PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Language Development Disorders”

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 1,279 records · Page 71Linked to original sources

A prevalence study of autism in tuberous sclerosis.

An estimate of the prevalence of autism in tuberous sclerosis (TSC) was made by interviewing the parents of 21 children between ages 3 and 11 ascertained during a previous population study of the condition in the West of Scotland. Five of the children (24%) were rated autistic and a further four (19%), all of whom were girls, had socially impaired behavior categorized as pervasive developmental disorder, without fulfilling all the DSM-III-R criteria for autism. One further boy had disruptive attention-seeking behavior that had excluded him from his normal school. The estimated prevalence from this study of autism in TSC is 1 in 4 children in general, and 1 in 2 of those with mental retardation. Tuberous sclerosis could be a significant cause of autism and pervasive developmental disorders, particularly in girls.

Autistic Disorder↗

Mothers of children with autism or communication disorders: successful adaptation and the double ABCX model.

This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a modified Double ABCX or FAAR model in predicting successful adaptation--good marital adjustment, few maternal depressive symptoms, and an in-home rating of family functioning--in 45 families of autistic and communication-impaired children. The model consisted of severity of the handicap and other family stresses, family resources of cohesion and social support, family definition of the handicap, and adequacy of coping patterns. Canonical correlation and subsequent multiple regression procedures demonstrated that family adaptation was positively predicted by adequacy of social support and active coping patterns. Poorer adaptation was predicted by other family stresses, unwarranted maternal self-blame for the handicap, and maternal definition of the handicap as a family catastrophe. Findings for cohesion were mixed. Resources and beliefs were more predictive of adaptation than severity of the child's handicap.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Modifying the verbal expression of a child with autistic behaviors.

The Bell and Howell Language Master was used in conjunction with the Monterey Language Program to modify the verbal expression of a nine-year-old boy with autistic behaviors. The goal was to train the child to correctly name up to 10 pictures presented individually. Two training modes were used. For one, the therapist spoke at the time (live voice). For the other, she presented a tape recording of her voice via a Language Master. The results suggested that the child's responses to the Language Master were as good as, if not better than, his responses to the live-voice presentations. In addition, observation indicated that he responded more readily to the Language Master presentations. His spontaneous speech was also noted by independent observers to improve in his classroom and in his home. Possible reasons for the improvement in verbal expression are considered.

Auditory Perception↗

Autistic disorder in Sotos syndrome: a case report.

A case study of a child with Sotos syndrome, normal intelligence, and autistic disorder is presented. Initial descriptions of Sotos syndrome included severe to mild mental retardation. More recent studies indicate language and learning disabilities with normal intelligence. Our patient met criteria for a diagnosis of autistic disorder. Sotos syndrome is another genetic and neurodevelopmental syndrome that can be associated with autistic as well as communication and language disorders.

Autistic Disorder↗

A comparison of two methods of prompting in training discrimination of communication book pictures by autistic students.

Two methods of prompting were compared for their relative effectiveness in teaching a group of autistic students to discriminate line drawings used in picture communication books. All four students required fewer trials to meet the task criterion using a delayed-prompting technique. Further, students made significantly more errors in the fading-of-prompts design than in the delayed-prompting design. The high rate of errors in faded-prompt sessions resulted in some students displaying aberrant behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of effectiveness of the two teaching methodologies, as well as the consequences of error patterns. Suggestions are made for further research.

Adolescent↗

Screening for autistic spectrum disorder in children aged 14-15 months. II: population screening with the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT). Design and general findings.

A two-stage protocol for screening for autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) was evaluated in a random population of 31,724 children aged 14-15 months. Children were first pre-screened by physicians at well-baby clinics using a 4-item screening instrument. Infants that screened positive were then evaluated during a 1.5-h home visit by a trained psychologist using a recently developed screening instrument, the 14-item Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT). Children with 3 or more negative scores were considered to be at high-risk of developing ASD and were invited for further systematic psychiatric examination. Eighteen children with ASD were identified. The group of children with false positive results had related disorders, such as Language Disorder (N = 18) and Mental Retardation (N = 13).

Autistic Disorder↗

Neuropsychological functioning of siblings of children with autism, siblings of children with developmental language delay, and siblings of children with mental retardation of unknown genetic etiology.

Neuropsychological functioning of 30 siblings of children with autism (AU-S), 28 siblings of children with mental retardation of (MR-S), and 30 siblings of children with developmental language delay (DLD-S) was compared. Two siblings, both AU-S, received diagnoses of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). More siblings with cognitive disabilities were found in DLD-S than in AU-S. However, these differences disappeared after excluding diagnosed siblings or after accounting for family membership. In sum, despite the elevated incidence of PDD among AU-S, the neuropsychological functioning of the remaining siblings did not convey specific characteristics related to the genetic risk associated with autism, in contrast to the cognitive functioning of the DLD-S, which did reflect a genetic risk.

Adolescent↗

Brief report: error pattern in an autistic savant calendar calculator.

Special ability in computing the day of the week from given dates was observed in a 18 years old male, L.E., suffering from autism. Neuropsychological testing revealed severe deficits in all cognitive domains and poor explicit knowledge of calendar structure. The subject scored well above the chance level on dates of the past and future decades. Error rate and response latency increased with temporal remoteness of dates. Most of errors were in indicating the weekday before or after that of date stimulus. The performance and error pattern suggest that L.E. used "encapsulated" computation algorithm(s) for the day of week task.

