The Role of Language Skill in Child Psychopathology: Implications for Intervention in the Early Years

Relations between early majority language and socioemotional development in children with different language backgrounds

This study explored whether the directionality of the relation between majority language and various facets of socioemotional development (three to 5 years old) differs between children with different language backgrounds. 12,951 children (49% girls; 85% White, 6% Pakistani and Bangladeshi, 3% Black, 3% Mix, 2% Indian) from the British Millennium Cohort Study (2001-2006) were included in two-time-point cross-lagged analyses. Models controlling for important covariates found a bidirectional association for monolinguals (βs = .05, -.07, -.04), a unidirectional effect of majority language on socioemotional difficulties for dual language learners (DLLs) speaking English and minority language(s) at home (β = .14), and a unidirectional effect of socioemotional strength on majority language for DLLs speaking only minority language(s) at home (β = -.17).

Bidirectional associations between mental health problems and language ability across 8 years of childhood

Research examining the development of behavior, emotions and language, and their intertwining is limited as only few studies had a longitudinal design, mostly with a short follow-up period. Moreover, most studies did not evaluate whether internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms are independently associated with language ability. This study examines bidirectional associations between internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and language ability in childhood in a large, population-based cohort. Longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a cohort of children in the United Kingdom followed from birth to 11 years (n = 10,878; 50.7% boys), were analyzed. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were based on parent reports. Language ability (higher scores reflecting poorer ability) was assessed by trained interviewers at ages 3, 5, 7 and 11 years. Structural Equation Models (SEM) were performed, including random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) and cross-lagged panel models (CLPM). Internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and language ability were stable over time and co-occur with each other from early life onwards. Over time, externalizing symptoms in early childhood were associated with less growth in language skills and with increases in internalizing symptoms. In late childhood, language ability was negatively associated with later internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The early start, co-occurrence and persistent nature of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and (poorer) language ability highlights the importance of comprehensive assessments in young children who present problems in one of these domains. Specifically, among children in the early grades of elementary school, those with language difficulties may benefit from careful monitoring as they are more likely to develop difficulties in behavior and emotions.

Vocabulary size predicts behavioral problems in emotionally reactive children

Internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems place children at an increased risk for low academic achievement and socioemotional maladjustment. Children's language skills and level of emotional reactivity have been shown to predict behavioral problems later in development. Yet, there is an absence of research investigating vocabulary by negative emotionality interactions with respect to the development of behavioral problems during early childhood. Our study sought to fill this gap by examining whether the relation between preschool (age 3) vocabulary size and internalizing/externalizing problems during the early school years (age 6) is moderated by preschool negative emotional reactivity, even after controlling for preschool behavioral problems as well as children's socioeconomic background. Longitudinal data was collected from 256 typically developing children (129 girls, 75% White) and their mothers (64% held a college degree). Linear regression analyses revealed moderate rank-order stability in children's internalizing and externalizing problems across this period of development. Evidence of an interaction effect emerged in both the internalizing and externalizing problems regression models. That is, age 3 vocabulary was negatively related to age 6 behavioral problems, but only among children exhibiting higher levels of negative emotional reactivity. Our results indicate that early vocabulary acquisition may serve as a buffer against adverse behavioral outcomes in children with a natural propensity toward expressing negative emotions. These findings point to a more nuanced picture of the relations between language, emotional reactivity, and behavioral problems in childhood, which are discussed in greater detail to inform future intervention and educational research.

E-Learning and Flipped Classroom in Inclusive Education: The Case of Students with the Psychopathology of Language and Cognition

The study analyzed modern e-learning and flipped classroom methods in inclusive education, focusing on their impact on motivation, academic performance, and the effectiveness of the educational process. The experiment involved 648 first- and second-year students from Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, the Elabuga Institute (Branch) of Kazan Federal University, and I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. According to the survey conducted in the first phase, 66% of students reported using e-learning and flipped classroom methods, while 34% indicated that these methods were not employed. Furthermore, 50% of respondents rated the development of these methods in their universities as low, suggesting a lack of attention, familiarity among teachers, or reluctance to adopt them. To study the psychopathology of language and cognitive functions among children with special needs, the authors used the ASEBA questionnaire algorithm. It allowed for a survey among children from specialized classes, mixed classes (E-learning and flipped classroom), and control classes. Each group consisted of 50 people, there were three classes in each category. The ASEBA questionnaire revealed information about various aspects of the psychological functioning of children, including their behavior, emotional state, social adaptation, as well as problems with language and communication. The use of the questionnaire in different types of classes helped to compare the results between groups and identify features and differences in the psychopathology of language and cognitive functions in children with special needs. The findings can contribute to a deeper understanding of the psychopathology of language and cognitive functions in this category of children.

The Protective Effects of Parent-Child Emotion Dialogues for Preschoolers Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) during early childhood is associated with self-regulation difficulties. Caregivers can facilitate children's self-regulation through emotion-focused conversations about past experiences, buffering downstream effects. However, caregivers experiencing violence may avoid distressing emotions activated by such conversations. This paper explores two different models of relational stress responses, one involving indirect effects (i.e. spillover effects) and the other moderation (i.e. buffering effects). Mothers (n = 117), oversampled for violence exposure, self-reported on IPV and participated in an emotional reminiscing task with children (aged 3-5 years); narratives were coded for maternal sensitive guidance. Maternal sensitive guidance was related to children's self-regulation. Sensitive guidance did not have indirect effects in the association between IPV exposure and children's self-regulation, but did buffer the association between physical IPV and self-regulation; this pattern did not hold for psychological IPV. Results suggest sensitive guidance during reminiscing may promote self-regulation in contexts of high IPV.

Maternal depressive symptoms and child language development: Exploring potential pathways through observed and self-reported mother-child verbal interactions

Maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) in the postnatal period may impact children's later development through poorer quality parent-child interactions. The current study tested a specific pathway from MDS (child age 9 months) to child receptive vocabulary (4 ½ years) through both self-reported and observed parent-child verbal interactions (at both 2 and 4 ½ years). Participants (n = 4,432) were part of a large, diverse, contemporary pre-birth national cohort study: Growing Up in New Zealand. Results indicated a direct association between greater MDS at 9 months and poorer receptive vocabulary at age 4 ½ years. There was support for an indirect pathway through self-reported parent-child verbal interactions at 2 years and through observed parent-child verbal interactions at 4 ½ years. A moderated mediation effect was also found: the indirect effect of MDS on child vocabulary through observed verbal interaction was supported for families living in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation. Overall, findings support the potential role of parent-child verbal interactions as a mechanism for the influence of MDS on later child language development. This pathway may be particularly important for families experiencing socioeconomic adversity, suggesting that effective and appropriate supportive parenting interventions be preferentially targeted to reduce inequities in child language outcomes.

