Biomedical subjects

Bonnie Brinton

Publications and source records attributed to Bonnie Brinton.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Social competence in children with language impairment: making connections.

Children with language problems frequently experience social difficulty. This is the case not only for children diagnosed as having impairments such as autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome (AS), or mental retardation but also for children falling into diagnostic categories traditionally considered to be primarily language based (e.g., language impairment, learning disability). In considering what interventions might be most effective, it is important to consider how various aspects of development are connected. This article describes causal networks in which various factors influence the relationship between language deficits and social difficulties. Case descriptions of Joseph, an adolescent with language impairment, and Cari, a 6-year-old diagnosed with AS, illustrate the complexity of this relationship and demonstrate how intervention might be designed to facilitate positive social communication outcomes.

Affect↗

PubMed2004

Description of a program for social language intervention: "if you can have a conversation, you can have a relationship".

Adolescents with impaired language comprehension and formulation skills often experience difficulty keeping up with the linguistic and social demands of peer interaction. This clinical exchange describes an individualized treatment program designed to increase the conversational skill of an adolescent male with language impairment. Treatment focused on increasing awareness of the listener's needs and on balancing the exchange of conversational turns. Clinical performance, parent report, and client report were used to assess outcomes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

The relationship of language and emotion regulation skills to reticence in children with specific language impairment.

This study examined the relationship between emotion regulation, language ability, and reticent behavior in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typical peers. Participants included 43 children with SLI and 43 typically developing children, for a total sample of 86 participants. Children were selected from 2 age ranges: 5-8 years and 9-12 years. The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; A. Shields and D. Cicchetti, 1997, 1998) and the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS; C. H. Hart and C. C. Robinson, 1996) were completed by each child's teacher to provide measures of emotion regulation and reticence, respectively. The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; E. Carrow-Woodfolk, 1999) was administered to provide a measure of language ability. A regression analysis including all participants indicated that the emotion regulation scores and the CASL scores were significant predictors of the reticence scores, accounting for 43% of the variance. Group-specific analyses were then conducted to determine whether the 2 predictor scales differentially predicted reticence based on language and age groups. None of the tests exceeded the.05 level, indicating that there was no significant difference in predictive power on the 2 factors in question.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMed2004

The relationship between social behavior and severity of language impairment.

The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (C. H. Hart and C. C. Robinson, 1996) was used to compare the withdrawn and sociable behaviors of 41 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 41 typically developing peers. Three subtypes of withdrawal (reticence, solitary-active, solitary-passive) and 2 subtypes of sociable behavior (prosocial, impulse control/likeability) were examined. Teachers rated children with SLI as exhibiting higher levels of reticence and solitary-passive withdrawal than typical children. Teachers also rated the children with SLI as demonstrating lower levels of both types of sociable behavior than typical children. The group with SLI was then separated into subgroups of children having more severe and less severe language impairment. These groupings did not differ on comparisons involving withdrawn behavior, except that girls with more severe receptive problems demonstrated higher levels of solitary-passive withdrawal than did girls with less severe language problems. Children with less severe receptive language impairment demonstrated higher levels of proficiency on both types of sociable behavior than their peers with more severe impairment. Children with more severe expressive problems also demonstrated poorer prosocial behavior--but not poorer impulse control/likeability--than children with less severe expressive problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Blending quantitative and qualitative methods in language research and intervention.

Best practice in speech-language pathology should be informed by current research findings. Traditional research methods are not always geared to address some of the complex, individual questions that arise in clinical intervention, however. Qualitative research methods may provide useful tools for bridging the gap from research to practice. Combinations of qualitative and quantitative procedures may be particularly helpful in sorting out some of the important issues surrounding language intervention in both clinical and research contexts. Examples of research blending qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as the case study of Sid, an 11-year-old boy with specific language impairment, are presented to illustrate how a combination of procedures can be used to enhance language research and intervention.

Anxiety↗

PubMed2002

Self-esteem in children with specific language impairment.

The purpose of this preliminary study was to probe the self-perceptions of a group of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing peers. A measure of self-esteem was administered to 46 children between the ages of 6 and 9 years old and 34 children between the ages 10 and 13. In the younger group, there were no statistically significant differences between children with SLI and typically developing children in the way they perceived themselves across domains of competence and acceptance. In the older group, children with SLI perceived themselves more negatively in scholastic competence, social acceptance, and behavioral conduct than did children with typical language development. Differences were evident in areas that were most affected by language impairment.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Understanding emotions in context: the effects of language impairment on children's ability to infer emotional reactions.

BACKGROUND: Research indicates children with language impairment (LI) may experience social deficits extending beyond those expected due to their language deficits. In particular, it has been found that children with LI have difficulty with various aspects of emotional competence. One aspect of emotional competence is emotion understanding, which includes the ability to infer the emotions of oneself and others from social context. AIMS: To examine the ability of children with LI to infer the emotions elicited by specific social situations. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Participants were presented with short scenarios in which the main character, Chris, was exposed to a situation that would be expected to elicit anger, fear, happiness or sadness. Children were then asked to indicate what emotion Chris experienced. Following selected scenarios, children were asked to talk about the emotions they associated with some of the scenarios. They were first asked why the character would feel a particular emotion (e.g. Why did Chris feel happy?) and then asked for a description of how the particular emotion would feel (e.g. How does it feel inside to be happy?). OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Both groups of children identified happiness most accurately, followed by sadness, fear and anger. Older children were significantly more accurate than younger children, and typically developing children were significantly more accurate than children with LI. Children with LI were less sophisticated in their descriptions of emotion than were typical children. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that clinical interventions for children with LI should include activities designed to enrich children's emotion understanding, giving them opportunities to develop skills they may not acquire otherwise.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Klinefelter syndrome: expanding the phenotype and identifying new research directions.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to summarize new data on etiology and clinical features of Klinefelter syndrome in order to derive research priorities. METHODS: This study was conducted using critical reviews of selective topics, emphasizing less well-recognized clinical findings. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The phenotype of the prototypic 47,XXY case is well recognized: seminiferous tubule dysgenesis and androgen deficiency. Less well appreciated is the varied expressivity of 47,XXY Klinefelter syndrome, in particular neurological/cognitive perturbations like language and behavioral problems. Effective therapies are available. Reproductive technologies allow 47,XXY men to sire offspring through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI); however, genetic counseling is complex and success is low. Behavioral and expressive language difficulties are amenable to treatment by androgen therapy and psychological help. Early treatment may be imperative for optimal outcome.

Biomedical Research↗