Preliminary evidence supporting the clinical utility of an Analog Task of Prosocial Helping.

Background: Prosocial helping is a fundamental communication behaviour that supports successful social relationships. This study investigated the clinical utility of the Analog Task of Prosocial Helping (AToP-H): a tool for assessing how helping is influenced by the communicative function it serves and the cues used to elicit helping in young children with and without a social communication disorder.

Aims: To present evidence of the AToP-H's reliability, validity and clinical utility.

Cohesive Referencing Errors During Narrative Production as Clinical Evidence of Central Nervous System Abnormality in School-Aged Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Purpose: Previous evidence suggests that cohesive referencing errors made during narratives may be a behavior that is revealing of underlying central nervous system abnormality in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The current research extends this evidence.

Method: Retrospective analysis of narrative and clinical data from 152 children (ages 6 to 14), 72 of whom had confirmed FASD, was used.

Brief Report: An Independent Replication and Extension of Psychometric Evidence Supporting the Theory of Mind Inventory.

This study presents an independent replication and extension of psychometric evidence supporting the Theory of Mind Inventory (ToMI). Parents of 20 children with ASD (4; 1-6; 7 years; months) and 20 with typical development (3; 1-6; 5), rated their child's theory of mind abilities in everyday situations. Other parent report and child behavioral assessments included the Social Responsiveness Scale-2, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-2, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4, and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool, 2.

Assessing young children's intention-reading in authentic communicative contexts: preliminary evidence and clinical utility.

Background: Identifying what a communication partner is looking at (referential intention) and why (social intention) is essential to successful social communication, and may be challenging for children with social communication deficits. This study explores a clinical task that assesses these intention-reading abilities within an authentic context.

Aims: To gather evidence of the task's reliability and validity, and to discuss its clinical utility.

Magnetic resonance imaging outcomes from a comprehensive magnetic resonance study of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Background: Magnetic resonance (MR) technology offers noninvasive methods for in vivo assessment of neuroabnormalities.

Methods: A comprehensive neuropsychological/psychiatric battery, coupled with MR imaging, (MRI), MR spectroscopy (MRS), and functional MRI (fMRI) assessments, were administered to children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to determine if global and/or focal abnormalities could be identified, and distinguish diagnostic subclassifications across the spectrum. The 4 study groups included: (i) fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)/partial FAS (PFAS); (ii) static encephalopathy/alcohol exposed (SE/AE); (iii) neurobehavioral disorder/alcohol exposed (ND/AE) as diagnosed with the FASD 4-Digit Code; and (iv) healthy peers with no prenatal alcohol exposure.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy outcomes from a comprehensive magnetic resonance study of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Magnetic resonance (MR) technology offers noninvasive methods for in vivo assessment of neuroabnormalities. A comprehensive neuropsychological/behavioral, MR imaging (MRI), MR spectroscopy (MRS) and functional MRI (fMRI) assessment was administered to children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to determine whether global and/or focal abnormalities could be identified and to distinguish diagnostic subclassifications across the spectrum. The four study groups included (1) FAS/partial FAS; (2) static encephalopathy/alcohol exposed (SE/AE); (3) neurobehavioral disorder/alcohol exposed (ND/AE) as diagnosed with the FASD 4-Digit Code; and (4) healthy peers with no prenatal alcohol exposure.

Neuropyschological and behavioral outcomes from a comprehensive magnetic resonance study of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Background: Clinical and research advancements in the field of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) require accurate and valid identification of FASD clinical subgroups.

Objectives: A comprehensive neuropsychological battery, coupled with magnetic resonance imaging, (MRI), MR spectroscopy (MRS), and functional MRI (fMRI) were administered to children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to determine if global and/or focal abnormalities could be identified across the spectrum, and distinguish diagnostic subclassifications within the spectrum. The neuropsychological outcomes of the comprehensive neuroimaging study are presented here.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging outcomes from a comprehensive magnetic resonance study of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

A comprehensive neuropsychological/psychiatric, MR imaging, (MRI), MR spectroscopy (MRS), and functional MRI (fMRI) assessment was administered to children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to determine if global and/or focal abnormalities could be identified, and distinguish diagnostic subclassifications across the spectrum. The four study groups included: 1. FAS/Partial FAS; 2.

