PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “DISABLED CHILDREN”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources

Utility of the Maternal Perinatal Scale (MPS) in distinguishing normal from learning disabled children.

This study examined perinatal complications and risk factors as predictors of learning disabilities in schoolaged children. Specifically, the Maternal Perinatal Scale (MPS) was used to distinguish between normal children and those classified as learning disabled (LD) by their school system. One hundred and eight participants, 54 in each classification, were selected from a small Midwestern area. A stepwise discriminant analysis demonstrated that all four factors of the MPS contribute significantly to the prediction. A linear composite of MPS factor scores correctly classified 93.5% of all participants, with only two normal and five LD children being misclassified. Repeating the results with other clinical populations, these results support the use of the MPS in assessing the perinatal history. More importantly, these data are consistent with the notion that perinatal complications increase the likelihood of future impairment. Moreover, the MPS shows promise as a screening device for use in early preventative programs which diminish the negative psychological, sociological, and neuropsychological outcomes for children with neurological disorders.

Adolescent↗

Parental perception of learning-disabled children's adjustment problems and related stress.

Mothers and fathers of learning-disabled (LD) children rated their children's problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the stress they experienced as a result of each problem. Data were examined as a function of (a) the child's sex, age, birth order, IQ, discrepancy IQ, and degree of LD, (b) the parents' age, locus of control, and self-concept, and (c) family SES, family size, and mother's working status. Both parents rated externalizing behaviors higher than internalizing. Boys were rated as significantly more problematic and stressful than girls. Greater child adjustment problems and concomitant parental stress were reported by the younger half of the maternal sample and their spouses, and by fathers with a lower self-concept and their wives. Although mothers did not differ from fathers in behavior ratings, they reported greater stress in response to them. This was particularly true of mothers of middle or upper SES with an external locus of control.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

[Evaluation of VIIIth nerve disorders in learning-disabled children].

Recent research indicates that a subclinical VIIIth nerve defect can be a major contributing factor to, if not a cause of learning disabilities. A battery of tests developed for evaluation of VIIIth nerve function is presented. These tests include assessment of vestibular function and evaluation of auditory figure ground abilities. 70 primary school children diagnosed as learning-disabled by child study teams were tested using this battery. 94% had abnormal findings in the electronystagmographic test and 22% in the auditory figure ground test. This battery of tests can detect subclinical defects in learning-disabled children which can be alleviated by a combination of proper medical treatment and an appropriate educational plan.

Child↗

The immediate impact of aggressive cartoons on emotionally disturbed and learning disabled children.

The immediate impact of viewing aggressive cartoons on emotionally disturbed (ED) and learning disabled (LD) children's willingness to hurt another child was assessed. Fifteen ED and 23 LD children (M = 7.25 years old) viewed either an aggressive or a comparison cartoon and then played the Help-Hurt game. The children who watched the aggressive cartoon pressed the Hurt button for significantly more time than did those who were exposed to the comparison cartoon. Across cartoon conditions, the ED children pressed the Hurt button significantly longer than did their LD peers.

Affective Symptoms↗

A critical examination of vestibular function in motor-impaired learning-disabled children.

This study examined the role of the vestibular system in balance and coordination problems found in motor-impaired, learning-disabled (LD) children. Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and vestibulo-spinal tests (moving platform posturography) were performed on 15 learning disabled and 54 normal children. Twelve LD children had normal VOR scores suggesting normal peripheral vestibular inputs. All 15 LD children had abnormal posturography. Motor-impaired LD children could not appropriately integrate vestibular information with visual and somatosensory inputs for postural orientation. Results suggest that the best discriminator of abnormal sensorimotor function in LD children are posturography trials requiring orientation to gravity despite absent or inaccurate visual and somatosensory cues, rather than traditionally relied on VOR and Romberg tests.

Child↗

The selective attention of learning-disabled children: three studies.

Three studies were performed to assess the selective attention of learning-disabled (LD) children. In the first study, 10 LD and 16 non-LD children were given the Speeded Classification task. LD children sorted cards more slowly than non-LD children, and children in both groups had trouble ignoring irrelevant information. Non-LD children became more accurate across trials, while LD children did not. In the second study, one group of 13 LD children was taught to accompany their Speeded Classification sorting verbally in an attempt to improve their performance; the other group of LD children (n = 12) received no such instruction. The experimental group, however, showed poorer performance across trials compared with the control group. In the third study, the children from Experiments 1 and 2 were given the Central-Incidental Learning Task. Older children learned more central memory items than younger children and, LD children learned more incidentally than non-LD children.

Age Factors↗

Storage-retrieval processes of normal and learning-disabled children: a stages-of-learning analysis of picture-word effects.

