Developmental Dyspraxia in Children With Learning Disorders: Four-Year Experience in a Referred Sample

2020 ◽  
pp. 088307382096691
Author(s):  
Deborah P. Waber ◽  
Ellen C. Boiselle ◽  
Ayse D. Yakut ◽  
Carrie P. Peek ◽  
Kristine E. Strand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Functioning ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Learning Disorders ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Behavioral Neurology ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Target Period ◽  
Single Word Reading ◽  
Cognitive Problems ◽  
Developmental Dyspraxia

Objective: The term apraxia is clearly understood in adult behavioral neurology, with assessment of gesture central to the diagnosis. In contrast, the concept of “developmental dyspraxia” has been more problematic. In an effort to better specify its potential significance, we describe preliminary practice-based evidence for understanding developmental dyspraxia acquired within a theoretical framework informed by both adult behavioral neurology and a neuroconstructivist appreciation of neurodevelopmental disorders. Specifically, we describe the experience of a diagnostic clinic for children with learning disorders that adopted this framework and compare clinical characteristics of children diagnosed with dyspraxia with those of children diagnosed with dyslexia during the same time period. Method: The dyspraxia diagnosis was based on the presence of impaired gesture and/or cognitive problems with planning. Over the target period, 71 children were diagnosed with dyspraxia and 114 children were diagnosed with dyslexia. Twenty-nine of the 71 children with dyspraxia were also diagnosed with dyslexia. Domains assessed included early developmental milestones, neurologic findings, cognition, speech and language, academic skills, and psychosocial functioning. Results: Compared to the dyslexia group, children with dyspraxia (with or without dyslexia) had more problems with speech and language planning and planning in everyday life. Children with dyspraxia without dyslexia had more frequent early motor delays and deficits in visuospatial production than the other groups. The dyslexia groups predictably demonstrated poorer single word reading and phonologic processing compared to the dyspraxia only group (all P < .01). Conclusions: A neurologic finding of impaired gesture in children with learning disorders may signal a broader neurodevelopmental profile of developmental dyspraxia with both theoretical relevance and meaningful implications for evaluation and treatment. Cognitive problems with planning are particularly relevant.

Language-Based Difficulties in School-Age Children with Reading Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn Price ◽  
Karen Wigg ◽  
Virginia Misener ◽  
Antoine Clarke ◽  
Natalie Yeung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Disabilities ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Reading Difficulties ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Language Difficulties

Background: Reading disabilities (RD) are the most common learning disabilities, affecting 3-7% of school-aged children in North America. RD is associated with increased risk for comorbid language-based disorders including early language delay (ELD), speech sound disorders, and language impairments. Despite decades of research on the relationship between RD and these disorders, questions remain as to the strength of their associations. This study is the first of this size to assess all four disorders in a sample of children with RD. Method: We examined the association these disorders in a large, well-characterized family-based sample, recruited for reading difficulties in school-aged children. Parents of 492 families (674 children) completed a questionnaire that queried ELD, and current speech and language difficulties in their children. Children were also directly assessed for multiple quantitative measures of language and reading. Children were divided into three groups: Reading Disabled (RD), Intermediate Readers (IR), and Typical Readers (TR). Results: We found that the parents of the RD and IR groups reported significantly more ELD and current speech and expressive/receptive language difficulties in their children, compared with the TR group. When examined further, we found ELD was associated with poorer performance on word reading and decoding tasks, as well as with speech and language difficulties. Conclusion: The results demonstrate multiple significant associations between reading difficulties, ELD, speech and language, especially in children with severe RD. The results add to research supporting comorbidity between these disorders and will help inform teachers and psychologists when assessing and treating children’s language-based disabilities.

Differential components of sentence comprehension: Beyond single word reading and memory

NeuroImage ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.E. Cutting ◽  
A.M. Clements ◽  
S. Courtney ◽  
S.L. Rimrodt ◽  
J.G.B. Schafer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Single Word Reading

scholarly journals Brain Activation During Reading in Deep Dyslexia: An MEG Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Laine ◽  
Riitta Salmelin ◽  
Päivi Helenius ◽  
Reijo Marttila
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Deep Dyslexia ◽  
Single Word Reading

Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) changes in cortical activity were studied in a chronic Finnish-speaking deep dyslexic patient during single-word and sentence reading. It has been hypothesized that in deep dyslexia, written word recognition and its lexical-semantic analysis are subserved by the intact right hemisphere. However, in our patient, as well as in most nonimpaired readers, lexical-semantic processing as measured by sentence-final semantic-incongruency detection was related to the left superior-temporal cortex activation. Activations around this same cortical area could be identified in single-word reading as well. Another factor relevant to deep dyslexic reading, the morphological complexity of the presented words, was also studied. The effect of morphology was observed only during the preparation for oral output. By performing repeated recordings 1 year apart, we were able to document significant variability in both the spontaneous activity and the evoked responses in the lesioned left hemisphere even though at the behavioural level, the patient's performance was stable. The observed variability emphasizes the importance of estimating consistency of brain activity both within and between measurements in brain-damaged individuals.

