR criteria. Cognitive skills were assessed through a standardized school readiness test (A' TEST). Among participants, the occurrence of ADHD symptoms was 4.6% (boys/girls: 3.4/1). The presence of ADHD symptoms among children was inversely associated with non-verbal and verbal cognitive skills; specifically, with abstract thinking (aOR 1.97, 95% CI 1.30-3.00), language (2.36, 1.55-3.59), critical reasoning (2.58, 1.84-3.62), visual perception (2.42, 1.38- 4.24), and visual motor skills (2.61, 1.91-3.55). Children with ADHD symptoms were five times as likely to have compromised organizational skills (4.92, 3.04-7.97). Abstract thinking was the least affected domain

Comparative analysis of autistic traits and behavioral disorders in Prader-Willi syndrome and Asperger disorder.

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Song, Dae Kwang; Sawada, Masayuki; Yokota, Shingo; Kuroda, Kenji; Uenishi, Hiroyuki; Kanazawa, Tetsufumi; Ogata, Hiroyuki; Ihara, Hiroshi; Nagai, Toshiro; Shimoda, Kazutaka

2015-01-01

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neuro-genetic disorder caused by the absence/loss of expression of one or more paternally expressed genes on chromosome 15 (q11-13). In this study, a comparative analysis of intelligence level and autistic traits was conducted between children with PWS (n = 30; 18 males, 12 females; age = 10.6 ± 2.8 years) and those with Asperger disorder (AD; n = 31; 24 males, 7 females; age = 10.5 ± 3.1 years). The children were compared by age group: lower elementary school age (6-8 years), upper elementary school age (9-12 years), and middle school age (13-15 years). As results, the intelligence levels of children with PWS were significantly lower than those with AD across all age groups. Autistic traits, assessed using the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Autism Society Japan Rating Scale (PARS), revealed that among elementary school age children, those with PWS had less prominent autistic traits than those with AD, however, among middle school age children, those with PWS and AD showed similar prominence. An analysis of the PARS subscale scores by age group showed that while the profiles of autistic traits for children with PWS differed from those of children with AD at elementary school age, the profiles showed no significant differences between the groups at middle school age. The findings suggest that autistic traits in PWS become gradually more prominent with increasing of age and that these autistic traits differ in their fundamental nature from those observed in AD. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Place of Complementary Medicine in the Treatment of Autistic Children

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Özgür Taşkıran Konaç

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Objectives: The purpose of this study is to achieve a vision for autistic children and their parents aimed at generating interest in ideas such as “Sanitas Per Aquam” (SPA, massage and music therapy, which has begun to have widespread use and to attract attention. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out with autistic children and their parents from February to April 2015 in Muğla, Turkey. The study was began by interviewing experts in the field and by developing a suitable assessment questionnaire. In order to direct the flow of conversation between the researchers and the autisitc children and their parents, the researchers conducted semi-structured face to face interviews in a form that had been determined by using reports in the literature and the opinions of experts in the field. Results: Forty two boys (84% and eight girls (16% with autism participated in our study. Children in the 0 ─ 7 age group spent long time in the bathroom (P = 0.001. Boys liked to be hugged more than girls (P = 0.01. Children ages 0 ─ 7 years liked bright lighting while those 15 years of age and older liked gloomy lighting (P = 0.009. Except for these statistically significant sex- and age-related differences, no other statistically significant differences were noted in the parameters of this study. Although the result was not statistically significant, more children with mild autism disorder obeyed commands like inhale or exhale (P = 0.051. Conclusion: Treatment for autism spectrum disorders is not yet fully possible, so many studies are being done to alleviate some symptoms and to improve the quality of life for individuals with autism and their families. As a result of our study, whether touching the areas the children want touched and listening to their favorite music are required to stimulate the brain remain as questions in our minds.

Mozart Effect in Preschool Children?

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Hui, Ken

2006-01-01

In 1993, Rauscher et al. reported a temporary increase in spatial-temporal ability after listening to Mozart's music. This led to numerous replication and extension studies with mixed findings in the past decade. This study investigated the "Mozart effect" in preschool children. Forty-one boys and girls, aged three to five, attempted a series of…

A Volumetric and Functional Connectivity MRI Study of Brain Arginine-Vasopressin Pathways in Autistic Children.

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Shou, Xiao-Jing; Xu, Xin-Jie; Zeng, Xiang-Zhu; Liu, Ying; Yuan, Hui-Shu; Xing, Yan; Jia, Mei-Xiang; Wei, Qing-Yun; Han, Song-Ping; Zhang, Rong; Han, Ji-Sheng

2017-04-01

Dysfunction of brain-derived arginine-vasopressin (AVP) systems may be involved in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Certain regions such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus are known to contain either AVP neurons or terminals and may play an important role in regulating complex social behaviors. The present study was designed to investigate the concomitant changes in autistic behaviors, circulating AVP levels, and the structure and functional connectivity (FC) of specific brain regions in autistic children compared with typically developing children (TDC) aged from 3 to 5 years. The results showed: (1) children with ASD had a significantly increased volume in the left amygdala and left hippocampus, and a significantly decreased volume in the bilateral hypothalamus compared to TDC, and these were positively correlated with plasma AVP level. (2) Autistic children had a negative FC between the left amygdala and the bilateral supramarginal gyri compared to TDC. The degree of the negative FC between amygdala and supramarginal gyrus was associated with a higher score on the clinical autism behavior checklist. (3) The degree of negative FC between left amygdala and left supramarginal gyrus was associated with a lowering of the circulating AVP concentration in boys with ASD. (4) Autistic children showed a higher FC between left hippocampus and right subcortical area compared to TDC. (5) The circulating AVP was negatively correlated with the visual and listening response score of the childhood autism rating scale. These results strongly suggest that changes in structure and FC in brain regions containing AVP may be involved in the etiology of autism.

Test-Retest Reliability of the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA)

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Egger, Helen Link; Erkanli, Alaattin; Keeler, Gordon; Potts, Edward; Walter, Barbara Keith; Angold, Adrian

2006-01-01

Objective: To examine the test-retest reliability of a new interviewer-based psychiatric diagnostic measure (the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment) for use with parents of preschoolers 2 to 5 years old. Method: A total of 1,073 parents of children attending a large pediatric clinic completed the Child Behavior Checklist 1 1/2-5. For 18 months,…

[Behaviour problems of children with Down syndrome in preschool-age - Results from the Heidelberg Down syndrome study].

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Sarimski, Klaus

2018-05-01

We report on the frequency and the correlations of behaviour problems among children with Down syndrome in preschool-age. As part of a longitudinal study 48 mothers of children with Down syndrome completed the German version of the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” (SDQ-D) and the Parenting Stress Inventory (PSI). The mothers were asked to fill out the questionnaires when the children had a mean age of five years. The results were compared to norms from children with typical development. Thirty per cent of the children with Down syndrome were rated as abnormal. Specifically, mean scores indicating problems with children of the same age and hyperactivity were elevated. A regression analysis predicting the total problem score of the SDQ-D revealed maternal educational level, optimistic attitude, and subjective parental stress at the age of one year and the degree of behavioural abnormalities at the age of three years as significant influential factors. Early intervention for Down syndrome children should include supporting parenting competence and coping skills in order to prevent behaviour problems.

The effect of musical movement activities on the balance function of autistic children

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Atoosa Atigh

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Autistic children with low level performance have problems in social interaction, communication skills and sensory processing as well as motor and balance function. Musical activity is one of the most effective therapeutic strategies to manage some of these core defects. The present study examined the effect of musical movement activities on the balance function of 7 to 14 years autistic children with low performance. Methods: Twenty-two autistic students with low performance at age range of 7 to 14 years old participated in the study were assigned to experimental and control group randomly. The interventions were consisted of musical movement activities for experimental and without music for control group. Balance performance of subjects was assessed before treatment, and after 12th and 24th therapeutic sessions using balancing subtest of Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency (BOTMP. The assessments were double blinded. Data were analyzed employing repeated measures of ANOVA. The SPSS software-version 17was used. Results: The results indicated that the effect of interventions on two groups was significantly different (F; 1.2= 52.8, P<0.001. The improvement in the balancing performance has been observed in both groups after 12th and 24th sessions although the difference in balance scores between groups was higher after 24th treatment session (P<0.001; that is in experimental group more improvement was obtained. Conclusion: The findings suggest that musical movement activities can accelerate the improvement in balance function of autistic children with low performance.

Cross-cultural differences in the sleep of preschool children.

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Mindell, Jodi A; Sadeh, Avi; Kwon, Robert; Goh, Daniel Y T

2013-12-01

The aim of our study was to characterize cross-cultural sleep patterns and sleep problems in a large sample of preschool children ages 3-6years in multiple predominantly Asian (P-A) and predominantly Caucasian (P-C) countries/regions. Parents of 2590 preschool-aged children (P-A countries/regions: China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand; P-C countries: Australia-New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, United States) completed an Internet-based expanded version of the Brief Child Sleep Questionnaire (BCSQ). Overall, children from P-A countries had significantly later bedtimes, shorter nighttime sleep, and increased parental perception of sleep problems compared with those from P-C countries. Bedtimes varied from as early as 7:43pm in Australia and New Zealand to as late as 10:26pm in India, a span of almost 3h. There also were significant differences in daytime sleep with the majority of children in P-A countries continuing to nap, resulting in no differences in 24-h total sleep times (TST) across culture and minimal differences across specific countries. Bed sharing and room sharing are common in P-A countries, with no change across the preschool years. There also were a significant percentage of parents who perceived that their child had a sleep problem (15% in Korea to 44% in China). Overall, our results indicate significant cross-cultural differences in sleep patterns, sleeping arrangements, and parent-reported sleep problems in preschool-aged children. Further studies are needed to understand the underlying bases for these differences and especially for contributors to parents' perceptions of sleep problems. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual Individuation Training (but Not Mere Exposure) Reduces Implicit Racial Bias in Preschool Children

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Qian, Miao K.; Quinn, Paul C.; Heyman, Gail D.; Pascalis, Olivier; Fu, Genyue; Lee, Kang

2017-01-01

Two studies with preschool-age children examined the effectiveness of perceptual individuation training at reducing racial bias (Study 1, N = 32; Study 2, N = 56). We found that training preschool-age children to individuate other-race faces resulted in a reduction in implicit racial bias while mere exposure to other-race faces produced no such…

Impact of normal weight obesity on fundamental motor skills in pre-school children aged 3 to 6 years.

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Musalek, Martin; Kokstejn, Jakub; Papez, Pavel; Scheffler, Christiane; Mumm, Rebekka; Czernitzki, Anna-Franziska; Koziel, Slawomir

2017-09-01

Normal weight obesity is defined as having excessive body fat, but normal BMI. Even though previous research revealed that excessive body fat in children inhibited their physical activity and decreased motor performance, there has been only little evidence about motor performance of normal weight obese children. This study aims to establish whether normal weight obese pre-school children aged 3-6 years will have a significantly worse level of fundamental motor skills compared to normal weight non-obese counterparts. The research sample consisted of 152 pre-schoolers selected from a specific district of Prague, the Czech Republic. According to values from four skinfolds: triceps, subscapula, suprailiaca, calf, and BMI three categories of children aged 3-6 years were determined: A) normal weight obese n = 51; B) normal weight non-obese n = 52; C) overweight and obese n = 49. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) was used for the assessment of fundamental motor skills. Normal weight obese children had significantly higher amount of adipose tissue p < 0.001 than normal weight non-obese children but the same average BMI. Moreover, normal weight obese children did not have significantly less amount of subcutaneous fat on triceps and calf compared to their overweight and obese peers. In majority of MABC-2 tests, normal weight obese pre-schoolers showed the poorest performance. Moreover, normal weight obese children had significantly worse total standard score = 38.82 compared to normal weight non-obese peers = 52.27; p < 0.05. In addition, normal weight obese children had a more than three times higher frequency OR = 3.69 CI95% (1.10; 12.35) of severe motor deficit performance ≤ 5 th centile of the MABC-2 norm. These findings are strongly alarming since indices like BMI are not able to identify normal weight obese individual. We recommend verifying real portion of normal weight obese children as they are probably in higher risk of health and motor

Participation Patterns of Preschool Children With Intellectual Developmental Disabilities.

