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Name-printing as a test of developmental maturity.

An attempt to derive a practical scoring technique for name-printing by children in kinderten (age-range 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 years) as a quick test of skills and maturity is reported. The relationship of the Print-Your-Name test scores to other established tools of developmental assessment is examined. Teachers' assessments of the study children's readiness for academic promotion and of those children with school problems tended to correlate with the test scores.

Canada↗

Opening windows into a child's mind.

Children may not know, or cannot tell, what is causing their psychosomatic symptoms. Methods are outlined which may help paediatricians to see what goes on in children's minds and also help children to express it. For some children, such expression may itself be healing: for others, further help will be needed. Interested paediatricians will learn to distinguish between these groups.

Adolescent↗

Development of motor co-ordination by normal left-handed children.

Ninety-six normal left-handed children were tested for motor co-ordination on a series of timed repetitive tasks, alternating left and right hands, feet and fingers. Preferred hand advantage could be demonstrated to the same degree for the left hand of these children as it had been for the preferred right hand in previously studied groups of the same age (Denckla 1973, 1974). The only test (finger to thumb successive opposition) that failed to show a preferred hand advantage in left-handers also had failed to show such an advantage among right-handers. This same test was performed more rapidly by left-handed girls than boys, as it had been by right-handed girls. However, left-foot superiority appeared to be less well established among left-handers than superiority of the right foot among right-handers, and at a later age. Left-handed children were less likely than their right-handed counterparts to choose their preferred hand when trying out a new task. Writing posture, i.e. whether inverted or straight, could not be established unambiguously for the left-handed children up to the age of 10, and often differed for writing and printing.

Child↗

Idiopathic fluctuating dystonia: a case of foot dystonia and writer's cramp responsive to L-dopa.

A forme fruste of progressive idiopathic dystonia is reported in a girl, starting at eight years and followed to 24 years of age. The first symptom was isolated dystonia of the left foot and later writer's cramp developed in the hands. Fluctuations of the dystonia occurred later in the course of the disorder, which were not related to the sleep-walking cycle. Complete remission of symptoms was obtained with low dosage of L-dopa. This case broadens the spectrum of fluctuating dopa-sensitive progressive childhood dystonias and provides evidence for writer's cramp being a form of focal dystonia.

Adult↗

Factors associated with reading-plus-spelling retardation and specific spelling retardation.

Factors associated with reading-plus-spelling retardation and specific spelling retardation were investigated in a large sample of Dunedin children who were studied longitudinally between the ages of three and 11 years. Those with reading-plus-spelling retardation showed poor performance on WISC-R Verbal subtests relative to non-retarded children, but superior performance on Picture Completion and Object Assembly subtests. The group with reading-plus-spelling retardation also had poor speech articulation but no significant language, motor or neurological dysfunction. Their educational attainment in reading, writing and mathematics was consistently poor. Specific spelling retardation was associated with deficits on WISC-R Arithmetic and Coding subtests, teacher ratings of low attentiveness and poor achievement in writing and mathematics. No language, motor or neurological deficits were apparent in this group.

Achievement↗

Kinaesthetic sensitivity of normal and clumsy children.

Laszlo and Bairstow (1985a) stated that their Kinaesthetic Sensitivity Test (KST) was designed to be useful in researching the relationship between kinaesthesis and motor performance, and as a diagnostic tool to identify children with poor kinaesthetic function. This study examined the claim that many clumsy children perform poorly on the KST. It was found that the test failed to distinguish between the performances of clumsy children and those of an age-matched control group. Because of its psychometric shortcomings, the KST is unable to fulfil the claims of Laszlo and Bairstow, either as a research or a clinical tool.

Child↗

Copying ability of preschool children with delayed language development.

Ninety-six 2 1/2-year-old children with delayed language development (identified by health visitors) and 100 controls were required to copy four simple items of the Griffiths Mental Development Scales, and were tested on the comprehension and expressive language scales of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. The index children performed worse than the controls on all four copying tasks, and poor copying performance was related to both impaired language comprehension and expression. Copying by the index children was also poorer than their performance on two other non-verbal tasks. The implications for the assessment of children with delayed language development are considered, as well as theoretical implications with regard to the cognition/language debate.

Ethnicity↗

Interictal behavioral changes in epilepsy.

Common behavioral alterations associated with epilepsy include increased interest in philosophical and religious concerns, increased and extensive writing of a cosmic or philosophical nature, changes in sexual behavior, and aggressiveness. Psychological stress, the effects of anticonvulsant therapy, and the actual occurrence of seizures or convulsions can be ruled out as possible causes of the syndrome. It is speculated that these behavioral alterations are the result of an intermittent spike focus in the temporal lobe that leads to an alteration in the responsiveness of the limbic system. Thus, there is a heightened emotional response to many stimuli as well as a decrease in sexual responsiveness. In an effort to discover the cause of the high incidence of sexual alterations, abnormalities in response to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) were found in a group of patients with partial complex seizures, some of whom had no overt sexual dysfunction and had never received anticonvulsant therapy.

