Problemstellung: Schuleingangsuntersuchungen belegen zunehmend Defizite in der motorischen und kognitiven Entwicklung von Einschülern. Im Hinblick auf Präventivmaßnahmen gilt dem motorischen und kognitiven Entwicklungsstand von Vorschulkindern ein verstärktes Forschungsinteresse. Die bisherige Wissensbasis soll mit aktuellen Untersuchungsergebnissen zum Zusammenhang von Motorik und Kognition bei Vorschulkindern erweitert werden. Methodik: Untersucht wurden 101 Kinder in vier Potsdamer Kitas im Alter von 3,5-4,6 Jahren. Zur Überprüfung der koordinativen und konditionellen Fähigkeiten wurden Standweitsprung, Sechs-Meter-Lauf, Balancieren, Einbeinstand und Seitliches Umsetzen sowie Handkoordination eingesetzt (KTK; Kiphard & Schilling 1972; Vogt 1978). Zusätzlich wurden in Anlehnung an das Brain-Gym-Konzept (Dennison 1984) körpermitteüberschreitende Armbewegungen qualitativ bewertet und auf Validität und Reliabilität geprüft. Die kognitiven Fähigkeiten wurden mit dem Bildbasierten Intelligenztest getestet (Schaarschmidt, Ricken, Kieschke & Preuß 2004). Ergebnisse: Jungen sind deutlich schneller und kräftiger als Mädchen, können aber geringfügig schlechter balancieren und feinkoordinieren. Ein Entwicklungssprung in den motorischen Leistungen ab dem vierten Lebensjahr konnte nachgewiesen werden. Weiterhin zeigte sich ein positiver signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen der Gleichgewichtsfähigkeit und kognitiven Fähigkeiten bei den männlichen 3,5-Jährigen (r=.28-r=.32; p=0,01). Dies bestätigt: Je jünger die Kinder, desto stärker der Zusammenhang von Motorik und Intelligenz. Bei einseitiger Testung zeigten sich schwache signifikante Korrelationen von kognitiven Leistungen der Kinder und Qualifikation der Eltern (r=.18 - r=.21; p=0,01). Die Qualitative Bewertung der Arm- und Handbewegungen eignet sich wegen unbestätigter Validität und Reliabilität nicht als Untersuchungsmethode im Sinne einer frühfunktionellen Diagnostik. / Issue: Entrance exams used to determine readiness for school of first year pupils increasingly neglect the importance of motor skills and cognitive ability developments. For the implementation of proper preventative measures, more research is necessary to assess the motor skill and cognition developments of preschool students. The children’s basic knowledge must be tested in connection with the results of recent studies dealing with the motor skills and cognition of preschool students. Procedure: 101 children between the ages of 3,5-4,6 were studied in four kindergartens in Potsdam. Their coordination and endurance abilities were examined with regards to their abilities in long jumps from standing positions, six-meter runs, balancing themselves, standing on one leg, lateral movement, and their hand co-ordinations (KTK; Kiphard & Schilling 1972; Vogt 1978). Additionally, the Brain-Gym-Concept (Dennison 1984) was evaluated vis-à-vis the children’s reliability and validity to move their arms around their middle body. The cognitive abilities were tested with a visual intelligence test (Schaarschmidt, Ricken, Kieschke & Preuß 2004). Results: Boys are clearly faster and stronger than girls. The latter however have much greater abilities in their balance and fine motor skills. It was evident that children experienced major improvements in motor skills in their fourth year. Furthermore, three and a half year old boys had a significant connection between their sense of equilibrium and cognitive abilities (r=.28-r=.32; p=0,01). This proves that the connection between motor skills and intelligence are greater the younger the children are. One sided tests showed weak correlations between the cognitive abilities of the children to those of their parents (r=.18 - r=.21; p=0,01). The qualitative assessment of arm and hand movements doesn’t deem itself eligible as a study method as its reliability and validity concerning early diagnosis hasn’t been confirmed.