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Gilboa, Yafit; Fuchs, Reut

2018-04-01

We aim to examine the pattern of participation of children with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD) or global developmental delay (GDD) in comparison with typically developing preschoolers. In addition, to identify environmental and personal factors associated with their participation, 20 children with mild to moderate GDD or IDD, and 24 age- and gender-matched controls, aged 3 to 6 years, were assessed using the Assessment of Preschool Children's Participation and the Environmental Restriction Questionnaire. Significant differences were found between the groups, both for general scales of participation and for each activity area. For the IDD/GDD group, participation was significantly negatively correlated with environmental restrictions at home. For the control group, participation was correlated with demographic variables. Typically developing children participate at a higher frequency and in a more diverse range of activities compared with children with IDD/GDD. Associations between participation and contextual factors varied depending on the child's health condition.

Factors Affecting the Formation of Food Preferences in Preschool Children.

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Alles-White, Monica L.; Welch, Patricia

1985-01-01

Identifies and discusses factors that affect the development of food preferences in preschool children, including familiarity, age, parents, peers, teachers, and programs designed to influence food habits. Makes recommendations to preschool and day care programs for creating an atmosphere conducive to trying new foods. (Author/DST)

Relations between Preschool Attention Span-Persistence and Age 25 Educational Outcomes

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McClelland, Megan M.; Acock, Alan C.; Piccinin, Andrea; Rhea, Sally Ann; Stallings, Michael C.

2013-01-01

This study examined relations between children's attention span-persistence in preschool and later school achievement and college completion. Children were drawn from the Colorado Adoption Project using adopted and non-adopted children (N = 430). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that children's age 4 attention span-persistence…

The Effect of Training Play Therapy to the Mothers of Autistic Children to Improve the Verbal and Nonverbal Skills of their Children

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Jinus Amrollahi far

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of play therapy training to mothers of autistic children on verbal and non-verbal improvement of their children.Materials and Methods: 30 autistic children with intermediate degree of autism were selected based on availability sampling procedure and were divided into experimental and control groups. Having collected the intended data and analyzed them with SPSS software.Results: The study finally revealed that the play therapy training significantly improved the social skills of autistic children.Conclusion: These results suggested that applying play therapy with families and teach it to the mothers that have autistic children. 

Caries Risk Profiles amongst Preschool Aged Children Living in the Sleman District of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

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Elastria Widita

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the caries risk factors of preschool aged children. Methods: Data was collected from a sample of 85 preschool children and their mothers. An interview, and a clinical and microbiology assessment was included in this study. Clinical examinations were performed to measure the dental caries experience and plaque visibility of the children and mothers. The presence and levels of Mutans Streptococci (MS in the saliva was measured using a commercial kit by Dentocult SM and evaluated using the manufacturer’s chart. Results: Sixty-five children had a high risk of caries (76.5%, 12.9% had a low risk, and 10.6% had a moderate risk of caries. Active cavities were found in more than half of the mothers and children. The majority of the child subjects had a snacking habit between meals (85.9%. High risk scores of 2 and 3, indicating salivary levels of MS, was found in 41.1% of children. Fluoride exposure experienced by the study population was very limited. Conclusion: Results suggest that the majority of the population had a high caries risk. There was a high occurrence of teeth with cavities in children and active carious lesions in the mothers. There was a high frequency in snacking habits, the presence of plaque and bleeding gums, high levels of salivary MS, and low protective factors for the children. Results suggest that management of caries related factors are needed in order to prevent caries in the future. 

The relationship between dental caries and carbohydrates intake among preschool-aged children in rural and urban areas

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Rina Putri Noer Fadilah

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The prevalence of dental caries among children has increased in the past decades. Dental caries has a multifactorial aetiology, including host (saliva and teeth, microbiology (plaque, substrate (diet, and time. The role of fermentable carbohydrates intake as a risk factor in the initiation and progression of dental caries. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between dental caries and carbohydrates intake among preschool-aged children in rural and urban areas of the city of Cimahi, Indonesia. Methods: The method used was an analytical cross-sectional study with pathfinder survey based on the WHO basic methods of oral health surveys. The data were collected through intraoral examination, and nutritional status measurement was done by using food frequency questionnaire. Statistical analysis used was the chi-square test. Results: From the study towards 100 preschool children resulted the prevalence of dental caries in rural and urban area respectively was 96% and 92%. The average value of def-t index in urban area was as much as 8.46 (95% CI:7.00-9.91 and was as much as 7.98 (95% CI:6.50-9.45 in rural area. The average value of sucrose intake frequency in urban area was as much as 237.14 (95% CI:204.95-269.32, whilst in rural area was as much as 177.54 (95% CI:155.66-199.41. There was a relationship between dental caries and carbohydrates intake in the rural and urban area (p < 0,05. Conclusion: There was a relationship between dental caries and carbohydrates intake among preschool-aged children in the rural and urban area of the city of Cimahi, Indonesia.

Preschoolers' Beliefs about Sex and Age Differences in Emotionality.

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Karbon, Mariss; And Others

1992-01-01

Assesses beliefs of 32 male and 35 female middle-class preschool children about the frequency and intensity with which girls, boys, women, and men experience anger, sadness, and happiness. Children's beliefs are complex; they vary as a function of the target person's age and sex and of the specific emotion. (SLD)

Learning Disabilities in Extremely Low Birth Weight Children and Neurodevelopmental Profiles at Preschool Age.

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Squarza, Chiara; Picciolini, Odoardo; Gardon, Laura; Giannì, Maria L; Murru, Alessandra; Gangi, Silvana; Cortinovis, Ivan; Milani, Silvano; Mosca, Fabio

2016-01-01

At school age extremely low birth weight (ELBW) and extremely low gestational age (ELGAN) children are more likely to show Learning Disabilities (LDs) and difficulties in emotional regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of LDs at school age and to detect neurodevelopmental indicators of risk for LDs at preschool ages in a cohort of ELBW/ELGAN children with broadly average intelligence. All consecutively newborns 2001-2006 admitted to the same Institution entered the study. Inclusion criteria were BW disabilities, genetic abnormalities, and/or a Developmental Quotient below normal limits (learning disabilities at school age was investigated through a parent-report questionnaire at children's age range 9-10 years. Neurodevelopmental profiles were assessed through the Griffiths Mental Development Scales at 1 and 2 years of corrected age and at 3, 4, 5, and 6 years of chronological age and were analyzed comparing two groups of children: those with LDs and those without. At school age 24 on 102 (23.5%) of our ELBW/ELGAN children met criteria for LDs in one or more areas, with 70.8% comorbidity with emotional/attention difficulties. Children with LDs scored significantly lower in the Griffiths Locomotor and Language subscales at 2 years of corrected age and in the Personal-social, Performance and Practical Reasoning subscales at 5 years of chronological age. Our findings suggest that, among the early developmental indicators of adverse school outcome, there is a poor motor experimentation, language delay, and personal-social immaturity. Cognitive rigidity and poor ability to manage practical situations also affect academic attainment. Timely detection of these early indicators of risk is crucial to assist the transition to school.

Mother-child reminiscing and autobiographical memory specificity among preschool-age children.

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Valentino, Kristin; Nuttall, Amy K; Comas, Michelle; McDonnell, Christina G; Piper, Brianna; Thomas, Taylor E; Fanuele, Suzanne

2014-04-01

Overgeneral memory (OGM) refers to difficulty in retrieving specific autobiographical memories. The tendency to be overgeneral in autobiographical memory recall is more commonly observed among individuals with emotional disorders compared with those without. Despite significant advances in theory and identification of mechanisms that underlie the etiology of OGM, there has been little integration between normative research on the development of autobiographical memory and research on OGM. Informed by a developmental psychopathology perspective and drawing on normative developmental research on the social construction of autobiographical memory, the current investigation examined whether the elaborative quantity and elaborative quality of maternal reminiscing are predictive of preschool-age children's autobiographical memory specificity. Additionally, this investigation tested whether children's positive self-representations may explain these hypothesized associations. Participants consisted of 95 mother-child dyads. Children's ages ranged between 3.5 and 6 years, and the sample was predominantly low income and of minority race/ethnicity. Dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about 4 past events, and children participated in assessments of autobiographical memory specificity and self-representations. Results indicated that the elaborative quality, defined by maternal-sensitive guidance and emotional narrative coherence, but not the elaborative quantity, of maternal reminiscing style was significantly associated with children's autobiographical memory specificity. Additionally, there was support for an indirect pathway between maternal reminiscing quality and child memory specificity through children's positive self-representations. Directions for future research are discussed, and potential clinical implications are addressed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Reducing Maladaptive Behaviors in Preschool-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using the Early Start Denver Model

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Fulton, Elizabeth; Eapen, Valsamma; Črnčec, Rudi; Walter, Amelia; Rogers, Sally

2014-01-01

The presence of maladaptive behaviors in young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can significantly limit engagement in treatment programs, as well as compromise future educational and vocational opportunities. This study aimed to explore whether the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) treatment approach reduced maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with ASD in a community-based long day care setting. The level of maladaptive behavior of 38 children with ASD was rated using an ...

Reducing maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using the Early Start Denver Model

OpenAIRE

Elizabeth eFulton; Elizabeth eFulton; Valsamma eEapen; Valsamma eEapen; Rudi eČrnčec; Amelia eWalter; Amelia eWalter; Sally eRogers

2014-01-01

The presence of maladaptive behaviors in young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can significantly limit engagement in treatment programs, as well as compromise future educational and vocational opportunities. This study aimed to explore whether the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) treatment approach reduced maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with ASD in a community-based long day care setting. The level of maladaptive behavior of 38 children with ASD was rated using an ...

The Relationship between Obesity, Sleep and Physical Activity in Chinese Preschool Children.

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Ji, Meimei; Tang, Amber; Zhang, Yefu; Zou, Jiaojiao; Zhou, Guangyu; Deng, Jing; Yang, Lina; Li, Mingzhi; Chen, Jihua; Qin, Hong; Lin, Qian

2018-03-15

Pediatric overweight and obesity has become a major public health problem in China. The goal of this study is to understand overweight and obesity in preschool children in Changsha City in the context of their sleep and physical activity. These results offer feasible proposals to reduce levels of overweight and obesity among preschool children. A total of 112 preschoolers aged three to six years old were investigated using multiple stage stratified cluster sampling and simple random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect general information about children and their families. Body mass index (BMI) was used as an indicator of overweight and obesity. Age- and sex-specific cutoff values for Chinese children and adolescents were used to determine child weight status. Children's sedentary time was reported by caregivers, while physical activity and sleep were recorded using fitness bracelets (Misfit Shine 2). The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity were 15.2% and 9.8% respectively. Preschool-aged children travelled 11,111 ± 3357 and 10,350 ± 2973 steps per day on weekdays and weekends respectively. The number of daily steps was not statistically different between weekdays and weekends. The amount of time spent daily doing vigorous activity on weekdays and weekends was significantly different, with an average time of 20.5 ± 31.6 min and 10.3 ± 15.3 min respectively ( p = 0.002). Furthermore, 10.7% and 50.9% of children used screens for more than two hours on weekdays and weekends respectively ( p preschool children in this study. Students also demonstrated poor sleep and physical activity habits. Future research is necessary to explore the relationship between sleep, physical activity and weight status for young children in China.

The production of direct object clitics in pre-school- and primary school-aged children with specific language impairments.

