Research shows that children with language impairment (LI) often have deficits in social communication. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a social communication intervention targeting emotion understanding on teacher perceptions of withdrawal in six elementary-aged boys with LI. The intervention incorporated four elements into treatment sessions: a) Story sharing of children's literature that was rich in emotional content and prosocial behaviors; b) Story enactment of the same children's literature; c) identification and discussion of pictures of facial expressions; and d) journaling to help internalize and reflect on emotions and social behaviors targeted. Two withdrawal subscales of the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS), reticence and solitary-passive behavior, were used as variables with which to measure teacher perception. Pre and postintervention measures of teacher ratings were taken and compared for each participant. Results indicated that four of the six participants improved in ratings of withdrawn behaviors following treatment. Two of the boys improved 2 SD for ratings of reticence. Two additional participants did not show improvement, but remained stable in their pre and posttreatment scores for both reticence and solitary-passive withdrawal. These results indicate a generally favorable outcome of the social communication intervention with regard to social withdrawal in children with LI.

Recent studies and literature regarding children with language impairment (LI) indicate that these children have difficulty with social communication skills. This study assessed the effect of a social communication intervention on teacher perceptions of withdrawal in six elementary school age participants with LI. The social communication intervention included story sharing, identifying pictures of facial expressions, and journaling to target emotion understanding. The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS) was utilized to measure teacher perception of withdrawal. The TBRS examined three subscales of social withdrawal: solitary-active withdrawal, solitary-passive withdrawal, and reticence. Following treatment, teacher ratings of withdrawn behavior decreased for all six participants on some of the subscales. Solitary-active behavior decreased for four of the six participants, solitary-passive behavior decreased for five participants, and reticent behavior decreased for three participants. Teacher ratings of withdrawal for two participants increased on a single subscale, however. These changes suggest positive post-treatment outcomes with regard to withdrawn behavior in children with LI.

Research has shown that children with language impairment (LI) exhibit difficulties with both social communication and syntax. This study analyzed the effect of a social communication intervention on syntactic development, focusing on grammatical complexity in three children with LI when enacting stories. The intervention included reading and enacting stories, playing games with picture emotion cards and journaling. Each child's mean length of terminal unit (t-unit), the number and type of subordinate clauses they produced per t-unit, and the grammaticality of their complex sentences was analyzed. While none of the children increased their mean length of t-unit or the grammaticality of their sentences, one participant showed a slight increase in the number of subordinate clauses she used and another participant changed the basic format with which she enacted stories to a more mature format. The results of this study did not support the claim that a single intervention could target both social communicative and syntactic goals simultaneously. There were limitations to this study that, if addressed, could potentially support this claim.

Children with language impairment (LI) often demonstrate increased levels of withdrawal, specifically the reticent and solitary-passive subtypes. Although it is recognized that there are several subtypes of withdrawal, the relationship between withdrawal and children with LI is complex and unclear. The aim of this study was to examine items on the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS) to better understand the nature of withdrawal in children with LI. A factor analysis of TBRS scores of 355 participants was conducted to ensure that individual items on each subscale were measuring the same construct. An invariance analysis was also performed to ensure items were equally valid for both groups. Finally, a Pearson chi-square test was performed to see which items had the greatest power to separate typical and atypical children. Factor analysis confirmed that items on each subscale grouped together. All four reticence items were invariant, however only 3 of the 5 solitary-passive items were invariant across groups. Item analysis of the Reticence Subscale revealed that participants showed the greatest differences in items related to on-looking, unoccupied, and fearful behavior. Item analysis of the Solitary Passive Subscale revealed an increase in behavior related to a preference for solitary play. In accordance with previous work, children with LI displayed higher levels of both reticence and solitary-passive withdrawal than their typical peers. This study confirms the validity of using the TBRS as a tool to investigate the complex relationship between language and reticent behavior in future research.