Pragmatic language and associations with externalizing behaviors in autistic individuals and those who have lost the autism diagnosis

Background

Pragmatic language weaknesses, a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are implicated in externalizing behavior disorders (Gremillion & Martel, 2014). Particularly in a clinical setting, these co-occurring externalizing disorders are very common in autism; rates of Attentional Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are as high as 83% (ADHD) and 73% (ODD; Joshi et al., 2010). It is possible that pragmatic language weaknesses impact the ability to effectively communicate one's needs, which may lead autistic children to utilize externalizing behaviors in order to achieve a desired outcome (Ketelaars et al., 2010; Rodas et al., 2017).

Methods

The aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between pragmatic language, assessed via multiple modalities, and externalizing behaviors, assessed by parent interview, in youth with autistic (n=33) or neurotypical (NT; n=34) developmental histories, along with youth diagnosed with autism, who lost the diagnosis (LAD) by adolescence (n=31).

Results

The autism group had significantly more pragmatic language difficulties, and more externalizing behaviors and disorders; ADHD symptoms were particularly more prevalent, while LAD and NT groups did not differ. Challenges in pragmatic language abilities were associated with more externalizing symptoms when controlling for other facts that typically influence such symptoms, including nonverbal cognition, structural language, executive functioning, and autistic characteristics, but did not remain when age was included in the model.

Conclusions

We discuss the mechanisms underlying difficult-to-manage externalizing behaviors and implications for interventions and long-term outcomes for youth with and without a history of autism.

Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start): a study protocol for a cluster randomised trial with early childhood teachers to support children's oral language and self-regulation development

INTRODUCTION

Oral language skills are associated with children's later self-regulation and academic skills; in turn, self-regulation in early childhood predicts successful functioning later in life. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the separate and combined effectiveness of an oral language intervention (Enhancing Rich Conversations, ENRICH) and a self-regulation intervention (Enhancing Neurocognitive Growth with the Aid of Games and Exercise, ENGAGE) with early childhood teachers and parents for children's oral language, self-regulation and academic functioning.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start) study is a cluster randomised controlled trial with teachers and children in approximately 140 early childhood centres in New Zealand. Centres are randomly assigned to receive either oral language intervention only (ENRICH), self-regulation intervention only (ENGAGE), both interventions (ENRICH+ENGAGE) or an active control condition. Teachers' and parents' practices and children's oral language and self-regulation development are assessed at baseline at age 1.5 years and approximately every 9 months to age 5, and academic performance at age 6. Teacher-child interactions will also be videotaped each year in a subset of the centres. Children's brain and behaviour development and parent-child interactions will be assessed every 6 months to age 6 years in a subgroup of volunteers.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The Kia Tīmata Pai trial and the two substudies (Video Project; Brain and Behaviour Development) have been approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Health; H20/116), and reviewed for cultural responsiveness by: the Ngāi Tahu Research Committee (University of Otago), the Māori Advisory Group (University of Auckland, Liggins Institute) and an internal cultural advisory group. Results will be disseminated in international and national peer-reviewed academic journals and communicated to local, national and international organisations serving early childhood teachers, parents and young children. Data will be available via communication with the corresponding author.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

ACTRN12621000845831.

Contributions of socioeconomic status and cognition to emotion processes and internalizing psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review

This systematic review evaluated evidence from 25 manuscripts regarding three possible relationships of socioeconomic disadvantage (SESD) and cognition to emotion knowledge (EK), emotion regulation (ER), and internalizing psychopathology (IP) across development; a) independent contributions of disadvantage and cognition; b) cognition mediates relations of disadvantage; or c) cognition moderates' relations of disadvantage. Results support associations between SESD and cognition to emotion that differ by cognitive domain and developmental epoch. For EK, in early and middle childhood language and executive functions contribute to EK independent of SESD, and early childhood executive functions may interact with socioeconomic status (SES) to predict prospective EK. Regarding ER, language contributes to ER independent of SES across development and may mediate associations between SES and ER in adolescence. Regarding IP, SES, language, executive function, and general ability have independent contributions to IP across development; in adolescence executive function may mediate or moderate associations between SES and IP. Findings highlight the need for nuanced and developmentally sensitive research on the contributions of SESD and domains of cognition to emotion.

Maternal reminiscing as critical to emotion socialization

Background

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the central importance of socioemotional skills in positive child development has become even more apparent. Prevalent models of emotion socialization emphasize the importance of parent-child talk as a critical socialization context.

Purpose

Autobiographical reminiscing about the child's lived experience may be a particularly effective form of parent-child conversation that facilitates emotion understanding.

Method

The authors provide a theoretical and empirical review of how maternal reminiscing style impacts specifically on emotion socialization in both typically and atypically developing children.

Results

Individual differences in maternal reminiscing indicate that highly elaborative reminiscing is related to both better narrative skills and higher levels of emotion understanding and regulation both concurrently and longitudinally. Intervention studies indicate that mothers can be coached to be more elaborative during reminiscing and coaching leads to higher levels of emotion understating and regulation.

Conclusions

Reminiscing about lived experience allows mothers and children to explore and examine emotions in personally meaningful situations that have real world implications for children's evolving emotion understanding.

Behaviors related to autism spectrum disorder in children with developmental language disorder and children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

Background and Aim

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are at an increased risk to develop behaviors associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The relationship between early language difficulties and the occurrence of ASD-related behaviors in DLD is poorly understood. One factor that may hinder progress in understanding this relationship is the etiological heterogeneity of DLD. We therefore study this relationship in an etiologically homogeneous group of children, who share phenotypic characteristics with children with DLD: children with the 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS). We compare children with 22q11DS, to children with DLD and age-matched typically developing children (TD).

