There has been considerable interest in nonlinear latent variable models specifying interaction between latent variables. Although it seems to be only slightly more complex than linear regression without the interaction, the model that includes a product of latent variables cannot be estimated by maximum likelihood assuming normality.…

We examine the performance of dyslexic participants on an unsupervised categorization task against that of matched non-dyslexic control participants. Unsupervised categorization is a cognitive process critical for conceptual development. Existing research in dyslexia has emphasized perceptual tasks and supervised categorization tasks (for which…

Purpose: Information-processing limitations have been associated with language problems in children with specific language impairment (SLI). These processing limitations may be associated with limitations in attentional capacity, even in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits. In this study, the authors examined the performance…

Considerable research effort has been dedicated to exploring how well children with autistic spectrum disorders infer eye gaze direction from the face of an actor. Here we combine task performance (accuracy to correctly label a target item) and eye movement information ("where" the participant fixates when completing the task) to understand more…

Ability tests play an important role in the assessment programs of many schools. However, the inferences about ability made from such tests presume that students understand the tasks they are attempting. Task familiarity can vary by student as well as by format. By design, nonverbal reasoning tests use formats that are intended to be novel. The…

Developing spelling skills in English is a particularly demanding task for Chinese speakers because, unlike many other bilinguals learning English as a second language, they must learn two languages with different orthography as well as phonology. To disentangle socioeconomic and pedagogical factors from the underlying cognitive-linguistic…

This research examined the emotion recognition abilities of preschoolers with and without hyperactivity and aggression. Previous research identified that school age children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have more difficulty understanding facial expressions associated with emotions, take longer than their age-matched peers…

This research investigated whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) and non-specific language impairment (NLI) could be differentiated by their oral narrative characteristics. Oral narrative samples were collected from 69 children and comparisons were made among four groups of participants. The two language impairment groups (SLI…

Of all the developmental difficulties that may be present in childhood, language impairment is probably the most common. It is of vast importance to prevent cumulative negative consequences of these impairments. The present study evaluates the effects of a language and activity-based intervention programme on verbal and non-verbal performance and…

This article presents a review of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition (KBIT-2; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004b), which is designed to provide a brief, individualized format for measuring verbal and nonverbal intelligence in children and adults from the ages of 4 years, 0 months through 90 years, 11 months. The test consists of only…

Purpose: The present study examined the utility of 2 measures proposed as markers of specific language impairment (SLI) in identifying specific impairments in language or working memory in school-age children. Method: A group of 400 school-age children completed a 5-min screening consisting of nonword repetition and sentence recall. A subset of…

Pragmatic language skill is regarded as an area of universal deficit in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but little is known about factors related to its development and how it in turn might contribute to skills needed to function in everyday contexts or to the expression of ASD-related symptoms. This study investigated these relationships in 37…

Handheld calculators have been used on the job for more than 30 years, yet the degree to which these devices can affect performance on employment tests of mathematical ability has not been thoroughly examined. This study used a within-subjects research design (N = 167) to investigate the effects of calculator use on test score reliability, test…

This study examines whether orthographic processing transfers across languages to reading when the writing systems under acquisition are sufficiently related. We conducted a study with 76 7-year-old English-first-language children in French immersion. Measures of English and French orthographic processing (orthographic choice tasks) and…

Asperger syndrome (AS) and non-verbal learning disability (NLD) are both characterized by impairments in motor coordination, visuo-perceptual abilities, pragmatics and comprehension of language and social understanding. NLD is also defined as a learning disorder affecting functions in the right cerebral hemisphere. The present study investigates…