Human infants have been shown to have an innate capacity to acquire their mother tongue. In recent decades, the advent of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique has made it feasible to explore the neural basis underlying language acquisition and processing in children, even in newborn infants (for reviews, see Kuhl & Rivera-Gaxiola, 2008; Kuhl, 2010) . Spontaneous low-frequency (< 0.1 Hz) fluctuations (LFFs) in the resting brain have been shown to be physiologically meaningful in the seminal study (Biswal et al., 1995) . Compared to task-based fMRI, resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has some unique advantages in neuroimaging research, especially in obtaining data from pediatric and clinical populations. Moreover, it enables us to characterize the functional organization of the brain in a systematic manner in the absence of explicit tasks. Among brain systems, the language network has been well investigated by analyzing LFFs in the resting brain. This thesis attempts to investigate the functional connectivity within the language network in typically developing preschool children and the covariation of this connectivity with children’s language development by using the rs-fMRI technique. The first study (see Chapter 2.1; Xiao et al., 2016a) revealed connectivity differences in language-related regions between 5-year-olds and adults, and demonstrated distinct correlation patterns between functional connections within the language network and sentence comprehension performance in children. The results showed a left fronto-temporal connection for processing syntactically more complex sentences, suggesting that this connection is already in place at age 5 when it is needed for complex sentence comprehension, even though the whole functional network is still immature. In the second study (see Chapter 2.2; Xiao et al., 2016b), sentence comprehension performance and rs-fMRI data were obtained from a cohort of children at age 5 and a one-year follow-up. This study examined the changes in functional connectivity in the developing brain and their relation to the development of language abilities. The findings showed that the development of intrinsic functional connectivity in preschool children over the course of one year is clearly observable and individual differences in this development are related to the advancement in sentence comprehension ability with age. In summary, the present thesis provides new insights into the relationship between intrinsic functional connectivity in the brain and language processing, as well as between the changes in intrinsic functional connectivity and concurrent language development in preschool children. Moreover, it allows for a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying language processing and the advancement of language abilities in the developing brain.

Human infants have been shown to have an innate capacity to acquire their mother tongue. In recent decades, the advent of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique has made it feasible to explore the neural basis underlying language acquisition and processing in children, even in newborn infants (for reviews, see Kuhl & Rivera-Gaxiola, 2008; Kuhl, 2010) . Spontaneous low-frequency (< 0.1 Hz) fluctuations (LFFs) in the resting brain have been shown to be physiologically meaningful in the seminal study (Biswal et al., 1995) . Compared to task-based fMRI, resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has some unique advantages in neuroimaging research, especially in obtaining data from pediatric and clinical populations. Moreover, it enables us to characterize the functional organization of the brain in a systematic manner in the absence of explicit tasks. Among brain systems, the language network has been well investigated by analyzing LFFs in the resting brain. This thesis attempts to investigate the functional connectivity within the language network in typically developing preschool children and the covariation of this connectivity with children’s language development by using the rs-fMRI technique. The first study (see Chapter 2.1; Xiao et al., 2016a) revealed connectivity differences in language-related regions between 5-year-olds and adults, and demonstrated distinct correlation patterns between functional connections within the language network and sentence comprehension performance in children. The results showed a left fronto-temporal connection for processing syntactically more complex sentences, suggesting that this connection is already in place at age 5 when it is needed for complex sentence comprehension, even though the whole functional network is still immature. In the second study (see Chapter 2.2; Xiao et al., 2016b), sentence comprehension performance and rs-fMRI data were obtained from a cohort of children at age 5 and a one-year follow-up. This study examined the changes in functional connectivity in the developing brain and their relation to the development of language abilities. The findings showed that the development of intrinsic functional connectivity in preschool children over the course of one year is clearly observable and individual differences in this development are related to the advancement in sentence comprehension ability with age. In summary, the present thesis provides new insights into the relationship between intrinsic functional connectivity in the brain and language processing, as well as between the changes in intrinsic functional connectivity and concurrent language development in preschool children. Moreover, it allows for a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying language processing and the advancement of language abilities in the developing brain.

