The experience of parenting a child with dyslexia - A UK perspective with single parents.

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that affects the development of literacy and language-related skills, unrelated to intellectual ability. While the impact of parenting an individual with dyslexia (IWD) for married parents has been widely studied, little is known about the impact on single parents. This study explored the lived experiences of single parents of an IWD. Six female participants completed semi-structured interviews discussing their experience of the diagnostic process, support received and general parenting perspectives. Interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three main themes were identified: Navigating the diagnosis; Various levels of support; Battling Misconceptions and Lack of Knowledge. Findings suggested that single parents had a mixed experience, both after receiving the diagnosis and in terms of the support they received from family and schools. Differences in the quality of statutory support were highlighted, implicating the need for improved dyslexia support in schools. Unique challenges of parenting an IWD as a single parent were also identified, highlighting important implications. Future research should explore differences in single fathers' experiences and the impact of dyslexia comorbidities on single parents.

A parent-sibling dyadic interview to explore how an individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder can impact family dynamics.

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a life-long condition which affects the individual and their family system. Little research understands the impact of an ASD upon families, how this may change over time and how COVID-19 has impacted these dynamics. AIMS: To explore the impact of an ASD on the lived experiences of parents and neurotypical adult siblings, including during the UK COVID-19 lockdown. METHODS: Eight parent-sibling dyads (16 individuals) completed semi-structured interviews discussing their family before, during and after receiving the ASD diagnosis, and in relation to the first UK lockdown. Interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. RESULTS: Three super-ordinate themes were identified: Dominated by ASD; Family Cohesion; and the Need for Support. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggested a closeness within the families and an adoration towards the individual with ASD (IWA). Dyads were, to an extent, consumed by the diagnosis both presently and in the future, implicating the need for a stretch in services to support parents and neurotypical siblings. In terms of the first UK lockdown, the IWA added an extra layer of difficulty to the dyads work-life balance yet there was an essence of family cohesion. Future research should consider longitudinal methods and explore the impact of ASD co-morbidities upon family dynamics.

Counter-intuitive moral judgement following traumatic brain injury.

Several neurological patient populations, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), appear to produce an abnormally 'utilitarian' pattern of judgements to moral dilemmas; they tend to make judgements that maximize the welfare of the majority, rather than deontological judgements based on the following of moral rules (e.g., do not harm others). However, this patient research has always used extreme dilemmas with highly valued moral rules (e.g., do not kill). Data from healthy participants, however, suggest that when a wider range of dilemmas are employed, involving less valued moral rules (e.g., do not lie), moral judgements demonstrate sensitivity to the psychological intuitiveness of the judgements, rather than their deontological or utilitarian content (Kahane et al., Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 2011, 393). We sought the moral judgements of 30 TBI participants and 30 controls on moral dilemmas where content (utilitarian/deontological) and intuition (intuitive/counter-intuitive) were measured concurrently. Overall TBI participants made utilitarian judgements in equal proportions to controls; disproportionately favouring utilitarian judgements only when they were counter-intuitive, and deontological judgements only when they were counter-intuitive. These results speak against the view that TBI causes a specific utilitarian bias, suggesting instead that moral intuition is broadly disrupted following TBI.

Cognitive correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in adult traumatic brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analyses.

Effective pragmatic comprehension of language is critical for successful communication and interaction, but this ability is routinely impaired following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (1,2). Individual studies have investigated the cognitive domains associated with impaired pragmatic comprehension, but there remains little understanding of the relative importance of these domains in contributing to pragmatic comprehension impairment following TBI. This paper presents a systematic meta-analytic review of the observed correlations between pragmatic comprehension and cognitive processes following TBI. Five meta-analyses were computed, which quantified the relationship between pragmatic comprehension and five key cognitive constructs (declarative memory; working memory; attention; executive functions; social cognition). Significant moderate-to-strong correlations were found between all cognitive measures and pragmatic comprehension, where declarative memory was the strongest correlate. Thus, our findings indicate that pragmatic comprehension in TBI is associated with an array of domain general cognitive processes, and as such deficits in these cognitive domains may underlie pragmatic comprehension difficulties following TBI. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Post-stroke depression and expressed emotion.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: This study examined the role of expressed emotion (EE) in post-stroke depression (PSD) and the extent to which partner/spouse EE interacted with lesion laterality in PSD. The relationship between (i) lesion location and levels of PSD and (ii) levels of EE and levels of PSD were investigated. The role of perceived EE in PSD was also explored. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, between-subjects design. METHODS: Measures applied to stroke survivors included Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale (EADL), Post-Stroke Depression Rating Scale (PSDRS) and Level of Expressed Emotion Scale (LEE); spouses/partners completed the LEE. RESULTS: The interaction between lesion laterality and levels of partner/spouse EE on PSD was not statistically significant (p = 0.63, F = 0.24, df = 1,56). However, a clear relationship was found between lesion laterality and PSD (p = 0.028). As levels of spouse/partner LEE scores increased, levels of PSD also increased (p = 0.039). Perceived EE scores illustrated a significant interaction between lesion laterality and levels of EE on PSD (p = 0.005, F = 8.591, df = 1,56). CONCLUSION: Whilst spouse/partner EE scores showed no interaction with lesion laterality to determine levels of PSD, a significant interaction was found when compared with stroke survivor perceived EE scores. Furthermore, left hemisphere (LHS) stroke survivors reported higher levels of depression than right hemisphere (RHS) stroke survivors. As levels of EE increased, PSD also increased, with LHS being greater than RHS.

Effects of the use of alcohol and cigarettes on cognition in elderly adults.

The objective of this study was to examine the independent and interactive effects of lifetime patterns of drinking and smoking on cognitive performance in the elderly. A sample of 395 individuals with varying histories of alcohol and cigarette use was drawn from the Charlotte County Healthy Aging Study, a community-based, cross-sectional study of randomly selected older adults of age 60 to 84. Dependent variables were the results of a neuropsychological battery that provided measures of general cognitive ability, executive function, and memory. Specifically, we examined (1) differences in performance among groups of abstainers, drinkers, and smokers, (2) the effects of lifetime drinking and smoking dose on cognition within the group of users, and (3) the effects of intensity of drinking and smoking on cognition. Potential methodological confounds, such as age, education, and medical history, were controlled by means of sampling and covariance procedures. Analyses failed to provide evidence for a beneficial J-curve or threshold effect for drinking, but did not reveal any detrimental effect. No detrimental effect of smoking was found in any analysis; nor was there any evidence of an interaction between alcohol and cigarette use on any cognitive measure.

Effects of alcohol and cigarette use on cognition in middle-aged adults.

In this retrospective cohort study we examined the independent and interactive effects of drinking and smoking on cognition in a sample of 3361 males, ages 31 to 49, with varying lifetime histories of alcohol and cigarette use. Dependent variables were neuropsychological measures of global and specific cognitive abilities. Comparison of the ability scores of seven groups, defined by their drinking and smoking histories, explained only 5.4% of the multivariate variance in cognitive ability and less than 2% in any individual cognitive measure. Regression analyses for current drinkers and smokers showed only a single significant, but negligible, effect of pack-years of smoking on a measure of global cognitive ability. Differences in cognitive function in groups defined by intensity of alcohol and cigarette use revealed no significant effect for drinking and a significant, but very small, effect for smoking.