Control of Fingertip Temperature Increases via Biofeedback in Learning-Disabled and Normal Children

1976 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara H. Hunter ◽  
Harold L. Russell ◽  
Evelyn D. Russell ◽  
Robert L. Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Control ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Variable Intensity ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Consistent Reinforcement ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Electric Train

Although considerable research has been done with biofeedback in adults, little is known of its effect in children of different ages or those with learning disabilities. This study assessed the effects of thermal biofeedback in 60 children (40 boys, 20 girls) aged 7 to 9 yr. ( Mage 8-6) half of whom were learning-disabled and half, normal children matched for age, sex, grade, race, socioeconomic status, and IQ. Training consisted of one 15-min. period daily for five days with three trials per period. Children (16 learning-disabled, 16 normals) received consistent reinforcement for digital temperature increases while 28 children (14 learning-disabled, 14 normals) received mixed reinforcement after Day 1, on which all children were consistently reinforced to yield a performance baseline. Feedback was provided by a variable intensity light and toy electric train. Learning was demonstrated only for the consistently reinforced group, which performed almost twice as well as those receiving mixed reinforcement. Learning-disabled children learned thermal control even better than normals, explained in terms of biofeedback reinforcing an internal steady state conducive to learning. Younger children did better than older children, and girls did somewhat better than boys. Post-training improvement in figure-ground discrimination and intersensory-integration was linked with performance and learning, respectively.

The Syntactic-Paradigmatic Shift in Learning Disabled and Normal Children

1973 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 518-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nettie R. Bartel ◽  
J. Jeffrey Grill ◽  
Helmut W. Bartel
Keyword(s):  
Private School ◽  
Stimulus Word ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Word Association Test ◽  
Low Iq ◽  
Better Than

Forty-eight children in a private school for the learning disabled (LD), and 48 children in public school classes were administered a word association test of 50 stimulus words. All children performed best when the stimulus word was a noun and performed most poorly on prepositions. Older children performed better than younger, overall. No significant differences were found between normal and LD children. Among LD children, a significant interaction between IQ and age was found, with young children of low IQ performing most poorly. Young, low-IQ children also showed perseveration to a much greater extent than did any other group, resulting in a significant age X IQ interaction on perseveration. Discussion centers around memory and attention as possible explanations for the findings.

Meta-Attention in Learning Disabled and Normal Students

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann B. Loper ◽  
Daniel P. Hallahan ◽  
Susan O. Ianna
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Attention In Learning ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Interest Level ◽  
Attentional Tasks

Learning disabled (LD) and normal children (non-LD), matched on age and IQ level, were probed on their awareness of attentional processes. Children were required to make forced choices regarding the relative importance of distraction, reward, and interest level to the process of paying attention. Results indicated significant developmental trends for both diagnostic groups, with younger children being relatively more impressed with the effects of reward and older children placing relatively more value on interest level. No strong diagnostic effects were evidenced for the LDs and non-LDs on the meta-attentional task. However, performance on the meta-attentional task was related to academic achievement for normal but not for learning disabled children. In a second experiment, performance on the meta-attentional tasks was related to academic achievement for learning disabled children after academic intervention. Results are interpreted to suggest that learning disabled children may have deficiencies in the application of acquired metacognitive information.

Comparison of the WISC-R Patterns of Children of Average and Exceptional Ability

1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. P. J. Schmidt ◽  
D. H. Saklofske
Keyword(s):  
Mentally Retarded ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Exceptional Groups ◽  
Diagnostic Usefulness ◽  
Verbal Performance

This study investigated the diagnostic usefulness of WISC-R Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancies, subtest scatter, and Bannatyne's subtest recategorizations with educationally normal and exceptional groups of children. The subjects for this study were four groups of 74 learning disabled, 24 mentally retarded, 94 gifted, and 85 educationally normal children. No significant differences in discrepancies in Verbal-Performance IQs occurred among the four groups although learning disabled children more often showed Performance > Verbal discrepancies. No differences were found between the samples in the amount of subtest scatter. Group differences were noted in the patterns of scores on Bannatyne's recategorizations.