Previous research comparing acquisition performance of learning-disabled and normally achieving children has led to the suggestion that the locus of memory differences lies in either the storage or retrieval components of recall. In this paper we report a free-recall experiment in which a new stages-of-learning model was used to examine the effects of a picture-word manipulation on storage and retrieval differences between nondisabled and disabled grade 2 and 6 children. Although the results of this experiment were consistent with the idea that disabled students are poorer at memory tasks than nondisabled students, the stages-of-learning analysis provided information regarding the precise locus of the deficiencies. Specifically, although disabled and nondisabled children benefited from the presentation of information in pictorial format, normally achieving children were consistently better than their learning-disabled counterparts at storing and learning to retrieve both pictures and words. From a developmental standpoint, the most important finding was that while differences between learning-disabled and normally achieving students at storage remained age invariant, differences in learning to retrieve increased with age. As it turned out, however, differences between disabled and nondisabled children were absent when it came to retaining traces once they had been stored in memory and in retrieval performance between the time a trace was stored and retrieval learning was complete. These results are consistent with previous research in which it has been shown that the ability to learn how to reliably retrieve information that has been stored in memory develops more slowly for disabled than nondisabled children.

Age Factors↗

Learning of disabled children and their environment.

It has been pointed out that cases of reading disability are rare in Japan due to the specificity of the language structure. Fifty children with learning disabilities were examined both neurologically and psychologically, and they were classified into three groups; the first group had alexia and agraphia (2 cases), 30 cases showing signs of minimal brain dysfunction with choreiform movements of the eyeballs comprised the second group and 18 cases with a history of asphyxia at birth and/or severe jaundice and clumsiness without choreiform movements of the eyeballs formed the third group. The children belonging to the second and third groups showed that the characteristic features of reading disability are related to their circumstances. The results showed that suitable dynamic guidance including their environment was necessary for them.

Adolescent↗

The effects of time compression on the auditory processing abilities of learning disabled children.

This study measured the ability of ten 8- and ten 12-yr-old learning disabled (LD) children of normal intelligence (WISC-R) to discriminate phonemic contrasts in sentential stimuli (Subtest 13 of the Carrow Auditory Visual Abilities Test) presented at a 50% time-compression rate. Their group responses were compared statistically to similar data gathered earlier (May et al, J. Aud. Res., 1984, 24, 205-211) from 6-, 8-, and 10-yr-old normal children and young adults. LD Ss exhibited auditory processing capacities reminiscent of an earlier level of operation (e.g., the group of LD Ss with mn age of 12.8 yrs yielded group performance equivalent to that of normal 6- and 8-yr-olds), and also manifested marked differences in their feature- and frequency-processing abilities. These data indicate that contributing to the learning difficulties of LD children may very well be delays in auditory development and anomalies in auditory-feature processing.

Age Factors↗

The use of non-specialist personnel in providing a service for children disabled by hearing impairment.

PURPOSE: This paper addresses the issue of how to provide health services for hearing-impaired children in the developed world. Most children live in developing countries, with no access to audiological or therapy services. METHOD: The paper reviews the prevalence of hearing impairment in developing countries and stresses the need to examine the details not only of the hearing impairment but also of the disabling consequences of hearing loss, especially in the developing world where the provision of hearing aids (or other amplification) is a financial and/or logistical impossibility for most children. RESULTS: Institutional services in developing countries achieve very low coverage rates. CONCLUSIONS: Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) reaches disabled children more effectively, and the final part of the paper suggests ways in which CBR workers can assist hearing-impaired children.

Child↗

The effects of sampling conditions on sentence production in normal, reading-disabled, and language-learning-disabled children.

This study explored the effects of contextual support, discourse genre, and the listener's knowledge of information on syntactic and phonologic production and fluency. Subjects were language-learning-disabled, reading-disabled, and normal primary school children. Clause structure complexity, fluency, and grammatical and phonemic accuracy tended to be highest when children were discussing absent referents, providing explanations and stories, and giving unshared information. These effects were generally the same across all groups, although some effects were significant for only the language-learning-disabled children. Several explanations for these findings are considered.

Child↗

Stress and coping in families with ill or disabled children: application of a model to pediatric therapy.