Method

44 children with 22q11DS, 65 children with DLD and 81 TD children, between 3.0-6.5 years old, participated in a longitudinal cohort study that included a baseline measure and a follow-up measure with a 1-year interval. A parental questionnaire (SRS-2) was used to measure the incidence of behaviors in two key behavioral domains associated with ASD: Social Communication and Interaction and Restricted Repetitive Behaviors and Interests. At baseline, we assessed children's expressive and receptive language abilities as well as their intellectual functioning with standardized tests. We compared the distribution of ASD-related behaviors between the three groups. We used regression analyses to investigate whether language abilities at baseline predict ASD-related behavior at follow-up, accounting for ASD-related behavior at baseline, demographic variables and intellectual functioning.

Results

Both the children with 22q11DS and the children with DLD displayed significantly more ASD-related behaviors than the TD children. Over 30% of children in both clinical groups had scores exceeding the subclinical threshold for ASD in both behavioral domains. Both in 22q11DS and DLD, baseline receptive language scores were negatively correlated with ASD-related behaviors 1 year later, when controlling for baseline SRS-scores. However, this association was statistically significant only in children with 22q11DS, even when controlled for IQ-scores, and it was significantly stronger as than in the TD group. The strength of the association did not differ significantly between 22q11DS and DLD.

Conclusion

Both children with 22q11DS and children with DLD present with elevated rates of ASD-related behaviors at a preschool-age. Only in children with 22q11DS we observed that weaker receptive language skills were related to increased behavioral problems in the domain of social communication and interaction one year later.

Implications

Our findings indicate that relations between early language impairment and other behavioral phenotypes may be more feasible to detect in a subgroup of children with a homogeneous etiology, than in a group of children with a heterogeneous etiology (such as children with DLD). Our results in 22q11DS reveal that receptive language is especially important in predicting the occurrence of ASD-related behaviors. Future research is needed to determine to what extent receptive language predicts the occurrence of ASD-related behaviors in children with DLD, especially among those children with DLD with the weakest receptive language. Clinically, screening for ASD-related behaviors in children with developmental language difficulties is recommended from a young age, especially among children with receptive language difficulties.

Inhibitory control within the context of early life poverty and implications for outcomes

Early life poverty confers risk for unfavorable outcomes including lower academic achievement, behavioral difficulties, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Disruptions in inhibitory control (IC) have been posed as one mechanism to explain the relationship between early life poverty and deleterious outcomes. There is robust research to suggest that early life poverty is associated with development of poorer IC. Further, poorer IC in children is related to decreased academic achievement and social competence, and increased externalizing and internalizing behavior. There is some parent-report evidence to suggest that IC is a mediator of the relationship between poverty and externalizing behaviors, as well as some limited evidence to suggest that IC is a mediator between poverty and academic achievement. Future work should aim to determine whether early life poverty's relation to IC could be explained by verbal ability which is thought to be central to the development of effective IC. In addition, future neuroimaging work should utilize IC fMRI tasks to identify key neural mechanisms that might contribute to a relationship between early life poverty and IC.

Research Review: Language and specific learning disorders in children and their co-occurrence with internalizing and externalizing problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Some studies suggest that children with language and learning disorders (LLDs) show more internalizing and externalizing problems than their peers. However, the available evidence remains inconsistent, especially regarding the conditions under which these psychological problems occur.

METHODS

We performed a meta-analysis of studies comparing children with LLDs and controls on internalizing (53 independent samples, 135 effect sizes) and externalizing problems (37 independent samples, 61 effect sizes) separately.

RESULTS

Children with LLDs showed higher internalizing (Hedges' g = 0.36) and externalizing problems (Hedges' g = 0.42) than controls did. The group standardized difference in internalizing problems was moderated by the primary disorder, with children with language disorders showing more internalizing problems than those with reading disorders. The severity of the primary disorder, IQ, and age did not moderate Hedge's g between children with LLDs and controls in internalizing and externalizing outcomes. The same pattern was found for gender as a moderator of Hedge's g in internalizing problems, while findings for externalizing problems were inconclusive. The results were consistent when methodological variables were assessed, also for informant, sample size, and geographical area. Clinical samples with LLDs reported higher internalizing problems respect to those with difficulties, but findings on externalizing outcomes were limited. Similarly, results on the presence of additional symptoms in learning and language, self-concept, and socioeconomic status were inconclusive, as few studies reported this information. Results were robust when publication bias, publication year, and study quality were assessed.

CONCLUSIONS

There is evidence that children with LLDs report higher internalizing and externalizing problems than controls do. Children with language disorders seemed more vulnerable to report more internalizing problems, and clinical samples reported higher problems than those with difficulties. For clinical practice, assessment and interventions should target socioemotional skills to support the psychological well-being of children with LLDs.

Pathways From Preschool Language Difficulties to School-Age Internalizing Problems

PURPOSE

Early language difficulties are associated with later internalizing problems across different ages and for different aspects of language. The mechanisms behind this association are, however, less understood. In the current study, we investigated longitudinal associations between language difficulties at 5 years and internalizing problems at 6 years. We also examined emotion regulation, empathy, assertiveness, and social engagement at 6 years as possible pathways for this association.

METHOD

A subsample from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) was used (N = 928). Structural equation models were developed to test the longitudinal associations and indirect pathways between language and internalizing problems.

RESULTS

The results showed high stability for internalizing problems from 5 to 6 years (β = .59, p < .001). Furthermore, semantic language difficulties predicted change in internalizing problems (β = .12, p < .001). Finally, the path between semantic language and internalizing problems was partially mediated by social engagement and emotion regulation, with the indirect pathways accounting for 55% of the initial association. For girls, there was a significantly stronger correlation (p < .05) between semantic language difficulties and internalizing problems at baseline (r = .30, p < .001) than for boys (r = .16, p < .001). Otherwise, there were no sex differences.

CONCLUSIONS

Indirect pathways from language difficulties to internalizing problems were identified through social engagement and emotion regulation. The results may guide targets for intervention in groups of children with language difficulties at risk for developing internalizing problems.