Recent research indicates that children with language impairment (LI) often experience difficulties with social communication. Although the empirical basis for general social communication intervention is growing, information documenting the efficacy of these interventions for children with LI remains limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a social communication intervention on teacher perceptions of sociability in five elementary-aged children with LI. The intervention focused on the presentation and use of children's stories to target aspects of emotion understanding. The two sociability subscales of the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS), impulse control/likeability and prosocial behavior, were used as variables with which to measure teacher perception. Pre and post intervention measures of teacher ratings were taken and compared for each participant. Results indicated that four of the five participants received higher ratings for prosocial behaviors following treatment, with two participants scoring within typical range for their age. Two participants remained stable in their pre and posttreatment scores for impulse control/likeability, one participant increased in their ratings, and two of the participants had a decline in posttreatment scores for impulse control/likeability. This study revealed noteworthy improvements in prosocial behaviors in children with LI, even while problems with impulse control remained or increased. This was to be expected considering the intervention focused on emotion understanding which leads to prosocial behavior, whereas the intervention did not focus explicitly on impulse control. Implications of these results were discussed and suggestions for further research were offered.

Developmental scientists have become increasingly interested in the relationship between cumulative demographic risk and developmental outcomes. Risk has been defined as “a process that serves to increase the chances of experiencing a negative outcome in one or several domains of functioning…” (Popp, Spinrad, & Smith, 2008). Cumulative risk models are often preferred over single risk models because individual risk factors such as poverty and single parenthood are so highly correlated. Although researchers have demonstrated strong associations between cumulative risk and a variety of child outcomes, to our knowledge only Popp et al. have investigated links with child temperament, with a specific focus on infancy. In the present study we investigate links between cumulative and single risk indices and child temperament in 4- to 6-year-olds. Unlike other studies, we also consider rural status as an possible risk indicator. Data were collected in two types of setting: a university-affiliated child-care facility (N = 33, about 52% girls) and a group of rural, county-funded preschools and kindergartens (N = 21, about 62% girls). Mean age across the two samples was 4.57 years (SD = 1.11 years). A cumulative risk index was created by summing across eight risk indicators based on 1) income, 2) marital status, 3) ethnicity/race, 4) family size, 5) maternal education, 6) maternal age at birth, 7) maternal occupational status, and 8) rurality status. Risk factors were dichotomized (1 vs 0) based on whether the family met a specific risk criterion (Table 1). Temperament was measured via mother report using the Child Behavior Questionnaire, which produced three overarching temperament scores: surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. In terms of cumulative risk scores, 16 (30%) of the mothers had zero risk indicators, 14 (26%) had one, 8 (15%) had two, 9 (17%) had three, 4 (8%) had four, and 2 (4%) had five. No cumulative risk score exceeded five. Mean cumulative risk was 1.64 (SD = 1.51). As shown in Table 2, greater cumulative risk was associated with higher scores on surgency and negative affectivity but not effortful control. The most strongly associated individual risk factors were household income and rurality status, which were also strongly related to one other [r(53) = .61, p = .000]. Regression analyses revealed that rurality accounted for unique variance over and above income in both surgency (R2 = .20, p = .000) and negative affect (R2 = .42, p = .000), but not vice versa. These results support the contention that cumulative demographic risk is linked to at least two superdimensions of temperament in early school age, wherein a driving factor appears to be a child’s rurality status. Moreover, the valence of these associations is consistent with the notion that greater demographic risk may lead to negative temperament outcomes. Both negative affectivity and surgency (at least to the extent that surgency indexes activity level and impulsive behavior) are characteristics that many would regard as contributing to temperamental difficulty. This link is notable because many researchers regard temperamental difficulty as a risk indicator for negative developmental outcomes in its own right. Fifty-six children (26 boys) visited the lab at M = 18.3 months (SD = 0.43 months). The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ; Putnam et al., 2006) superdimension of effortful control was used as a surrogate measure of early executive function. To measure child activity level, we used the mother-reported activity level subdimension from the ECBQ, and also coded mother-child free play periods to quantify children’s predilection to use physical activity in the service of social or cognitive objectives, such as grasping a spoon and extending the arm outwards to feed a baby doll, which we termed sociocognitive activity. To measure sociocognitive activity we used a modified version of Tamis-LeMonda and Bornstein’s (1990) play competence scale wherein each instance of sociocognitive activity was noted and summed for a total score of sociocognitive activity level (See Table 1). Finally, to gauge maternal encouragement, a modified version of the Dyadic Parent Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS; Eyeberg, Nelson, Duke, & Boggs, 2005) was used to identify maternal commands, praise, questions, physical involvement, talking, touching, and scaffolding behaviors during mother-child free play sessions. Zero-order correlations revealed a significant negative relationship between mother-reported activity level and child executive function (r = -.42, p < 0.01), replicating previous findings. However, correlations between sociocognitive activity and executive function, while positive, was not significant. We conducted moderation analyses separately for each maternal encouragement variable, and found that a higher amount of maternal questioning during play corresponded to a positive association between sociocognitive activity and executive functioning (moderator = 1.00, p < 0.05). These findings partially support our hypotheses and suggest that the ways in which caregivers direct and train activity during play through questioning strategies may also direct and train cognitive functioning. However, further research is needed to support these claims. These results also point toward issues with the measurement of activity level, as our two measures of activity produced significantly different correlations with executive functioning (z = -3.4, p < 0.01). Future research in the area of motor development as it pertains to cognitive functioning should investigate and develop a standard measure of motor activity that is capable of capturing not only simple milestone achievement and intensity levels, but also the amount of sociocognitive engagement during physical activity.