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Guasti, Maria Teresa; Palma, Silvia; Genovese, Elisabetta; Stagi, Paolo; Saladini, Gabriella; Arosio, Fabrizio

2016-01-01

Third-person direct object (DO) clitic pronoun production is examined through an elicited production method in pre-school- and primary school-aged groups of Italian children with specific language impairment (SLI) to establish whether there is an improvement from age 5 years to age 7 years and whether there are qualitative differences in the two groups' responses. It was found that 5- and 7-year-old Italian children with SLI produce fewer third-person DO clitics than same-age peers. The kind of responses they provide changes: at 5 years, children with SLI tend to omit clitics, while at 7 years, they use a full noun. Production of third-person DO clitics is a persistent challenge for children with SLI and is confirmed to be a good clinical marker both at 5 and 7 years of age.

[Effect of obesity on pulmonary function in asthmatic children of different age groups].

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Xu, Xiao-Wen; Huang, Ying; Wang, Jian; Zhang, Xue-Li; Liang, Fan-Mei; Luo, Rong

2017-05-01

To study the effect of obesity on pulmonary function in newly diagnosed asthmatic children of different age groups. Two hundred and ninety-four children with newly diagnosed asthma were classified into preschool-age (age (6 to 12.5 years) groups. They were then classified into obese, overweight, and normal-weight subgroups based on their body mass index (BMI). All the children underwent pulmonary function tests, including large airway function tests [forced vital capacity (FVC%) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1%)] and small airway function tests [maximal expiratory flow at 25% of vital capacity (MEF25%), maximal expiratory flow at 50% of vital capacity (MEF50%), and maximal expiratory flow at 75% of vital capacity (MEF75%)]. The school-age group showed lower FEV1%, MEF25%, and MEF50% than the preschool-age group (Page group had lower FEV1%, MEF25%, and MEF50% compared with their counterparts in the preschool-age group (Page group showed lower FVC% and MEF50% than those in the preschool-age group. However, all the pulmonary function parameters showed no significant differences between the obese children in the preschool-age and school-age groups. In the preschool-age group, FVC%, FEV1%, and MEF75% of the obese children were lower than those of the normal-weight children. In the school-age group, only FVC% and FEV1% showed differences between the obese and normal-weight children (Page in children with asthma, and the effect is more obvious in those of preschool age.

Characters of Modern Animated Series in Games and Toys of Preschool Children

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Sokolova M.V.

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a comparative research on how preschool children play with various modern cartoon character toys. Three popular animated series were used in the research: "Winx", "SpiderMan" and "Pettson and Findus". One series of each was previously analysed in terms of microplots, descriptions of the main characters and their actions etc. The children watched the series, one at a time, and were then invited to play with its character toys. The outcomes of the research indicate that the series with plots and characters appropriate for preschool age (such as "Pettson and Findus" promote longer and richer periods of play activity as compared to the series addressed to children of older age. Children tend to take the role of the main character more frequently if s/he is of about the same age (irrespective of sex; they reproduce familiar and clear plots and engage themselves in longer periods of meaningful play. The outcomes also show that the effect of the animated series on the children's play depends on the quality and content of the animations, on their correspondence with the specifics of preschool age as well as on the quality of the character toys

Smoking habits of Greek preschool children's parents

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Linardakis Manolis K

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Smoking is Greece's largest public health threat. Greece has the highest adult smoking prevalence among all E.U countries, which in turn possibly predisposes Greek children and adolescents to smoke. The purpose of our study was to research into the smoking habits of preschool children's parents since children of that age could be vulnerable to parental negative role modeling and to investigate into the necessity of conducting a public health awareness programme aimed at the general population. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed on the parents of children enrolled in kindergarten in western Crete-Greece (2809 parents, and interviewed during the 2004–2005 Cretan school health promotion programme. Results 63% of households had at least one parent a current smoker and in 26% both parents were found to be current smokers. Smoking prevalence among adults with preschool children was estimated at 44% (52% of fathers and 36% of mothers. Paternal education and nationality were statistically significantly related to smoking (p Conclusion Smoking prevalence is high even among parents with preschool children. Taking into account the parents' significant primary role in the children's upbringing and the effect that parental induced passive smoking has on children's health and health attitude; one can deduce that the health of Greek children is under threat. It is of major importance that educational and policy intervention measures are implemented to reduce such a situation that could contribute to promoting the initiation of smoking among Greek adolescents.

Smoking habits of Greek preschool children's parents.

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Vardavas, Constantine I; Athanasopoulos, Dimitrios; Balomenaki, Evaggelia; Niaounaki, Dora; Linardakis, Manolis K; Kafatos, Anthony G

2007-06-14

Smoking is Greece's largest public health threat. Greece has the highest adult smoking prevalence among all E.U countries, which in turn possibly predisposes Greek children and adolescents to smoke. The purpose of our study was to research into the smoking habits of preschool children's parents since children of that age could be vulnerable to parental negative role modeling and to investigate into the necessity of conducting a public health awareness programme aimed at the general population. A cross-sectional study was performed on the parents of children enrolled in kindergarten in western Crete-Greece (2809 parents), and interviewed during the 2004-2005 Cretan school health promotion programme. 63% of households had at least one parent a current smoker and in 26% both parents were found to be current smokers. Smoking prevalence among adults with preschool children was estimated at 44% (52% of fathers and 36% of mothers). Paternal education and nationality were statistically significantly related to smoking (p parents with preschool children. Taking into account the parents' significant primary role in the children's upbringing and the effect that parental induced passive smoking has on children's health and health attitude; one can deduce that the health of Greek children is under threat. It is of major importance that educational and policy intervention measures are implemented to reduce such a situation that could contribute to promoting the initiation of smoking among Greek adolescents.

Design, development, and clinical validation of therapeutic toys for autistic children

OpenAIRE

Tseng, Kevin C.; Tseng, Sung-Hui; Cheng, Hsin-Yi Kathy

2016-01-01

[Purpose] One of the characteristics of autistic children is social interaction difficulties. Although therapeutic toys can promote social interaction, however its related research remains insufficient. The aim of the present study was to build a set of cooperative play toys that are suitable for autistic children. [Subjects and Methods] This study used an innovative product design and development approach as the basis for the creation of cooperative play toys. [Results] The present study has...

Affairs and Issues of Special Education for Autistic Children in Canada

OpenAIRE

渡部, かなえ

2008-01-01

In developing a curriculum for training educational specialists of autistic children, an inspection of the educational system for autistic children in Canada was carried out. A School Base Team (members:School Master, Head Teacher or Resource Teacher; Behavior Consultant, Classroom teacher) plans and practices IEPs (Individual Education Plan). To achieve the IEP goal, the School Board dispatches workers by the hour. An allowance is paid to the school and the guardian during compulsory school ...

Autism in community pre-schoolers: developmental profiles.

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Kantzer, Anne-Katrin; Fernell, Elisabeth; Gillberg, Christopher; Miniscalco, Carmela

2013-09-01

Autism is often a complex developmental disorder. The aim of the present study was to describe the developmental characteristics of 129 1-4-year-old children (102 boys, 27 girls) referred for clinical assessment (mean age 2.9 years) due to suspicion of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after community screening at Child Health Care centers. All children were clinically assessed at the Child Neuropsychiatry Clinic (CNC) in Gothenburg by a research team (neurodevelopmental examination, structured interviews and general cognitive and language examinations). Of the 129 children, 100 met diagnostic criteria for ASD (69 with autistic disorder, and 31 with atypical autism/pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified). The remaining 29 children had a variety of developmental disorders, most often attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), language disorder, borderline intellectual functioning, and intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) with (n=25) or without (n=4) autistic traits (AT). IDD was found in 36% of the 100 children with ASD, and in 4% of the 25 children with AT. Of the children with ASD, 56% had language disorder with no or just a few words at the initial assessment at the CNC, many of whom in combination with IDD. Hyperactivity was found in 37% of those with ASD and in 40% of those with AT. Epilepsy was found in 6% of the total group and in 7% of those with a diagnosis of ASD. Of the latter group 11% had a history of regression, while none of the AT cases had a similar background. When results were compared with a non-screened preschool ASD group of 208 children, referred for ASD intervention at a mean age of 3.4 years, very similar developmental profiles were seen. In conclusion, early community ASD screening appears to systematically identify those children who are in need of intervention and follow-up. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Effects of family cohesion and adaptability on behavioral problems in preschool children].

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Wang, Yan-Ni; Xue, Hong-Li; Chen, Qian

2016-05-01

To investigate the effects of family cohesion and adaptability on behavioral problems in preschool children. The stratified cluster multistage sampling method was used to perform a questionnaire survey in the parents of 1 284 children aged 3-6 years in the urban area of Lanzhou, China. The general status questionnaire, Conners Child Behavior Checklist (Parent Symptom Question), and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, Second edition, Chinese version (FACESII-CV) were used to investigate behavioral problems and family cohesion and adaptability. The overall detection rate of behavioral problems in preschool children was 17.13%. The children with different types of family cohesion had different detection rates of behavioral problems, and those with free-type family cohesion showed the highest detection rate of behavioral problems (40.2%). The children with different types of family adaptability also had different detection rates of behavioral problems, and those with stiffness type showed the highest detection rate of behavioral problems (25.1%). The behavioral problems in preschool children were negatively correlated with family cohesion and adaptability. During the growth of preschool children, family cohesion and adaptability have certain effects on the mental development of preschool children.

Relationship between anthropometry and motor abilities at pre-school age.

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De Toia, Daniela; Klein, Daniel; Weber, Sarah; Wessely, Nicolas; Koch, Benjamin; Tokarski, Walter; Dordel, Sigrid; Struder, Heiko; Graf, Christine

2009-01-01

Little is known to date about the relationship between poor motor abilities and overweight or obese pre-school children. Thus, this study examined the association between motor abilities and weight status in 1,228 kindergarten children (45.8% female). Anthropometric data were assessed; age 4.7 + or - 1.0 years; height 108.6 + or - 8.0 cm; weight 19.1 + or - 3.6 kg; BMI 16.1 + or - 1.5 kg/m(2). The modified Karlsruher Motor Ability Screening Test was carried out to determine the motor abilities of speed strength, muscular endurance, coordination, flexibility, and speed. Based on the German BMI reference values, 3.5% of the children were obese, 9.6% overweight, 83.4% normal weight, and 3.5% underweight. During various test tasks, below-average motor abilities were discovered in 44.0-47.3%. In all age groups, overweight and obese children did not differ from their normal and underweight counterparts; except for underweight children which fared worse in flexibility. In contrast to former studies with first graders, overweight or obese pre-school children did not possess worse motor abilities than normal weight children. However, the high number of overweight children and motor deficits suggests that preventive measures should start at this early age. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Validation of a Questionnaire on Behaviour Academic Competence among Chinese Preschool Children

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Leung, Cynthia; Lo, S. K.; Leung, Shirley S. L.

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to validate a questionnaire on academic competence behaviour for use with Chinese preschool children in Hong Kong. A parent version and a teacher version were developed and evaluated. The participants included 457 children (230 boys and 227 girls) aged four and five years old, their preschool teachers and their parents.…

Preschool Education: Delivering on the Promise for Latino Children

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Beltran, Erika

2011-01-01

This publication highlights opportunities to improve the educational outcomes of Hispanic children at an early age, a time that is critical to setting up the academic success of children. Specifically, this paper examines barriers to quality and access that limit the participation of Latino children and families in preschool and offers…

Healthy Start: a comprehensive health education program for preschool children.

