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Maternal time and the care of disabled children.

Caring for disabled children has become increasingly the responsibility of parents, even when the medical care is complex. To assess the time commitment required, 133 mothers of disabled children were asked to estimate by specific task categories the extra time required to care for the children. Total average daily care time was reported at 12 hours and 6 minutes, with 6 hours and 30 minutes consumed in "vigilant" tasks (i.e., watching a child who cannot be left alone and/or providing emotional support). Multiple regression analysis showed an increase in total caregiving hours associated with a younger child who was more physically and mentally impaired, and who required more medical treatments. The amount of time required by parents to care for their chronically ill children of necessity results in lost opportunities. Because this burden is experienced primarily by women and because professional nurses could alleviate some of the burden, this issue deserves further study.

Adaptation, Psychological

Self-perceived social function among disabled children in regular classrooms.

Disabled children represent an important "at-risk" group for emotional and behavioral problems. This study determined how they assess their own social function in regular classrooms and compared them with their able-bodied peers. School principals identified 60 visibly disabled children who were integrated into regular classes for at least 50% of the time. A comparison group of 56 randomly selected, same-gender classmates was identified. Children completed the Perceived Competence Scale and a classroom sociometric scale. Parents and teachers were asked to rate each child's social function. Disabled children rated themselves lower on physical competence (mean = 2.53 vs 2.92, p = .002) but not on social or cognitive competence. However, disabled children had fewer friends and scored lower on the classroom sociometric measure than did their able-bodied classmates (mean = 2.06 vs 2.39, p = .01). There was no difference between disabled and control children when social function was assessed by parents or teachers. For all children two variables were significantly associated with the child's self-perceived social competence: the child's self-perceived physical competence (R2 = .27) and the peer sociometric rating (R2 = .13). Teacher perception (R2 = .35) and self-perception (R2 = .10) of social function were most strongly associated with the perception of peers. In both cases whether the child was disabled contributed little to the observed association. These findings support the importance of peers in the successful social function of children and suggest that teachers can have an impact on how children are perceived by other children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Activities of Daily Living

Mastery of verb tense markers by normal and learning-disabled children.

Sixty learning-disabled children with a mean age of 7-11 and 60 children in regular classes with a mean age of 7-10 were given a tense marker test to elicit future, present, and past tense markers for 50 verbs organized into 10 categories based on the operation required to form the past tense. Results indicated that both normal and learning-disabled children had achieved control of future, present, and /-d/ and /-t/ past tense markers. Neither group has mastered the /-ed/ nor seven categories of irregular past tense markers. Children in regular classes showed significantly higher correct responses across 10 categories of past tense items. Analysis of error patterns indicated that learning disabled children used a different pattern of responses and a different set of rules to mark past tense. This study shows the need for data on the linguistic status of normally developing children above the age of seven, if we are to make any inferences about the performance of children whose development is deviate.

Child

Technical aids for daily activities: a regional survey of 204 disabled children.

Home-care of even severely disabled children is strongly favoured today. However, the role of technical aids for daily activities has not been emphasised in the assessment of the needs of families with disabled children. This study evaluated the extent of help needed for daily living among 204 disabled children and the uses and role of and need for technical aids for eating, dressing, toileting and bathing. The children needed much help. Severely disabled children and their parents benefited most from the use of aids. The structured interview unexpectedly revealed many problems, including a considerable need for extra aids for dressing, bathing and toileting. The parents were ready to accept technical aids, but needed more information on their possibilities, benefits and therapeutic aspects. The authors conclude that the need for technical aids for daily activities is not readily recognised during outpatient or hospital visits.

Activities of Daily Living

Tactile discrimination, response mode, and interhemispheric communication by learning disabled children.

32 right-handed, learning disabled children aged 8-10 yr., 11-13 yr., and 14-16 yr. were presented a tactile discrimination task. Pairs of fabrics of different or the same texture were presented to the same hand (uncrossed condition) or alternating hands (crossed condition). Discrimination errors were compared using a verbal response mode and a nonverbal response mode. Analysis indicated that the number of crossed errors was significantly greater in the verbal response mode than in the nonverbal response mode for only the youngest children. These results suggest selective attention-activation bias and/or hemispheric processing limitations for younger learning disabled children.

Adolescent

Dental service utilization of disabled children.