Parents in the 21st century are concerned with the ubiquity of mobile devices and their effects on the progression of social development. A review of the literature indicated that although digital interaction has become more prominent, limited empirical data existed on whether children who spend more time interacting in the digital realm would develop the necessary competency to handle social situations in real-life settings. Using social constructivist theory and the Schramm model of communication as the theoretical foundations, the present study examined the relationship between mobile device usage and the level of social competency in young children as perceived by their parents, in relation to parental monitoring. A total of 401 parents of children age 5 to 12 years who have their own personal mobile devices completed the online questionnaires. Pearson correlation and linear regression showed that parental report of children's social competency was positively correlated to parental perception of mobile device usage and parental monitoring. Parental monitoring was also found to be a statistically significant moderator of the relationship between parental perception of mobile device usage and parental report of children's social competency. Positive social change of this study may include alleviating the misconception that digital interaction impeded social development, promoting parental role in raising socially competent children in the digital age, and advocating for a more collaborative parental monitoring strategy.

<p>U na&scaron;oj zemlji je malo objavljenih istraživanja iz oblasti kako brzinske izdržljivosti kod devojčica, tako i eksperimentalnih tretmana koji bi doveli do povećanja ove motoričke sposobnosti. U samoj atletici ova tema nije dovoljno istraživana s&rsquo; obzirom da je veoma puno prisutna u praksi. Osnovni cilj studije bio je da se utvrdi efekat eksperimentalnog tretmana na brzinsku izdržljivost devojčica.<br />Uzorak ispitanika ovog istraživanja činilo je 100 devojčica, uzrasta između 13 i 15 godina iz&nbsp; Novog Sada, koje su uključene u trenažni proces u sportskim klubovima. Uzorak ispitanika je bio podeljen na eksperimentalnu grupu, koju je činilo 50 devojčica i koja je realizovala eksperimentalni plan i program i kontrolnu grupu, sa takođe, 50 devojčica, koja je realizovala treninge po programu Evropske atletske federacije &ldquo;Kid&rsquo;s athletics&rdquo;, u trajanju od 15 nedelja. Testirane su razlike u antropolo&scaron;kim karakteristikama i u motoričkim sposobnostima, koje su se ogledale u efikasnosti primenjenog eksperimentalnog tretmana grupa.<br />U istraživanju je primenjeno 18 varijabli: 6 antropometrijskih, 10 motoričkih i 2 varijable za procenu specifičnih motoričkih sposobnosti. Razlike u antropolo&scaron;kim karakteristikama, motoričkim sposobnostima i brzinskoj izdržljivosti između eksperimentalne i kontrolne grupe analizirane su multivarijatnom analizom varijanse, univarijatnom analizom varijanse i diskriminativnom analizom, dok su sami efekti eksperimentalnog tretmana utvrđeni na osnovu multivarijatne analize kovarijanse.<br />Program rada eksperimentalne i kontrolne grupe realizovan je u okviru redovnih treninga u sportskim klubovima. Trenažni plan i program je sprovođen tri puna nedeljno, za obe testirane grupe. Eksperimentalna grupa je realizovala trenažne jedinice po modelovanom eksperimentalnom tretmanu, koji je sačinjen u skladu sa osnovnim principima trenažnog procesa i periodizacijom istog, i na osnovu bogatog vi&scaron;egodi&scaron;njeg iskustva autora i adekvatne literature najboljih svetskih autora aktuelne oblasti. Kontrolna grupa je realizovala trenažne jedinice po programu Evropske atletske federacije &ldquo;Kid&rsquo;s athletics&rdquo;.<br />Dobijeni rezutati u pogledu antropometrijskih karakteristika ukazuju da je primenjeni eksperimentalni tretman uticao na postojanje statistički značajnih razlika u sistemu pojedinih primenjenih antropometrijskih varijabli. U prostoru motoričkih sposobnosti takođe su utvrđene statistički značajne razlike između grupa nakon primenjenih različitih tretmana.<br />Kada su u pitanju specifične motoričke sposobnosti, odnosno varijable za procenu brzinske izdržljivosti devojčica, analiza kovarijanse je takođe ukazala na statističku značajnost razlika u sistemu primenjenih varijabli. Eksperimentalna grupa je statistički značajno napredovala u obe varijable kojima je testirana brzinska izdržljivost devojčica.<br />Osnovni cilj studije bio je da se utvrdi efekat eksperimentalnog tretmana na brzinsku izdržljivost devojčica, a rezultati univarijantne analize kovarijanse i multivarijatne analize kovarijanse su potvrdili statistički značajnu razliku u korist eksperimentalne grupe.