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Williams, C L; Squillace, M M; Bollella, M C; Brotanek, J; Campanaro, L; D'Agostino, C; Pfau, J; Sprance, L; Strobino, B A; Spark, A; Boccio, L

1998-01-01

Healthy Start is a 3-year demonstration and education research project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidimensional cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction intervention in preschool centers over a 3-year period of time. Two primary interventions are employed. The first is the preschool food service intervention program designed to reduce the total fat in preschool meals and snacks to less than 30% of calories and reduce the saturated fat to less than 10% of calories. The second major intervention is a comprehensive preschool health education curriculum, focused heavily on nutrition. Effectiveness of the intervention will be determined through evaluation of changes in dietary intake of preschool children at school meals and snacks, especially with respect to intake of total and saturated fat. Evaluation of the education component will include assessment of program implementation by teachers, assessment of changes in nutrition knowledge by preschool children, and assessment of changes in home meals that children consume (total and saturated fat content). Blood cholesterol will be evaluated semiannually to evaluate changes that may be due to modification of dietary intake. Growth and body fatness will also be assessed. While substantial efforts have targeted CV risk reduction and health education for elementary school children, similar efforts aimed at preschool children have been lacking. The rationale for beginning CV risk reduction programs for preschool children is based upon the premise that risk factors for heart disease are prevalent by 3 years of age and tend to track over time, most commonly hypercholesterolemia and obesity, both related to nutrition. Since the behavioral antecedents for nutritional risk factors begin to be established very early in life, it is important to develop and evaluate new educational initiatives such as Healthy Start, aimed at the primary prevention of cardiovascular risk factors in preschool children. The purpose of this

Spoken language development in oral preschool children with permanent childhood deafness.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarant, Julia Z; Holt, Colleen M; Dowell, Richard C; Rickards, Field W; Blamey, Peter J

2009-01-01

This article documented spoken language outcomes for preschool children with hearing loss and examined the relationships between language abilities and characteristics of children such as degree of hearing loss, cognitive abilities, age at entry to early intervention, and parent involvement in children's intervention programs. Participants were evaluated using a combination of the Child Development Inventory, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Preschool Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals depending on their age at the time of assessment. Maternal education, cognitive ability, and family involvement were also measured. Over half of the children who participated in this study had poor language outcomes overall. No significant differences were found in language outcomes on any of the measures for children who were diagnosed early and those diagnosed later. Multiple regression analyses showed that family participation, degree of hearing loss, and cognitive ability significantly predicted language outcomes and together accounted for almost 60% of the variance in scores. This article highlights the importance of family participation in intervention programs to enable children to achieve optimal language outcomes. Further work may clarify the effects of early diagnosis on language outcomes for preschool children.

[Fine motor and self-development assessment of preschool children with epilepsy].

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Lendraĭtene, E B; Petrushiavichene, D P; Andronavichiute, Iu P; Vapzhaĭtite, L A; Krishchiunas, A I

2014-01-01

Objective. To assess fine motor and self-care skills in preschool children with epilepsy. Material and methods. The study included 22 children, 12 girls (54.5%) and 10 boys (45.5%), mean age 41.5±19.9 months. Children were tested with DISC and Munchen tests. Results and conclusion. Among preschool children with epilepsy, 50% have impaired and 22.7% - delayed development of fine motor skills. The mean coefficient of fine motor skills was 59.0±28.1. Among preschool children with epilepsy, 36.4% have impaired and 45.5% - delayed development of self-development skills. The coefficient of self-care skills was 57.8±26.1. DISC and Munchen tests for evaluation of small motor and self-care skills are equivalent for assessment in children with epilepsy (pskills were more often disturbed (pfine motor skills (p<0.05).

Physical Activity in Preschool Children: Comparison between Montessori and Traditional Preschools

Science.gov (United States)

Pate, Russell R.; O'Neill, Jennifer R.; Byun, Wonwoo; McIver, Kerry L.; Dowda, Marsha; Brown, William H.

2014-01-01

Background: Little is known about the influence of Montessori methods on children's physical activity (PA). This cross-sectional study compared PA of children attending Montessori and traditional preschools. Methods: We enrolled 301 children in 9 Montessori and 8 traditional preschools in Columbia, South Carolina. PA was measured by accelerometry…

Quality of life among parents of children with autistic disorder: a sample from the Arab world.

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Dardas, Latefa A; Ahmad, Muayyad M

2014-02-01

A growing body of research has sought to examine issues associated with the Quality of Life (QoL) of parents of children with Autistic Disorder. However, no studies have examined the QoL of Arab parents whose parenting experience is expected to be substantially different from that of their western counterparts. Therefore, the purposes of this study were: (1) to examine differences in the QoL between fathers and mothers of children with Autistic Disorder in a sample from an Arab country, and (2) to examine the psychosocial correlates of the QoL of Arab parents of children with Autistic Disorder. Self-administered questionnaires on parents' QoL, stress, coping strategies, and demographic characteristics were completed by 184 parents of children with Autistic Disorder. The participants were recruited using the convenience sampling design. Fathers and mothers of children with Autistic Disorder showed no significant differences in their physical, psychological, social, and environmental health. Further, both parents showed almost similar bivariate correlations between the reported QoL levels and their parenting stress, coping strategies, and demographic characteristics. This is the first study to examine the QoL of parents of children with Autistic Disorder in the Arab world and, in doing so, it highlighted the distinct lack of research in this area. The QoL of Arab parents of children with Autistic Disorder crosses lines with their stress levels, coping strategies, demographic characteristics, and to some extent their cultural context. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms in children with autistic disorder: a cross-sectional descriptive study.

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Charnsil, Chawanun; Sriapai, Payupol

2011-02-01

(1) to examine the co-occurrence of attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms in children with autistic disorder, and (2) to study the correlation between attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and the severity of autistic disorder. This was a clinical based study. The authors used Childhood Autistic Rating scale (CARs) to evaluate the severity of autistic disorder Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Teacher and Parent Rating Scale, Version IV (SNAP-IV) was used to measure attention deficit and hyperactive symptoms in children with autism. Thirty (n=30) children enrolled in this study. All participants displayed attention deficit symptoms and 18 participants demonstrated hyperactivity as well. Nonparametric correlation showed a high positive correlation (Spa = 0.90, p = 0.00) between the severity of autistic disorder and hyperactivity and not the attention deficit symptoms (Spa = 0.29, p = 0.16). The authors finding shows a high comorbid rate of attention deficit and hyperactive symptoms among the participants.

A randomised group comparison controlled trial of 'preschoolers with autism': a parent education and skills training intervention for young children with autistic disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Tonge, Bruce; Brereton, Avril; Kiomall, Melissa; Mackinnon, Andrew; Rinehart, Nicole J

2014-02-01

To determine the effect of parent education on adaptive behaviour, autism symptoms and cognitive/language skills of young children with autistic disorder. A randomised group comparison design involving a parent education and counselling intervention and a parent education and behaviour management intervention to control for parent skills training and a control sample. Two rural and two metropolitan regions were randomly allocated to intervention groups (n = 70) or control (n = 35). Parents from autism assessment services in the intervention regions were randomly allocated to parent education and behaviour management (n = 35) or parent education and counselling (n = 35). Parent education and behaviour management resulted in significant improvement in adaptive behaviour and autism symptoms at 6 months follow-up for children with greater delays in adaptive behaviour. Parent education and behaviour management was superior to parent education and counselling. We conclude that a 20-week parent education programme including skills training for parents of young children with autistic disorder provides significant improvements in child adaptive behaviour and symptoms of autism for low-functioning children.

Bedtime and evening light exposure influence circadian timing in preschool-age children: A field study

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Lameese D. Akacem

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Light exposure and sleep timing are two factors that influence inter-individual variability in the timing of the human circadian clock. The aim of this study was to quantify the degree to which evening light exposure predicts variance in circadian timing over and above bedtime alone in preschool children. Participants were 21 children ages 4.5–5.0 years (4.7±0.2 years; 9 females. Children followed their typical sleep schedules for 4 days during which time they wore a wrist actigraph to assess sleep timing and a pendant light meter to measure minute-by-minute illuminance levels in lux. On the 5th day, children participated in an in-home dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO assessment. Light exposure in the 2 h before bedtime was averaged and aggregated across the 4 nights preceding the DLMO assessment. Mean DLMO and bedtime were 19:22±01:04 and 20:07±00:46, respectively. Average evening light exposure was 710.1±1418.2 lux. Children with later bedtimes (lights-off time had more delayed melatonin onset times (r=0.61, p=0.002. Evening light exposure was not independently associated with DLMO (r=0.32, p=0.08; however, a partial correlation between evening light exposure and DLMO when controlling for bedtime yielded a positive correlation (r=0.46, p=0.02. Bedtime explained 37.3% of the variance in the timing of DLMO, and evening light exposure accounted for an additional 13.3% of the variance. These findings represent an important step in understanding factors that influence circadian phase in preschool-age children and have implications for understanding a modifiable pathway that may underlie late sleep timing and the development of evening settling problems in early childhood.

SERUM ANALYSIS OF AMYLOID BETA-PROTEIN 1-40 IN HEALTHY SUBJECTS, AUTISTIC CHILDREN AND ALZHEIMER’S PATIENTS

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Vijendra K. SINGH

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Amyloid beta-protein1-40 (AP40 is a low molecu­lar weight peptide produced throughout life during normal cell metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases. Owing to its neurotrophic and neurotoxic effects, the present study was conducted to evalu­ate serum levels of AP40 in healthy subjects, au­tistic children and Alzheimer’s disease patients. Serum AP40 was measured by enzyme-linked im­munosorbent assay (ELISA. AP40 was signifi­cantly higher in normal children compared to nor­mal older controls, in normal children compared to autistic children, and in autistic children compared to Alzheimer’s patients (p value was less than 0.05 for all groups. This finding suggests an age-re­lated decline of serum AP40 in normal aging, as well as in autism and Alzheimer’s disease. This decline may result from abnormal processing of amyloid beta-protein precursor (APP during nor­mal aging and age-related diseases such as autism in children and Alzheimer’s disease in elderly. Possible explanations for this decline may include age-related increased interactions of AP40 with cytoskeletal proteins for brain tissue deposition, increased serine proteases for APP metabolism or hyperimmune reaction (antibodies to AP40 for removal of circulating AP40. To conclude, the AP40 metabolism declines with normal aging and in addition to its role in Alzheimer’s disease this protein might also be a contributing factor in au­tism.

Double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of risperidone plus topiramate in children with autistic disorder.

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Rezaei, Vala; Mohammadi, Mohammad-Reza; Ghanizadeh, Ahmad; Sahraian, Ali; Tabrizi, Mina; Rezazadeh, Shams-Ali; Akhondzadeh, Shahin

2010-10-01

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that forms part of a spectrum of related disorders referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders. The present study assessed the effects of topiramate plus risperidone in the treatment of autistic disorder. Forty children between the ages of 4 and 12 years with a DSM IV clinical diagnosis of autism who were outpatients from a specialty clinic for children were recruited. The children presented with a chief complaint of severely disruptive symptoms related to autistic disorder. Patients were randomly allocated to topiramate+risperidone (Group A) or placebo+risperidone (Group B) for an 8-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The dose of risperidone was titrated up to 2 mg/day for children between 10 and 40 kg and 3 mg/day for children weighting above 40 kg. The dose of topiramate was titrated up to 200 mg/day depending on weight (100 mg/day for 30 kg). Patients were assessed at baseline and after 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after starting medication. Measure of outcome was the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) Rating Scale. Difference between the two protocols was significant as the group that received topiramate had a greater reduction in ABC-C subscale scores for irritability, stereotypic behavior and hyperactivity/noncompliance. The results suggest that the combination of topiramate with risperidone may be superior to risperidone monotherapy for children with autistic disorder. However the results need to be further confirmed by a larger randomized controlled trial. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CORRELATION BETWEEN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN ANXIETY AND STYLE OF FAMILY UPBRINGING

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N. V. Mazurova

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Children personality is actively formed at the preschool period, as they enter wider circle of social relationships and everyday tasks become more complicated. The most common emotional problem among preschool children is anxiety as a possible precursor of neurosis. Aim: to study the character of anxiety and the main causes of its development in preschool children in order to determine the structure of psychological care. Patients and methods: 68 children, 68 mothers and 22 fathers were included into the study. We used the following methods: observation, interview, projective and test methods. Results: each third child was diagnosed increased level of anxiety. Anxiety-inducing situations were mainly associated with disturbances of safety feeling in family. Correlation between ineffective types of parental relationship and high level of children anxiety was established. Conclusions: decrease in children anxiety is impossible without harmonization of parental aims in accordance to age and special features of children development. Structure and duration of rehabilitation should be based on analysis of somatic and neuro-psychic state of children, as well as social situation of development.

