Applied Neuropsychology: Child最新文献

Chronic stage neuropsychological assessments of children with severe TBI typically center around a referral question and focus on assessing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functioning, making differential diagnoses, and planning treatment. When severe TBI-related neurological deficits are subtle and fall outside commonly assessed behavioral indicators, as can happen with theory of mind and social information processing, they can go unobserved and subsequently fail to be assessed. Additionally, should chronic stage cognitive, behavioral, and emotional assessment findings fall within the average to above average range, a child experiencing ongoing significant unassessed severe TBI-related subtle deficits could be mistakenly judged to have "recovered" from their injury; and to be experiencing no significant ongoing residual neurological deficits. To illustrate how this could happen, and how subacute neuroimaging and brain network theory might be early indicators of emergent chronic stage neuropsychological deficits, we present a child with a severe TBI and average to above average cognitive, behavioral, and emotional assessment findings who has comorbid significant deficits in theory of mind and social functioning.

Attention deficit/hyperactive disorder is increasing in prevalence among children all over the world which affects the children's communication, learning, and behavior, which in turn affects the quality of life. The depolarization of neurons is modulated by neural stimulation which triggers activity-based mechanisms of neuroplasticity. An external periodic stimulus that can modify the oscillations of the brain through synchronization is called entrainment. In this research virtual reality is combined with brainwave entrainment to improve learning in children with ADHD. The experiment is conducted with 11 subjects diagnosed with ADHD by pediatricians and psychiatrists. Binaural Beats (10 Hz via wired earphones, sine waves) are used for audio, and pulses of light (10 Hz via VR device) are used for visual entrainment. This audio-visual entrainment is done for 20 days with 15 minutes of entrainment per day. EEG was recorded pre and post entrainment sessions using an Emotiv Epoc X device. The analysis revealed an improvement in 8 subjects out of 11 subjects in terms of attention and spatial learning. The overall analysis reveals a significant difference in attention and cognitive ability before and after the AVE sessions in 72% of the subjects. The brain topological map shown also reveals the difference in the brain activity before and after the AVE sessions.

This study explored the secondary use of Luxembourg's school monitoring tool for a large-scale screening of Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)-related difficulties. 44 items, with and without time constraint, were developed, and pretested among 959 children. All children subsequently participated in an individual evaluation of higher-level visual processing (HLVP) measures related with CVI. A clinical outcome was attributed post hoc with 32 children being classified as having CVI-related difficulties. To explore the predictive power of the CVI items included in the monitoring, item responses were matched to the results of the individual HLVP assessment. Of all items, the untimed item targeting the combined functions of surface and rotation significantly distinguished group performances (<.05). To improve condition discrimination, different item combinations were tested. Sensitivity and specificity metrics were computed resulting in ranges of 37.5% - 81.3% and 27% - 88.8% respectively. The item combination with the highest sensitivity (81.3%) was retained considering a viable trade-off between sensitivity and specificity metrics. These results support the secondary use of an existing large-scale monitoring tool to screen for CVI-related difficulties in the beginning of elementary school, provided that additional sources of information are progressively implemented to strengthen the tool's predictive power.

Sport concussions can have deleterious effects on the health of children. Despite the high risk of concussions for certain sports, previous research indicates many parents would let their children play these sports. Understanding which high-risk sports parents will let their children play, and why parents let them play high-risk sports is critical to understanding how best to educate parents about concussion risk and its consequences. The present study replicated previous research by Fedor and Gunstad (2016) and Ferraro et al. (2021) to determine whether parents would let their children play a variety of high-risk sports. It also examined some high-risk sports not previously studied, and how gender and grade level of a child affected parents' decisions. Lastly, it determined if concussion knowledge, gender beliefs, parental history of a concussion diagnosed by a physician, estimates about how many high school athletes play varsity college sports, and demographic variables predicted parental willingness to let their children play high-risk sports. A total of 390 parents participated in the survey. Most parents expressed willingness to let their children play the high-risk sports sampled except for tackle football. Gender beliefs, if a parent had a concussion, and education predicted if parents would let their children play high-risk sports. Recommendations are made about how to improve parents' decisions about whether to let their children play high-risk sports.

