Neurobehavioral development of preterm and full term children: biomedical and environmental influences.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies indicate that VLBW preterm children obtain significantly lower scores than full-term children in all the NBAS clusters. However the samples studied usually presented additional medical complications. AIMS: The present study aims to compare the results obtained by low-risk preterm and full term children in the NBAS, and relate possible differences to biological and contextual factors. METHOD: Early neurobehavioral development of 150 preterm (PR) children is compared to that of 49 full term children (FT). The children were assessed at the age of 15 days (corrected age for preterm children) with the NBAS. Biological and environmental variables were collected through an extended interview with the mothers as well as medical data. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between preterm and full term children in the following areas: motor, range of state, and regulation of state. Differences were also found in relation to birth weight in these same three areas, following a parallel pattern. These differences between the two groups were not, however, necessarily more favorable for the FT group; the PR group had higher results in the motor and range of state areas, and lower results in the regulation of state area. The mothers' smoking habit had a negative effect on infants' regulation and orientation. CONCLUSIONS: No general maturation delay in this particular sample of preterm children was found.

Deixis, personal reference, and the use of pronouns by blind children.

Blind children are considered to use personal reference terms late and with a great deal of reversal errors. However, in previous research, there has been a dearth of both quantitative and qualitative data on their use of pronouns. In the present paper data from a longitudinal study of five children (three totally blind, one partially sighted, and one sighted) is presented. The children had different ages at the beginning of the study, ranging from 0.9 to 2.5, and were followed for a time span of over 12 months. Every spatial deictic term and personal reference term used by the children was analysed. Special attention was given to the analysis of the reversal errors. The data obtained clearly showed that the blind children began to use personal reference terms as early as the sighted children, and that the use of reversals was not a general characteristic of the language of the blind children, since only one of the four blind or partially sighted children produced a noticeable percentage of reversals. The analysis of the contexts in which reversal errors were produced showed that imitation does not fully explain them, and some proposals for a multiplex explanation of reversals are offered. Thus, the data do not give support to the idea that blind children in general show problems with pronouns, nor to those claims that link blind children with autistic children in this regard.

Experiencia en la microcirugia de disco intervertebral en 51 pacientes intervenidos por la técnica de Caspar

Se estudiaron 51 pacientes con diagnóstico de hernia discal lumbar a los cuales se les práctico tratamiento quirúrgico (micro-cirugia por técnica de Caspar) durante 12 meses. Se descubrieron los hallazgos etiológicos en transoperatorio, se señalaron complicaciones tanto inmediatas como mediatas de esta tecnica y se comentan elementos que intervienen en la evolución desfavorable de estos pacientes.(AU)

Imitations, repetitions, routines, and the child's analysis of language: insights from the blind.

A blind child and her sighted twin sister were recorded at home once a month from 2;5 to 3;5. Their imitations, repetitions and routines (IRR speech) were analysed with respect to three dimensions (type, faithfulness to the model, and function). MLU for IRR speech was greater than that for productive utterances, which supports the idea that these productions facilitate language development. The blind girl used routines and modified imitations and repetitions more frequently than her sighted sister, and her use of modified repetitions increased during the study. She also seemed to use IRR speech for a longer period in her development. Both children frequently used these forms as a means of maintaining conversation and to fulfil their intentions. By introducing modifications (varying some element, or expanding the model) both children, especially the blind girl, analysed language and learned to use these utterances in the appropriate circumstances with a clear pragmatic function. Such behaviour is typical of holistic language processing and acquisition.

The acquisition of gender: what Spanish children tell us.

Data from an experiment on gender acquisition with 160 Spanish children from four to eleven years of age are presented in this paper. In Spanish there are three possible clues (semantic, morphophonological and syntactic), that speakers can use to determine the gender of a noun and the agreement of other variable elements accompanying it. Items where only one of the clues was present, items where there was a combined effect of two of them in agreement (both were feminine or masculine), and items where clues were in conflict (one masculine and the other feminine) were introduced in the experiment. This experimental manipulation made it possible to test the relative strength of the different types of competing clues. In particular, the aim of the present study was to determine the relative importance of intralinguistic and extralinguistic clues, as evidenced by the ability of Spanish children to recognize the gender of a noun upon hearing it in a particular frame, and consequently, to establish the agreement of other variable elements accompanying it. A procedure similar to that used by Karmiloff-Smith (1979) was employed. The results (which are compared with those obtained in other languages) give support to the theoretical view that children pay for more attention to syntactic and morphophonological (intralinguistic) information than to semantic (extralinguistic) information.

The acquisition of morphemes: some evidence from Spanish.

A research on the acquisition of morphemes of plural, diminutive, augmentative, gerund, imperfect, and preterite with 109 Spanish children from 3 to 6 is reported. The results, obtained using a technique similar to that of Berko (1958), are compared with existing data in other studies that permit us to analyze several processes. These confirm any of the "operating principles" proposed by Slobin (1973, 1985) and seem to explain certain errors that children commit in the ages studied. Data are viewed in a developmental pattern of reorganization of linguistic knowledge.