Social Skills Deficits in a Virtual Environment Among Spanish Children With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: Research assessing the social skills of children with ADHD has predominantly relied upon North American samples. In addition, most existing work has been conducted using methodology that fails to use a controlled peer stimulus; such methods may be more vulnerable to cultural influence. METHOD: We examined the social skills of 52 Spanish children (ages 8-12) with and without ADHD using a controlled Chat Room Task, which simulates a virtual social environment where peers' responses are held constant, so that participants' social skills may be assessed. RESULTS: After statistical control of typing and reading comprehension skills, Spanish children with ADHD gave fewer prosocial comments and had greater difficulty remembering central details from the conversation between the peers, relative to comparison children. CONCLUSION: The virtual Chat Room Task may be useful to assess social skills deficits using a controlled paradigm, resulting in the identification of common social deficiencies cross-culturally.

Musical plus phonological input for young foreign language readers.

Based on previous studies showing that phonological awareness is related to reading abilities and that music training improves phonological processing, the aim of the present study was to test for the efficiency of a new method for teaching to read in a foreign language. Specifically, we tested the efficacy of a phonological training program, with and without musical support that aimed at improving early reading skills in 7-8-year-old Spanish children (n = 63) learning English as a foreign language. Of interest was also to explore the impact of this training program on working memory and decoding skills. To achieve these goals we tested three groups of children before and after training: a control group, an experimental group with phonological non-musical intervention (active control), and an experimental group with musical intervention. Results clearly point to the beneficial effects of the phonological teaching approach but the further impact of the music support was not demonstrated. Moreover, while children in the music group showed low musical aptitudes before training, they nevertheless performed better than the control group. Therefore, the phonological training program with and without music support seem to have significant effects on early reading skills.

[Psychosocial intervention follow-up in children with ADHD: effects on academic, emotional and social functioning]. / Seguimiento de los efectos de una intervención psicosocial sobre la adaptación académica, emocional y social de niños con TDAH.

The aim of this investigation was to analyze the maintenance of the effects, one year after its conclusion, of an intervention that integrated three coordinated programs, implemented with 27 children with ADHD, aged between 7 and 10 years, their parents and teachers. The intervention lasted 10 weeks and included behavior-modification and cognitive-behavioral techniques, academic adaptations and social skills. We evaluated the effects on academic, emotional and social adjustment from the information provided by parents, teachers and classmates. The results confirm the maintenance in the follow-up evaluation of the improvements experienced after the treatment, especially in the academic and social areas, in which these children displayed the greatest difficulties.

Seguimiento de los efectos de una intervención psicosocial sobre la adaptación académica, emocional y social de niños con TDAH / Psychosocial intervention follow-up in children with ADHD: Effects on academic, emotional and social functioning

El objetivo de esta investigación ha sido analizar el mantenimiento de los efectos, tras un año de su finalización, de una intervención que integró 3 programas coordinados implementados con 27 niños con TDAH de 7 a 10 años, sus padres y sus profesores. La intervención tuvo una duración de 10 semanas e incluyó modificación de conducta, técnicas cognitivo-conductuales, adaptaciones académicas y habilidades sociales. Se valoraron los efectos sobre la adaptación académica, emocional y social a partir de informaciones aportadas por los padres, profesores y compañeros. Los resultados confirman el mantenimiento en la evaluación de seguimiento de las mejoras experimentadas tras el tratamiento, especialmente en las áreas académica y social, en las que estos niños presentaban las mayores dificultades (AU)

The aim of this investigation was to analyze the maintenance of the effects, one year after its conclusion, of an intervention that integrated three coordinated programs, implemented with 27 children with ADHD, aged between 7 and 10 years, their parents and teachers. The intervention lasted 10 weeks and included behavior-modification and cognitive-behavioral techniques, academic adaptations and social skills. We evaluated the effects on academic, emotional and social adjustment from the information provided by parents, teachers and classmates. The results confirm the maintenance in the follow-up evaluation of the improvements experienced after the treatment, especially in the academic and social areas, in which these children displayed the greatest difficulties (AU)

Percepción del proceso de enseñanza / aprendizaje desarrollado en Psicoestadística I y su incidencia en el rendimiento / Student perception of the teaching / learning process of an introductory statistics course and its influence on achievement

El objetivo de esta investigación es estudiar la influencia de variables instruccionales de proceso en el rendimiento escolar del estudiante de psicología en la asignatura de Psicoestadística I. Las variables instruccionales consideradas proceden del Modelo Instruccional de Situación Educativa (MISS) que las organiza y estructura en cinco Principios: Intencionalidad, Diseño de instrucción, Interacciones personales, Control y Evaluación. Los resultados obtenidos muestran diferencias significativas entre las percepciones del proceso de enseñanza / aprendizaje que se formaron los estudiantes de alto rendimiento y las que se formaron los estudiantes de bajo rendimiento. Por otra parte, se ha comprobado el importante peso que tienen algunas variables instruccionales de proceso como expectativas, dedicación al estudio y diferencias individuales de afrontamiento, en la explicación del rendimiento académico (AU)

The objective of this paper is to study the influence of instructional variables on student achievement of an introductory behavioral statistics course. The variables considered came from the Instructional Model of Educational Setting (MISE). According to this Model, the variables involved in the Teaching/Learning process in an educational setting are structured by five Principles: Intentionality, Instructional Design, Personal Interactions, Knowledge Acquisition, Testing and Evaluation. Results showed significant differences in the perceptions developed by high achievement students and those developed by low achievement students. Furthermore, it was found that instructional variables such as expectations, learning dedication time and individual differences have an influence on student achievement (AU)

La modelización de relaciones no lineales: aspectos teóricos / Modelling non-linear relationships: theoretical aspects

En muchas ocasiones las relaciones entre la/s variable/s respuesta/s y las predictoras pueden considerarse en el marco de la linealidad asumiendo como válida la ecuación de la recta desde la que se obtendrán los estimadores adecuados. No obstante, existen situaciones en las que no puede mantenerse la referencia a la linealidad en las relaciones entre variables. Por tanto, es preciso acudir a otras funciones que representen de forma más adecuada las anteriores relaciones. La estrategia de modelización, en el marco de la regresión no lineal, permite realizar una elaboración interactiva de procedimientos de identificación, estimación, validación y uso de los modelos. Desde esta perspectiva, es posible abarcar una gran cantidad de posibilidades de acuerdo con diferentes características desde las que considerar las variables implicadas. Así, podría repararse, entre otros, en modelos con variable independiente fija, modelos con variable independiente aleatoria, modelos con variables cualitativas o modelos con errores autocorrelacionados. La exposición del trabajo que se presenta trata de dar a conocer algunos aspectos teóricos que deberían considerarse a la hora de obtener modelos representativos de relaciones no lineales entre variables (AU)

In many cases, the relationship between dependent and independent variables can be considered to be linear, assuming that the equation of the line from which the estimators are obtained is valid. However, there are situations in which the linearity cannot be maintained in the relationships between the variables. Thus, other non-linear functions must be used to represent them. The non-linear strategy of modelling allows us to perform, in an interactive way, the identification, estimation and validation procedures as well as the application of the models. From this point of view, it is possible to cover a large number of possibilities in function of the different characteristics of the variables involved. In this way, different models, such as those involving fixed independent variables, random independent variables, qualitative variables or autocorrelated errors can be used. This paper presents some theoretical aspects which should be taken into account during the process of fitting non-linear models, whose aim is to obtain valid relationships between variables (AU)