<br />Na osnovu dobijenih rezultata može se zaključiti da je predloženi eksperimentalni tretman u eksperimentalnoj grupi doprineo značajnim razlikama u brzinskoj izdržljivosti. Rezultati koji su dobijeni u finalnom merenju i upoređivanjem motoričkih sposobnosti između eksperimentalne i kontrolne grupe, potvrdili su dosada&scaron;nja naučna i teorijska znanja, da prostor specifične izdržljivosti u brzini egzistira kao posebna sposobnost na koju se adekvatnim tretmanom može pozitivno uticati i doći do napretka koji je statistički značajan. Značaj ove studije je u direktnoj i neposrednoj primeni, ovog tretmana, gde se bolji rezultati postižu usmeravanjem tretmana na ciljane distance koje su po strukturi i vremenskom trajanju slične onim koje su testirane kao kriterijske varijable.</p> / <p>There is little published research in our country in girls&rsquo; speed endurance and experimental treatments which would&nbsp; increase this motor ability. This issue is not sufficiently investigated in the athletics, despite the fact that it is very much present in practice. The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of experimental treatment on girls&rsquo; speed endurance.<br />The sample of this study consisted of 100 girls, aged between 13 and 15 years old, from Novi Sad, who are involved in the training process in sports clubs. The sample was divided into an experimental group, which consisted of 50 girls and implemented experimental plan and program and the control group with 50 girls as well, which&nbsp; conducted trainings according to the program of the European Association of Athletics Federations&#39; &ldquo;Kid&#39;s athletics&rdquo;, in a&nbsp; 15 weeks period. The differences in the anthropological characteristics and motor skills were tested, which were reflected in the efficiency of the applied experimental treatment of the groups.<br />18 variables were&nbsp; applied in the study: 6 anthropometric, 10 motor variables and 2 motor variables for assessment of specific motor abilities. Differences in anthropological characteristics, motor skills and speed endurance between the experimental and control groups were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance, univariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis, while the actual effects of the experimental treatment were determined on the basis of multivariate analysis of covariance.<br />The working program of the experimental and control groups was carried out in the framework of regular training in sports clubs. The training plan and program was executed three times per week, for both tested groups. The experimental group has implemented the training units by modeled experimental treatment, which is made in accordance with the basic principles of the training process and its periodization, and based on author&#39;s extensive experience and adequate literature of the world&#39;s best authors of the current field. The control group&nbsp; implemented the training units of the program of the European Athletics Federation &quot;Kid&#39;s athletics.&quot;<br />The obtained results of anthropometric characteristics indicate that the applied experimental treatment influenced the existence of statistically significant differences in the system of individual anthropometric variables which were applied. Statistically significant differences were determined between groups in the area of motor abilities, after applaying different treatments.<br />As to the specific motor skills, variables for evaluation of girls&#39; speed endurance, covariance analysis also indicated statistically significant differences in the system of applied variables. The experimental group significantly progressed in both variables by which&nbsp; girls&#39; speed endurance had been tested.<br />The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of experimental treatment on girls&#39; speed endurance, and the results of the univariate analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of covariance confirmed a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group.<br />Based on these results, it can be concluded that the proposed experimental treatment in an experimental group contributed to the significant differences in the speed endurance. The final measuring results obtained by comparison of&nbsp; motor abilities between the experimental and control group, confirmed the recent scientific and theoretical knowledge that specific endurance space in speed exists as a special skill on which the appropriate treatment can positively influence and the statistically significant progress can be reached. The significance of this study is in a direct and immediate application of this treatment, where better results are achieved by focusing the treatment on the target distances which are similar by the structure and duration to those that have been tested as a criterion variable.</p>

