Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are reported to have difficulty in learning novel word-object associations in case of discrepancy between objects in the speaker's focus and their focus (the discrepant condition). Two eye-tracking experiments investigated this difficulty by controlling and recording children's gaze fixation. In…

The effects of two systematic methods of phonics instruction for children with significant cognitive disability were compared. Fifty-two participants, aged 5-12 years were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (i) a synthetic phonics instruction, (ii) an analogy phonics instruction group, and (iii) a control group. Participants in…

Objective: This study evaluated the potential effects of short-term treatment with lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) on both subjective and objective sleep characteristics in children aged 6 to 12 years (n = 24) with ADHD. Method: Polysomnography (PSG) and actigraph measures as well as assessments of subjective sleep parameters were examined in…

The authors examined 284 maltreated and nonmaltreated children's (6- to 12-year-olds) ability to inhibit true and false memories for neutral and emotional information using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Children studied either emotional or neutral DRM lists in a control condition or were given directed-remembering or…

The current study prospectively examined trajectories of change in symptoms of irritability, hyperactivity, and social withdrawal, as well as predictors of such behaviors, for ages 9-18 years for youths with autism spectrum disorder and a comparison group with nonspectrum developmental delays. Children with more severe core features of autism had…

The Assessment of Children's Hand Skills (ACHS) is a new assessment tool that utilizes a naturalistic observational method to capture children's real-life hand skill performance when engaging in various types of activities. The ACHS also intends to be used with both typically developing children and those presenting with disabilities. The purpose…

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the authors wanted to examine the associations of motor proficiency and body composition in children with and without dyslexia. They hypothesized there would be a negative relationship between body composition (measured by body mass index [BMI]) and motor proficiency (measured by MABC [Movement…

Children's ability to distinguish between enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles was investigated by presenting participants with short video excerpts of smiles. Enjoyment smiles differed from non-enjoyment smiles by greater symmetry and by appearance changes produced in the eye region by the Cheek Raiser action. The results indicate that 6- and…

Crowding refers to impaired target recognition caused by surrounding contours. We investigated the development of crowding in central vision by comparing single-letter and crowding thresholds in groups of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults. The task was to discriminate the orientation of a Sloan letter E. Single-letter thresholds,…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined how variability in classroom social communication performance differed between children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and pair-matched, typically developing peers. Method: Twelve pairs of children were observed in their classrooms, 40 min per day (20 min per child) for 4 days over a…

Purpose: In this study, the authors aimed to examine the long-term effects of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) on the language development of 12-year-old children using a prospective design, controlling for confounding prenatal drug exposure and environmental factors. Method: Children who were exposed to cocaine in utero (PCE; "n" = 183)…

At the end of 2009 the National Literacy Trust surveyed 17,000 children and young people online in the United Kingdom's largest ever study of young people's attitudes to literacy and literate behaviour. This survey was of special interest as it repeated questions asked by the National Literacy Trust in a survey of attitudes and reading behaviour…

Friendships matter for withdrawn youth because the consequences of peer isolation are severe. From a normative sample of 2,437 fifth graders (1,245 females; M age = 10.25), a subset (n = 1,364; 638 female) was classified into 3 groups (anxious-solitary, unsociable, comparison) and followed across a school year. Findings indicated that it was more…

Background: Disturbances of motor circuitry are commonly encountered in Tourette syndrome (TS). The aim of this study was to investigate simple motor performance differences between boys with TS and healthy controls. Methods: We attempted to provide insight into motor network alterations by studying a group of treatment-naive patients suffering…

The study sought to determine effects of leadership activity on emotional intelligence in preadolescents. Ninety-two Central California Valley sixth grade students in two schools and four classes were assessed on emotional intelligence. Treatment and comparison groups were identified. A Two-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA examined change over time…