Against the use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 2-15 years.

Objective: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is a widely used screening tool for emotional and behavioural problems in children. Recent quantitative analyses have raised concerns regarding its structural validity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This paper aims to extend upon existing findings by analysing the factor structure of both the parent- and teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in this population across a broader age range than in previous studies.

A neural index of inefficient evidence accumulation in dyslexia underlying slow perceptual decision making.

Visual processing deficits have been widely reported in developmental dyslexia however the locus of cognitive dysfunction remains unclear. Here, we examined the neural correlates of perceptual decision-making using a dot-motion task and electroencephalography (EEG) and investigated whether presenting deficits were unique to children with dyslexia or if they were also evident in other, typically developing children with equally immature reading systems. Sixty-eight children participated: 32 with dyslexia (DD; 16 females); 21 age-matched controls (AM; 11 females) and 15 reading-matched controls (RM; 9 females).

Parent and Clinician Perspectives on the Participation of Children with Cerebral Palsy in Community-Based Football: A Qualitative Exploration in a Regional Setting.

The current study aimed to qualitatively explore parent and clinician perspectives on the factors influencing participation in a community-based Australian-Rules Football program for five to 12-year-old children with cerebral palsy (CP) in a regional setting. Six allied-health clinicians and two parents of children with CP participated in focus groups exploring factors influencing participation. Thematic analysis indicated seven key factors influencing participation-of which, six were environmental factors and one was related to child characteristics.

Visual processing speed as a marker of immaturity in lexical but not sublexical dyslexia.

A visual attention span (VAS) deficit has been widely reported in the Developmental Dyslexia (DD) literature, however, consensus regarding what underlies this problem and the nature of its relationship with reading ability remains elusive. Thirty-two children with DD (15 females) were compared with 23 age matched (12 females) and 17 reading matched controls (9 females) on the combined Theory of Visual Attention (CombiTVA) paradigm with traditional letter and novel symbol conditions. The DD group performed more slowly than the age matched controls in terms of processing speed, but similarly to reading matched controls.

Problem Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Considering Core Symptom Severity and Accompanying Sleep Disturbance.

In addition to the core symptoms that define autism spectrum disorder (ASD), many individuals experience broader problem behavior at a level significant enough for families to seek further clinical assessment and intervention. We define "problem behavior" as any significant emotional or behavioral issue captured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) including anxiety, depression, withdrawal, somatic complaints, problems with socialization, thought or attention, rule-breaking, and aggression. While greater ASD symptom severity and accompanying sleep disturbance have each been linked with more severe problem behavior, there is little understanding about how these two key factors interact; that is, it is unclear whether the severity and type of sleep disturbance an individual experiences differentially influences the relationship between ASD symptom severity and problem behavior.

An association between a dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3) haplotype and ADHD symptom measures in nonclinical adults.

Previous genetic studies have postulated that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be regarded as the extreme end of a set of behavioural traits that can be continuously measured in the general population. The current study adopted a quantitative trait approach to examine the relationship between dopamine gene variants and self-reported ADHD symptoms in 517 nonclinical adults. Although genetic associations with variants of both the dopamine transporter (DAT1; SLC6A3) and D4 receptor (DRD4) genes have been reliably reported in children, results in adults are less consistent.