Mutual exclusivity and phonological novelty constrain word learning at 16 months.

Studies report that infants as young as 1 ; 3 to 1 ; 5 will seek out a novel object in response to hearing a novel label (e.g. Halberda, 2003; Markman, Wasow & Hansen, 2003). This behaviour is commonly known as the 'mutual exclusivity' response (Markman, 1989; 1990). However, evidence for mutual exclusivity does not imply that the infant has associated a novel label with a novel object. We used an intermodal preferential looking task to investigate whether infants aged 1 ; 4 could use mutual exclusivity to guide their association of novel labels with novel objects. The results show that infants can successfully map a novel label onto a novel object, provided that the novel label has no familiar phonological neighbours. Therefore, as early as 1 ; 4, infants can use mutual exclusivity to form novel word-object associations, although this process is constrained by the phonological novelty of a label.

Young children follow pointing over words in interpreting acts of reference.

Adults refer young children's attention to things in two basic ways: through the use of pointing (and other deictic gestures) and words (and other linguistic conventions). In the current studies, we referred young children (2- and 4-year-olds) to things in conflicting ways, that is, by pointing to one object while indicating linguistically (in some way) a different object. In Study 1, a novel word was put into competition with a pointing gesture in a mutual exclusivity paradigm; that is, with a known and a novel object in front of the child, the adult pointed to the known object (e.g. a cup) while simultaneously requesting 'the modi'. In contrast to the findings of Jaswal and Hansen (2006), children followed almost exclusively the pointing gesture. In Study 2, when a known word was put into competition with a pointing gesture - the adult pointed to the novel object but requested 'the car'- children still followed the pointing gesture. In Study 3, the referent of the pointing gesture was doubly contradicted by the lexical information - the adult pointed to a known object (e.g. a cup) but requested 'the car'- in which case children considered pointing and lexical information equally strong. Together, these findings suggest that in disambiguating acts of reference, young children at both 2 and 4 years of age rely most heavily on pragmatic information (e.g. in a pointing gesture), and only secondarily on lexical conventions and principles.

A mixed longitudinal study of physical growth in children with atopic dermatitis.

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis is a chronic, relapsing disorder associated with significant morbidity. Growth retardation is known to occur in children affected with atopic dermatitis. However, there is not enough Indian data for this disorder. AIMS: We conducted a longitudinal study to look for the effect of atopic dermatitis on growth attainment of Indian preschool children. METHODS: The growth patterns of 62 children, aged 3-5 years and suffering from atopic dermatitis were studied in terms of body weight, height and head circumference. Sixty-eight normal healthy children matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status were taken as controls. Every child was followed up at intervals of three months following a mixed longitudinal study design for the duration of one year. Severity of the disease was determined by the scoring atopic dermatitis (SCORAD) index. RESULTS: Growth velocities were lower in patients than in controls. Mean changes in body weight of patients of both sexes showed close similarity to controls. Mean values for height and head circumference were found to be significantly lower in girls than in the girls of the control group at majority of the age levels. In contrast, in boys, these values for the patients remained comparable or higher than in the boys of the control group at some of the ages. Girls had comparatively more severe disease than boys and they had lower values than boys for all the growth parameters assessed. CONCLUSION: Growth retardation was observed among children with a more severe form of the disease. Height of the affected children was compromised mostly, though a tendency for catch-up growth was observed. Severe forms of atopic dermatitis may impair a child's linear growth temporarily.

Comparison of child morbidity in two contrasting medieval cemeteries from Denmark.

This study compares associations between demographic profiles, long bone lengths, bone mineral content, and frequencies of stress indicators in the preadult populations of two medieval skeletal assemblages from Denmark. One is from a leprosarium, and thus probably represents a disadvantaged group (Naestved). The other comes from a normal, and in comparison rather privileged, medieval community (AEbelholt). Previous studies of the adult population indicated differences between the two skeletal collections with regard to mortality, dental size, and metabolic and specific infectious disease. The two samples were analyzed against the view known as the "osteological paradox" (Wood et al. [1992] Curr. Anthropol. 33:343-370), according to which skeletons displaying pathological modification are likely to represent the healthier individuals of a population, whereas those without lesions would have died without acquiring modifications as a result of a depressed immune response. Results reveal that older age groups among the preadults from Naestved are shorter and have less bone mineral content than their peers from AEbelholt. On average, the Naestved children have a higher prevalence of stress indicators, and in some cases display skeletal signs of leprosy. This is likely a result of the combination of compromised health and social disadvantage, thus supporting a more traditional interpretation. The study provides insights into the health of children from two different biocultural settings of medieval Danish society and illustrates the importance of comparing samples of single age groups.

