I thought we were good: social cognition, figurative language, and adolescent psychopathology.

Background: Language has been shown to play a critical role in social cognitive reasoning in preschool and school-aged children, but little research has been conducted with adolescents. During adolescence, the ability to understand figurative language becomes increasingly important for social relationships and may affect social adjustment. This study investigated the contribution of structural and figurative language to social cognitive skills in adolescents who present for mental health services and those who do not.

Higher order language competence and adolescent mental health.

Background: Clinic and community-based epidemiological studies have shown an association between child psychopathology and language impairment. The demands on language for social and academic adjustment shift dramatically during adolescence and the ability to understand the nonliteral meaning in language represented by higher order language becomes essential.

Objectives:  : This article reports on the association between difficulties in higher order language skills, reading, cognition, and social-emotional adjustment in adolescents.

Children adopted from China: a prospective study of their growth and development.

Background: China has become a lead country for international adoption because of the relatively young age of the children and reported positive conditions of the orphanages. This study examined the process and outcome of growth and development of children adopted from China over their first two years with their adoptive families.

Method: Seventy infant girls adopted from China at 8 to 21 months of age (Mean age = 13 months) were examined on arrival in Canada and 6, 12, and 24 months later.

Language impairment and psychiatric comorbidities.

This article provides an overview of language impairment and its associated conditions and discusses the interactive relationship between language and other domains of development, using the framework of developmental psychopathology. This framework emphasizes the mutually influential transactions approach between developmental domains within individuals and their environment. How knowledge can be translated to practice is discussed.

Social cognition and externalizing psychopathology: an investigation of the mediating role of language.

The present study integrates findings from three lines of research on the association of social cognition and externalizing psychopathology, language and externalizing psychopathology, and social cognition and language functioning using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). To date these associations have been examined in pairs. A sample of 354 clinic-referred children (aged 7 to 14 years) recruited from a children's mental health centre were tested on measures of language, social cognition, working memory, and child psychopathology.