AUDITORY-VISUAL INTEGRATION IN BRAIN-DAMAGED AND NORMAL CHILDREN

Determining social power: Do Chinese preschoolers integrate verbal and nonverbal cues?

Children aged about 5 years can use verbal and nonverbal cues to determine social power. However, it is not clear what kinds of nonverbal cues preschoolers can use and whether they can integrate each nonverbal cue with verbal content when determining social power. Therefore, this research examined the ability of Chinese preschoolers to use and integrate visual, auditory, and verbal cues when determining social power as well as how this ability develops with age. In Study 1 (N = 478), 4- to 6-year-old Chinese children were recruited to judge the social power in visual, auditory, content, visual-auditory, visual-content, auditory-content, visual-auditory-content, and neutral cues. The results showed that 4-year-olds could not use any cues, 5-year-olds could not use content cues, and 6-year-olds could use all the cues. Children's performance improved with increasing age and the number of channels. Study 2 (N = 240) investigated whether speech tempo influences children's performance when using content cues. The results showed that 5- and 6-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, could use content cues to determine social power under normal and slow tempos. Study 3 (N = 80) was conducted to clarify which visual cues 5- and 6-year-olds can use and the age difference. The results revealed that 5- and 6-year-olds could use head, eye, posture, and mixed cues to determine social power, whereas their performance was steady for both 5- and 6-year-olds. In sum, the results show that Chinese children aged about 5 years are already able to use and integrate visual, auditory, and content cues when determining social power. Moreover, the ability to determine social power is gradually improved with age during the preschool period.

Interpersonal behavior of children at risk for schizophrenia

Investigations of the childhood antecedents of adult schizophrenia may clarify our understanding of the etiology of the disease, provide guidelines for meaningful classification of subtypes of schizophrenic illness, point to strategies for identifying those individuals in need for early intervention, and suggest appropriate techniques for early intervention. Among the more salient characteristics of schizophrenic illness are disturbances in interpersonal relations, especially withdrawal from normal social interaction.

Neurological signs and the positive-negative dimension in schizophrenia

Schizophrenic patients have been observed to manifest a variety of abnormal neurological signs, but the nature of their association with differing clinical presentations is less well established. To address this issue, we administered a newly compiled neurological inventory to 28 well-characterized chronic schizophrenic inpatients and separately assessed them on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and on control variables that included measures of global pathology, chronicity of illness, neuropsychological and intellectual integrity, and extrapyramidal dysfunction. We found, first, that our neurological battery provided statistically independent measures of apraxia, fine motor function, and prefrontal, parietal, and nonlocalizing signs. A significant association emerged between negative symptomatology and neurological signs of prefrontal impairment (p less than 0.01), which could not be accounted for by any of the control variables. Positive symptoms were associated with an absence of parietal and nonlocalizing signs; however, these correlations were mediated by higher neuroleptic doses in these patients. There was no association between any neurological sign and age, extrapyramidal symptoms, general neuropsychological integrity, education, IQ, or severity or chronicity of illness. We concluded that the negative syndrome in schizophrenia represents a distinct dimension of psychopathology that is related specifically to prefrontal deficit.

Effects of material deprivation on neurological functioning

An intellectual deficit in low socio-economic strata (S-E) of underdeveloped countries is widespread. A similar phenomenon is observed in industrialized countries and is known as socio-cultural retardation (S-CR); one theory holds that it is due to psychosensory deprivation whilst another denies that there is in fact a deficit, there being only middle class-oriented testing applied to subjects whose skills lie in another direction. Whichever theory is true, in underdeveloped countries the problem is compounded by malnutrition and perennial infection so that the intellectual deficit in these societies may be qualitatively different. This paper sets out the point of view of a clinical neurologist who believes it likely that the technological Western mode of life entails an organization of the brain which is lacking in subjects in low S-E strata of less sophisticated cultures. These will therefore evince multiple mild deficiencies in specific functions of the brain. The core is thought to be incomplete maturation of neural mechanisms. Examples are given: (1) facial dyspraxia; (2) permanence of primitive reflexes; (3) poor body image and sensory integration; and (4) tactile-perceptual functioning (which in fact showed no deficiency but is given as the type of neuropsychological factor which may show delay). Middle class life in Western society is held to be more complex in absolute terms. This is an important cause of the large number of dropouts from primary education in Latin America, whose school systems are based on middle class values, themselves tailored to the technological age.

Recategorization of WPPSI scores for kindergarten children with learning difficulties

Thirty kindergarten children with teacher-identified learning difficulties were matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status with 30 children who were not experiencing any problems learning. All subjects were administered the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). The scaled scores on the WPPSI were then recategorized according to Bannatyne's suggested regroupings to determine whether it was possible to identify potential learning difficulties on the basis of the pattern of these recategorized scores. A two-way analysis of covariance, a one-way analysis of variance, and a discriminant analysis indicated some interaction and simple main effects. In general, the matched control group exhibited superiority on all Bannatyne categories. However, the predicted Bannatyne pattern for the group with learning difficulties was not confirmed.