Developmental Changes in Word Recognition: An Information-Processing Account

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Pring ◽  
Maggie Snowling
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Context Effect ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Single Word Reading ◽  
First Time

Two experiments examining developmental changes in the use of context in single word reading are reported. The first experiment investigated how effectively children can access conceptual knowledge and use this to help their word recognition. The results indicated that young readers can on demand direct their attention to semantic information, and this allows them to reap a relatively greater benefit from context than older more skilful readers. The second experiment attempted to clarify the way such use of contextual information might help in the specific case when a child attempts to decode a new word for the first time. Skilled and unskilled readers pronounced pseudohomophonic nonwords faster when they were primed by a semantic context, and the context effect was greater for unskilled readers. The nonword's graphemic similarity to a lexical item was also important. In general, the results were consistent with Stanovich's (1980) interactive-compensatory model of reading, and they suggest that in learning to read, several already existing stores of information (e.g. auditory, visual and conceptual) are integrated in order to achieve a solution to the word recognition problem.

scholarly journals Adolescent friendships predict later resilient functioning across psychosocial domains in a healthy community cohort

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Laura Van Harmelen
Keyword(s):  
Family Support ◽  
Psychosocial Functioning ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Psychiatric Symptomatology ◽  
Family Experiences ◽  
Time Period ◽  
One Year ◽  
Healthy Community ◽  
The Relationship

Background: Adolescence is a key time period for the emergence of psychosocial and mental healthdifficulties. To promote adolescent adaptive (‘resilient’) psychosocial functioning, appropriate conceptualizationand quantification of such functioning and its predictors is a crucial first step. Here,we quantify resilient functioning as the degree to which an individual functions better or worse thanexpected given their self-reported childhood family experiences, and relate this to adolescent familyand friendship support.Method: We used Principal Component and regression analyses to investigate the relationship betweenchildhood family experiences and psychosocial functioning (PSF: psychiatric symptomatology,personality traits and mental wellbeing) in healthy adolescents (the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network;N=2389; ages 14-24). Residuals from the relation between childhood family experiences andPSF reflect resilient functioning; the degree to which an individual is functioning better, or worse,than expected given their childhood family experiences. Next, we relate family and friendship supportwith resilient functioning both cross-sectionally and one year later.Results: Friendship and family support were positive predictors of immediate resilient psychosocialfunctioning, with friendship support being the strongest predictor. However, whereas friendshipsupport was a significant positive predictor of later resilient functioning, family support had a negativerelationship with later resilient psychosocial functioning.Conclusions: We show that friendship support, but not family support, is an important positive predictorof both immediate and later resilient psychosocial functioning in adolescence and early adulthood.Interventions that promote the skills needed to acquire and sustain adolescent friendshipsmay be crucial in increasing adolescent resilient psychosocial functioning.

Investigation of the Functional Neuroanatomy of Single Word Reading and Its Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 203-223
Author(s):  
Erica D. Palmer ◽  
Timothy T. Brown ◽  
Steven E. Petersen ◽  
Bradley L Schlaggar
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Single Word Reading

The Effects of Direct Instruction on the Single-Word Reading Skills of Children Who Require Augmentative and Alternative Communication

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1424-1439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Fallon ◽  
Janice Light ◽  
David McNaughton ◽  
Kathryn Drager ◽  
Carol Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Direct Instruction ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Instructional Program ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Single Word Reading

Current literature suggests a lack of empirically validated strategies for teaching reading skills to children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The current study implemented a single-subject, multiple-probe-across-subjects design to investigate the effects of direct instruction in single-word reading on the performance of students who use AAC. The instructional program targeted the reading skills of 5 participants who had severe speech impairments and ranged in age from 9 to 14 years old. All 5 participants reached criterion for matching targeted written words to corresponding pictures. Three of the 5 participants demonstrated generalization of reading skills to novel-word reading, and 4 of the 5 generalized reading skills to book contexts. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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