Models are central to the practice and teaching of science. Yet people often fail to grasp how scientific models explain their observations of the world. Realizing the explanatory power of a model may require aligning its relational structure to that of the observable phenomena. The present research tested whether "relational…

As the diversity of the school-age population in Canada continues to increase, it is important for school psychologists to consider the potential influence of culture and language when assessing the cognitive abilities of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to examine the linguistic demand…

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a heterogeneous disorder affecting various aspects of language. While most studies have investigated impairments in the domain of syntax and morphosyntax, little is known about compositional semantics and the process of deriving pragmatic meanings in SLI. We selected a group of sixteen monolingual…

Background: In this work we sought to expand our knowledge of developmental trajectories of subcomponents of the language systems of individuals with intellectual disability (ID). We aimed to explore how "general" and "relational" vocabularies evolve as a function of cognitive level. Method: Developmental trajectories of…

Within a population-based study of 3356 children, we investigated whether infant neuromotor development was associated with cognition in early childhood. Neuromotor development was examined with an adapted version of Touwen's Neurodevelopmental Examination between 9 and 20 weeks. Parents rated their children's executive functioning at 4 years. At…

This work has two objectives. First of all, to offer psychometric instruments that help more precisely identify and differentiate children with specific language impairment (SLI) in the educational field and, secondly, to establish profiles of the two cases that illustrate the two current subtypes of SLI: phonologic-syntactic SLI and…

In order to study problems of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with morphosyntax, we investigated twenty high-functioning Greek-speaking children (mean age: 6;11) and twenty age- and language-matched typically developing children on environments that allow or forbid object clitics or their corresponding noun phrase. Children with…

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with reading comprehension. Linguistic comprehension is an important predictor of reading comprehension, especially as children progress through elementary school and later grades. Yet, there is a dearth of research examining longitudinal relations between linguistic comprehensions in…

Background: Research on retelling ability and cognition is limited in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and speech impairment. Aims: To explore the impact of expressive and receptive language, narrative discourse dimensions (Narrative Assessment Profile measures), auditory and visual memory, theory of mind (ToM) and non-verbal cognition on the…

A randomized control intervention study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the highly structured Heidelberg Parent-Based Language Intervention (HPLI). The outcomes of 43 children (n = 23 intervention, n = 20 control) who had been identified as late talkers during routine developmental check-ups carried out in pediatric practices at the age…

The use of individually administered measures of intelligence and other cognitive abilities requires clinicians to monitor a client's test behaviors, given the need for a client to be engaged fully, attentive, and cooperative during the testing process. The use of standardized and norm-referenced measures of test-taking behaviors facilitates this…

In a population-based sample of 112 nine-year old twin pairs, we investigated the association among total brain volume, gray matter and white matter volume, intelligence as assessed by the Raven IQ test, verbal comprehension, perceptual organization and perceptual speed as assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. Phenotypic…

In this article, the author reviews the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Four Edition Spanish (WISC-IV Spanish), an individually administered measure of intelligence for Spanish-speaking children who are English language learners and relatively new to American culture. The WISC-IV Spanish, like its English counterpart, the WISC-IV, is…

A verbal comprehension deviation quotient and a perceptual organization deviation quotient are presented as alternatives to the Verbal and Performance IQs when attempting to measure the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised verbal comprehension and perceptual organization factors. The freedom from distractibility deviation quotient…