Neonatal imitation: Temporal characteristics in imitative response patterns.

Neonatal imitation has been an area that has attracted intense attention within developmental psychology. Reported here are data from 33 newborn infants (16 girls; mean age: 47 hr) assessed for imitation of tongue protrusion (TP) and mouth opening (MO). The stimuli were presented dynamically, in three 20-second-long gesture modeling intervals, interwoven with three 20-second-long intervals in which the presenter kept a passive face. Imitation of TP emerged among a majority of the infants during the first 60 s of the experiment. In contrast, MO showed a protracted response and a majority exhibited imitation after 60 s. The individual response pattern of the participating infants varied substantially over the course of the experiment. The study provides renewed support for neonatal imitation of MO and TP, and, in addition, suggests that the temporal organization of the responses observed is an important factor to consider, which in turn has methodological and theoretical implications.

Division of parental leave and perceived parenting stress among mothers and fathers.

OBJECTIVE: To explore associations between division of parental leave and perceived parenting stress in mothers and fathers of infants. BACKGROUND: In Sweden, both parents have the same right to parental leave, and fathers use about a quarter of the total 480 benefit days. Little is known about the parents' psychological well-being in terms of stress arising from the parenting role and its association with equal or unequal division of parental leave. METHODS: 280 parents completed the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) at 6 months and 18 months after childbirth. RESULTS: Fathers who shared parental leave equally were less affected by perceived parenting stress than those who shared unequally (adjusted B -0.20; 95% CI -0.33 to -0.06). No such association was found among mothers. CONCLUSION: Parents' choices regarding parental leave division were associated with perceived parenting stress among fathers, but not among mothers. Unequal division of leave contributed to parenting stress in fathers.

Changes in infant visual attention when observing repeated actions.

Infants' early visual preferences for faces, and their observational learning abilities, are well-established in the literature. The current study examines how infants' attention changes as they become increasingly familiar with a person and the actions that person is demonstrating. The looking patterns of 12- (n = 61) and 16-month-old infants (n = 29) were tracked while they watched videos of an adult presenting novel actions with four different objects three times. A face-to-action ratio in visual attention was calculated for each repetition and summarized as a mean across all videos. The face-to-action ratio increased with each action repetition, indicating that there was an increase in attention to the face relative to the action each additional time the action was demonstrated. Infant's prior familiarity with the object used was related to face-to-action ratio in 12-month-olds and initial looking behavior was related to face-to-action ratio in the whole sample. Prior familiarity with the presenter, and infant gender and age, were not related to face-to-action ratio. This study has theoretical implications for face preference and action observations in dynamic contexts.

Computer-assisted interventions targeting reading skills of children with reading disabilities - a longitudinal study.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of three computerized interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2. This longitudinal intervention study included five test sessions over 1 year. Two test points occur before the intervention, and three afterwards. The last follow-up was conducted 1 year after the first measurement. One hundred thirty children in Grade 2 participated in the study. Three groups of children with reading difficulties received computerized training programmes: one aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second focused on word and sentence levels and the third was a combination of these two training programmes. A fourth group received ordinary special instruction. In addition, there was one comparison group with age-matched typical readers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group that received combined training showed greater improvement than the one with ordinary special instruction and the group of typical readers at two follow-ups. The longitudinal results indicate additional positive results for the group that received the combined training, the majority of students from that group being no longer judged to be needing special education 1 year after the intervention.

Effectiveness of psychiatric inpatient care.

There is a growing demand for evaluating the process and outcome of mental health care. Most healthcare providers routinely collect and register data related to the process of treatment, and it is important to acquire more knowledge about how to make use of these databases. The aim of this study was to investigate the outcome of psychiatric inpatient care in relation to different clinical factors, using the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) as a measure of outcome. Another objective was to explore the ability of routinely collected and registered data to provide valuable information about patients and their care. The studied psychiatric inpatient sample consisted of 816 care episodes with GAF ratings made both at admission and at discharge for 648 patients. Variables used in the study included GAF score at admission and at discharge, age, gender, diagnosis, length of stay and ward affiliation. The overall mean GAF change was 20.74, and the overall effect size Cohen's d 1.67, which corresponds to a large effect. The mean GAF change for women was 21.6, with an effect size of 1.80, and for men 19.4 with an effect size of 1.52. The effect size spectra including all groups of diagnoses ranged from 1.03 (substance-related disorders) to 2.33 (other mood disorders). Length of stay and ward affiliation also showed significant results concerning GAF change. Some limitations in this study could depend on the absence of randomization procedures and a control group. Another limitation concerns the insufficient control of the inpatient care interventions performed. The results support the capacity of the GAF to function as a measure of outcome in relation to different clinical factors, such as length of stay and diagnosis. Support was also found for the importance and usefulness of routinely collected and registered data.