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

The focus on the role of parenting in child development has a long-standing history. When measures of parenting precede changes in child development, researchers typically infer a causal role of parenting practices and attitudes on child development. However, this research is usually conducted with parents raising their own biological offspring. Such research designs cannot account for the effects of genes that are common to parents and children, nor for genetically influenced traits in children that influence how they are parented and how parenting affects them. The aim of this monograph is to provide a clearer view of parenting by synthesizing findings from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS). EGDS is a longitudinal study of adopted children, their birth parents, and their rearing parents studied across infancy and childhood. Families (N = 561) were recruited in the United States through adoption agencies between 2000 and 2010. Data collection began when adoptees were 9 months old (males = 57.2%; White 54.5%, Black 13.2%, Hispanic/Latinx 13.4%, Multiracial 17.8%, other 1.1%). The median child age at adoption placement was 2 days (M = 5.58, SD = 11.32). Adoptive parents were predominantly in their 30s, White, and coming from upper-middle- or upper-class backgrounds with high educational attainment (a mode at 4-year college or graduate degree). Most adoptive parents were heterosexual couples, and were married at the beginning of the project. The birth parent sample was more racially and ethnically diverse, but the majority (70%) were White. At the beginning of the study, most birth mothers and fathers were in their 20s, with a mode of educational attainment at high school degree, and few of them were married. We have been following these family members over time, assessing their genetic influences, prenatal environment, rearing environment, and child development. Controlling for effects of genes common to parents and children, we confirmed some previously reported associations between parenting, parent psychopathology, and marital adjustment in relation to child problematic and prosocial behavior. We also observed effects of children's heritable characteristics, characteristics thought to be transmitted from parent to child by genetic means, on their parents and how those effects contributed to subsequent child development. For example, we found that genetically influenced child impulsivity and social withdrawal both elicited harsh parenting, whereas a genetically influenced sunny disposition elicited parental warmth. We found numerous instances of children's genetically influenced characteristics that enhanced positive parental influences on child development or that protected them from harsh parenting. Integrating our findings, we propose a new, genetically informed process model of parenting. We posit that parents implicitly or explicitly detect genetically influenced liabilities and assets in their children. We also suggest future research into factors such as marital adjustment, that favor parents responding with appropriate protection or enhancement. Our findings illustrate a productive use of genetic information in prevention research: helping parents respond effectively to a profile of child strengths and challenges rather than using genetic information simply to identify some children unresponsive to current preventive interventions.

The Structure of Emotion Dialogues: Maternal Reminiscing Factors Differentially Relate to Child Language and Socio-Emotional Outcomes

Mother-child reminiscing about past emotional experiences is one aspect of emotion socialization that facilitates child socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes. To advance understanding of the multidimensional nature of this clinically significant transdiagnostic process, the current investigation examined the structure of maternal reminiscing and how emergent factors related to child outcomes across two diverse samples (total N = 337). Sample one included 102 mothers and their preschool-aged children from community agencies, and sample two included 235 mothers and their preschool-aged children, the majority of whom had experienced substantiated maltreatment. Dyads completed a reminiscing task coded for multiple aspects of maternal reminiscing style (frequency and scale-based coding), assessments of child receptive language and internalizing and externalizing problems, and measures of parenting. Factor analyses confirmed that maternal reminiscing was best defined by three factors: (1) structural elaborations, (2) emotional attributions, and (3) sensitive guidance, and this three-factor structure was invariant across samples, maltreatment, maternal race, and child sex. When controlling for other dimensions of caregiver-reported parenting behavior, reminiscing sensitive guidance was significantly positively associated with child language and negatively with child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In contrast, emotional elaborations were associated with higher child internalizing concerns. When controlling for caregiver-reported parenting and observed maternal sensitivity, structural elaborations negatively and emotional attributions positively related to child internalizing symptoms, whereas reminiscing factors did not significantly predict child externalizing symptoms nor child language. Distinct aspects of maternal reminiscing behavior are differentially related to child outcomes. Limitations and implications for understanding and measuring emotion socialization interactions are discussed.

Maternal depressive symptoms and maternal child-directed speech: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Up to 1 in 5 children are exposed to maternal depressive symptoms. Children exposed to maternal depressive symptoms have poorer language skills than children not exposed to maternal depressive symptoms. Due to the crucial role of children's language skills in school readiness and academic achievement, it is imperative to understand the factors that underlie the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children's language skills. Previous reviews have examined the mechanistic role of social-pragmatic features of mother-child interactions. However, the literature on the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and data-providing aspects of mother-child interactions, including child-directed speech, has yet to be consolidated. In this systematic review, we present maternal child-directed speech as a potential pathway through which maternal depressive symptoms influence children's language skills.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, three database searches produced 546 articles related to maternal depressive symptoms, child-directed speech, and children's language skills, ten of which examined the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child-directed speech.

RESULTS

Findings revealed that increases in maternal depressive symptoms may be associated with decreases in amount of child-directed speech but not necessarily with decreases in the complexity of child-directed speech.

LIMITATIONS

The studies in this review varied in sample size, the inclusion of important sociodemographic factors, and the operationalization of depression and child-directed speech, thereby limiting conclusions, especially about whether maternal depressive symptoms are associated with the complexity of child-directed speech.

CONCLUSIONS

This review has implications for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at optimizing children's language skills; child-directed speech is modifiable, and mothers experiencing depressive symptoms may benefit from resources encouraging rich child-directed speech.

The Ecology of Youth Psychological Wellbeing in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The consequences of profound disruption to everyday life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will only emerge over time. Guided by ecological systems (Pitchik et al., 2021) and developmental psychopathology (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010) frameworks, I review evidence that points to parents at home with children as particularly vulnerable to increased psychological difficulties, particularly in contexts of poverty. Resultant compromised parenting may reduce children's opportunities for the kinds of everyday interactions that promote cognitive and socioemotional development and expose them to increases in coercive, avoidant, and other problematic caregiving behaviours. I discuss three evidence-based strategies that parents could adopt to buffer their child's mental health: building positive discipline strategies, talking with the child about the pandemic and its consequences, and conversing about the past. I conclude, however, that approaches to supporting parents and their children at this time must also address multisystem factors that compromise caregivers' ability to provide nurturing care.

Language development and behaviour problems in toddlers indicated to have a developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND

There is empirical evidence that a developmental language disorder (DLD) in early childhood leads to behaviour problems. However, it is still not clear how changes in language proficiency in these children influence the presence of behaviour problems.

