Social-Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Emotion Perception in Daily Life and in a Formal Assessment Context.

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often have social-emotional and behavioural difficulties. The present study explored these difficulties in children (n = 50, aged 6-10 years) with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental language disorder. Parents, teachers and therapists evaluated children's social-emotional and behavioural difficulties through a self-devised questionnaire and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Additionally, the children, along with their typically developing age peers (n = 106), completed six emotion discrimination tasks. Analysis revealed some impaired emotion discrimination skills that were predictive for behavioural challenges in daily life and associated with the parent-reported existence of friends. Timely intervention in these children is needed, and it should also include emotion perception training.

Adaptation and implementation of the German social-emotional learning programme Papilio in Finland: A pilot study.

This study investigated the cross-national adaptation and implementation of Papilio, a German social-emotional learning programme, in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres. Papilio is a developmentally focused, scientifically based intervention programme focused on preventing behavioural problems and fostering social-emotional competence in children aged 3-7. The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate the cross-national adaptation and cross-cultural adaptation and implementation of Papilio in the Finnish ECEC context. Results from qualitative interviews with one Finnish Papilio trainer, 11 early childhood education (ECE) teachers, two ECE special education teachers and two nursery nurses are supplemented with teachers' and nursery nurses' (N = 75) questionnaire data. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed that cultural adaptations were necessary on four levels: accommodation of materials, adaptation of the contents of the materials, structure and delivery. The materials and training contents were culturally adapted, whereas the delivery of the intervention was adapted according to Finnish ECEC practices. The structural adaptation included discarding timeout, due to opposition by some educators. The educators were committed to implementing the programme as instructed and resolving the practical difficulties they encountered. Their motivation to implement Papilio increased as they observed improvements in the children's social-emotional competence during intervention.

The role of linguistic and cognitive factors in emotion recognition difficulties in children with ASD, ADHD or DLD.

BACKGROUND: Many children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulty recognizing and understanding emotions. However, the reasons for these difficulties are currently not well understood. AIMS: To compare the emotion recognition skills of children with neurodevelopmental disorders as well as those children's skills with the skills of their typically developing (TD) age peers. Also, to identify the role of underlying factors in predicting emotion recognition skills. METHODS & PROCEDURES: The 6-10-year-old children (n = 50) who participated in the study had either ASD, ADHD or DLD and difficulties recognizing emotions from face and/or in voice. TD age peers (n = 106) served as controls. Children's skills were tested using six forced-choice tasks with emotional nonsense words, meaningful emotional sentences, the FEFA 2 test, photographs, video clips and a task in which facial expressions and tones of voice had to be matched. Expressive vocabulary, rapid serial naming, auditory and visual working memory and Theory of Mind skills were explored as possible explanatory factors of the emotion recognition difficulties of the diagnosed children. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Children with ASD, ADHD or DLD did not significantly differ from each other in their linguistic or cognitive skills. Moreover, there were only minor differences between children with these diagnoses in recognizing facial expressions and emotional tone of voice and matching the two. The only significant difference was that children with ADHD recognized facial expressions in photographs better than children with DLD. The participants with diagnoses scored significantly lower than the controls in all but one emotion recognition tasks presented. According to the linear regression analysis, first-order Theory of Mind skills predicted the delay relative to typical development in the recognition of facial expressions in the FEFA 2 test, and expressive vocabulary and working memory skills together predicted the delay in the recognition of emotions in the matching task. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Children with ASD, ADHD or DLD showed very similar emotion recognition skills and were also found to be significantly delayed in their development of these skills. Some predictive factors related to linguistic and cognitive skills were found for these difficulties. Information about impaired emotion recognition and underlying linguistic and cognitive skills helps to select intervention procedures. Without this information, therapy might unnecessarily focus on only symptoms.

Narrative Study of the Significance of Infertility and Its Treatment for Maternal Identity.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how women who experienced infertility and underwent fertility treatments constructed maternal identities after they successfully gave birth. DESIGN: Narrative qualitative study. SETTING: Finland, Scandinavia. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-six previously infertile Finnish women who later conceived were recruited via social media, health clinics, and relevant informal support organizations. METHODS: Narrative analysis was used to process written accounts and individual episodic interviews with each of the 26 women. RESULTS: Four different identity stories emerged from the data: Fractured Maternity, Pursuing Maternity, Learning Maternity, and Discovering Maternity. Infertility, its treatment, and childbirth were narrated as turning points in the participants' life courses, but the significance of these turning points for maternal identity varied across the four stories. CONCLUSION: These findings have important implications for nursing practice. Health care professionals should be aware of the effects of previous long-standing infertility on the subsequent experience of motherhood so they can provide women with understanding, sufficient support, and appropriate interventions throughout the transition to motherhood.