This study examines factors influencing the use of dental services by disabled children. A total of 322 disabled children, aged 6 to 18 years, attending nine special schools were randomly selected for a clinical examination. Their parents or guardians were interviewed to determine the child's pattern of dental service use, parental perception of the child's dental needs, and special problems encountered with seeking care. It was found that 68.3% of the children had never visited a dentist within the previous year. The most common reason given for no care was an assumption that "nothing was wrong." The results indicated a low rate of dental service use among the disabled children. A lack of parental dental awareness appeared to be a major contributory factor.

Adolescent

Energy and nutrient intakes of disabled children: do feeding problems make a difference?

We examined the effect of feeding problems and alternative feeding practices on the energy and nutrient intakes of disabled children. Subjects were 221 disabled children aged 1 to 16 years from seven diagnostic groups: a 4-day food record was obtained for 166 children. The children's energy and nutrient intakes were examined in relation to the presence or absence of four feeding problems (gross motor/self-feeding impairment, oral-motor dysfunction, lack of appetite, food aversions) and two alternate feeding practices (prolonged assisted feeding and use of pureed foods). Cross-sectional analyses showed that children with feeding problems or alternative feeding practices had lower energy and nutrient intakes than did children without these factors. The presence of oral-motor dysfunction or prolonged assisted feeding significantly reduced relative energy intake. In general, differences in energy and nutrient intakes between children with and without other feeding problems or practices were small, and few statistically significant differences were found. The findings indicate that some feeding problems may reduce food intake in disabled children, although this effect is lessened by the conscientious efforts of parents. Parents and families of disabled children should receive dietary counseling to prevent deteriorative effects on the physical growth and health of children with long-standing feeding problems.

Adolescent

Dental health of disabled children in Singapore.

The oral health status of the disabled has generally been poorer than the general population as the treatment and care afforded to them has been minimal. This paper examines the relationship of the various types of disabilities to dental health status. The dental status of a random sample of 322 disabled children aged between 6 and 18 years was assessed. The children had various disabilities: intellectual, hearing, visual, and musculo-skeletal. Most differences in the prevalence and severity of the dental conditions assessed among the children in the various disability groups were not significant. However, in comparison with normal schoolchildren aged 6 to 18, the disabled children had higher levels of disease and received less dental attention.

Adolescent

Feeding problems, height and weight in different groups of disabled children.

Two hundred and twenty-one disabled children from seven diagnostic groups have been examined with respect to height, weight and prevalence of four different feeding problems. Retarded growth and feeding problems were common in children with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, congenital heart disease and deaf-blindness, but rare in children with esophagus atresia, cystic fibrosis and epilepsy. Mean relative height and weight were significantly lower (p much less than 0.01) in children with mechanical feeding problems, such as impairment of self-feeding skills and oral-motor dysfunction, than in children without these problems, regardless of diagnostic group. Mean relative weight was also significantly lower in children with poor appetite than in children with good appetite. Feeding problems contribute to short stature and underweight in severely disabled children.

Adolescent

The abuse of disabled children: a review of the literature.

Literature concerning the abuse of disabled children is examined with a view to elucidating why it is that this problem has not received full attention from professionals to date. Two contributing factors emerge: the limits of studies that have been conducted and the failure of society to address the needs of disabled children. It is concluded that disabled children are at increased risk of abuse, and that new policy and research initiatives are required in this area.

Adolescent

A comparison of the Stanford-Binet abbreviated and complete forms for developmentally disabled children.

Three abbreviated versions of the Stanford-Binet were reviewed and compared for 50 children with developmental disabilities. The children ranged in age from 6 years - 0 months to 15 years - 11 months. While the IQs obtained from the abbreviated forms correlated highly with the complete Binet IQ, it was felt that the 2-item test yielded too many "misses" both in terms of IQ and classification to be of significant value for use with developmentally disabled children. Although the Terman and Merrill 4-item and Wright versions both yielded considerable "misses" in classification, they were believed to be of definite value to the time-harried examiner. Caution was advised, however, in the use of abbreviated-form IQs as a basis for important diagnostic decisions.

Adolescent

Developmental recall lag in learning-disabled children: perceptual deficit or verbal mediation deficiency?