Pretend play, deferred imitation and parent-child interaction in speaking and non-speaking children with autism.

This study investigates spontaneous pretend play during a parent-child free play observation, and deferred imitation observed in an experimental setting in speaking and non-speaking children with autism in comparison to children with typical development. Both groups of children with autism showed a reduced level of deferred imitation compared to the typically developing group, but only the non-speaking children with autism spent significantly less time in pretend play compared to children with typical development. Deferred imitation was related to parents' verbal interaction in both groups. An analysis of the parent-child interaction revealed that parents of children with autism used less synchronized comments compared to parents of typically developing children. Parents of the speaking group with autism used more synchronized than unsynchronized comments, while parents of the non-speaking group used the same amount of synchronized and unsynchronized comments. These findings are discussed in terms of how the developmental level affects behavior and interaction in autism.

Effects of bottom-up and top-down intervention principles in emergent literacy in children at risk of developmental dyslexia: a longitudinal study.

This longitudinal study focused on the effects of two different principles of intervention in children at risk of developing dyslexia from 5 to 8 years old. The children were selected on the basis of a background questionnaire given to parents and preschool teachers, with cognitive and functional magnetic resonance imaging results substantiating group differences in neuropsychological processes associated with phonology, orthography, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle). The two principles of intervention were bottom-up (BU), "from sound to meaning", and top-down (TD), "from meaning to sound." Thus, four subgroups were established: risk/BU, risk/TD, control/BU, and control/TD. Computer-based training took place for 2 months every spring, and cognitive assessments were performed each fall of the project period. Measures of preliteracy skills for reading and spelling were phonological awareness, working memory, verbal learning, and letter knowledge. Literacy skills were assessed by word reading and spelling. At project end the control group scored significantly above age norm, whereas the risk group scored within the norm. In the at-risk group, training based on the BU principle had the strongest effects on phonological awareness and working memory scores, whereas training based on the TD principle had the strongest effects on verbal learning, letter knowledge, and literacy scores. It was concluded that appropriate, specific, data-based intervention starting in preschool can mitigate literacy impairment and that interventions should contain BU training for preliteracy skills and TD training for literacy training.

Effects of three interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in grade 2.

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second intervention focused on top-down processing on the word and sentence levels, and the third was a combination of these two training programs (n = 25 in each group). In addition, there were two comparison groups, 25 children with reading disabilities who received ordinary special instruction and 30 age-matched typical readers. All reading disabled participants completed 25 training sessions with special education teachers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group who received combined training showed higher improvements than the ordinary special instruction group and the typical readers. Different cognitive variables were related to treatment gains for different groups. Thus, a treatment combining bottom-up and top-down aspects of reading was the most effective in general, but individual differences among children need to be considered.

Anxiety disorders in 8-11-year-old children: motor skill performance and self-perception of competence.

This study investigates motor skill performance and self-perceived competence in children with anxiety disorders compared with children without psychiatric disorders. Motor skills and self-perception were assessed in 329 children aged 8 to 11 years, from the Bergen Child Study. The Kiddie-SADS PL diagnostic interview was employed to define a group of children with an anxiety disorder without comorbid diagnosis, and a control group (no diagnosis) matched according to gender, age, and full-scale IQ. Children in the anxiety disorder group displayed impaired motor skills and poor self-perceived peer acceptance and physical competence compared with the control group. Two-thirds of the anxious boys scored on the Motor Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) as having motor problems. The present study demonstrated impaired motor skills in boys with "pure" anxiety disorders. Anxious children also perceived themselves as being less accepted by peers and less competent in physical activities compared with children in the control group.

Infant recall memory and communication predicts later cognitive development.

This longitudinal study investigates the relation between recall memory and communication in infancy and later cognitive development. Twenty-six typically developing Swedish children were tested during infancy for deferred imitation (memory), joint attention (JA), and requesting (nonverbal communication); they also were tested during childhood for language and cognitive competence. Results showed that infants with low performance on both deferred imitation at 9 months and joint attention at 14 months obtained a significantly lower score on a test of cognitive abilities at 4 years of age. This long-term prediction from preverbal infancy to childhood cognition is of interest both to developmental theory and to practice.

Exploring the Relation Between Memory, Gestural Communication, and the Emergence of Language in Infancy: A Longitudinal Study.

The relationship between recall memory, visual recognition memory, social communication, and the emergence of language skills was measured in a longitudinal study. Thirty typically developing Swedish children were tested at 6, 9 and 14 months. The result showed that, in combination, visual recognition memory at 6 months, deferred imitation at 9 months and turn-taking skills at 14 months could explain 41% of the variance in the infants' production of communicative gestures as measured by a Swedish variant of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). In this statistical model, deferred imitation stood out as the strongest predictor.