Informativeness of the spoken narratives of younger and older adolescents with specific language impairment and their counterparts with normal language.

A large body of literature describing the narrative skills of young children with and without language impairments exists. However, there has been only limited study of the informativeness of narratives of adolescents with normally developing language (NL) and those of adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI), even though narratives play an important role in adolescents' complex social and academic lives and there is emerging evidence that narrative abilities in young children portend their later language proficiency. This study examined the informativeness of oral narratives produced by four groups of adolescents: younger adolescents with NL (mean age = 13years:2 months), older adolescents with NL (15:10), younger adolescents with SLI (13:2) and older adolescents with SLI (15:9).

Exploring the utility of narrative analysis in diagnostic decision making: picture-bound reference, elaboration, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Purpose: To evaluate classification accuracy and clinical feasibility of a narrative analysis tool for identifying children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Method: Picture-elicited narratives generated by 16 age-matched pairs of school-aged children (FASD vs. typical development [TD]) were coded for semantic elaboration and reference strategy by judges who were unaware of age, gender, and group membership of the participants.

A state of double jeopardy: impact of prenatal alcohol exposure and adverse environments on the social communicative abilities of school-age children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Purpose: This article is a retrospective examination of environmental risk, language performance, and narrative discourse data from a clinical database of school-age children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Method: A case-defined diagnostic approach for measuring and reporting the full spectrum of disabilities in children with prenatal alcohol exposure is presented. Demographic, environmental, language, and social communication (as reflected by narrative discourse) data are reported for a large cohort of children with FASD between the ages of 6;0 (years;months) and 12;0.

Reliability issues and solutions for coding social communication performance in classroom settings.

Purpose: To explore the utility of time-interval analysis for documenting the reliability of coding social communication performance of children in classroom settings. Of particular interest was finding a method for determining whether independent observers could reliably judge both occurrence and duration of ongoing behavioral dimensions for describing social communication performance.

Method: Four coders participated in this study.

Social communication interventions for preschoolers: targeting peer interactions during peer group entry and cooperative play.

Some preschoolers with language impairment approach and manage peer interactions less effectively than typically developing peers. This article discusses assessment and intervention strategies for targeting preschoolers' social communication skills during peer entry and cooperative play situations. Essential features of effective interventions include identification of appropriate social communication targets, addressing and facilitating children's use of these targets during small group sessions with peers, and supporting generalization of newly acquired social communication behaviors to children's peer interactions within the classroom setting.

"Do I know what I need to do?" A social communication intervention for children with complex clinical profiles.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists frequently address social communication difficulties in children with diverse clinical profiles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a social communication intervention for a school-age child with a complex cognitive and behavioral profile secondary to diagnosis of a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Method: A case study is presented to describe the implementation of the intervention targeting mental state verb production and social cognitive skills.

Facilitating written work using computer word processing and word prediction.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether occupational therapy intervention that focused on teaching children to use word processing, either alone or with word prediction, was effective in improving the written communication skills of children with learning disabilities and handwriting problems.

Method: A single-subject alternating treatments design was replicated across three children in grades 4 and 5. During the baseline phase the children wrote stories by hand; during the intervention phase, the children wrote stories, alternating among handwriting, word processing, and word processing with word prediction.

The Influence of Language/Cognitive Profile on Discourse Intervention Outcome.

Children with communication needs are often allocated intervention services as a result of the relationship between their cognitive ability and language performance. Children with higher cognitive skills relative to language skills are considered promising candidates for language services. In contrast, children who are delayed in both cognitive and language abilities are considered poor candidates for intervention and are often excluded from services, or given a lower priority for services.