Behavior↗

Visual attention and expertise for forensic signature analysis.

Eye tracking was used to measure visual attention of nine forensic document examiners (FDEs) and 12 control subjects on a blind signature comparison trial. Subjects evaluated 32 questioned signatures (16 genuine, eight disguised, and eight forged) which were compared, on screen, with four known signatures of the specimen provider while their eye movements, response times, and opinions were recorded. FDEs' opinions were significantly more accurate than controls, providing further evidence of FDE expertise. Both control and FDE subjects looked at signature features in a very similar way and the difference in the accuracy of their opinions can be accounted for by different cognitive processing of the visual information that they extract from the images. In a separate experiment the FDEs re-examined a reordered set of the same 32 questioned signatures. In this phase each signature was presented for only 100 msec to test if eye movements are relevant in forming opinions; performance significantly dropped, but not to chance levels indicating that the examination process comprises a combination of both global and local feature extraction strategies.

Adult↗

Different clinical features of essential tremor: a 200-patient study.

Two hundred consecutive patients affected by essential tremor (ET), referred to the Movement Disorders Center of the University of Bologna between January 1977 and December 1981, were studied to identify the different clinical features of this disorder, and its associated neurological signs. In this series, 169 patients suffered from typical essential tremor (TET); in the other 31 cases uncommon clinical features were detected: 25 presented postural, action and rest tremor (continuous tremor: CT); 5 had orthostatic tremor (OT) and 1 was affected by writing tremor (WT). Buccolinguofacial dyskinesias (BLFD) were associated with ET in 19 cases; 2 presented dystonia, and in 6 mild extrapyramidal signs were detected. Uncommon types of tremor: ET plus BLFD and ET associated with extrapyramidal signs had an higher incidence in older people. No patient developed Parkinson's disease (PD) during the follow-up period (2-5 years).

Adolescent↗

Reflex writing seizures in two siblings with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

We report on two siblings who presented with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and in whom myoclonic jerks of the right arm and hand were also triggered by writing tasks. Both patients underwent intensive video-electroencephalography monitoring, with simultaneous neuropsychological tests. In both patients, reflex epileptic myoclonus was more easily triggered by writing that required a higher degree of concentration. Conversely, other cognitive tasks, such as reading, typing, thinking, or calculation never elicited any seizures or myoclonus. Valproate was effective in controlling both spontaneous and reflex epileptic seizures. The results of this study further support the notion that 'praxis-induced' reflex epilepsy precipitated by specific stimuli occurs in the context of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Our results also illustrate that writing tasks are more effective in eliciting seizures when they require higher levels of concentration and mental elaboration.

Adolescent↗

Comparing data collected by computerized and written surveys for adolescence health research.

BACKGROUND: This study assessed whether data-collection formats, computerized versus paper-and-pencil, affect response patterns and descriptive statistics for adolescent health assessment surveys. Youth were assessed as part of a health risk reduction program. METHODS: Baseline data from 1131 youth were analyzed. Participants completed the questionnaire either by computer (n = 390) or by paper-and-pencil (n = 741). RESULTS: The rate of returned surveys meeting inclusion requirements was 90.6% and did not differ by methods. However, the computerized method resulted in significantly less incompleteness but more identical responses. Multiple regression indicated that the survey methods did not contribute to problematic responses. The two survey methods yielded similar scale internal reliability and descriptive statistics for behavioral and psychological outcomes, although the computerized method elicited higher reports of some risk items such as carrying a knife, beating up a person, selling drugs, and delivering drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the survey method did not produce a significant difference in outcomes. This provides support for program personnel selecting survey methods based on study goals with confidence that the method of administration will not have a significant impact on the outcome.

Adolescent↗

Motor disorder and the timing of repetitive movements.

This paper is concerned with the timing of regular repetitive movements. The two-process model of Wing and Kristofferson attributes variability in self-paced interresponse intervals to imprecision in a timekeeper and to temporal noise in the execution of motor responses triggered by the timekeeper. Assuming independence of timekeeper intervals and motor delays, the variance of each may be estimated from interresponse-interval statistics. Comparison of changes in timing performance associated with alterations in motor-system functioning offer the possibility of a new approach to investigation of this model. Illustrative data are presented from a case study of a patient with Parkinson's disease whose lesions affecting the dopaminergic pathways of the basal ganglia have given rise to asymmetric symptoms, including differences in timing performance of the two hands. Analysis of interresponse-interval variability according to the two-process model indicates that the elevated variability of the side more greatly affected by parkinsonism is attributable to the timekeeper intervals rather than the motor delays.

Adult↗