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At least 1,099 records · Page 61Linked to original sources
PubMed2007

Brief report: a scale for rating conversational impairment in autism spectrum disorder.

There are few well-standardized measures of conversational breakdown in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The study's objective was to develop a scale for measuring pragmatic impairments in conversations of individuals with ASD. We analyzed 46 semi-structured conversations of children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD using a functional linguistic paradigm. Five constructs were developed that assessed difficulties related to the pragmatics of conversation: atypical intonation; semantic drift; terseness; pedantic speech; perseveration. The scale shows good inter-rater reliability and variation in the scales is not simply a reflection of IQ or language competence. This tool represents a way of characterizing language use in ASD and is an initial step towards developing a tool to evaluate change in degree of social impairments in conversation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

What predicts poor mother-infant interaction in schizophrenia?

BACKGROUND: Poor clinician-rated parenting outcome and observed interactive deficits in mothers with schizophrenia admitted to a psychiatric mother and baby unit (MBU) reflect continuing concerns over the parenting capacity of this group. However, little is known about whether interaction deficits are accounted for by severity of illness or adverse social circumstances typically experienced by these mothers. METHOD: Thirty-eight women with severe perinatal illness (schizophrenia n=13; affective disorders n=25) and their infants were observed in play interaction a week prior to MBU discharge. Clinical and sociodemographic data were also obtained. RESULTS: Mothers with schizophrenia and their infants were rated to have poorer interactive behaviour than the affective disorders group. Infant avoidance of the mother was associated with a lack of maternal sensitivity and responsiveness. The deficits in mother-infant interaction found in the schizophrenia group could not be accounted for by our measures of illness severity or factors relating to adverse social circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: The results replicate and extend previous findings showing poor interactive behaviours in mothers with schizophrenia, their infants, and in the dyad, in a range of areas following clinical recovery. The findings suggest that factors other than illness duration, dose of medication, marital status and occupational status are explanatory for the interactive deficits associated with maternal schizophrenia. Parenting interventions that aim to improve maternal sensitivity need to be developed specifically for this group.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Children's history of speech-language difficulties: genetic influences and associations with reading-related measures.

PURPOSE: This study examined (a) the extent of genetic and environmental influences on children's articulation and language difficulties and (b) the phenotypic associations between such difficulties and direct assessments of reading-related skills during early school-age years. METHOD: Behavioral genetic analyses focused on parent-report data regarding the speech-language skills of 248 twin pairs (M = 6.08 years) from the Western Reserve Reading Project. In addition, phenotypic associations between children's speech-language status and direct assessments of early reading-related abilities were examined through hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). RESULTS: Probandwise concordance rates and intraclass tetrachoric correlations indicated high heritability for children's difficulties in expressive language and articulation, with estimates of .54 and .97 accordingly. HLM results indicated that children with histories of speech-language difficulties scored significantly lower than unaffected children on various measures of early reading-related abilities. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the parent-report survey provided converging evidence of genetic effects on children's speech and language difficulties and suggest that children with a history of speech-language difficulties are at risk for lower performance on early reading-related measures. The extent of risk differed across measures and appeared greatest for children who demonstrated a history of difficulties across articulation, expressive language, and receptive language. Implications for future genetic research and clinical practice are discussed.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed2004

Attention orienting by another's gaze direction in children with autism.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate attention orienting triggered by another's gaze direction in autism. METHOD: Twelve high-functioning children with autism and gender- and age-matched normal control children were studied using two tasks. In the first task, children were asked to detect laterally presented target stimuli preceded by centrally presented facial cue stimuli in which gaze was either straight ahead or averted. The direction of the cue was either congruent, neutral, or incongruent with respect to the laterality of the target stimulus. In the second task, children were asked to discriminate the direction of eye gaze. RESULTS: The results showed that another person's static gaze direction triggered an automatic shift of visual attention, both in children with autism and in normally developing children. The children in both groups were also able to overtly discriminate the direction of the gaze. CONCLUSION: These results seem to suggest that, in children with autism, the visual system processes information about another person's gaze direction and sends this information to those areas that subserve reflexive attention orienting. However, future studies are needed to investigate whether the processing of eyes and gaze direction relies on similar neural mechanisms in children with autism and in normally developing children.

Attention↗
PubMed1995

The recognition of autism in children with Down syndrome--implications for intervention and some speculations about pathology.

Although autism can occur in conjunction with a range of other conditions, the association with Down syndrome is generally considered to be relatively rare. Four young boys with Down syndrome are described who were also autistic. All children clearly fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for autism required by the ICD-10 or DSM-III-R, but in each case the parents had faced considerable difficulties in obtaining this diagnosis. Instead, the children's problems had been attributed to their cognitive delays, despite the fact that their behaviour and general progress differed from other children with Down syndrome in many important aspects. The implications, for both families and children, of the failure to diagnose autism when it co-occurs with other conditions such as Down syndrome are discussed. Some speculations about possible pathological associations are also presented.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

Effects of family environment on negative symptoms and quality of life of psychotic patients.