Continuity From Prelinguistic Communication to Later Language Ability: A Follow-Up Study From Infancy to Early School Age.

Purpose: This longitudinal study examined the development of prelinguistic skills and the continuity of communication and language from the prelinguistic stage to school age. Method: Prelinguistic communication of 427 Finnish children was followed repeatedly from 6 to 18 months of age (n = 203-322 at ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months), and its associations with language ability at ages 2;0 (n = 104), 3;0 (n = 112), 4;7 (n = 253), 5;3 (n = 102), and 7;9 (n = 236) were examined using latent growth curve modeling. Results: Prelinguistic development across several skills emerged as a rather stable intraindividual characteristic during the first 2 years of life. Continuity from prelinguistic development to later language ability was indicated. The common level and growth of prelinguistic skills were significant predictors of language ability between ages 2;0 (years;months) and 7;9; the percentage explained varied between 10.5% and 53.3%. A slow pace of development across multiple skills, in particular, led to weaker language skills. Conclusions: The results support (a) the idea of a developmental continuum from prelinguistic to linguistic ability and (b) the dimensional view of language ability by indicating that individual variations in early communication skills show consistency that extends beyond the toddler years. Our results also advocate developmental surveillance of early communication by emphasizing the significance of growth in predicting language development.

Children with differing developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills: language and working memory at age 5.

PURPOSE: In this article, the authors examine the developmental continuity from prelinguistic communication to kindergarten age in language and working memory capacity. METHOD: Following work outlining 6 groups of children with different trajectories of early communication development (ECD; Määttä, Laakso, Tolvanen, Ahonen, & Aro, 2012), the authors examined their later development by psychometric assessment. Ninety-one children first assessed at ages 12-21 months completed a battery of language and working memory tests at age 5;3 (years;months). RESULTS: Two of the ECD groups previously identified as being at risk for language difficulties continued to show weaker performance at follow-up. Seventy-nine percent of the children with compromised language skills at follow-up were identified on the basis of the ECD groups, but the number of false positives was high. The 2 at-risk groups also differed significantly from the typically developing groups in the measures tapping working memory capacity. CONCLUSIONS: In line with the dimensional view of language impairment, the accumulation of early delays predicted the amount of later difficulties; however, at the individual level, the prediction had rather low specificity. The results imply a strong link between language and working memory and call for further studies examining the early developmental interaction between language and memory.

Associations between toddler-age communication and kindergarten-age self-regulatory skills.

PURPOSE: In this study, the authors aimed at gaining understanding on the associations of different types of early language and communication profiles with later self-regulation skills by using longitudinal data from toddler age to kindergarten age. METHOD: Children with early language profiles representing expressive delay, broad delay (i.e., expressive, social, and/or symbolic), and typical language development were compared in domains of kindergarten-age executive and regulative skills (attentional/executive functions, regulation of emotions and behavioral activity, and social skills) assessed with parental questionnaires. RESULTS: Children with delay in toddler-age language development demonstrated poorer kindergarten-age self-regulation skills than children with typical early language development. Broad early language delays were associated with compromised social skills and attentional/executive functions, and early expressive delays were associated with a generally lower level of kindergarten-age executive and regulative skills. Regression analyses showed that both earlier and concurrent language had an effect especially on the attentional/executive functions. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that different aspects of toddler-age language have differential associations with later self-regulation. Possible mechanisms linking early language development to later self-regulative development are discussed.

Relationship between the linguistic environments and early bilingual language development of hearing children in deaf-parented families.

We explored variation in the linguistic environments of hearing children of Deaf parents and how it was associated with their early bilingual language development. For that purpose we followed up the children's productive vocabulary (measured with the MCDI; MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory) and syntactic complexity (measured with the MLU10; mean length of the 10 longest utterances the child produced during videorecorded play sessions) in both Finnish Sign Language and spoken Finnish between the ages of 12 and 30 months. Additionally, we developed new methodology for describing the linguistic environments of the children (N = 10). Large variation was uncovered in both the amount and type of language input and language acquisition among the children. Language exposure and increases in productive vocabulary and syntactic complexity were interconnected. Language acquisition was found to be more dependent on the amount of exposure in sign language than in spoken language. This was judged to be related to the status of sign language as a minority language. The results are discussed in terms of parents' language choices, family dynamics in Deaf-parented families and optimal conditions for bilingual development.

Developmental trajectories of early communication skills.