AIMS

The aim of this study is to examine if changes in language proficiency are related to changes in behaviour problems in toddlers indicated to have DLD.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

This study included 185 toddlers indicated to have DLD (mean age 38 months at pretest). Scores on receptive and expressive language domains and internalizing and externalizing behaviour were gathered on Wave 1 and Wave 2 using Routine Outcome Monitoring. The Reliable Change Index was used to categorize children into two groups: children improving in receptive and expressive language domains and children not improving.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

For receptive syntax, receptive vocabulary and expressive syntax, 30% or less of the children improved. Only for expressive vocabulary, most children improved (63%). Behaviour problems were present in 17% (internalizing) and 23% (externalizing) of the children. Changes in language proficiency did not lead to changes in internalizing or externalizing behaviour problems, not for the total sample, nor for children displaying behaviour problems at Wave 1.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Professionals working with toddlers indicated to have DLD need to be aware of the co-occurrence of language problems and behaviour problems, and have to realize that behaviour problems might not immediately decrease when language proficiency improves. If behaviour problems are present in toddlers indicated to have DLD, interventions should not only focus on language, but also on behaviour problems.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject There is empirical evidence that a developmental language disorder (DLD) in early childhood leads to behaviour problems. However, it is still not clear how changes in language proficiency in children with DLD influence the presence of behaviour problems. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study addresses if a change in language proficiency is related to changes in child behaviour problems in toddlers indicated to have DLD. The results of our study showed that most of the children did not show a positive reliable change in receptive syntax, receptive vocabulary and expressive syntax at this young age, but most of the children did in expressive vocabulary. Furthermore, changes in language proficiency did not lead to changes in the presence of internalizing or externalizing behaviour problems. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Therefore, professionals working with toddlers indicated to have DLD should be aware of the co-occurrence of language problems and behaviour problems, and have to realize that behaviour problems might not decrease as a result of improved language proficiency. If behaviour problems are present and need to be treated, other interventions, apart from the language intervention, might be necessary.

Dimensions of the language environment in infancy and symptoms of psychopathology in toddlerhood

The quality of the early environment influences the development of psychopathology. Children who are deprived of sufficient environmental enrichment in infancy may be at higher risk for developing symptoms of psychopathology in toddlerhood. In this study, we investigated the prospective association between naturalistic measures of adult language input obtained through passive monitoring of infants' daily environments and emerging psychopathology in toddlerhood. In a sample of 100 mothers and their infants recruited from the community (mean age [range] = 6.73 [5-9] months), we used the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system to measure multiple dimensions of infants' language environments, including both the quantity and consistency of adult speech and conversational turns in infants' daily lives as well as the quantity of infant vocalizations. Subsequently, during toddlerhood (mean age [range] = 18.29 [17-21] months), mothers reported on their children's symptoms of psychopathology. Infants who experienced more consistent adult speech and conversational turns had lower symptoms of psychopathology in toddlerhood, independent of negative emotionality in infancy, maternal depressive symptoms, and laboratory-based measures of maternal sensitivity. These findings have implications for the measurement of environmental factors that may confer risk and resilience to emerging psychopathology.

Does Early Child Language Predict Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence? An Investigation in Two Birth Cohorts Born 30 Years Apart

Language is vital for social interaction, leading some to suggest early linguistic ability paves the way for good adolescent mental health. The relation between age-5 vocabulary and adolescent internalizing symptoms was examined in two U.K. birth cohorts that are nationally representative in terms of sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status: the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS; N = 11,640) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS born ~2001; N = 14,754). In the BCS, no relation between receptive vocabulary and age-16 self-reported symptoms was observed (β = 0.00 [-0.03; 0.03]). In the MCS, better expressive vocabulary was associated with more age-14 self-reported symptoms (β = 0.05 [0.02; 0.07]). The direction of this effect was reversed for parent-reported symptoms. All effect sizes were small. The relation between childhood vocabulary and internalizing symptoms varies by generation and reporter.

The profile of pragmatic language impairments in children with ADHD: A systematic review

This systematic review synthesizes the empirical literature examining pragmatic language in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using a taxonomy of pragmatic language, we compared the pragmatic language profiles of children with ADHD to those of typically developing (TD) children and children with autism. Three databases were searched up to October 2019: PsychInfo; PubMed; and CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts. We included 34 studies reporting on 2,845 children (ADHD = 1,407; TD = 1,058; autism = 380). Quality and risk of bias assessments included sample size and representativeness; measure reliability and validity; and missing data management. Children with ADHD were found to have higher rates of pragmatic difficulties than their TD peers. Specific difficulties were identified with inappropriate initiation, presupposition, social discourse, and narrative coherence. Children with ADHD appear to differ from those with autism in the degree of their pragmatic language impairments. General language skills contribute to, but do not explain, pragmatic difficulties in samples of children with ADHD. Though the extant evidence is limited, a preliminary profile of the pragmatic language impairments in children with ADHD is indicated. This supports a call for evidence-based interventions that include pragmatic language skills training.

Evidence for dissociable cognitive and neural pathways from poverty versus maltreatment to deficits in emotion regulation

Poverty and threat exposure (TE) predict deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Effective cognitive ER (i.e., reappraisal) may be supported by: (1) cognitive processes implicated in generating and implementing cognitive reappraisal, supported by activation in brain regions involved in cognitive control (e.g., frontal, insular, and parietal cortices) and (2) emotion processing and reactivity, involving identification, encoding, and maintenance of emotional states and related variation in brain activity of regions involved in emotional reactivity (i.e., amygdala). Poverty is associated with deficits in cognitive control, and TE with alterations in emotion processing and reactivity. Our goal was to identify dissociable emotional and cognitive pathways to ER deficits from poverty and TE. Measures of cognitive ability, emotional processing and reactivity, ER, and neural activity during a sadness ER task, were examined from a prospective longitudinal study of youth at risk for depression (n = 139). Both cognitive ability and left anterior insula extending into the frontal operculum activity during a sadness reappraisal task mediated the relationship between poverty and ER. Emotion processing/reactivity didn’t mediate the relationship of TE to ER. Findings support a cognitive pathway from poverty to ER deficits. They also underscore the importance of dissociating mechanisms contributing to ER impairments from adverse early childhood experiences.

Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15-year longitudinal investigation

BACKGROUND

Early adversity consistently predicts youth psychopathology. However, the pathways linking unique dimensions of early adversity, such as deprivation, to psychopathology are understudied. Here, we evaluate a theoretical model linking early deprivation exposure with psychopathology prospectively through language ability.

METHODS

Participants included 2,301 youth (47.5% female) enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. We include data from assessment points at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. Latent factors for deprivation and threat were modeled from multiple indicators at ages 1 and 3. Youth language ability was assessed at Age 5. Indicators of psychopathology were assessed at ages 5, 9, and 15. A structural equation model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology from experiences of deprivation and threat.

RESULTS

Deprivation from birth to Age 3 was associated with an indirect effect on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early childhood (Age 5), later childhood (Age 9), and adolescence (Age 15) via language ability in early childhood (Age 5). Early threat exposure was associated with increased internalizing and externalizing psychopathology across all ages. There was no significant indirect effect from threat to psychopathology via language ability.

CONCLUSIONS

The effects of deprivation on psychopathology during early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence are explained, in part, through early childhood language ability. Results provide insight into language ability as a possible opportunity for intervention.

A Family Socialization Model of Transdiagnostic Risk for Psychopathology in Preschool Children

This longitudinal study examined the presence of general (P) and specific internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) psychopathology factors in a community sample of preschool children. We assessed child and contextual correlates of P, INT, and EXT, and tested a model connecting socioeconomic risk to these factors through family socialization processes and child cognitive abilities. Participants were 501 children recruited at birth and followed up at 18 months and 3 years. Child and family functioning were measured using parental reports, observation, and standardized assessments. Both mothers and their partners reported on children's mental health, permitting the estimation of a trifactor model of psychopathology that captured caregivers' shared and unique perspectives with respect to P, INT, and EXT. Results revealed several transdiagnostic correlates of the common-perspective P factor, including family income, maternal education, maternal depression, and maternal responsiveness, as well as marginal associations with sibling negativity and children's language and theory of mind abilities. Several shared and unique correlates of INT and EXT were also observed. Structural equation modelling revealed that the effects of family income and maternal education on P operated indirectly through maternal responsiveness, while the effects of maternal education on INT and EXT operated through maternal reflective capacity, albeit in opposite directions. Together, these results suggest that the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on general psychopathology are organized in a temporal cascade from distal to proximal risk.

Child Language Difficulties and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A Meta-Analysis

This study conducted two meta-analyses to synthesize the association between children's language skills and two broad-band dimensions of psychopathology: internalizing and externalizing. Pooled estimates across 139 samples (externalizing k = 105; internalizing k = 90) and 147,305 participants (age range: 2-17 years old; mean % males: 53.75; mean % White participants: 55.59; mean % minority participants: 43.12) indicated small but significant associations between child language skills and externalizing problems (Hedges' g = .22) and between language skills and internalizing problems (Hedges' g = .23). The association between language difficulties and externalizing problems was stronger amongst males and in children with low versus high sociodemographic risk. Implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.

Infants' and Toddlers' Language, Math and Socio-Emotional Development: Evidence for Reciprocal Relations and Differential Gender and Age Effects

Toddlerhood is characterized by rapid development in several domains, such as language, socio-emotional behavior and emerging math skills all of which are important precursors of school readiness. However, little is known about how these skills develop over time and how they may be interrelated. The current study investigates young children’s development at two time points, with about 7 months in between, assessing their language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills with teacher ratings. The sample includes 577 children from 18 until 36 months of age of 86 childcare classrooms. The results of the autoregressive path analyses showed moderate to strong stability of language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills, although the magnitude of associations was smaller for the latter. The cross-lagged path analyses highlighted the importance of language and socio-emotional skills for development in the other domains. Differential relations were found for the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths depending on gender and age. Language skills appeared a stronger predictor of boys’ socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skill development compared to girls. Girls’ socio-emotional skills predicted growth in math. For boys, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills appeared to be unrelated. Language skills showed stronger relations with the development of math language and numeracy skills for younger children as compared to older children. Also, for older children math language and numeracy skills negatively predicted growth in their socio-emotional skills. The findings provide more insights in how language, math language and numeracy skills and socio-emotional skills co-develop in the early years and as such have important implications for interventions aimed to support children’s development.

Low Emotional Awareness as a Transdiagnostic Mechanism Underlying Psychopathology in Adolescence

The ability to identify and label one's emotions is associated with effective emotion regulation, rendering emotional awareness important for mental health. We evaluated how emotional awareness was related to psychopathology and whether low emotional awareness was a transdiagnostic mechanism explaining the increase in psychopathology during the transition to adolescence and as a function of childhood trauma-specifically violence exposure. In Study 1, children and adolescents (N=120, aged 7-19 years) reported on emotional awareness and psychopathology. Emotional awareness was negatively associated with psychopathology (p-factor) and worsened across age in females but not males. In Study 2 (N=262, aged 8-16 years), we replicated these findings and demonstrated longitudinally that low emotional awareness mediated increases in p-factor as a function of age in females and violence exposure. These findings indicate that low emotional awareness may be a transdiagnostic mechanism linking adolescent development, sex, and trauma with the emergence of psychopathology.

Emotional Competence Mediates the Relationship between Communication Problems and Reactive Externalizing Problems in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder: A Longitudinal Study

Language problems are a risk factor for externalizing problems, but the developmental path remains unclear. Emotional competence may mediate the relationship, especially when externalizing problems are reactive in nature, such as in Oppositional Deviant Disorder (ODD) and reactive aggression. We examined the development of reactive and proactive externalizing problems in children with (n = 98) and without (n = 156) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD; age: 8-16 years) over 18 months. Relationships with communicative risk factors (structural, pragmatic and emotion communication) and the mediating role of emotional competence (emotion recognition and anger dysregulation) were examined. Multi-level analyses showed that increasing emotion recognition and decreasing anger dysregulation were longitudinally related to decreasing ODD symptoms in both groups, whereas anger dysregulation was related to more reactive aggression in children with DLD alone. Pragmatic and emotion communication problems were related to more reactive externalizing problems, but these relationships were mediated by emotional competence, suggesting that problems in emotional competence explain the communication problems of children with DLD. Therefore, in addition to interventions for communication skills, there is a need to address the emotional competence of children with DLD, as this decreases the risk for reactive externalizing problems.