Chronic illness or disability of a child is a specific stressor affecting the entire family. To analyze the factors influencing the family's stress response, the ABCX and Double ABCX Models of Family Stress are reviewed. Four factors of the model which are particularly relevant when applied to the experience of the family with a chronically ill or disabled child are discussed: the specific characteristics of the child's disorder, the family's perception of the stressor, the chronicity of the problem, and the social network of the family. Therapists having frequent and intimate contacts with families may benefit from knowledge of the factors of the model to enhance their ability to reduce family stress. Specific therapist roles in reducing stress are respecting the parents' emotional and social needs, interpreting and anticipating medical and developmental events, and facilitating functional adaptation of the child. Health care professionals in pediatrics frequently encounter families under tremendous stress related to serious health problems in a child. The professionals' words and actions, their management of the family and the child, their responses to the parents' behaviors all are potential sources for ameliorating or increasing stress on the family. Professionals who deal with children with chronic disabilities or illnesses, and with their families, must empathize with the experience of parents in the foreign world of medicine and disability, respect the immediacy and gravity of their concern, and tolerate their occasional confusion and irrational behavior. Physical therapists and occupational therapists in pediatrics have both the opportunity and responsibility to enhance the effective coping of parents who struggle to deal with their child's difficulties and the stress their child's problems place on the entire family. To be effective, therapists must understand the factors and processes of family coping. Models which structure family response to stressors and coping efforts have been developed to facilitate analysis of the complex processes. Hill developed the original ABCX model of family stress, which McCubbin and Patterson expanded into the Double ABCX Model of Adaptation, identifying factors affecting a family's adjustment to a severe ongoing stressor (Figure 1). The expanded model includes the family's adjustment to cumulative effects of the stressor after the impact of the original crisis. Both the original ABCX and the expanded Double ABCX models identify variables which account for observed differences among families' adaptations to stressful situations.

Journal Article↗

The influence of attention on the dichotic REA with normal and learning disabled children.

Recently, Mondor and Bryden (Neuropsychologia, 29, 1179-1190, 1991; Percept. Psychophys. 52, 393-402, 1992) developed a lateralized cueing technique which appears to be a more powerful method than is the forced-attention technique (Bryden, 1978) of controlling the contribution of attentional biases to auditory perceptual asymmetries. This lateralized cueing technique was used to determine the influence of attentional biases on perceptual asymmetries obtained for normal and specific learning disabled (LD) children. Subjects were instructed to attend to, and report from, only the ear in which the cue sounded. The interval between the onset of the cue and the onset of the dichotic trial is varied so as to control the amount of time available to subjects to allocate attention to the cued ear. Results indicated that, for normal children capable of performing the task at a better than chance level, a large REA apparent at 150 msec Stimulus Onset Asynchromy (SOA) was attenuated at longer cueing intervals (450 and 750 msec SOA). For LD children, the magnitude of the initial REA appeared to be attenuated at 450 msec SOA. Thus, these data demonstrate that for normal children as well as for children with specific learning disabilities, attentional factors may contribute to the magnitude of the REA.

Attention↗

An empirical subgrouping of Finnish learning-disabled children.

The internal and external validity of a subgrouping of 82 Finnish children with relatively mild learning disabilities and 84 Controls was explored. The sample was selected from a total population of 1607 second grade pupils. Eight neuropsychological measures from four function areas were selected as classification criteria in cluster analysis. Six consistent and clinically meaningful subgroups were derived. These subgroups were designated as follows: (1) Normal, (2) General Language, (3) Visuo-Motor, (4) General Deficiency, (5) Naming, and (6) Mixed. Most of the LDs were clustered in subgroups (2) through (6); and most of the Controls, in subgroup (1). Several internal and external validation procedures indicated at least moderate validity in the subgroups, with the exception of the Mixed subgroup. The five valid subgroups encompassed 82% of the LDs and 90% of the Controls, and moreover, resembled subgroups which previously have been found among English-speaking children. This suggests that language differences exert no significant effect on the types of the emerging subgroups.

Aging↗

Ophthalmic assessment of physically disabled children attending a rehabilitation centre.

A retrospective analysis was conducted of 397 children, ranging in age from 2 to 19 years, attending the Regency Park Centre for Young Disabled in Adelaide. The disorders represented included cerebral palsy, head injury, spina bifida, severe speech and/or language disorders, muscular dystrophy and a number of less common conditions. The incidence of significant ophthalmic abnormalities in this population was 51%, with the highest incidence being 69 and 62% among children with head injury and cerebral palsy, respectively. Children with severe speech and language disorders had an incidence of 24%. Overall, routine examinations revealed previously unsuspected significant eye abnormalities in 31% of the children. A complete ophthalmic examination should be part of the evaluation of all physically disabled children to ensure early identification and treatment of abnormalities, and to optimize rehabilitation.

Adolescent↗

Middle ear function in learning-disabled children.

To investigate the possible association of chronic otitis media and school learning problems, past and current middle ear status in 53 learning-disabled (LD) children was compared to that of 56 control children without learning problems. A history of recurrent otitis media was obtained in 23% of the LD children and in 9% of the control children. Thirty-eight percent of LD children and 16% of control children had hearing abnormalities on pure tone audiometry; 49% of LD children and 21% of control children had abnormal tympanometry. LD children had significantly more middle ear malfunction than control children. Chronic, undetected middle ear problems may play a role in the etiology of some school learning disabilities.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