PURPOSE: This study focused on developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills and their connections to later parent-reported language difficulties. METHOD: The participants represent a subset of a community-based sample of 508 children. Data include parent reports of prelinguistic communication skills at 12, 15, 18, and 21 months and language difficulties at age 4;7 (years;months). The authors used latent profile analysis to identify groups of children with differing developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills ( n = 271). The relations among these groups and follow-up data of parent-reported concerns of language development ( n = 187), as well as the role of gender, were examined. RESULTS: Six meaningful prelinguistic communication groups were identified with the latent profile analysis, and these groups showed connections to later parent-reported concerns of language difficulties. Delayed early expressive language and a minor delay of overall performance, together with symbolic difficulties, appeared as predictors of later language difficulties. Nearly 80% of the children whose parents reported language-related concerns at the follow-up stage could already be identified before their 2nd birthday. CONCLUSION: The results support the potential of early screening in identifying children at risk of developing language difficulties, particularly when screening includes repeated surveillance of more than one area of communication skills.

Validity of the Play Assessment for Group Settings: an evaluation of differential item functioning between children with specific language impairment and typically developing peers.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity evidence based on internal structure of the Play Assessment for Group Settings (PAGS). METHODS: The study was conducted in day care centres by comparing observations of the free play performance of two groups of children: those with specific language impairments (SLIs) (n=55) and those with typical language development (n=55). The participating children were 3 to 6.5 years of age. Data were subjected to many-faceted Rasch analyses and differential item functioning analysis was conducted to identify possible group-specific items in the PAGS. The effect of differentially functioning items on mean play performance measurements between two subgroups of children was controlled with two different independent samples t-tests. RESULTS: According to the results, 80% of the test items were stable across the groups of children. Four items were harder for children with SLI, and clearly required language skills. Two items were relatively speaking easier for children with SLI, and reflected explorative functioning. The differential functioning items did not affect the ability of the PAGS to separate the children with SLI in mean play performance from their typically developing peers. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the PAGS is a valid tool for identifying children who have challenges in their play performance and can be used for clinical purposes. However, the slight variability supports the fact that differential item functioning should be controlled in research when using the PAGS for comparison of different subgroups in play performance.

Effects of multidomain risk accumulation on cognitive, academic, and behavioural outcomes.

This longitudinal study examined the predictive associations between cumulative multidomain risk factors and cognitive (IQ), academic (reading fluency), and social adaptive outcomes at 8 to 9 years among 190 children with or without familial risk for dyslexia. Other risk factors included parental and neurocognitive risks assessed when the children were 1 to 6 years of age. Risks accumulated more among children with familial risk for dyslexia than among children without familial risk. A higher number of risks was associated with poorer performance in all outcome measures as postulated by the cumulative risk model. However, when the effects of individual risk variables were controlled for at the outset, the cumulative risk indices did not have incremental effects beyond those of individual risks. This suggests that the detrimental effect of several risks was due to the content-specific effect of individual risks. Children with familial risk were not differentially affected by the number of risks.

Predicting delayed letter knowledge development and its relation to grade 1 reading achievement among children with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

The authors examined the developmental trajectories of children's early letter knowledge in relation to measures spanning and encompassing their prior language-related and cognitive measures and environmental factors and their subsequent Grade 1 reading achievement. Letter knowledge was assessed longitudinally at ages 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.5 years; earlier language skills and environmental factors were assessed at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years; and reading achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1. The analyses were conducted on a longitudinal data set involving children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Emerging from the trajectory analysis of letter knowledge were 3 separate clusters: delayed (n = 63), linearly growing (n = 73), and precocious (n = 51). The members of the delayed cluster were predominantly children with familial risk for dyslexia, and the members of the precocious cluster were predominantly control group children. Phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, and rapid naming skills predicted delayed letter knowledge. Environmental predictors included level of maternal education and the amount of letter name teaching. Familial risk for dyslexia made a significant contribution to the predictive relations. Membership in the delayed cluster predicted poor reading performance at Grade 1.

The development of children at familial risk for dyslexia: birth to early school age.

Children at risk for familial dyslexia (n = 107) and their controls (n = 93) have been followed from birth to school entry in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) on developmental factors linked to reading and dyslexia. At the point of school entry, the majority of the at-risk children displayed decoding ability that fell at least 1 SD below the mean of the control group. Measures of speech processing were the earliest indices to show both group differences in infancy and also significant predictive associations with reading acquisition. A number of measures of language, including phonological and morphological skill collected repeatedly from age three, revealed group differences and predictive correlations. Both the group differences and the predictive associations to later language and reading ability strengthened as a function of increasing age. The predictions, however, tend to be stronger and the spectrum of significant correlations wider in the at-risk group. These results are crucial to early identification and intervention of dyslexia in at-risk children.