This study tested the hypothesis that negative symptoms and quality of life for patients with functional psychoses are associated with family environment. Fifty-seven first-admission patients with functional psychoses were assessed at hospital admission for severity of psychopathology and premorbid adjustment. Relatives residing with patients rated the family environment at admission and one month after discharge on the Family Environment Scale. Patients made the same ratings after discharge. Six months later, patients were reassessed on severity of psychopathology, negative symptoms, and quality of life. Multiple regression analyses showed that higher levels of positive emotional expressiveness in the family predicted milder and fewer negative symptoms and better quality of life at follow-up. The prediction was statistically independent of the initial severity of psychopathology or premorbid adjustment.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2005

Parental report of the early development of children with regressive autism: the delays-plus-regression phenotype.

Most children with autism demonstrate developmental abnormalities in their first year, whereas others display regression after mostly normal development. Few studies have examined the early development of the latter group. This study developed a retrospective measure, the Early Development Questionnaire (EDQ), to collect specific, parent-reported information about development in the first 18 months. Based on their EDQ scores, 60 children with autism between the ages of 3 and 9 were divided into three groups: an early onset group (n = 29), a definite regression group (n = 23), and a heterogeneous mixed group (n = 8). Significant differences in early social development were found between the early onset and regression groups. However, over 50 percent of the children who experienced a regression demonstrated some early social deficits during the first year of life, long before regression and the apparent onset of autism. This group, tentatively labeled 'delays-plus-regression', deserves further study.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1979

Consciousness, information processing and schizophrenia.

The symptoms of schizophrenia can be interpreted as the result of a defect in the mechanism that controls and limits the contents of consciousness. This defect can be understood as excessive self-awareness. Normally most of the complex information processing which is continuously required by even simple acts of perception, language and thought goes on below the level of awareness; whereas in schizophrenic patients some of this processing, or the results of this processing, not in themselves abnormal, become conscious. This excessive awareness can account for the typical symptoms of schizophrenia and explains many of the specific cognitive abnormalities found in schizophrenic patients.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMed2001

The psychologic distress in patients with cancer.

The psychologic distress in patients with cancer may be divided into three categories; depression, anxiety and neuro-cognitive changes including delirium. The supportive interventions of health care professionals along with the use of psychotropic medications have been shown to relieve depression, anxiety, and states of confusion in oncology patients. Oncology nurses are in a critical position to identify problems and intervene to provide appropriate symptom relief. The management of psychologic distress may improve adherence to treatment programs, reduce toxicity, achieve a better quality of life, and enhance grace and dignity at the end of life.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1992

Psychopathic, paranoid and depressive transferences.

This presentation focuses on the superego pathology frequently present in patients with borderline personality organization, an important issue in transference developments that evolve as a consequence and expression of this pathology. I shall describe 'psychopathic transferences' to refer to periods in the treatment when conditions of deceptiveness prevail in the transference, and the importance of systematically interpreting and working through these particular transferences. As a result of such a working through, paranoid transferences usually become dominant, and, in turn, need to be worked through fully. At this point, more advanced transferences characterized by depressive features tend to prevail, signalling the structural transformation of borderline into neurotic personality organization. Clinical case material will illustrate these transformations in the transference.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Nursing diagnoses and interventions for the rehabilitation of the stroke patient.

The nurse has many opportunities and interventions with which to facilitate rehabilitation for the patient with a stroke. The most effective interventions are those related to helping the patient become as independent as possible and to increasing feelings of self-worth and dignity, which in turn has a positive impact on the resocialization of the patient in the family and community.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

Screening for autism spectrum disorders with the social communication questionnaire.

The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a parent report screening measure for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). To examine its validity in a young sample, the SCQ was given to parents of 151 children at a mean age of 5 years, before assessment in tertiary autism or preschool clinics. Overall sensitivity was .71, the same for both clinics, but specificity was better for the preschool clinic (.62) than for the autism clinic (.53) reflecting fewer false-positives in the former. The "hit rate" was 65% with 28% of the children with autism missed by the SCQ at a cutoff score of 15 (false-negatives) and 38% of the nonautistic misidentified as having an ASD (false-positives). Item validity analysis, contrary to what was previously published, indicated that only 15 or 46% of the items distinguished between children with and without ASD in this much younger sample. False-negatives were somewhat higher functioning. The SCQ would seem to be a useful tool for identifying young children in need of further assessment and assisting in routing them to the appropriate clinic, especially if used in conjunction with a screening by a community professional. There remain questions about the "best" cutoff score to use and whether a shorter version, based on the items that distinguished autistic from nonautistic, would be more reliable and valid with younger children. Furthermore, it may be that an adjusted score is required when parents omit items or with nonverbal children who cannot be scored on some of the items.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

Communication deficits in childhood schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

This article examines the effects of age, cognition, and discourse skills on the clinical manifestations of formal thought disorder in 31 children with schizophrenia, 14 with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), and 70 who were normal. The communication deficits of the 31 children with schizophrenia have three characteristics: illogical thinking, loose associations, and impaired discourse skills. Loose associations and illogical thinking reflect different aspects of impaired attention/information processing in children with schizophrenia. Only certain aspects of the discourse deficits of the children with schizophrenia are associated with the cognitive measures used in this study. The children with SPD have similar illogical thinking and loose associations scores but a narrower range of discourse deficits than the children with schizophrenia. Implications of the interaction between the clinical, cognitive, and discourse manifestations of the communication deficits of children with schizophrenia are discussed. The possible relationship between these manifestations and positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia are also reviewed.

Attention↗