Visuomotor function impairment is commonly observed in individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). In this case report, a 13-year-old child diagnosed with NF1 and impaired visuomotor skills participated in an 8-week tablet computer-based cognitive training for visuomotor function. The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, 6th Edition (VMI-6) and the Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth were administered before and after the intervention to assess effectiveness. The Beery-Buktenica VMI-6 raw score improved from 17 to 24, and the Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth score changed from 45 to 42. These results demonstrate the potential of tablet computer-based cognitive training as a therapeutic intervention to enhance visuomotor function in children with impaired visuomotor skills, without the influence of digital media addiction.

Aim: The aim of this study was to adapt the Children Participation Questionnaire (CPQ) into Turkish culture and evaluate its psychometric properties in typically developing children aged 4-6 years. This study involved 235 typically developing children and 61 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents completed the Turkish CPQ (CPQ-T) and demographic form. The adaptation process followed the World Health Organization's guidelines. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted, and construct validity was assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test to compare participation levels between typically developing children and those with ASD. Reliability was measured through Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability, with agreement assessed using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and McDonald's ω. Sensitivity and specificity were determined using ROC curves. The study demonstrated significant differences in participation levels between the study group and children with ASD across all domains (p < 0.001). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good model fit (CMIN/DF = 2.692, GFI = 0.862, IFI = 0.932). The CPQ showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.978) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.943 to 0.983). Sensitivity and specificity analyses yielded high values, with Area Under the Curve (AUC) ranging from 0.956 to 0.978. The Turkish version of the CPQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing child participation, effectively distinguishing between typically developing children and those with ASD. This study contributes significantly to the limited literature on the CPQ, highlighting its utility in clinical and research settings for evaluating children's participation.

The present study examined the effects of orthographic knowledge (OK), phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and phonological working memory (PWM) on the reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of elementary school students. Results from a sample of 176 typically developing children in the second through fourth grades (mean age = 8.9 years) revealed that the correlation between reading and the other variables (PWM, PA, RAN, and OK) was significant. In Persian, which has an abjad writing system and opaque orthography, OK and RAN were the best predictors of reading. The relationship between reading skills and other factors was most evident in the fourth grade. We also found that female students in the fourth grade performed significantly better than male students on reading, RAN and OK. This study highlights of the fact that rapid naming and orthographic processing are more important than phonological processing for predicting reading skills in Persian.

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between gender, age, and pragmatic language development in n = 77 Italian preschool children (49-84 months) with and without neurodevelopmental disorders. The sample included 62 children without psychiatric history (n = 34 females, n = 27 males) and n = 15 children with psychiatric history (2 females, n = 13 males). Eight cases (n = 6 males, n = 2 females, 59-75 months) were matched for age and gender. The neurodevelopmental disorder group used the Targeted Observation of Pragmatics in Children's Conversations (TOPICC) tool. Pragmatic language skills were assessed with the Pragmatic Language Abilities (APL), Children's Communication Checklist-Version 2 (CCC-2), and TOPICC scales. Results showed no significant relationship between gender and pragmatic language development subscales, except for a marginally significant relationship with figurative metaphor scores. Age was positively correlated with verbal metaphor, metaphor, implied meaning, and overall pragmatic language skills, but not with figurative metaphor or situations scores. Paired samples t-tests and Wilcoxon tests compared matched groups, revealing significant differences between children with and without neurodevelopmental disorders on the TOPICC, APL, and CCC-2 tools. The findings highlight the importance of early identification and intervention for children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) and the need for further research with larger samples.

Motor-free visual perception abilities are important reference indicator for children's literacy skills. In the absence of Chinese norms, this study utilized the motor-free visual perception test-4 (MVPT-4) to assess the visual perception abilities of children aged 5-12 years in Xuzhou, China, to lay the foundation for establishing standardized norms in China. From May to July 2023, a stratified random sampling method was used to conduct MVPT-4 evaluation on 525 kindergarten and primary school children in Xuzhou, China. MVPT-4 raw scores in each age group showed an increasing trend with age, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in raw scores between genders in each age group (P > 0.05). Standard scores in each age group showed no significant difference compared to the American norms (P > 0.05). The results of this study indicated that in the absence of national or regional norms in China, American norms can be used to assess the visual perception abilities of Chinese children. This study provides a reference for clinicians and educators to identify children with potential dyslexia.