Background: Excessive media usage affects children’s health. This study investigated associations between children’s and mother’s media use, parent-child interactions, and early-childhood development outcomes. Methods: 296 healthy 2- to 5-year-old preschoolers (52.4% male, mean age = 3.5) and 
224 mothers from the LIFE-child cohort study were analyzed. Screen times and parent-child interactions were assessed using standardized parental questionnaires. Developmental skills were investigated using the standardized development test ET 6-6-R. Results: High screen times in children (> 1 h/day) were significantly associated with lower percentile ranks in cognition (b = -10.96, p < 0.01), language (b = -12.88, p < 0.01), and social-emotional skills (b = -7.80, p = 0.05). High screen times in mothers (> 5 h/day) were significantly associated with high media use by children (OR = 3.86, p < 0.01). Higher parent-child interaction scores were significantly associated with better body motor (b = 0.41, 
p = 0.05), cognition (b = 0.57, p < 0.01), language (b = 0.48, p = 0.02) and social-emotional outcomes (b = 0.80, p < 0.01) in children. Conclusions: Public health strategies should seek to educate caregivers as competent mediators for their children’s media habits, with focus on the need for children to have frequent parent-child interactions.

Background: In many severely mentally disordered children, the clinical presentation is complicated by comorbid affective and behavioral dysregulation. Recently, a highly heritable behavioral phenotype of simultaneous deviance on the anxious/depressed, attention problems, and aggressive behavior syndrome scales has been identified on the Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP). The aim of the present pilot study was to determine an equivalent to the CBCL-DP using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Sampling and Methods: We applied stepwise linear discriminant analyses and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to data from 543 consecutively referred children and adolescents, aged 5–17 years. The CBCL and the SDQ were completed by parents as part of the diagnostic routine. ICD-10 discharge diagnoses were established in consensus conferences. Results: A combination of five SDQ items (SDQ-Dysregulation Profile, SDQ-DP) yielded the best discrimination of children with and without CBCL-DP and classified 81.0% of the subjects correctly leading to an area under the curve of 0.93. The content of the five SDQ-DP items mirrors well the mixed behavioral phenotype of anxious-depressive, aggressive and attention problems captured by the CBCL-DP. SDQ-DP status was highly correlated with CBCL-DP status and was best defined by a SDQ-DP score ≧5. Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the SDQ-DP have been robustly tested and validated. Based on these results, clinicians may use the SDQ-DP as a useful and economical screening measure to improve the assessment, prevention, and treatment of severe dysregulation in childhood and adolescence. Future investigations should study the longitudinal stability, heritability, and genetic associations of this behavioral phenotype. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

Background: In many severely mentally disordered children, the clinical presentation is complicated by comorbid affective and behavioral dysregulation. Recently, a highly heritable behavioral phenotype of simultaneous deviance on the anxious/depressed, attention problems, and aggressive behavior syndrome scales has been identified on the Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP). The aim of the present pilot study was to determine an equivalent to the CBCL-DP using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Sampling and Methods: We applied stepwise linear discriminant analyses and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to data from 543 consecutively referred children and adolescents, aged 5–17 years. The CBCL and the SDQ were completed by parents as part of the diagnostic routine. ICD-10 discharge diagnoses were established in consensus conferences. Results: A combination of five SDQ items (SDQ-Dysregulation Profile, SDQ-DP) yielded the best discrimination of children with and without CBCL-DP and classified 81.0% of the subjects correctly leading to an area under the curve of 0.93. The content of the five SDQ-DP items mirrors well the mixed behavioral phenotype of anxious-depressive, aggressive and attention problems captured by the CBCL-DP. SDQ-DP status was highly correlated with CBCL-DP status and was best defined by a SDQ-DP score ≧5. Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the SDQ-DP have been robustly tested and validated. Based on these results, clinicians may use the SDQ-DP as a useful and economical screening measure to improve the assessment, prevention, and treatment of severe dysregulation in childhood and adolescence. Future investigations should study the longitudinal stability, heritability, and genetic associations of this behavioral phenotype. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

Das Gesundheitsamt des Landkreises Zwickau veröffentlicht zum zweiten Mal seit 2011 Gesamtergebnisse zum Gesundheitszustand unserer Vorschulkinder im Landkreis Zwickau. Der Gesundheitsbericht beinhaltet die Ergebnisse der Kindergartenuntersuchungen und der Schulaufnahmeuntersuchungen. Die Schwerpunkte liegen dabei auf der Darstellung der Veränderungen der gesundheitlichen Situation der Kinder im zeitlichen Verlauf und der Vergleichmder Entwicklung in unserem Landkreis mit dem im Freistaat Sachsen.