Adolescent↗

Use of context in pragmatic language comprehension by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

Utilizing relevance theory, this study investigated the ability of children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to use context when answering questions and when giving explanations for their correct answers. Three groups participated in this study: younger AS/HFA group (age 7-9, n=16), older AS/HFA group (age 10-12, n=23) and a normally functioning control group (age 7-9, n=23). The results indicated that the younger AS/HFA group did less well when answering contextually demanding questions compared to the control group, and the performance of the older AS/HFA group fell in between the younger AS/HFA group and the control group. Both AS/HFA groups had difficulties explaining their correct answers, suggesting that they are not always aware of how they have derived answers from the context.

Aptitude↗

Brief report: social and communication abilities and disabilities in higher functioning individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome.

Individuals with higher functioning autism (HFA) fail to translate their cognitive potential into real-life adaptation, and the severity of their symptoms is considerable despite their intellectual ability. This paper reports on a subsample from a larger study (A. Klin et al., in press) analyzed here by autism spectrum subtypes. It focuses on the nature of ability and disability in HFA and Asperger syndrome (AS) in relation to age and IQ. Participants included 32 individuals with autism and 35 with AS. Individuals with AS had significantly higher Verbal IQ scores and less symptomatology than individuals with autism, but their Vineland scores were equally impaired, highlighting the adaptive deficits in ASD regardless of classification. No relationship was found between adaptive functioning and symptom severity.

Adolescent↗

Autistic features in Joubert syndrome: a genetic disorder with agenesis of the cerebellar vermis.

Recent reports in the literature have suggested a link between abnormalities of the cerebellar vermis and the behavioral syndrome of autism. Joubert syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by partial or complete agenesis of the cerebellar vermis. However, there is little behavioral or psychiatric description of patients with this genetic condition. In this report, the neuropsychiatric characteristics of two children with Joubert syndrome are described in detail. One child met DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder, while the other displayed autistic features. The female child displayed stereotypic behavior and impairments in social interaction and communication, had a markedly restricted repertoire of interests, and showed distress over changes in the environment. The male child demonstrated perseveration and preoccupation with sounds and textures, but had no abnormalities in social interaction. Although both children showed developmental disabilities, the degree of cognitive delay was significantly less than that described in previous reports of children with Joubert syndrome. This report adds to the growing body of evidence implicating cerebellar involvement in developmental disabilities and autistic behavior.

Autistic Disorder↗

Acquisition of American Sign Language versus Amerind signs in a mentally handicapped sample.

The differential acquisition of American Sign Language versus Amerind signs was investigated in a moderately to severely mentally handicapped sample. The subjects (n = 10) were selected from a residential training facility and each had a mental age within the range 3;0-5;0 years. Twenty signs were taught to each subject, 10 American Sign Language signs and 10 Amerind signs. An Alternating Treatments Design was selected to facilitate comparison of the relative efficacy of the two sign systems across single subjects. Five signs were presented per week (2 weeks) in each sign system. Results showed that a significantly greater (p less than .001) number of Amerind as compared to American Sign Language signs were acquired during Week 1, Week 2, and across both weeks. Retention results, after 1- and 2-week delays, showed that subjects continued to reproduce significantly more Amerind than American Sign Language signs. The results were thought to be due to the more concrete and less complex nature of the Amerind system. Implications of these results for this and similar samples are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Hearing abilities of Down syndrome and other mentally handicapped adolescents.

Down syndrome (DS) individuals are prone to auditory processing difficulties in a variety of audiological, short-term memory, and language tasks. The present study explored: (a) the hearing capabilities of DS adolescents and young adults relative to a sample of non-DS mentally handicapped (MH) individuals, and (b) the relationship between hearing ability and performance on several cognitive tasks. Samples of 26 DS and 26 MH trainable mentally handicapped individuals were matched on IQ and chronological age (CA). Audiometric data revealed greater hearing losses in DS than in MH individuals at five of the six tested frequencies, more DS conductive and mixed hearing losses, and particularly high DS losses in the high-frequency range. Measurement of the speech reception threshold revealed poorer reception of speech by the DS than the MH group. Classification of tympanograms indicated fewer normal ears and twice as many DS ears with middle ear problems reflecting no mobility or retraction of the tympanic membrane. Presence of DS middle ear difficulties was also confirmed by poorer elicitation of the acoustic (stapedius) reflex in DS subjects. Correlation of hearing variables with seven cognitive tasks administered on the same day revealed only one significant relationship after the statistical removal of the effects of CA and IQ: DS subjects with poorer hearing identified fewer words in a task in which a masking noise quickly followed a spoken word. This result suggests that group findings of DS auditory-verbal processing difficulties stem, in part, from subjects with hearing difficulties needing more time to identify spoken words.

Adolescent↗

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale scores as a function of age and initial IQ in 210 autistic children.

Human growth modeling statistics were utilized to examine how Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) scores changed in individuals with autistic disorder as a function of both age and initial IQ. Results revealed that subjects improved with age in all domains. The rate of growth in Communication and Daily Living Skills was related to initial IQ while rate of growth in Social Skills was not. Results should provide hope for parents and further support for the importance of functional social-communication skills in the treatment of autism.

Activities of Daily Living↗