To investigate the development of mediational deficiencies in verbal and nonverbal visual short-term memory of learning-disabled children, the recall task of Atkinson, Hansen, and Bernback was administered to learning-disabled children in two experimental conditions. In Experiment 1 no significant differences on nonverbal short-term memory recall between normal and learning-disabled children were found. Similar recall responses (e.g., middle response bias, primacy effects, and recency effects) were found for both groups. Nonverbal recall was comparable for disabled and normal children as suggested by stimulus content and association scores. Experiment 2 found that while the effects of overt rehearsal on pretrained labels on learning-disabled children's recall was negligible, labels provided superior recall for normal children. Results suggested that learning-disabled children suffer from a verbal mediational deficiency consistent with Flavell's (1970) mediation deficiency hypothesis.

Child

Nystagmus and ocular fixation difficulties in learning-disabled children.

The visual fixation ability of learning-disabled children was evaluated after sensory integrative therapy had been administered for short or long periods of time. Children with hyporesponsive postrotary nystagmus displayed reduced oculomotor control skills, but the deficit was apparent only in those who had been in therapy for a shorter interval. These results present further support for the hypothesis that the learning disabled can be differentiated according to their nystagmus characteristics. In addition, very tentative evidence suggested that sensory integrative therapy may have been successful in ameliorating the fixation deficiency; however, further research into this possibility is needed. The data also indicate that oculomotor control dysfunction may be a mediating mechanism for at least part of the learning disabilities experienced by some learning-disabled children.

Child

Use of the Jordan Left-Right Reversal Test with learning disabled children.

This investigation established the reliability of the Jordan Left-Right Reversal Test for learning disabled children. Test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from .89 to .92 for a sample of 91 children, 5 through 12 yr., attending private schools for children with learning disabilities. Reversal errors decreased with age for boys and girls, although girls 9 through 12 made significantly fewer errors than did boys in the same age range. Learning disabled children made more errors at all ages than normal children. This test instrument was determined to be a measure of the global tendency to make visual reversal errors and was viewed as an appropriate part of the learning disabilities diagnostic procedure.

Age Factors

A musical profile for sample of learning-disabled children and adolescents: a pilot study.

31 learning-disabled children and adolescents completed the Pitch, Loudness, Rhythm, Time, and Tonal Memory subtests of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents. Results indicated that the Seashore test did not discriminate between subgroups of these learning-disabled children. However, differences were found in percentile equivalents between these learning-disabled and normal individuals. These data should be interpreted with caution due to the small size of this sample and the spread of percentiles presented by Seashore.

Adolescent

Psychosocial problems in families of disabled children.

Psychosocial problems faced by parents and other family members were studied in 50 families with a physically disabled child (PD group), 50 with a mentally retarded child (MR group) and 50 with a healthy child (control group). A semi-structured questionnaire assisted interview and standardized scales were used to measure social burden, marital adjustment and maternal neuroticism. Families with disabled children perceived greater financial stress, frequent disruption of family routine and leisure, poor social interaction, and ill effects on their physical and mental health as compared to families of control children. The overall social burden scores were significantly higher in both the groups with disabled children as compared to controls (mean scores PD 17.8, MR 14.6, C 0.72, p less than .001), and showed a significant inverse correlation with the socio-economic and educational status of parents. The neuroticism scores were also significantly higher (PD 23.7, MR 19.0, C 9.6, p less than .01), and the marital adjustment scores lower (PD 75, MR 79, C 86, p less than .01) in families with disabled children. Appropriate management of these problems should be part of rehabilitation programmes.

Adolescent

The language-reading relationship in normal and reading-disabled children.

In this study, the word retrieval, phonological awareness, sentence completion, and narrative discourse processing skills of 93 reading-disabled and 93 normally achieving subjects from 8 to 14 years of age were compared. The subjects were matched for age, sex, and neighborhood. Results revealed that the two groups differed significantly on the time and accuracy of word retrieval, their ability to produce a syntactically appropriate structure in a sentence completion task, their retelling of stories that had been read to them, their answers to questions about the stories, and their inferences. Further analysis revealed that the variance in the younger reading-disabled children's reading comprehension scores was best accounted for by their performance on the sentence completion and word retrieval measures; the inferencing skills of the older reading-disabled children best accounted for the variance in their reading comprehension. By contrast, the younger normally achieving children's reading comprehension scores were best accounted for by their sentence completion, the proportion of the stories that they retold, and word retrieval scores. The proportion of stories retold and the phonological awareness score of the older normally achieving children best accounted for the variance in their reading scores. These findings suggest that the oral language skills of normally achieving and reading-disabled children may relate differently to their reading comprehension at different age levels.

Adolescent