Charting the development of emotion comprehension and abstraction from childhood to adulthood using observer-rated and linguistic measures

This study examined two facets of emotion development: emotion word comprehension (knowing the meaning of emotion words such as "anger" or "excitement") and emotion concept abstraction (representing emotions in terms of internal psychological states that generalize across situations). Using a novel emotion vocabulary assessment, we captured how a cross-sectional sample of participants aged 4-25 (N = 196) defined 24 emotions. Smoothing spline regression models suggested that emotion comprehension followed an emergent shape: Knowledge of emotion words increased across childhood and plateaued around age 11. Human coders rated the abstractness of participants' responses, and these ratings also followed an emergent shape but plateaued significantly later than comprehension, around age 18. An automated linguistic analysis of abstractness supported coders' perceptions of increased abstractness across age. Finally, coders assessed the definitional strategies participants used to describe emotions. Young children tended to describe emotions using concrete strategies such as providing example situations that evoked those emotions or by referring to physiological markers of emotional experiences. Whereas use of these concrete strategies decreased with age, the tendency to use more abstract strategies such as providing general definitions that delineated the causes and characteristics of emotions or by providing synonyms of emotion words increased with age. Overall, this work (a) provides a tool for assessing definitions of emotion terms, (b) demonstrates that emotion concept abstraction increases across age, and (c) suggests that adolescence is a period in which emotion words are comprehended but their level of abstraction continues to mature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion Socialization and Developmental Risk: Interactive Effects of Receptive Language and Maltreatment on Reminiscing

OBJECTIVES

Emotional reminiscing, or mother-child discussion of past emotional experiences, is a critical aspect of emotion socialization that predicts a range of child outcomes and is central to parent-child interventions. Thus, understanding individual differences in emotional reminiscing will advance our ability to identify families at-risk for poor emotion dialogues and to adapt interventions for diverse populations, such as families affected by maltreatment and mothers and children with low language abilities. The present study examined associations among maternal and child receptive language with emotional reminiscing and the moderating role of maltreatment.

METHODS

Two hundred and twenty three underserved, racially diverse mothers (144 maltreating) and their preschool aged children completed measures of receptive language (PPVT-4). Emotional reminiscing was comprehensively measured using maternal report and observations of emotion dialogues, including ratings of elaborations, maternal sensitive guidance, and child cooperative exploration.

RESULTS

Child language was positively associated with all observed aspects of child reminiscing, and the association between child language and maternal reminiscing was moderated by maltreatment. For non-maltreating families, child language was positively associated with maternal factual elaborations and sensitive guidance. For the maltreating families, these associations were not significant, demonstrating that maltreatment disrupted the association between child language and reminiscing. Maternal language was significantly associated with maternal report of emotion dismissing behaviors, regardless of maltreatment status.

CONCLUSIONS

Results highlight that language is an essential individual difference factor contributing to variance in emotion dialogues, and that maltreatment influences how child language relates to reminiscing. Future directions and clinical implications for families affected by developmental risk are considered.

The Reciprocal Effects of Language Proficiency and Depression among Low Income Latinx Youth

Objective: Extant research associates language with essential social and emotional processes. Although the risk for depression among Latinx youth in the United States is well documented, the link between their language proficiency and depressive symptoms remains poorly understood. Further, research employing standardized language assessments with Latinx early adolescents is scarce and reciprocal associations between language proficiency and depressive symptoms have not been examined.Method: This longitudinal study addressed these gaps by investigating the relation between language proficiency and depression in a sample of 218 dual language Latinx students of predominantly low-income backgrounds (M_age = 12.1, SD = 1.1; 49.1% female) recruited from seven public schools in a large city in the Midwest of the United States. Language proficiency in English and Spanish was assessed using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory.Results: Paired samples t-tests showed lower than expected growth in English vocabulary and higher than expected growth in the ability to reason using lexical knowledge in Spanish over a one-year period. Cross-lagged panel analyses (χ² (99) = 211.19, p < .001, CFI = .93, TLI = .92, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI [.06, .09])) indicated that growth in English language proficiency is predictive of decreased depressive symptoms. Likewise, increases in depressive symptoms are predictive of decreased English language proficiency.Conclusions: Results have important implications for the design of appropriate psychological interventions and sensible educational policies for students of linguistic minority backgrounds.

Positive Aspects of Emotional Competence in Preventing Internalizing Symptoms in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder: A Longitudinal Approach

In order to better understand protective factors for internalizing problems, this longitudinal study examined positive emotions, emotion awareness and (non-)emotional communication skills in relation to somatic complaints and social anxiety in children with (N = 104) and without (N = 183) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) using self-reported measures twice with a 9-month interval. Additionally, parents reported on their child’s communication problems and emotion communication at Time 1. Most importantly, since we found that increasing levels of emotion awareness related to decreases in social anxiety and somatic complaints in children with and without DLD, we conclude that children with DLD are likely to benefit from interventions aimed at improving their emotion awareness in addition to language interventions.

Roles of Executive Functioning and Language in Developing Low-Income Preschoolers' Behavior and Emotion Regulation

Young children's regulation of their behaviors and emotions is a foundational skill that undergirds learning, academic achievement, and social competence (Bierman & Erath, 2006; McClelland et al., 2018). Executive functioning (EF) and language are two cognitive skillsets that facilitate behavior and emotion regulation (Blair & Ursache, 2011; Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010). What is not yet fully understood is how these two skillsets may work together to promote these regulatory skills. The present study investigated the independent and interactive contributions of EF and language skills at preschool entry to the development of behavior and emotion regulation across the year in a primarily low-income sample. Results indicated that language at preschool entry was associated with children's emotion regulation development during preschool, especially for children who entered preschool with low EF. As such, incorporating language-promoting activities into early childhood interventions designed to facilitate emotion regulation may enhance efficacy, particularly for children at risk for later emotional, academic, and behavioral difficulties due to low emerging EF skills. Unexpectedly, language was not associated with behavior regulation, and EF was not independently linked to behavior or emotion regulation in this sample.