Anxiety and depressive disorders are prevalent among youth and are often experienced concurrently or sequentially during development (Kroes et al., 2001; Costello, Erklani, & Angold, 2006). These disorders are also associated with weaker cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) outcomes when experienced simultaneously in youth (e.g. Berman, Weems, Silverman, & Kurtines, 2000). Treatment research has begun to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of treating comorbid emotional disorders using transdiagnostic treatment approaches (Barlow et al., 2010; Ehrenreich et al., 2008). Evidence from adult and adolescent populations indicates that these more broadly focused treatment programs may offer benefits above and beyond disorder- and domain-specific protocols, leading to improvements in diagnostic severity and emotion regulation across a range of disorders and emotions (Ellard, Fairholme, Boisseau, Farchione, & Barlow, 2010; Ehrenreich-May & Remmes, 2010). The current study extends transdiagnostic treatment research to school-age children, ages 7-12, in a mental health clinic setting by investigating preliminary post-treatment outcomes and treatment acceptability in a recent open trial (N enrolled= 16; N completed treatment=13) of the Emotion Detectives Treatment Protocol (EDTP; Ehrenreich-May & Laird, 2009). Results revealed that participants experienced significant improvements in clinical severity ratings of principal and all related diagnoses, as well as in parent reported anxious and parent and child reported depressive symptoms at the post-treatment assessment. Additionally, parents reported gains in child coping and improvements in dysregulation across emotional domains (including worry, sadness, and anger). The EDTP had good retention rates, moderately good attendance, and parents and children reported high levels of treatment satisfaction. The results of this open trial provide preliminary evidence for the utility and acceptability of a transdiagnostic group protocol to treat both clinical anxiety disorders, as well as self- and parent-reported anxious and depressive symptoms for youth within a mental health setting. These results suggest that children may uniquely benefit from a more generalized, emotion-focused treatment modality, such as the EDTP, that can offer flexibility in its treatment targets to families as well as mental health clinicians.

The objective of this study was to examine symptomatology; stress responses for everyday academic and social stressors; and cognitive coping resources among 11-year-old children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Two groups were established by the amount of time spent within the institutional system. Early adoptees (EAs, n=25) spent less than 6 months while late adoptees (LAs, n=14) endured 6 months or more of institutionalization. A comparison group of non adopted, same-age peers (Canadian Born (CBs), n=25) was included. The first goal was to investigate whether there were differences between EAs and LAs in ratings of symptomatology and stress responses. The second goal was to compare all Romanian adoptees (RAs) to CBs on the same set of factors. The third goal was to identify predictors of symptomatology and predictors of stress responses for RAs only. The main findings were as follows. EAs and LAs did not differ in any symptom ratings or stress responses, showing a lack of evidence for duration of deprivation as a grouping factor. Significant differences were detected by adoption status. Ratings were higher for RAs than CBs in parent-rated symptomatology, including the rate of RAs who exceeded the borderline clinical cut-off. RAs reported less secondary control coping for social stressors than CBs. Models to predict symptoms from stress responses were not supported, with one exception. More disengagement coping for social stress and less involuntary disengagement for academic stress predicted less externalizing and generalized symptoms by teacher report. Models to predict stress responses from cognitive coping resources were significant except for disengagement coping. One of the main findings was that predictors of secondary control coping varied by stressor domain. In conclusion, the findings were important in demonstrating that duration of deprivation does not differentiate between post-institutionalized preadolescents in aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Adoption status is a significant factor. Stress responses do not contribute to models of symptoms. The cognitive coping resources of perceived academic competency and social-support contribute to models of stress responses, yet with room to improve the predictive power of the models. Implications of the findings are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.