A Look at Mainstreaming in Light of Children's Attitudes toward the Handicapped

1978 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 1019-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Parish ◽  
Robert L. Ohlsen ◽  
Joycelyn G. Parish
Keyword(s):  
Emotionally Disturbed ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Personal Attribute ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Grade School ◽  
School Students ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Handicapped Children ◽  
Physically Handicapped ◽  
Best Fit

Mainstreaming is a legislative reality, yet there is still a question as to whether non-handicapped students are prepared for it. In the present study 131 grade school students were each asked to select from the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children 15 adjectives which best fit three groups of handicapped children as well as normal children. The groups were described in a hierarchical fashion: “normal children” were rated most favorably, then “physically handicapped children,” “learning disabled children,” and “emotionally disturbed children.”

Learning Tool Use: Body Scheme Recalibration and the Development of Hand Skill

1981 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Schwartz ◽  
Marie A. Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Body Scheme ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Accuracy Test ◽  
Motor Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

Skill at using tools depends on somatosensory and visual information being integrated into a body schema. “Calibration,” defined as the ability to accurately localize a limb in space, and “recalibration,” the ability to accurately localize a limb plus tool in space, are proposed as intermediate stages between the development of manipulative prehension and the acquisition of skilled tool usage. Each of these depends upon body scheme information. The ability to recalibrate muscular output for different weights and lengths of tools was investigated. It was hypothesized that such recalibration is an intermediate stage of skill that should be developed prior to extensive practice with tools themselves. A total of 48 normal children, ranging in age from 4.0 to 8.11 years, served as subjects. Test instruments included the Southern California Motor Accuracy Test (MAC) and three tests of recalibration skills. These three tests involved touching a target with the tip of the index finger and with the tips of both a short and a long tool. Results were as hypothesized. Older children performed significantly better than younger children on all tests of hand and tool skill. Ability to use a tool appears to increase with increased ability to recalibrate. Skill in using the hand as a tool appears to develop earlier than skill in recalibrating for short / light tools, which precedes skill at recalibrating for longer / heavier tools.

Learning disabled children's conversational competence: responses to inadequate messages

1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavis Donahue ◽  
Ruth Pearl ◽  
Tanis Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Conversational Competence

ABSTRACTThis study examined learning disabled children's understanding of conversational rules for initiating the repair of a communicative breakdown. Learning disabled and normal children in grades 1 through 8 played the listener role in a referential communication task requiring them to select referents based on messages varying in informational adequacy. Learning disabled children were less likely to request clarification of inadequate messages and, consequently, made fewer correct referent choices than normal children. Only young learning disabled girls were less able than their normal age-mates to appraise message adequacy. Analyses of response latencies and request type also suggest that the failure to request clarification cannot be attributed solely to linguistic deficits. Results are discussed in terms of the relative contributions of syntactic-semantic ability and social knowledge to conversational competence.

Laterality Preference Patterns of Learning Disabled Children

1978 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 869-870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil H. Schwartz ◽  
Raymond S. Dean
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Stepwise Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Orthogonal Contrasts ◽  
Preference Patterns

This study concerned the prediction of group membership of 40 learning disabled and 40 normal children on the basis of preference for laterality of the children and of their parents. A stepwise discriminant analysis showed maternal and paternal lateral preferences could correctly identify approximately 85% of the cases. Orthogonal contrasts showed that, although children themselves did not differ in the degree of laterality, parents of learning disabled children were significantly more bilateral in their preference patterns than normals.

Developmental Differences in Praxis in Learning-Disabled and Normal Children and Adults

1994 ◽  
Vol 78 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1219-1228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet L. Poole ◽  
Colleen M. Schneck
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Verbal Command

Gestures made on tasks in response to verbal command or to imitation and on tasks involving axial and distal movements were compared for groups of learning-disabled and normal children and adults. The 15 learning-disabled children and 15 adults scored lower than the 15 normal children and 15 adults on all tasks. All groups scored higher on imitation than on verbal command and scored similarly on the axial and distal tasks. The findings from this study suggest that it would be worthwhile to test the hypothesis that dyspraxic behaviors may persist into adulthood.

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