Orthographic analogies and phonological priming: a comment on Bowey, Vaughan, and Hansen (1998)

J. A. Bowey, L. Vaughan, and J. Hansen (1998, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 68, 108-133) carried out two experiments on 6- and 7-year-old children's use of orthographic analogies in word reading. They reported that, following apparently stringent controls for phonological priming effects, beginning analogies (beak-bean) were more frequent in this age group than rime (beak-peak) analogies. From this, they concluded that beginning readers do not reliably use orthographic rimes in reading, even in the clue word task (p. 129). However, the clue word task was not used in this study. This comment highlights two problems with Bowey et al.'s paper. The first is a theoretical one, and the second is methodological. Firstly, Bowey et al. base their investigation on a misunderstanding of U. Goswami and P. E. Bryant's (1990, Phonological skills and learning to read, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum) claims about the role of rhyme and analogy in beginning reading. Secondly, methodological weaknesses, in particular unintended intralist priming effects, seriously limit the conclusions that can be drawn from Bowey et al.'s booklet analogy task.

The limitations of orthographic rime analogies in beginners' word reading: a reply to Goswami (1999)

U. Goswami (1999, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72, 210-219) argues that the findings of J. A. Bowey, L. Vaughan, and J. Hansen (1998, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 68, 108-133) are uninterpretable. This paper examines each of Goswami's criticisms of the methodology employed by Bowey et al. (1998). None can explain the differential analogy and phonological priming effects reported by Bowey et al. More fundamentally, none can explain the critical finding of Bowey et al. that, when phonological priming effects are controlled, the size of the end analogy effect is no greater than that of beginning and medial vowel analogy effects. Furthermore, some of Goswami's criticisms cast considerable doubt on the generalizability of findings from her version of the clue word task.

Absence of an association between insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and developmental learning difficulties.

For several years, investigators have been examining the relationship between learning difficulties and a variety of immunological disorders. Two recent studies by Hansen and colleagues reported a negative association between Type 1 diabetes and reading disabilities (dyslexia): subjects with Type 1 diabetes had a lower prevalence of dyslexia than their nondiabetic relatives. In order to control for the impact of environmental variables on learning, we investigated the relationship between Type 1 diabetes and learning problems in 27 sibling pairs, ranging in age from 6 to 20 years. One child in each pair had Type 1 diabetes, and the other child was the unaffected sibling closest in age. Children were assessed for cognitive skills, academic achievement in reading, mathematics, and written language, as well as for speech articulation and motor coordination. Other variables that were examined included handedness, behavioural variables, medical history, and pregnancy and birth complications. We found no significant differences between the 27 children with Type 1 diabetes and their unaffected siblings on any of the cognitive, academic achievement, or speech articulation measures. There were also no significant differences on handedness, behavioural variables, or health history.

Care and development of children in tribal areas.

PIP: About 53 million people (8% of the population) of India belong to various tribes in about 400 tribal communities. These groups live in different ecological geoclimatic conditions throughout India ranging from the Sub-Himalayas to the islands in the Bay of Bengal and in the Arabian Sea. They also differ in distinct biological traits and cultural and socioeconomic background. Due to cultural patterns which vary from tribe to tribe, they are all at different stages of social, cultural, and economic development. Since the tribes live in isolated and inaccessible areas, it is hard to implement health care and nutrition activities, elementary education, and preventive promotive health care. The government does plan to provide rural day care for 0-3 year old children. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme reaches 2197 of 5143 tribal development blocks. ICDS activities include immunization of children and mothers, health education, and supplementary nutrition. The government also promotes primary health care in tribal areas. Despite these efforts, child welfare and development in tribal areas have not improved. Recently nongovernmental organizations have joined child welfare and development efforts in tribal areas. The Jigyansu Tribal Research Center has compiled a long list of recommendations to improve child welfare and development efforts in tribal areas including improving preventive activities especially those that target specific local diseases such as cerebral malaria and leprosy, introduction of traditional herbal medicines, and comprehensive data collection.^ieng

A study on nutrition, growth and development of a high-risk group of children of urban leprosy patients.

This paper describes a cross-sectional study of the physical development of a high-risk group of 182 socially deprived healthy children of leprosy patients ranging from preschool age to early teens. They were rescued at the age of 4 years from the distress of leprosy colonies where they were born, and brought up in Government Homes (Preventorium) under better environmental conditions. Of them 135 children could be followed clinically for 10 years for the development of childhood leprosy. Another 94 children of leprosy patients living with their parents were included for comparison. A group of 158 normal children of similar economic status and age group were included as controls. It was observed that, although better environment, food and training were provided in the Preventorium, so that the children could be brought into the national mainstream, nevertheless 5 children developed an indeterminate type of leprosy during the course of 10 years. This is the first report of growth and development of children of leprosy patients from the Indian sub-continent.

Babies of mothers with leprosy have small placentae, low birth weights and grow slowly.

One hundred and sixteen women with leprosy and 31 healthy controls were studied throughout 155 pregnancies, and their babies were observed for a period of up to two years. Babies of mothers with leprosy weighed less than those of healthy mothers; the placental weights and coefficients followed the same trend. The babies of the mothers with leprosy grew more slowly than those of the healthy mothers and these findings were most marked in the babies of mothers with lepromatous leprosy. The cause of the reduced feto-placental weight is thought to be related to the immune status of the mother.

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.