Dimensions of deprivation and threat, psychopathology, and potential mediators: A multi-year longitudinal analysis

Prior research demonstrates a link between exposure to childhood adversity and psychopathology later in development. However, work on mechanisms linking adversity to psychopathology fails to account for specificity in these pathways across different types of adversity. Here, we test a conceptual model that distinguishes deprivation and threat as distinct forms of childhood adversity with different pathways to psychopathology. Deprivation involves an absence of inputs from the environment, such as cognitive and social stimulation, that influence psychopathology by altering cognitive development, such as verbal abilities. Threat includes experiences involving harm or threat of harm that increase risk for psychopathology through disruptions in social-emotional processing. We test the prediction that deprivation, but not threat, increases risk for psychopathology through altered verbal abilities. Data were drawn from the Child Development Project (N = 585), which followed children for over a decade. We analyze data from assessment points at age 5, 6, 14, and 17 years. Mothers completed interviews at age 5 and 6 on exposure to threat and deprivation experiences. Youth verbal abilities were assessed at age 14. At age 17, mothers reported on child psychopathology. A path analysis model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing problems from experiences of deprivation and threat. Consistent with predictions, deprivation was associated with risk for externalizing problems via effects on verbal abilities at age 14. Threat was associated longitudinally with both internalizing and externalizing problems, but these effects were not mediated by verbal abilities. Results suggest that unique developmental mechanisms link different forms of adversity with psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record

Language diversity, language disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder among youth sentenced to detention in Western Australia

BACKGROUND

While studies confirm high prevalence of language disorder among justice-involved young people, little is known about the impact of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) on language among this population. It is also not clear how language skills vary according to language diversity in Australian youth justice settings, where a disproportionate number of justice-involved youth are Aboriginal and may not speak Standard Australian English (SAE) as their first language. Language skills are important to understand, as language disorder and language difference can lead to a mismatch between the communication skills of a young person and the communication skills of the justice workforce with whom they are communicating. In the highly verbal environments that are common to justice systems, language disorder and language difference may result in a young person misunderstanding legal information and expectations placed on them and not being adequately understood by the justice workforce.

METHODS

This study examined the language skills of 98 young people sentenced to detention in Western Australia (WA), who participated in a cross-sectional study examining the prevalence of FASD. Language skills assessed using standardised and non-standardised tasks were analysed by the three major language groups identified: speakers of SAE, Aboriginal English and English as an additional language.

RESULTS

We identified rich diversity of languages, and multilingualism was common. Most young people for whom English was not their first language demonstrated difficulties in SAE competence. Further, nearly one in two young people were identified with language disorder - over half of whom had language disorder associated with FASD.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has documented language diversity and the prevalence of language disorder associated with FASD among a representative sample of youth sentenced to detention in WA. Results underscore the need for the justice workforce to consider language difference when working with justice-involved youth, as well as language disorder and FASD. The findings also demonstrate the need for speech pathology to be embedded as core service in youth justice systems, working in collaboration with local cultural and language advisors and accredited interpreters. This can better enable appropriate identification of and response to communication and associated rehabilitation needs of young people navigating youth justice systems.

Coaching mothers of typical and conduct problem children in elaborative parent-child reminiscing: Influences of a randomized controlled trial on reminiscing behaviour and everyday talk preferences

This study compared the effects of mother-child reminiscing coaching on mothers of typically developing children (community sample) and mothers of children with conduct problems (clinical sample). It also tested whether intervention effects generalize to mothers' preferences for elaborative and mental-state oriented talk with their children in other contexts. Mother-child dyads (n = 88) in each sample were randomly allocated to condition: reminiscing intervention or active control. Pre-intervention, sample differences emerged. Mothers in the community sample were more elaborative during reminiscing than mothers in the clinical sample, and also expressed stronger preferences for elaborative talk in everyday contexts. Post-intervention, an intervention effect emerged. In both the community and clinical samples, mothers who had participated in the elaborative reminiscing intervention were more elaborative and emotion-focused during reminiscing than mothers in the active control condition. They also increased their preferences for elaborative and mental-state-oriented language in everyday contexts. While the mothers in the community sample remained more elaborative than mothers in the clinical sample, both experienced equivalent intervention gains. These findings highlight the value of reminiscing coaching for changing mothers' interactional preferences and behaviours.

Increasing verbal knowledge mediates development of multidimensional emotion representations

How do people represent their own and others' emotional experiences? Contemporary emotion theories and growing evidence suggest that the conceptual representation of emotion plays a central role in how people understand the emotions both they and other people feel.1-6 Although decades of research indicate that adults typically represent emotion concepts as multidimensional, with valence (positive-negative) and arousal (activating-deactivating) as two primary dimensions,7-10 little is known about how this bidimensional (or circumplex) representation arises.11 Here we show that emotion representations develop from a monodimensional focus on valence to a bidimensional focus on both valence and arousal from age 6 to age 25. We investigated potential mechanisms underlying this effect and found that increasing verbal knowledge mediated emotion representation development over and above three other potential mediators: (i) fluid reasoning, (ii) the general ability to represent non-emotional stimuli bidimensionally, and (iii) task-related behaviors (e.g., using extreme ends of rating scales). These results suggest that verbal development facilitates the expansion of emotion concept representations (and potentially emotional experiences) from a "positive or negative" dichotomy in childhood to a multidimensional organization in adulthood.

Education of staff in preschool aged classrooms in child care centers and child outcomes: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Staff education is considered key to quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. However, findings about associations between staff education and children's outcomes have been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between ECEC staff education and child outcomes. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, and ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were conducted. Eligible studies provided a statistical link between staff education and child outcomes for preschool-aged children in ECEC programs. Titles, abstracts and paper reviews as well as all data extraction were conducted by two independent raters. Of the 823 studies reviewed for eligibility, 39 met our inclusion criteria. Research in this area is observational in nature and subject to the inherent biases of that research design. Results from our systematic review were hampered by heterogeneity in how staff education was defined, variability in whose education was measured and the child outcomes that were assessed. However, overall the qualitative summary indicates that associations between staff education and childhood outcomes are non-existent to very borderline positive. In our meta-analysis of more homogeneous studies we identified certain positive, albeit very weak, associations between staff education and children's language outcomes (specifically, vocabulary and letter word identification) and no significant association with a mathematics outcome (WJ Applied Problems). Thus, our findings suggest that within the range of education levels found in the existing literature, education is not a key driver of child outcomes. However, since we only explored levels of education that were reported in the literature, our findings cannot be used to argue for lowering education standards in ECEC settings.