PRE-SCHOOL UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFICULTIES-CONDITION FOR SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATIONAL EDUCATION

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Zora JACOVA

1997-12-01

Full Text Available Preschool upbringing of children with developmental difficulties is the first link in the system of education and upbringing and at the same time the utmost segment in the system of integrational rehabilitation.Initiating the process of preschool upbringing and adequate organized treatment at early age, permits support of the development and maximum usage of the remained capabilities of children with developmental difficulties.The newest world experiences show that the upbringing and educational integration of children with developmental difficulties as asegment of the social integration, should set the main conditions in the frames of upbringing education and rehabilitational continuity and support the minimal restrictive environment for their development.In the pre-school institutions that function on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, an indifferent attitude towards the children with developmental difficulties is present, due to the uninformed educators for the characteristics and capabilities of these children and their believes for the negative influence of the children with developmental difficulties on the children without impairments, that implicates involvement of subsidery defectological education of present employed staff in the mainstream preschool institutions, also including defectologists in kindergartens for work with children with special difficulties in their development. Also, the data about the educator’s attitude in the mainstream preschool institutions is disturbing, so that they put the accent on the obligation for reducing of the program for work with handicapped children, not taking into consideration that subsidery, special forms and methods are needed beside the programs that are for the main stream group.The goal of our paper is to point out the need of involving of children with light developmental difficulties; the existence of special team in the preschool institutions when involving children with

Joint attention studies in normal and autistic children using NIRS

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Chaudhary, Ujwal; Hall, Michael; Gutierrez, Anibal; Messinger, Daniel; Rey, Gustavo; Godavarty, Anuradha

2011-03-01

Autism is a socio-communication brain development disorder. It is marked by degeneration in the ability to respond to joint attention skill task, from as early as 12 to 18 months of age. This trait is used to distinguish autistic from nonautistic. In this study Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is being applied for the first time to study the difference in activation and connectivity in the frontal cortex of typically developing (TD) and autistic children between 4-8 years of age in response to joint attention task. The optical measurements are acquired in real time from frontal cortex using Imagent (ISS Inc.) - a frequency domain based NIRS system in response to video clips which engenders a feeling of joint attention experience in the subjects. A block design consisting of 5 blocks of following sequence 30 sec joint attention clip (J), 30 sec non-joint attention clip (NJ) and 30 sec rest condition is used. Preliminary results from TD child shows difference in brain activation (in terms of oxy-hemoglobin, HbO) during joint attention interaction compared to the nonjoint interaction and rest. Similar activation study did not reveal significant differences in HbO across the stimuli in, unlike in an autistic child. Extensive studies are carried out to validate the initial observations from both brain activation as well as connectivity analysis. The result has significant implication for research in neural pathways associated with autism that can be mapped using NIRS.

Association between Body Composition and Motor Performance in Preschool Children

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Tanja H. Kakebeeke

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: Being overweight makes physical movement more difficult. Our aim was to investigate the association between body composition and motor performance in preschool children. Methods: A total of 476 predominantly normal-weight preschool children (age 3.9 ± 0.7 years; m/f: 251/225; BMI 16.0 ± 1.4 kg/m2 participated in the Swiss Preschoolers' Health Study (SPLASHY. Body composition assessments included skinfold thickness, waist circumference (WC, and BMI. The Zurich Neuromotor Assessment (ZNA was used to assess gross and fine motor tasks. Results: After adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, sociocultural characteristics, and physical activity (assessed with accelerometers, skinfold thickness and WC were both inversely correlated with jumping sideward (gross motor task β-coefficient -1.92, p = 0.027; and -3.34, p = 0.014, respectively, while BMI was positively correlated with running performance (gross motor task β-coefficient 9.12, p = 0.001. No significant associations were found between body composition measures and fine motor tasks. Conclusion: The inverse associations between skinfold thickness or WC and jumping sideward indicates that children with high fat mass may be less proficient in certain gross motor tasks. The positive association between BMI and running suggests that BMI might be an indicator of fat-free (i.e., muscle mass in predominately normal-weight preschool children.

Prevalence and determinants of Helicobacter pylori infection in preschool children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rothenbacher, D; Bode, G; Berg, Gabriele

1998-01-01

, the parents of the children were asked to fill out a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 945 out of the 1201 eligible preschool children participated in the study (response rate = 79%). The children were aged 5-8 years. The majority were of German nationality (72.6%). Overall, 127 children (13...

School environment, sedentary behavior and physical activity in preschool children.

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Barbosa, Sara Crosatti; Coledam, Diogo Henrique Constantino; Stabelini Neto, Antonio; Elias, Rui Gonçalves Marques; Oliveira, Arli Ramos de

2016-09-01

To analyze physical activity and sedentary behavior in preschool children during their stay at school and the associated factors. 370 preschoolers, aged 4 to 6 years, stratified according to gender, age and school region in the city of Londrina, PR, participated in the study. A questionnaire was applied to principals of preschools to analyze the school infrastructure and environment. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were estimated using accelerometers for five consecutive days during the children's stay at school. The odds ratio (OR) was estimated through binary logistic regression. At school, regardless of age, preschoolers spend relatively more time in sedentary behaviors (89.6%-90.9%), followed by light (4.6%-7.6%), moderate (1.3%-3.0%) and vigorous (0.5%-2.3%) physical activity. The indoor recreation room (OR=0.20; 95%CI 0.05 to 0.83) and the playground (OR=0.08; 95%CI 0.00 to 0.80) protect four-year-old schoolchildren from highly sedentary behavior. An inverse association was found between the indoor recreation room and physical activity (OR=0.20; 95%CI 0.00 to 0.93) in five-year-old children. The indoor recreation room (OR=1.54; 95%CI 1.35 to 1.77), the playground (OR=2.82; 95%CI 1.14 to 6.96) and the recess (OR=1.54; 95%CI 1.35 to 1.77) are factors that increase the chance of six-year-old schoolchildren to be active. The school infrastructure and environment should be seen as strategies to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior in preschool children. Copyright © 2016 Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

The Effectiveness of Social Skills Training on Reducing Autistic Children's Behavioral Problems

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Mohammad Tahan

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skills training on reducing the behavioral problems of children with autism and pseudo-experimental. The statistical population of all autistic children is Mashhad. In this research, a goal-based sampling method is used. 30 children were selected from among children with autism and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people and control (n = 15. The Shelli & Sorkab Communication Skills Questionnaire (2004 and Rutter's Behavioral Disorder (1964 Then, independent variable, ie social skills training (ten sessions 60 minutes, was performed on the experimental group, while no intervention was performed on the control group. After collecting data, the data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results showed that social skills training has a positive and significant effect on reducing the behavioral problems of communication skills improvement in autistic children. Conclusion: Social skills training is a suitable method for reducing behavioral problems and improving communication skills in autistic children. These results can be used by psychologists and counselors.

Social games with pre-school children

OpenAIRE

Tomažin, Maja

2013-01-01

The aim of the thesis Social games with pre-school children is to present social games as one of the work methods for relational learning. The theoretical part defines the social development of pre-school children and focuses on social skills that begin to emerge in the preschool period and of course social games. The purpose of social games is active learning, meaning they provide concrete situations, through which children actively learn as well as use social skills and express their views ...

Reducing maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using the Early Start Denver Model

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Elizabeth eFulton

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The presence of maladaptive behaviors in young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD can significantly limit engagement in treatment programs, as well as compromise future educational and vocational opportunities. This study aimed to explore whether the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM treatment approach reduced maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children with ASD in a community-based long day care setting. The level of maladaptive behavior of 38 children with ASD was rated using an observation based measure on three occasions during the intervention: on entry, 12 weeks post-entry, and on exit (post-intervention over an average treatment duration of 11.8 months. Significant reductions were found in children’s maladaptive behaviors over the course of the intervention, with 68% of children showing a treatment response by 12 weeks and 79% on exit. This change was accompanied by improvement in children’s overall developmental level as assessed by the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, but not by significant changes on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II or Social Communication Questionnaire. Replication with a larger sample, control conditions and additional measures of maladaptive behavior is necessary in order to determine the specific factors underlying these improvements; however, the findings of the present study suggest that the ESDM program may be effective in improving not only core developmental domains, but also decreasing maladaptive behaviors in preschool-aged children.

Teachers' Perceptions of Preschool Children's Psychomotor Development in Spain.

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Cueto, Sofía; Prieto, José Antonio; Nistal, Paloma; Abelairas-Gómez, Cristian; Barcala-Furelos, Roberto; López, Sergio

2017-08-01

This study analyzed the psychomotor profiles of preschool stage students and to determine how these data agreed with the students' teachers' subjective assessment. We also correlated these data with other variables such as age, gender, and family influence. A total of 211 children aged 3 to 6 years, in the second cycle of preschool from 30 classes of 10 schools in Spain participated. Additionally, 30 preschool teachers from these classes participated. Study results revealed serious teacher misperceptions regarding their students' psychomotor development, with low agreement rates between students and teachers in the motor dimension and slight agreement rates in communicative, cognitive, and social areas. The reasons for and implications of these misperceptions are discussed.

Modular playware as a playful diagnosis tool for autistic children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Henrik Hautop

2009-01-01

children. Using artificial neural networks for automatic classification of the individual construction practices, we may compare this classification with the diagnosis of the children, and possible obtain a supplementary diagnosis tool which is based on the autistic children's free play with the modular...

A qualitative study of the aspirations and challenges of low-income mothers in feeding their preschool-aged children

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Herman Allison N

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The prevalence of obesity among preschool-aged children has increased, especially among those in low-income households. Two promising behavioral targets for preventing obesity include limiting children’s portion sizes and their intake of foods high in solid fats and/or added sugars, but these approaches have not been studied in low-income preschoolers in the home setting. The purpose of this study was to understand the contextual factors that might influence how low-income mothers felt about addressing these behavioral targets and mothers’ aspirations in feeding their children. Methods We recruited 32 English-speaking women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who were eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and who were the biologic mothers of children 36 to 66 months of age. Each mother participated in 1 of 7 focus groups and completed a brief socio-demographic questionnaire. Focus group questions centered on eating occasions, foods and drinks consumed in the home, and portion sizes. Each focus group lasted 90 minutes and was digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Three authors independently identified key themes and supporting quotations. Themes were condensed and modified through discussion among all authors. Results Thirty-one mothers identified themselves as black, 15 had a high school education or less, and 22 lived with another adult. Six themes emerged, with three about aspirations mothers held in feeding their children and three about challenges to achieving these aspirations. Mothers’ aspirations were to: 1 prevent hyperactivity and tooth decay by limiting children’s sugar intake, 2 use feeding to teach their children life lessons about limit setting and structure, and 3 be responsive to children during mealtimes to guide decisions about portions. Especially around setting limits with sweets and snacks, mothers faced the challenges of: 1 being nagged by children’s food requests, 2 being

Motor fitness and preschooler children obesity status.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva-Santos, Sandra; Santos, Amanda; Vale, Susana; Mota, Jorge

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to examine the association between motor fitness (MF) and obesity status in preschool children. The sample comprised 467 children aged 3-6 years. Preschool children body mass index was classified according to International Obesity Task Force and categorised into three levels, normal, overweight and obesity. Total physical activity was assessed by accelerometer and MF test was assessed through two MF tests 10 × 5m shuttle run test (SRT) and a 7 m jumping distance on 2 feet test (J2F). Low MF was considered for MF if SD above 1. A single variable with three categories was created: low MF medium MF and high MF. The prevalence of normal weight, overweight and obesity was 67.6%, 22.7% and 9.7%, respectively. The prevalence of SD > 1 for SRT was 13.7% and 14.4% for J2F, for single variable was 19.2%. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that obese preschoolers were more likely six times classified as having low MF level than their non-overweight counterparts (OR: 6.4; IC: 1.3-36.6). This study showed a considerable prevalence of overweight and obesity among preschoolers. Obesity has already been associated with lower MF. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this data.

