ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: This study determined the predictive value of linguistic competence in children in Early Childhood Education for verbal naming speed. METHOD: The participants were 86 pupils in the second Early Childhood Education cycle. They were evaluated with WPPSI-IV Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence (Verbal Comprehension, VC) and Vocabulary Acquisition, VA; Childish Vocabulary Test (Vavel) and the Rapid and Automatic Naming Test. RESULTS: Children who had high scores in the Verbal Comprehension Index and Vocabulary Acquisition spent less time doing the verbal naming task. Linguistic competence predicted verbal naming speed, with Vavel having the strongest correlation. CONCLUSIONS: Linguistic competence of children in Early Childhood Education allows us to predict their aptitude for verbal naming. Lexical-semantic knowledge was linguistic competence dimension with the highest predictive value for the Verbal Naming Task. Automatic Naming and Verbal Comprehension depend on the same cerebral area, Wernicke's area.
Subject(s)
Semantics , Vocabulary , Child , Child, Preschool , Comprehension , Humans , Intelligence , Language TestsABSTRACT
Background: This study determined the predictive value of linguistic competence in children in Early Childhood Education for verbal naming speed. Method: The participants were 86 pupils in the second Early Childhood Education cycle. They were evaluated with WPPSI-IV Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence (Verbal Comprehension, VC) and Vocabulary Acquisition, VA; Childish Vocabulary Test (Vavel) and the Rapid and Automatic Naming Test. Results: Children who had high scores in the Verbal Comprehension Index and Vocabulary Acquisition spent less time doing the verbal naming task. Linguistic competence predicted verbal naming speed, with Vavel having the strongest correlation. Conclusions: Linguistic competence of children in Early Childhood Education allows us to predict their aptitude for verbal naming. Lexical-semantic knowledge was linguistic competence dimension with the highest predictive value for the Verbal Naming Task. Automatic Naming and Verbal Comprehension depend on the same cerebral area, Wernickes area. (AU)
Antecedentes: el presente estudio determinó el valor predictivo de la competencia lingüística de niños/as de Educación Infantil en la velocidad de denominación verbal. Método: participaron 86 alumnos de segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil, quienes fueron evaluados con los Índices de Comprensión Verbal (ICV) y Adquisición de Vocabulario (AV) de WPPSI-IV; Vavel Infantil y el Test de Denominación Verbal (TDV). Resultados: alumnos/as que obtuvieron una puntuación elevada en el ICV y en AV precisaron de menos tiempo en el TDV. La competencia lingüística predijo la velocidad de denominación, siendo Vavel Infantil la tarea que obtuvo una mayor correlación. Conclusiones: la competencia lingüística de niños/as de Educación Infantil permite predecir su aptitud para denominación verbal. El conocimiento léxico-semántico fue la dimensión de competencia lingüística con mayor valor predictivo para el TDV. Las tareas propuestas dependen de la misma base anatómica. Las tareas de denominación y comprensión léxica están ligadas al lóbulo temporal y, más concretamente, al área de Wernicke. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Child, Preschool , Child , Linguistics , EducationABSTRACT
Introducción: Recientemente se ha incrementado el interés en el estudio de los déficits neuropsicológicos que subyacen al TDAH. Entre ellos, destaca la Memoria de Trabajo (MT) en sus dimensiones visoespacial y fonológica. El objetivo del presente estudio fue explorar las diferencias de rendimiento en memoria a corto plazo y memoria de trabajo visoespacial y fonológica entre un grupo control y un grupo clínico, teniendo en cuenta la heterogeneidad clínica del trastorno. Método: Se formó un grupo clínico de 76 niños con un diagnóstico previo de TDAH, divididos según su subtipo clínico: TDAH predominantemente inatento (n = 26, edad M = 10,9, SD = 1,8; 66% varones), y TDAH combinado (n = 50, edad M = 10.8, DT = 1.9; 61.5% varones). Además, se formó un grupo control conformado por niños sin diagnóstico TDAH (n = 40, edad M = 10.2, SD = 1.9; 57.5% varones). A todo ellos se les administró un batería de pruebas para medir la memoria a corto plazo y la memoria de trabajo, tanto visoespacial como fonológica. Resultados: El grupo TDAH obtuvo un peor rendimiento en las tareas de Memoria de Trabajo visoespacial (Tarea Corsi) y fonológica ('Letras y Números'de WISC). Este peor rendimiento se mantuvo también para los subtipos clínicos. No se halló relación entre las dimensiones del TDAH y el rendimiento en las tareas neuropsicológicas empleadas. Discusión: Este estudio aporta evidencia empírica a la hipótesis que sugiere que los niños con TDAH presentan un menor rendimiento en tareas que implican la memoria de Trabajo, tanto respecto a la memoria de trabajo fonológica como visoespacial. Además, los resultados de este estudio sugieren que no existiría una relación entre las dimensiones principales del TDAH y el rendimiento en las tareas de memoria de trabajo (AU)
Introduction: The interest in studying the neuropsychological deficits that lie behind ADHD, among which the Working Memory (WM) stands out in its visuospatial and phonological dimensions, has been on increase. The aim of the current study was to explore the performance differences concerning the short-term memory and the visuospatial and phonological working memory among control and clinical groups acknowledging the clinical heterogeneity of the disorder. Method: A group of 76 children with a prior diagnosis of ADHD was divided by the clinical subtype of the disorder: ADHD predominantly inattentive (n = 26, age M = 10,9, SD = 1,8; 66% male), and combined ADHD (n = 50, age M = 10.8, DT = 1.9; 61.5% male). Additionally, a control group of typically developing children was formed (n = 40, age M = 10.2, SD = 1.9; 57.5% male). Both groups completed a task battery to aimed to measure the short-term memory, as well as the visuospatial and phonological working memory. Results: The ADHD group showed a decreased performance at visuospatial (Corsi Block Task), as well as phonological (WISC Letter-Number Sequencing) working memory tasks. The decreased performance was consistent among the clinical subtypes. The dimensions of ADHD and the performance output in the neuropsychological tasks used in the study were not related. Discussion: This study offers empirical evidence to the hypothesis that suggests that children with ADHD show a poor performance than controls at Working Memory tasks, including both visuospatial and phonological WM. In addition, the results of the study suggested that there is no correlation between the dimensions of the ADHD and the performance output in the Working Memory tasks (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Child , Adolescent , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology , Memory Disorders/psychology , Spatial Memory/physiology , Spatial Learning/physiology , Neuropsychology/methods , Data Analysis/methodsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Deficits in fine motor coordination have been suggested to be associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, despite the negative impact of poor fine motor skills on academic achievement, researchers have paid little attention to this problem. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between ADHD dimensions and fine motor performance. METHOD: Participants were 43 children with a diagnosis of ADHD aged between 7 and 14 years (M=9.61; 81% male) and 42 typically developing (TP) children in the same age range (M=10.76; 75.2% male). RESULTS: Children with ADHD performed worse than TP on all tasks (δFine_motor_tasks, -0.19 to -0.44). After controlling for age and ADHD-HY (hyperactivity/impulsivity), higher scores on ADHD-IN (inattentiveness) predicted a larger number of mistakes among all psychomotricity tasks and conditions (ß 0.39-0.58, ps<0.05). CONCLUSION: The ADHD group showed poorer fine motor performance than controls across all fine motor coordination tasks. However, lower performance (more mistakes), was related to the inattention dimension but not to the hyperactivity/impulsivity dimensions. Authors recommend including training and enhancement of the fine motor skills for more comprehensive ADHD treatment.
