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Biomedical subjects

L Lockyer

Publications and source records attributed to L Lockyer.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Inferential language in high-function children with autism.

Despite average verbal intelligence, high-function children with autism have social comprehension deficits that are expressed by how they use and understand language. In this paper, we explored the general hypothesis that high-function children with autism make some, but not all, of the pragmatic inferences necessary for successful communication, even when they have the ability to perform noninferential language tasks. We contrasted the ability of 8 high-function children with autism (each with Verbal IQ > 70) and typically developing children to use and understand: pragmatic inferences about given or presupposed knowledge in mental state words; pragmatic inferences about new or implied knowledge in mental state words; bridging inferences essential for coherence; elaborative inferences involved in enriching a communication by means of figurative language; and the intentional inferences involved in speech acts. High-function children with autism could define words and identify multiple meanings for ambiguous words. In understanding words for mental states, they made inferences from mental state verbs to given or presupposed knowledge. However, they failed to infer what mental state verbs implied in context; to make inferences about social scripts; to understand metaphor; and to produce speech acts, all of which are inferences that are the basis of successful social communication because they elaborate meaning or convey intentions.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

Intelligence patterns among children with high-functioning autism, phenylketonuria, and childhood head injury.

High-functioning children with autistic-spectrum disorder show the typical pattern of lower Comprehension relative to their own scores on Block Design. This profile is shared, almost exactly, by age- and IQ-matched children with poorer control PKU. Quite distinct profiles are shown by children with better control PKU, who show no difference between Block Design and Comprehension, and by children with head injury involving frontal lobe contusion, who show slightly better Comprehension that Block Design. The data bear on several questions: the relation between Comprehension deficits and language functions measured by Vocabulary; the limits of the advantages conveyed by higher IQ to autistic individuals; whether impaired Comprehension in autism indexes persisting symptoms and/or impairments on theory of mind tasks; the possibility that dopamine deficiency is common to autism and poorer control PKU; and the need for future research aimed at understanding the relations among neurodevelopmental disorders.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1999

The Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network: background and progress report.

The Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network (SCRN) was established in 1994 by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). The network was created to facilitate the development of behavioural science studies that would contribute to a fuller understanding of the cancer experience, from prevention through detection, treatment and post treatment (including palliative care). This article describes the nature of network research, the development and organization of the Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network and the challenges it faces.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Self-administration of drugs for cystic fibrosis.

Self-administration of medication encourages individuals to participate in their own health care and provides structure for regular assessment and teaching about their drugs. Patient-friendly drug leaflets can provide consistent information to patients cared for by a number of staff. Self-administration studies found in the nursing literature must be interpreted cautiously because of the lack of true experimental trials.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto.

Ontario has a province-wide program for provision of cochlear implants. Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children is one of three designated centres that service the paediatric population. This cochlear implant program was established in 1989. Since that time, 37 children (as of May 1996) have been provided with cochlear implants. The program also services Ontario residents who were implanted elsewhere. In the following, we provide a detailed description of the program, including the processes through which children are selected as candidates, the follow-up studies that we carry out, and the roles of various health care professionals involved. We present a demographic survey of our patient population to date, and discuss some of the important issues relating to candidacy.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1997

Focus groups with cancer patients: toward a more comprehensive understanding of the cancer experience.

Six focus groups of 58 individuals (30 women and 28 men) were held in 3 Canadian cities to help develop a survey instrument to be implemented nationally to identify cancer patients' experiences with cancer: treatment, symptoms and symptom management. Patient participants had different cancer diagnoses, but their experience with cancer had been within the year preceding the study. Our intent was to identify as many themes as possible to allow for comparison of different experiences in a national survey. This paper reports on what was learned substantively from these focus groups and discusses the methodological contribution of focus groups in developing survey tools.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1975

Parental characteristics in relation to diagnosis and neurological status in childhood psychosis.

Twenty-six psychotic children were examined by means of psychological tests and EEGs. The parents of these patients were also tested with the EPI and the Grid Test of Thought Disorder. The mothers of children with the symptom of autism tended to have some cognitive disorganization, which was less common in the mothers of children without the symptom. The extraversion and neuroticism scores of all parents were not markedly different from population statistics. The incidence of EEG abnormality in the children was high and not related to diagnosis or other criteria. These findings are interpreted as providing suggestive evidence for a two-factor theory of childhood psychosis. It is postulated that a neurological disorder is a necessary condition for the development of such a disorder; and that a second process related to parental characteristics is also involved, which has the effect of determining the particular symptomatic manifestations seen in the psychotic child.

Autistic Disorder↗