Development of preschool and academic skills in children born very preterm

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aarnoudse-Moens, C.S.H.; Oosterlaan, J.; Duivenvoorden, H.J.; van Goudoever, J.B.; Weisglas-Kuperus, N.

2011-01-01

Objective: To examine performance in preschool and academic skills in very preterm (gestational age ≤30 weeks) and term-born comparison children aged 4 to 12 years. Study design: Very preterm children (n = 200; mean age, 8.2 ± 2.5 years) born between 1996 and 2004 were compared with 230 term-born

The Co-Occurring Development of Executive Function Skills and Receptive Vocabulary in Preschool-Aged Children: A Look at the Direction of the Developmental Pathways

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Weiland, Christina; Barata, M. Clara; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu

2014-01-01

Despite consensus in the developmental literature regarding the role of executive function (EF) skills in supporting the development of language skills during the preschool years, we know relatively little about the associations between EF skills, including all EF components, and vocabulary skills among preschool-aged children. In this paper, we…

Language Characteristics of Preschool Children with Hearing Loss in Tehran, Iran

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Dr. Younes Lotfi

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Hearing impairment affects all aspect of individual life, specially language and communication skills. When hearing impairment is congenital or occurs early in life, the child’s ability to learn optimally through audition, will be affected. The aim of this study was to evaluate linguistic skills of preschool hearing impaired children and compare these skills with normal peers.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 38 preschool hearing impaired children that the main handicap was severe to profound hearing loss with ability to communicate orally and 28 normal children with the same cultural and social context. Twenty four non linguistic variables including age, gender, the age of entrance of preschool center, number of hearing aids, etc. were obtained by filling a questionnaire and fifteen linguistics variables including number of utterance, morphemes, correct utterance, noun phrase, ambiguous utterance, correct sentences, compound sentences, etc. were collected by some part of TOLD-P-3 test and three complementary questions. Then we compared the data from two groups.Results: There were significant differences between number of utterance, number of correct mean length utterance, number of well-formed sentences in normal and hearing impaired group (p0.05.Conclusion: This study showed a severe deficit in linguistic skills in preschool hearing impaired children.

METHODIC OF DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR GIFTEDNESS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

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Fedorova Svetlana Yurievna

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Education and training of gifted children today appropriate to consider as an important strategic task of modern society. In this context, the purpose of research is the development motor giftedness, which is particularly relevant at the stage of pre-school education, which is caused by age-preschoolers. Preschoolers' motor giftedness is considered by the author as developing integrated quality, including psychomotor skills, inclinations, increased motivation for motor activity. In the process of study the following methods are used: the study and analysis of the scientific and methodological literature on studies, questioning, interview, testing of physical fitness, statistical data processing. The result of research work is methodic of development of motor giftedness on physical education in preschool. The author's methodic consists of four steps: diagnostic, prognostic, practice and activity, social and pedagogical. Each step determines the inclusion of preschool children in sports and developing environment that meets his or her abilities and needs through the creation of certain social and educational conditions. The area of using results of the author's methodic is preschool and the system of improvement professional skill of teachers.

The frequency of outdoor play for preschool age children cared for at home-based child care settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Tandon, Pooja S; Zhou, Chuan; Christakis, Dimitri A

2012-01-01

Given that more than 34% of U.S. children are cared for in home-based child care settings and outdoor play is associated with physical activity and other health benefits, we sought to characterize the outdoor play frequency of preschoolers cared for at home-based child care settings and factors associated with outdoor play. Cross-sectional study of 1900 preschoolers (representing approximately 862,800 children) cared for in home-based child care settings (including relative and nonrelative care) using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. Only 50% of home-based child care providers reported taking the child outside to walk or play at least once/day. More than one-third of all children did not go outside to play daily with either their parent(s) or home-based child care provider. There were increased odds of going outside daily for children cared for by nonrelatives in the child's home compared with care from a relative. Children with ≥3 regular playmates had greater odds of being taken outdoors by either the parents or child care provider. We did not find statistically significant associations between other child level (age, sex, screen-time), family level (highest education in household, mother's race, employment, exercise frequency), and child care level (hours in care, provider's educational attainment, perception of neighborhood safety) factors and frequency of outdoor play. At a national level, the frequency of outdoor play for preschoolers cared for in home-based child care settings is suboptimal. Further study and efforts to increase outdoor playtime for children in home-based child care settings are needed. Copyright © 2012 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Task switching costs in preschool children and adults.

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Peng, Anna; Kirkham, Natasha Z; Mareschal, Denis

2018-08-01

Past research investigating cognitive flexibility has shown that preschool children make many perseverative errors in tasks that require switching between different sets of rules. However, this inflexibility might not necessarily hold with easier tasks. The current study investigated the developmental differences in cognitive flexibility using a task-switching procedure that compared reaction times and accuracy in 4- and 6-year-olds with those in adults. The experiment involved simple target detection tasks and was intentionally designed in a way that the stimulus and response conflicts were minimal together with a long preparation window. Global mixing costs (performance costs when multiple tasks are relevant in a context), and local switch costs (performance costs due to switching to an alternative task) are typically thought to engage endogenous control processes. If this is the case, we should observe developmental differences with both of these costs. Our results show, however, that when the accuracy was good, there were no age differences in cognitive flexibility (i.e., the ability to manage multiple tasks and to switch between tasks) between children and adults. Even though preschool children had slower reaction times and were less accurate, the mixing and switch costs associated with task switching were not reliably larger for preschool children. Preschool children did, however, show more commission errors and greater response repetition effects than adults, which may reflect differences in inhibitory control. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing musical skills in autistic children who are not savants.

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Heaton, Pamela

2009-05-27

Descriptions of autistic musical savants suggest that they possess extraordinary skills within the domain. However, until recently little was known about the musical skills and potential of individuals with autism who are not savants. The results from these more recent studies investigating music perception, cognition and learning in musically untrained children with autism have revealed a pattern of abilities that are either enhanced or spared. For example, increased sensitivity to musical pitch and timbre is frequently observed, and studies investigating perception of musical structure and emotions have consistently failed to reveal deficits in autism. While the phenomenon of the savant syndrome is of considerable theoretical interest, it may have led to an under-consideration of the potential talents and skills of that vast majority of autistic individuals, who do not meet savant criteria. Data from empirical studies show that many autistic children possess musical potential that can and should be developed.

Sleep Duration and School Readiness of Chinese Preschool Children.

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Tso, Winnie; Rao, Nirmala; Jiang, Fan; Li, Albert Martin; Lee, So-Lun; Ho, Frederick Ka-Wing; Li, Sophia Ling; Ip, Patrick

2016-02-01

To examine the average sleep duration in Chinese preschoolers and to investigate the association between sleep duration and school readiness. This is a cross-sectional study that included 553 Chinese children (mean age = 5.46 years) from 20 preschools in 2 districts of Hong Kong. Average daily sleep duration in the last week was reported by parents and school readiness as measured by the teacher-rated Chinese Early Development Instrument (CEDI). Most Chinese preschoolers had 9-10 hours of sleep per day. Only 11% of preschoolers had the recommended 11-12 hours of sleep per day. This group was associated with more "very ready" CEDI domains. Sleep deprivation (≤7 hours per day) was associated with a lower CEDI total score, lower scores in the emotional maturity and language/cognitive domain, and prosocial behaviors subdomain but a greater score in the hyperactivity/inattention subdomain. Children with a lower family socioeconomic index, lower maternal education level, infrequent parent-child interactions, and who used electronic devices for more than 3 hours per day had shortened sleep durations. Optimal sleep duration was associated with better school readiness in preschool children, whereas sleep deprivation was associated with lower school readiness, more hyperactivity and inattention, and less prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autism spectrum disorder and autistic traits in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children: precursors and early signs.

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Bolton, Patrick F; Golding, Jean; Emond, Alan; Steer, Colin D

2012-03-01

To chart the emergence of precursors and early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autistic traits in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective longitudinal cohort study of the surviving offspring of 14,541 pregnant women from southwestern England with an expected delivery date between April 1991 and December 1992. Parents' contemporaneous reports of their infant's development (241 questionnaire responses collected up to 30 months of age) were examined in relation to the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder by age 11 years (n = 86) and a measure of autistic traits, derived by factor analysis. Among the children later diagnosed with ASD, concerns about vision and hearing were more often reported in the first year, and differences in social, communication, and fine motor skills were evident from 6 months of age. Repetitive behaviors and differences in play, imitation, and feeding habits were reported in the second year. Differences in temperament emerged at 24 months of age and bowel habit by 30 months. All of these early signs were strongly associated with the presence of autistic traits in the rest of the population and these differences were often evident in the first year of development. Over the first 30 months of development, the best predictors of both later ASD and autistic traits included the Social Achievement and Communication scores from the Denver Developmental Screening Test, measures of communicative skills (Vocabulary and Combines Words) from the MacArthur Infant Communicative Development Inventories, and a repetitive behavior score. Precursors, early signs, and other developmental differences were reported in the first year of development among children from the general population who later developed autism spectrum disorder and subtler autistic traits. Other differences emerged and unfolded as development progressed. The findings confirm the long-held suspicion that early differences underscore the multifaceted

Unique features of creative designing at the preschool age

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Bilа Iryna Mykolayivna

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The research is devoted to studying the specificity of creative designing at the preschool age. The author identifies the systematic approach on the design work and creative designing, knowledge adjustment, as well as the assessment criteria and performance indicators of creative designing by children at the preschool age. The article considers the psychological structure of the design activity, clarifies its characteristics and defines the role of each component of creative designing process at the preschool age. As a result of the empirical study it was proved that in the process of understanding the challenges pre-schoolers’s mind makes mental acts of comparison predominant. Their creative intention is determined by the focus on the structural and structural-functional characteristics of the subjects. The whole structure of the pre-schooler’s solution in the process of working with creative tasks on designing is integrated with the individual and regulatory aspect of creative designing that appears in the subjective mental actions, trends, and practice.

The Association between Maltreatment and Obesity among Preschool Children

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Whitaker, Robert C.; Phillips, Shannon M.; Orzol, Sean M.; Burdette, Hillary L.

2007-01-01

Objective: To determine whether child maltreatment is associated with obesity in preschool children. Methods: Data were obtained from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of 4898 children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 large US cities. At 3 years of age, 2412 of these children had their height and weight measured,…

Intellectual development in preschool children with early treated congenital hypothyroidism.

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Seo, Min Kyoung; Yoon, Jong Seo; So, Chul Hwan; Lee, Hae Sang; Hwang, Jin Soon

2017-06-01

Delayed treatment of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a common cause of mental retardation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate intellectual outcomes in preschool children with treated CH. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 43 children (age range: 13 to 60 days of life; 22 girls and 21 boys) diagnosed with CH. Children aged 5 to 7 years were examined using the Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children or the Korean Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. The patients started treatment between 13 and 60 days of age. The mean intelligence quotient (IQ) of patients tested at age 5 to 7 years was 103.14±11.68 (IQ range: 76-126). None had intellectual disability (defined as an IQ scale IQ (FSIQ), verbal IQ (VIQ), and performance IQ (PIQ) scores between the 2 groups. FSIQ, PIQ, and VIQ scores were not significantly correlated with initial dose of L-T4, initial fT4, age at treatment in multivariate analysis. IQ scores of subjects with early treated CH diagnosed through a neonatal screening test were within normal range, regardless of etiology, thyroid function, initial dose of levothyroxine, and age at start of treatment.

