Investigating the Measurement Invariance and Method-Trait Effects of Parent and Teacher SNAP-IV Ratings of Preschool Children.

The Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham scale version IV (SNAP-IV) is widely used to assess symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in children and adolescents. Nevertheless, there is insufficient data to support its use in preschool children. The study had three goals: First, to test the factorial validity of the three correlated-factors model of ADHD and ODD items of the SNAP-IV.

Tutoring effects in the narrative skills of typically developing children.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were 1) To evaluate the tutoring effect on the type of the narrative produced by typically developing children, 2) To compare this effect between children from state and private schools and 3) to relate it with vocabulary, age and school performance.

Methods: The sample was composed by 107 children from state and private schools, aged from 4 to 9 years, within typical development. Children's narratives were prompted by sequences of pictures and scored according to the type of discourse: descriptive, causal or intentional.

Birth weight, verbal cognition in early adolescence, and lexical and reading skills in late adolescence: a formal mediation analysis using a potential outcomes approach.

Background: Oral and written language in late adolescence are influenced by many pre- and postnatal factors, including cognitive performance at earlier ages. We investigated whether the association between birth weight and lexical knowledge and reading comprehension in late adolescence (14-16 years) is mediated by verbal cognition during early adolescence (10-11 years).

Methods: We conducted a mediation analysis via a potential outcomes approach to data from three United Kingdom (UK) prospective birth cohorts - The National Child Development Study (NCDS; year of birth (Y.

Impact of specific language impairment and type of school on different language subsystems.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore quantitative and qualitative effects of type of school and specific language impairment (SLI) on different language abilities.

Methods: 204 Brazilian children aged from 4 to 6 years old participated in the study. Children were selected to form three groups: 1) 63 typically developing children studying in private schools (TDPri); 2) 102 typically developing children studying in state schools (TDSta); and 39 children with SLI studying in state schools (SLISta).

Is it possible to predict the length of therapy for developmental language impairments?

Purpose: To explore which measures could predict the persistency of developmental language impairment (DLI) based on the association between the initial language assessment and the therapeutic prognosis of the child.

Methods: In this retrospective study, the records of 42 children with diagnosis of DLI were analyzed. Participants' age varied from 21 to 63 months at the first language assessment, which included vocabulary, phonology, pragmatics and fluency tests.

Scientific writing and the quality of papers: towards a higher impact.

Given the latent concern of scientists and editors on the quality of scientific writing, the aim of this paper was to present topics on the recommended structure of peer-reviewed papers. We described the key points of common sections of original papers and proposed two additional materials that may be useful for scientific writing: one particular guide to help the organization of the main ideas of the paper; and a table with examples of non desirable and desirable structures in scientific writing.

Number morpheme acquisition in children within normal language development.

Background: studies about Brazilian Portuguese number morpheme acquisition and its productive usage have indicated controversial results.

Aim: to verify the comprehension and production of singular and plural markers in children within normal language development.

Method: participants were 64 children ranging in age from 3:0 to 6:11 years.

[Use and comprehension of prepositions by children with Specific Language Impairment].

Background: The ability of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) to use and comprehend closed-class words.

Aim: Acknowledging the increasing search for the characterization of linguistic performance of this population in different languages, as well as the findings of international literature that stress the difficulty of these children in using closed-class grammatical morphemes, the aim of this study was to analyze the performance of children with SLI in tests of production and comprehension of prepositions. The purpose of this research was also to compare the performance of these children to that of their typical language developing peers, in terms of the overall index of correct answers and the most frequent types of errors in both groups.