A test battery to assess intrasensory and intersensory development of young children

The purpose of the study was to develop a battery of tests for use in evaluation of intra- and intersensory development of young children. A battery of 15 tests (4 visual, 4 auditory, 4 tactile-kinesthetic, and 3 intersensory) was administered to 109 normally developing 6- and 8-year-old and 32 slowly developing or learning disabled children. Interdependence of test items within each intrasensory and the intersensory category was determined; intercorrelations ranged from .00 to .78. Reliability estimates were also determined. Face validity was claimed for each item. The effects of age or developmental level on test performance were established. Based upon the interdependence of the tests, reliability estimates, and the capacity of the tests to discriminate among groups classified according to age or developmental level, a battery of 10 intra- and intersensory tests was proposed. The battery has 3 tests of visual perception-visual memory, dynamic depth perception, and size discrimination; 3 tests of auditory perception-auditory discrimination, auditory memory of related syllables, and auditory sequential memory of numbers; 2 tests of tactile-kinesthetic perception-tactile integration and movement awareness; and 2 tests of intersensory integration-auditory-tactile intergration and auditory-visual integration.

Development of children's intermodal and intramodal auditory-visual mode functioning

Intermodal and intramodal development in the auditory and visual sensory modes within a temporal dimension were investigated by testing 90 male and 90 female children who ranged in age from 5 to 13 yr. Auditory and visual stimuli were presented by electronic means in a same-different matching task. Four separate conditions were investigated: auditory-auditory, visual-visual, auditory-visual, and visual-auditory. An analysis of variance was conducted for two main effects, age and modality. Post hoc analysis was conducted on efficiency of sensory input mode. Modality functioning increased as a function of age until age 13 yr. Intramodal functioning was significantly more efficient than intermodal functioning. Efficiency of input mode varied as a function of age, though both auditory and visual mode efficiency followed similar developmental trends. Intermodal and intramodal development appeared to follow similar trends, with a child's inter- and intramodal functioning becoming more similar after 10 yr. Results are interpreted in light of Birch and L. Belmont's (1965a) sensory integration hypothesis and Goodnow's (1971) hypothesis of the development of rules for efficient modal functioning.

Problems of sensory integration in the mentally retarded child and their implications for the physiotherapist

Affecting some 2.5-3.5% of the general population (Smith, 1971), mental retardation is an important national health, social and economic problem, with only four disabling conditions (cancer, arthritis, cardiac disease and mental illness) having higher incidence (Love, 1973). Of these conditions only mental retardation is prevalent in the early developmental period of life.

Early identification of children likely to have specific learning difficulties: report of a follow-up

In an earlier study, a group of pre-school children noted to have neurological dysfunction in the newborn period were given psychological tests and the results were compared with those from a control group of children with normal birth histories. The index children scored significantly more poorly on a number of items likely to lead to later learning difficulties at school(Frances Williams 1974). In the follow-up study, groups of the same index and control children were tested again between 8 and 9 1/2 of age. 11 of the 42 index children were unable to read, whereas there were no non-readers in the control group. A further 13 index children were backward by 12 months or more in reading accuracy, compared with five of the 43 control children. Only nine of the index children were reading at or above their appropriate age-level, compared with 22 of the controls. On a test for computational skill, many of the index children also scored much below the level expected for chronological age. These findings are discussed in relation to the possible identification of later learning difficulties from the results of pre-school examinations.

Form discrimination performance of linguistically retarded children

Intra- and intermodal form-discrimination performance was studied in 9 linguistically retarded children. Stimuli were the blocks which comprise the Seguin Form Board. The main findings were that haptic intramodal discriminations were the most difficult of the various conditions and that visual-haptic intermodal discriminations were not significantly more difficult than visual intramodal ones. The first finding may be in part an artifact of simultaneous versus successive stimulation. The second finding was discussed in relation to dissimilar findings from previous studies of various other retarded groups. Methodological problems inherent in previous designs were described, and reasons for the disparity in experimental results were suggested.

Visual attention and distraction in aphasic and non-aphasic children

The ability to sustain visual attention was compared in 13 aphasic and 13 non-aphasic children. The aphasic children gave significantly more errors on the visual vigilance task than their controls. The difference remained under visual distraction but no significant performance reductions resulted. It was concluded that several of the aphasic children showed significant attentional deficits. The data support a need for systemaric clinical evaluation of attention in children with central language disorders.

Intra- and intersensory matching by nursery school children

Nursery school children (27 boys, 27 girls) were tested on two intrasensory and one intersensory equivalence tasks. Matching ability was examined in the context of successive and simultaneous methods of presenting stimuli. It was concluded that success in discrimination was not dependent on method of presentation but was related to modality. Visual-visual comparisons were significantly easier for preschoolers than either visual-tactual or tactual-tactual comparisons. No age or sex differences were obtained.