Tracing developmental trajectories of oppositional defiant behaviors in preschool children.

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Lourdes Ezpeleta

Full Text Available Previous studies on developmental trajectories have used ad hoc definitions of oppositional defiant behaviors (ODB, which makes it difficult to compare results. This article defines developmental trajectories of ODB from ages 3-5 based on five different standard measurements derived from three separate instruments.A sample of 622 three-year-old preschoolers, followed up at ages 4, 5, and 6, was assessed with the five measures of oppositionality answered by parents and teachers. Growth-Mixture-Modeling (GMM estimated separate developmental trajectories for each ODB measure for ages 3 to 5.The number of classes-trajectories obtained in each GMM depended on the ODB measure, but two clear patterns emerged: four trajectories (persistent low, decreasers, increasers/high increasers, persistent moderate/persistent high or three trajectories (persistent low, decreasers, increasers/high increasers. Persistent high trajectories accounted for 4.4%-9.5% of the children. The trajectories emerging from the different ODB measures at ages 3 to 5 discriminated disruptive disorders, comorbidity, use of services, and impairment at age 6, and globally showed a similar pattern, summarizing longitudinal information on oppositionality in preschool children in a similar way.Trajectories resulting from standard scales of the questionnaires have predictive validity for identifying relevant clinical outcomes, but are measure-specific. The results contribute to knowledge about the development of ODB in preschool children.

Longitudinal Effects of a Two-Generation Preschool Programme on Receptive Language Skill in Low-Income Canadian Children to Age 10 Years

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Mughal, Muhammad Kashif; Ginn, Carla S.; Perry, Robert L.; Benzies, Karen M.

2016-01-01

We explored longitudinal effects of a two-generation preschool programme on receptive language scores in children (n = 78) at age 10 years, living with low income. Scores at four time-points, programme intake, exit, age 7, and age 10 years were measured using the "Peabody picture vocabulary test" (3rd ed.). Effects of culture…

Regression in autistic spectrum disorders.

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Stefanatos, Gerry A

2008-12-01

A significant proportion of children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder experience a developmental regression characterized by a loss of previously-acquired skills. This may involve a loss of speech or social responsitivity, but often entails both. This paper critically reviews the phenomena of regression in autistic spectrum disorders, highlighting the characteristics of regression, age of onset, temporal course, and long-term outcome. Important considerations for diagnosis are discussed and multiple etiological factors currently hypothesized to underlie the phenomenon are reviewed. It is argued that regressive autistic spectrum disorders can be conceptualized on a spectrum with other regressive disorders that may share common pathophysiological features. The implications of this viewpoint are discussed.

The Situated Nature of Preschool Children's Conflict Strategies

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Thornberg, Robert

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the peer conflict strategies of preschool children are situated and therefore vary across different conflict situations. Hypothetical conflict interviews were administered through a series of puppet shows. Participants were 178 preschool children. Results indicate that preschool children's conflict…

Emotion regulation strategies in preschool children.

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Sala, Maria Nives; Pons, Francisco; Molina, Paola

2014-11-01

This study investigated the development of emotion regulation strategies as reflected in the narratives of children between the ages of 3 and 6 years. An experimental procedure based on story completion tasks was devised to elicit the emotion-related narratives of 69 preschool children. Coding of the narratives led to the observation of different emotion regulation strategies: Behavioural strategies, social support, and cognitive reappraisal. Several significant gender and age differences were identified in the use of these strategies. In addition, verbal skills, non-verbal intelligence, and emotion comprehension were found to be associated with use of the observed emotion regulation strategies, although only at specific ages. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Reference values for spirometry in preschool children.

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Burity, Edjane F; Pereira, Carlos A C; Rizzo, José A; Brito, Murilo C A; Sarinho, Emanuel S C

2013-01-01

Reference values for lung function tests differ in samples from different countries, including values for preschoolers. The main objective of this study was to derive reference values in this population. A prospective study was conducted through a questionnaire applied to 425 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years, from schools and day-care centers in a metropolitan city in Brazil. Children were selected by simple random sampling from the aforementioned schools. Peak expiratory flow (PEF), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volumes (FEV1, FEV0.50), forced expiratory flow (FEF25-75) and FEV1/FVC, FEV0.5/FVC and FEF25-75/FVC ratios were evaluated. Of the 425 children enrolled, 321 (75.6%) underwent the tests. Of these, 135 (42.0%) showed acceptable results with full expiratory curves and thus were included in the regression analysis to define the reference values. Height and gender significantly influenced FVC values through linear and logarithmic regression analysis. In males, R(2) increased with the logarithmic model for FVC and FEV1, but the linear model was retained for its simplicity. The lower limits were calculated by measuring the fifth percentile residues. Full expiratory curves are more difficult to obtain in preschoolers. In addition to height, gender also influences the measures of FVC and FEV1. Reference values were defined for spirometry in preschool children in this population, which are applicable to similar populations. Copyright © 2013 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Relationship between nutritional status, psychosocial stimulation, and cognitive development in preschool children in Indonesia.

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Warsito, Oktarina; Khomsan, Ali; Hernawati, Neti; Anwar, Faisal

2012-10-01

The purposes of the study were to analyze nutritional status, psychosocial stimulation, and factors affecting the cognitive development of preschool-age children. This study was conducted in the Village of Babakan, Sub-District of Dramaga, Bogor Regency, West Java. This cross-sectionally designed study was conducted with mothers who had preschool children aged 3-5 years as respondents. Fifty-eight children were included. The distribution of mother's educational level was quite diverse, and the largest percentage (44.8%) had senior high school education. Approximately 78% of the family income per capita was classified into the non-poor category and 22.4% into the poor category. The average mother's nutritional knowledge score was 76.7 ± 2.5 (moderate category). Most of the preschool children (84.4%) had psychosocial stimulation scores in the moderate category (30-45). The nutritional status of children showed that 15.5% were underweight, 5.2% were wasted, 3.4% were severely wasted, and 19% of the children were in the short and very short categories (stunted). The stepwise regression results showed that psychosocial stimulation (P education (P = 0.002) and nutritional status based on the height index for age (P = 0.028) had a positive and significant effect on cognitive development of the preschool children (adjusted R(2), 0.434; P = 0.028).

Waist circumference as an indicator of high blood pressure in preschool obese children.

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Chen, Bin; Li, Hai-fei

2011-01-01

To investigate the relationship between waist circumference and blood pressure (BP) to determine if waist circumference was an indicator of BP in preschool children. Body weight, height, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, and blood pressure of 939 3-6-year-old preschool children were collected. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in obese children were significantly higher than that in normal weight children in both sexes (phigh blood pressure in children of both sexes. Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis using SBP as the dependent variable showed that BMI and WC were significant independent factors that influence high blood pressure adjusted for age, WtHr and waist-to-hip circumference ratio (WHr) in boys. When using DBP as the dependent variable, BMI was the only significant independent factor that influenced high blood pressure adjusted for age, WtHr and WHr, in both sex-es. Waist circumference was independently associated with high blood pressure in boys aged 3-6 years. In addition to BMI, increased waist circumference was found to be an indicator of high blood pressure in the preschool children, especially in boys.

Prevalence of Anterior Dental Trauma and Its Associated Factors among Preschool Children Aged 3–5 Years in Khartoum City, Sudan

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Alaa Gamaleldin Sulieman

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Traumatic dental injury (TDI is a challenging public health problem. Its incidence and prevalence vary within countries, states, and different social groups. Aim. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of traumatic dental injuries in primary incisors among 3–5-year-old Sudanese preschool children and associated factors such as age, sex, and size of overjet and anterior open bite. Materials and Methods. Descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 600 preschool children (3–5 years old selected by multistage cluster technique from preschools located in Khartoum city, Sudan. The data regarding age, sex, causes, and treatment of TDI were collected from the mothers through structured interview questionnaire. Children were examined in an upright position, using mouth mirror and torch. A single examiner assessed the type of trauma, the tooth involved, and overbite/overjet. The data were analyzed statistically through descriptive analysis, and the chi-square test was used to compare between different variables with P<0.05. Results. The prevalence of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs was 18.5%. Enamel fractures were the most common type (74.8%, followed by enamel and dentin (11.7%. The maxillary central incisors were the most commonly affected teeth, and the home was most common place for TDI. The prevalence rate was 45% in boys and 55% in girls with a statistically significant difference (P=0.02. Conclusions. The prevalence of traumatic dental injuries to the primary anterior teeth among the Sudanese preschool children was relatively high (18.5%. Factors such as overjet size, overbite size, and lip competency were not significantly correlated with dental trauma among the studied population.

Default mode network connectivity in children with a history of preschool onset depression.

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Gaffrey, Michael S; Luby, Joan L; Botteron, Kelly; Repovš, Grega; Barch, Deanna M

2012-09-01

Atypical Default Mode Network (DMN) functional connectivity has been previously reported in depressed adults. However, there is relatively little data informing the developmental nature of this phenomenon. The current case-control study examined the DMN in a unique prospective sample of school-age children with a previous history of preschool depression. DMN functional connectivity was assessed using resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging data and the posterior cingulate (PCC) as a seed region of interest. Thirty-nine medication naïve school age children (21 with a history of preschool depression and 18 healthy peers) and their families who were ascertained as preschoolers and prospectively assessed over at least 4 annual waves as part of a federally funded study of preschool depression were included.   Decreased connectivity between the PCC and regions within the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), inferior parietal lobule, and cerebellum was found in children with known depression during the preschool period. Increased connectivity between the PCC and regions within the subgenual and anterior cingulate cortices and anterior MTG bilaterally was also found in these children. Additionally, a clinically relevant 'brain-behavior' relationship between atypical functional connectivity of the PCC and disruptions in emotion regulation was identified. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the DMN in children known to have experienced the onset of a clinically significant depressive syndrome during preschool. Results suggest that a history of preschool depression is associated with atypical DMN connectivity. However, longitudinal studies are needed to clarify whether the current findings of atypical DMN connectivity are a precursor or a consequence of preschool depression. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2012 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Lithuanian narrative language at preschool age

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Ingrida Balčiūnienė

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the main linguistic indications of Lithuanian preschoolers’ narratives. The analysis is based on experimental data of 24 typically developing monolingual Lithuanian children (6–7 years of age from middle-class families, attending a state kindergarten in Kaunas (Lithuania. During the experiment, the children were asked to tell a story according to the Cat Story (Hickmann 1993 picture sequence. The stories were recorded, transcribed and annotated for an automatic analysis using CHILDES software. During the analysis, the syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, and general productivity (MLUw and type/token ratio of the narratives were investigated. The results indicated the main microstructural tendencies of Lithuanian narrative language at preschool age.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa8.02

A Qualitative Study on Turkish Preschool Children's Environmental Attitudes Through Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism

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Kahriman-Ozturk, Deniz; Olgan, Refika; Tuncer, Gaye

2012-03-01

This study explores preschool children's attitudes towards environmental issues with a focus on the issue of gender as a factor affecting their attitudes. The study sample comprised 40 preschool age children living in Ankara, Turkey. The research adopted a qualitative approach, and the data were collected through interviews in which a questionnaire was administered. The interview questionnaire was adapted from 'The Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version' which contains 15 interview questions and sub-questions. The findings of our study indicate that most of the 5-6-year-old children initially appear to have ecocentric attitudes towards environmental issues in all the dimensions. However, when the children explained their reasons for choosing one of the two pictures, their responses were evaluated as emanating from anthropocentric attitudes. No difference in the attitudes of the preschool children was detected in relation to their gender. In conclusion, this study shows that the educational programmes at the preschool stage need to be broadened and improved, particularly in the provision of outdoor study in natural settings for the children to develop a more ecocentric attitude towards the environment.

Inter-rater reliability and stability of diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder in children identified through screening at a very young age.

