Cognitive ability and behavioral adaptability are distinct, yet related, constructs that can impact childhood development. Both are often reduced in deaf children of hearing parents who do not provide sufficient language and communication access. Additionally, parental depression is commonly observed due to parent-child communication difficulties…

Spatial visualization is not yet clearly understood. Some researchers have concluded that two factors or abilities are involved, spatial orientation and spatial visualization. Different definitions and different tests have been proposed for these two abilities. Several studies indicate that women generally perform more poorly on spatial tests than…

A study examining the relationship between nonverbal intelligence and academic achievement in 53 hearing impaired 7-18 year olds supported using the Hickey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (along with other measures) in interpreting individual differences in the academic achievement of hearing impaired students. (Author/CL)

In contrast to previous findings, extended effort does not indiscriminately enhance figural originality in nonverbal creative problem solving. (Authors/CB)

Reanalysis by author, using an enlarged sample, of his report, A factor analytic study of communication skills and nonverbal abilities of deaf rehabilitation clients, Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1971, 6, 485-501. (CB)

Sixty children aged 2-3 to 5-6 were given four quantity tasks that tested their understanding of "more" and "same." Tasks involving a manipulative response were significantly easier than those involving a yes/no judgment. (Author/RH)

Using a word order correction paradigm, this study assessed syntactic awareness skills in children with good and poor reading comprehension, matched for age, decoding skill, and nonverbal ability. Poor comprehenders performed less well than normal readers, and the performance of both groups was influenced by the syntactic complexity and semantic…

The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) is an individually administered, nonverbal intelligence test designed for use with non-English-speaking, limited English proficient, or deaf children. The aim of this study was to assess the factor structure invariance of the UNIT across deaf and standardization samples through the use of…

Background: Evidence suggests there is a heightened risk of psychiatric disorder in children with speech-language impairments. However, not all forms of language impairment are strongly associated with psychosocial difficulty, and some psychiatric disorders (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) are more prevalent than others in…

Background: Strong evidence from twin and family studies suggests that the genetic liability to autism may be expressed through personality and language characteristics qualitatively similar, but more subtly expressed than those defining the full syndrome. This study examined behavioral features of this "broad autism phenotype" (BAP) in relation…

Turner syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects only females, can cause various physical, emotional, and educational disabilities. This disorder may go undiagnosed until school age or later. Short stature and lack of spontaneous puberty are common characteristics and can lead to teasing by peers. Some experience attention deficit and the…

Language delay and impairment are salient features of autism. More specifically, there is evidence of atypical semantic organization in autism, but the functional brain correlates are not well understood. The current study used functional MRI to examine activation associated with semantic category decision. Ten high-functioning men with autism…

Background: It is not known whether those with co-morbid fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism represent a distinct subtype of FXS; whether the especially severe cognitive delays seen in studies of young children with co-morbid FXS and autism compared with those with only FXS continue into adolescence and young adulthood; and whether autism in those…

The results of a study investigating heredity components of mathematical ability as well as sexual differences related to this ability are reported. A test containing 26 arithmetic problems was administered to 300 pairs of twins. Analysis of the data included within and between pair variance, and intraclass correlations for each sex and zygosity…

Purpose of study was: (1) to obtain data in a cultural setting concerning the ability of children to conserve weight at the point of transition from primary to secondary education; and (2) to explore the relationship between performance or reasoning tasks of the kind employed in nonverbal psychometric tests and the presence or absence of ability…