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van Daalen, Emma; Kemner, Chantal; Dietz, Claudine; Swinkels, Sophie H N; Buitelaar, Jan K; van Engeland, Herman

2009-11-01

To examine the inter-rater reliability and stability of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses made at a very early age in children identified through a screening procedure around 14 months of age. In a prospective design, preschoolers were recruited from a screening study for ASD. The inter-rater reliability of the diagnosis of ASD was measured through an independent assessment of a randomly selected subsample of 38 patients by two other psychiatrists. The diagnoses at 23 months and 42 months of 131 patients, based on the clinical assessment and the diagnostic classifications of standardised instruments, were compared to evaluate stability of the diagnosis of ASD. Inter-rater reliability on a diagnosis of ASD versus non-ASD at 23 months was 87% with a weighted kappa of 0.74 (SE 0.11). The stability of the different diagnoses in the autism spectrum was 63% for autistic disorder, 54% for pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and 91% for the whole category of ASD. Most diagnostic changes at 42 months were within the autism spectrum from autistic disorder to PDD-NOS and were mainly due to diminished symptom severity. Children who moved outside the ASD category at 42 months made significantly larger gains in cognitive and language skills than children with a stable ASD diagnosis. In conclusion, the inter-rater reliability and stability of the diagnoses of ASD established at 23 months in this population-based sample of very young children are good.

Some aspects of treatment and habilitation of children and adolescents with autistic disorder in Northern-Finland.

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Kielinen, Marko; Linna, Sirkka-Liisa; Moilanen, Irma

2002-01-01

Hospital records and data on the treatment/habilitation status of 187 children with autism aged 3-18 years were gathered from Northern Finland. The treatment programs and therapies varied, depending on the trained staff available. One-hundred and fifty-two (82.9%) children and adolescents with autism received more than one therapeutic intervention or specific training program. The most common therapies were physiotherapy as well as speech, occupational and music therapy. 43.9% of the children and adolescents with autism received specific training according to TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-Handicapped Children), 10.2% according to Lovaas and 30.5% according to the Portage program. Antiepileptic medication had been prescribed to 23.9% and psychopharmacological interventions to 14.9% of the individuals with autistic disorder (AD). One hundred and seventy-eight subjects out of 187 showed some improvement on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), even if no statistically significant difference was found between the outcome of the available habilitation methods.

DEVELOPMENT OF FINE MOTOR COORDINATION AND VISUAL-MOTOR INTEGRATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

OpenAIRE

MEMISEVIC Haris; HADZIC Selmir

2015-01-01

Fine motor skills are prerequisite for many everyday activities and they are a good predictor of a child's later academic outcome. The goal of the present study was to assess the effects of age on the development of fine motor coordination and visual-motor integration in preschool children. The sample for this study consisted of 276 preschool children from Canton Sara­jevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We assessed children's motor skills with Beery Visual Motor Integration Test and Lafayette Pegbo...

Epidemiology of Soil-Transmitted Helminth and Intestinal Protozoan Infections in Preschool-Aged Children in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Aiemjoy, Kristen; Gebresillasie, Sintayehu; Stoller, Nicole E; Shiferaw, Ayalew; Tadesse, Zerihun; Chanyalew, Melsew; Aragie, Solomon; Callahan, Kelly; Keenan, Jeremy D

2017-04-01

AbstractIntestinal parasites are important contributors to global morbidity and mortality and are the second most common cause of outpatient morbidity in Ethiopia. This cross-sectional survey describes the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths and intestinal protozoa in preschool children 0-5 years of age in seven communities in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, and investigates associations between infection, household water and sanitation characteristics, and child growth. Stool samples were collected from children 0-5 years of age, 1 g of sample was preserved in sodium acetate-acetic acid-formalin, and examined for intestinal helminth eggs and protozoa cysts ether-concentration method. A total of 212 samples were collected from 255 randomly selected children. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides , Trichuris trichiura , and hookworm were 10.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6-15.1), 1.4% (95% CI = 0-3.0), and 0% (95% CI = 0-1.7), respectively. The prevalence of the pathogenic intestinal protozoa Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica / dispar were 10.4% (95% CI = 6.2-14.6) and 3.3% (95% CI = 0.09-5.7), respectively. Children with A. lumbricoides infections had lower height-for-age z -scores compared with those without, but were not more likely to have stunting. Compared with those without G. lamblia , children with G. lamblia infections had lower weight-for-age and weight-for-height z -scores and were more than five times as likely to meet the z -score definition for wasting (prevalence ratio = 5.42, 95% CI = 2.97-9.89). This article adds to a growing body of research on child growth and intestinal parasitic infections and has implications for their treatment and prevention in preschool-aged children.

An intervention to reduce television viewing by preschool children.

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Dennison, Barbara A; Russo, Theresa J; Burdick, Patrick A; Jenkins, Paul L

2004-02-01

Television viewing has been associated with increased violence in play and higher rates of obesity. Although there are interventions to reduce television viewing by school-aged children, there are none for younger children. To develop and evaluate an intervention to reduce television viewing by preschool children. Randomized controlled trial conducted in 16 preschool and/or day care centers in rural upstate New York. Children aged 2.6 through 5.5 years. Children attending intervention centers received a 7-session program designed to reduce television viewing as part of a health promotion curriculum, whereas children attending the control centers received a safety and injury prevention program. Change in parent-reported child television/video viewing and measured growth variables. Before the intervention, the intervention and control groups viewed 11.9 and 14.0 h/wk of television/videos, respectively. Afterward, children in the intervention group decreased their television/video viewing 3.1 h/wk, whereas children in the control group increased their viewing by 1.6 h/wk, for an adjusted difference between the groups of -4.7 h/wk (95% confidence interval, -8.4 to -1.0 h/wk; P =.02). The percentage of children watching television/videos more than 2 h/d also decreased significantly from 33% to 18% among the intervention group, compared with an increase of 41% to 47% among the control group, for a difference of -21.5% (95% confidence interval, -42.5% to -0.5%; P =.046). There were no statistically significant differences in children's growth between groups. This study is the first to show that a preschool-based intervention can lead to reductions in young children's television/video viewing. Further research is needed to determine the long-term effects associated with reductions in young children's television viewing.

When words lead to solutions: executive function deficits in preschool children with specific language impairment.

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Roello, Mara; Ferretti, Maria Letizia; Colonnello, Valentina; Levi, Gabriel

2015-02-01

Several studies indicate that school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties with tasks that rely on executive functions. Whether executive function deficits in children with SLI emerge during preschool age remains unclear. Our aim was to fill this gap by investigating executive function performances in two age groups of preschoolers with and without SLI. Children with SLI (N=60; young: 53.6±5.3 months; old: 65.4±3.8 months) and age-matched control children (N=58) were tested for problem-representation ability, using the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST), rule-use skills, using a Stroop-like Day-Night test (D/N), and planning skills, using the Tower of London test (TOL). Older children performed better than younger children did across tasks. Children with SLI had poorer performance, compared to typically developing children, on measures of problem representation, planning skills, and use of rules. Our results clearly indicate that executive function impairment is evident during the preschool period. Although old children with SLI performed better than young children with SLI, their performances were still poor, compared to those of control peers. These findings suggest that children with SLI have altered executive functioning at 53.6 months. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide and multiple breath nitrogen washout in preschool healthy and asthmatic children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vilmann, Lea; Buchvald, Frederik; Green, Kent

2017-01-01

Introduction Objectively assessing pulmonary disease is challenging in preschool children with asthma. We evaluated the feasibility of measuring fractional exhaled nitrogen oxide (FeNO) and multiple breath nitrogen washout (N2MBW) in children. We compared their capacities for discriminating between...... children with asthma and healthy controls. Methods We measured FeNO and N2MBW-derived indices of lung clearance (LCI2.5) and conductive and acinar ventilation heterogeneity (Scond and Sacin) in 65 preschool children; 35 with physician-diagnosed asthma and 30 healthy. FeNO was measured with a portable.......023), but similar FeNO, LCI2.5 and Sacinvalues. Conclusion The feasibility of measuring FeNO was highly age-dependent and not applicable in children under age 4. N2MBW was feasible in the majority of preschool children. Scond, but not FeNO, could discriminate between children with asthma and healthy controls....

High prevalence/low severity language delay in preschool children born very preterm.

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Foster-Cohen, Susan H; Friesen, Myron D; Champion, Patricia R; Woodward, Lianne J

2010-10-01

To examine the language development at corrected age 4 years of a regionally representative cohort of children born very preterm (VPT). Of particular interest was the identification of biological and socioenvironmental risk and protective factors that influence VPT children's early language development. Data were collected as part of a prospective longitudinal study of 110 VPT (VPT: ≤ 33 weeks gestation) and 113 full-term children (full term: 37-41 weeks gestation) born in Canterbury, New Zealand from 1998 to 2000. At corrected age 4 years, all children were assessed with the preschool version of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Extensive information was also collected about children's family social background, perinatal health, childrearing environment, education/intervention exposures, and neurodevelopmental progress from birth to age 4. At the age of 4 years, VPT children were characterized by poorer receptive and expressive language development than full-term children. These differences persisted after exclusion of children with neurosensory impairment as well as statistical adjustment for the effects of social risk. Within the VPT group, the key predictors of children's overall language development were family social risk at birth (p =.05), severity of white matter abnormalities on neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (p =.49), observed parent-child synchrony (p =.001), and concurrent child cognitive ability (p =.001). Together, these factors accounted for 45% of the variance in children's total Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool scores. By preschool age, children born VPT show early emerging mild to moderate language delays that are likely to affect their school success and longer-term developmental progress. Findings highlight the importance of potentially modifiable factors such as early brain injury and parenting quality in predicting the language outcomes of children born VPT.

The Effects of Secure Attachments on Preschool Children's Conflict Management Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Kesner, John

This study examined the relationship between the security of children's attachment relationships to parents and teachers and how children negotiate and manage conflicts. Sixty-six preschool-aged children participated in story completion tasks regarding their attachment relationship with parents and teachers, and in hypothetical situations…

The Effect of TMPT Program on Pre-School Children's Social Problem Solving Skills

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Gur, Cagla; Kocak, Nurcan

2018-01-01

Purpose: Starting Thinking Training at an early age is important. However, few studies were found regarding Thinking Training programs for pre-school children and the contributions of these programs to children's social problem-solving. In this context, the TMPT Program was developed for pre-school children and the effect of the program on 5-6…

Preschool Language Profiles of Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia: Continuities with Specific Language Impairment

Science.gov (United States)

Nash, Hannah M.; Hulme, Charles; Gooch, Debbie; Snowling, Margaret J.

2013-01-01

Background: Children at family risk of dyslexia have been reported to show phonological deficits as well as broader language delays in the preschool years. Method: The preschool language skills of 112 children at family risk of dyslexia (FR) at ages 3½ and 4½ were compared with those of children with SLI and typically developing (TD) controls.…

Developmental Profiles of Mucosal Immunity in Pre-school Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Ewing

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the effect of attending pre-school on mucosal immunity. Children 3.5 to 5 years of age who attended pre-school were observed for a 10 month period. Demographic information was collected on previous childcare experiences, the home environment and clinical information relating to the child and the family. A daily illness log was kept for each child. A multivariate longitudinal analysis of the relation between immunoglobulins in saliva and age, gender, childcare experience, pre-school exposure, number of siblings, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, atopy and hospitalisation was conducted. There was a positive association of higher IgA levels with the winter season and with children being older than 4 years (<.001, having attended childcare prior to commencing pre-school (<.05, and having been exposed to ETS at home (<.05. Lower IgA levels were associated with being atopic (<.05. Higher IgG levels were associated with exposure to ETS (<.001, while lower levels were associated to having atopy. Higher IgM levels were associated with previous childcare experience (<.01 whilst having been hospitalised was associated with having low salivary IgM levels (<.01. Lagged analyses demonstrated that immunological parameters were affected by the number of respiratory infections in the preceding 2 months.