Higher order language competence and adolescent mental health
01 Jul 2013-Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd)-Vol. 54, Iss: 7, pp 733-744
TL;DR: Findings have implications for practitioners' seeking to understand and treat adolescents since therapeutic techniques rely on skills where higher order language is at play including the ability to discuss opinions flexibly and to weigh interpretations.
Abstract: 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.
Method:
144 clinic-referred and 186 comparison youth aged 12–18 years were administered a battery of standardized tests of intelligence, working memory, structural and higher order language, and reading achievement. Parent ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist were used as a measure of severity of social-emotional problems.
Results:
Clinic-referred youth scored significantly lower than comparison youth on measures of structural and higher order language, working memory, and reading. Of the clinic-referred youth, 45% had some type of higher order language impairment, whereas this was the case for 15% of youth in the comparison group. Lower levels of nonverbal ability and working memory as well as lower level of mothers’ education were associated with greater risk of having higher order language impairment.
Conclusions:
Findings have implications for practitioners’ seeking to understand and treat adolescents since therapeutic techniques rely on skills where higher order language is at play including the ability to discuss opinions flexibly and to weigh interpretations. Therapists must be aware that there are areas that have potential for miscommunication with some adolescents and where inaccurate inferences may be made about their behavior. Furthermore, educators must consider resources for youth who may increasingly struggle in high school because of such difficulties.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: SPCD is probably best conceptualized as a dimensional symptom profile that may be present across a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, although there is an urgent need to investigate the latent structure of SPCD using consistent diagnostic criteria.
Abstract: Background: DSM-5 sees the introduction of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SPCD), characterized by persistent difficulties using verbal and nonverbal communication for social purposes, in the absence of restricted and repetitive interests and behaviours. There is currently much confusion about the precise diagnostic criteria for SPCD and how this disorder relates to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), previous descriptions of pragmatic language impairment (PLI) and more specific language disorders (LD). Method: Proposed criteria for SPCD are outlined. A selective review of the evidence considers whether these criteria form a cohesive and distinct diagnostic entity. Approaches to assessment and intervention are discussed. Results: Implementing the new diagnosis is currently challenged by a lack of well-validated and reliable assessment measures, and observed continuities between SPCD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. High rates of comorbidity between SPCD and other seemingly disparate disorders (including conduct disorder, ADHD and disorders of known genetic origin) raise questions about the utility of this diagnostic category. Conclusions: SPCD is probably best conceptualized as a dimensional symptom profile that may be present across a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, although there is an urgent need to investigate the latent structure of SPCD using consistent diagnostic criteria. In addition, social communication and aspects of pragmatic language may be dissociated, with the latter heavily influenced by structural language attainments. Finally, there is a dearth of reliable and culturally valid assessment measures with which to make a differential diagnosis, and few rigorously tested intervention programmes. The implications for research and clinical practice are outlined. Keywords: Assessment, autism spectrum disorders, language disorder, pragmatics, social communication.
187 citations
TL;DR: Adolescents with SLI report having more difficulties with peers and having more mental health problems than do typical adolescents, and most adolescents see themselves as prosocial.
156 citations
TL;DR: Findings imply an integration model of these theories from an educational and developmental perspective: Children may rely on Gf to learn reading and mathematics early on, when high family SES can boost the effects of Gf on reading/mathematics performance.
Abstract: This study aimed to determine the relations between fluid intelligence (Gf) and reading/mathematics and possible moderators. A meta-analysis of 680 studies involving 793 independent samples and more than 370,000 participants found that Gf was moderately related to reading, r = .38, 95% CI [.36, .39], and mathematics, r = .41, 95% CI [.39, 44]. Synthesis on the longitudinal correlations showed that Gf and reading/mathematics predicted each other in the development even after controlling for initial performance. Moderation analyses revealed the following findings: (a) Gf showed stronger relations to mathematics than to reading, (b) within reading or mathematics, Gf showed stronger relations to complex skills than to foundational skills, (c) the relations between Gf and reading/mathematics increased with age, and (d) family social economic status (SES) mostly affected the relations between Gf and reading/mathematics in the early development stage. These findings, taken together, are partially in line with the investment theory but are more in line with the intrinsic cognitive load theory, mutualism theory, and the gene-SES interaction hypothesis of cognition and learning. More importantly, these findings imply an integration model of these theories from an educational and developmental perspective: Children may rely on Gf to learn reading and mathematics early on, when high family SES can boost the effects of Gf on reading/mathematics performance. As children receive more formal schooling and gain more learning experiences, their reading and mathematics improvement may promote their Gf development. During development, the negative effects of low family SES on the relations between Gf and reading/mathematics may be offset by education/learning experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
149 citations
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper conducted a meta-analysis on the relation between SES and academic achievement based on 215,649 students from 78 independent samples in the basic education stage from mainland China.
Abstract: Academic achievement is one of the most important indicators for assessing students’ performance and educational attainment. Family socioeconomic status (SES) is the main factor influencing academic achievement, but the relation between SES and academic achievement may vary across different sociocultural contexts. China is the most populous developing country with a large number of schooling students in the basic education stage. Chinese schools are unified and managed by the Ministry of Education, but the central and local governments in accordance with their responsibilities share the investment of educational funds. However, the strength of the relation between SES and academic achievement and possible moderators of this relation remain unclear. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis on the relation between SES and academic achievement based on 215,649 students from 78 independent samples in the basic education stage from mainland China. The results indicated a moderate relation between SES and academic achievement (r = 0.243) in general. Moderation analyses indicated that the relation between SES and academic achievement gradually decreased in the past several decades; SES has a stronger correlation with language achievement (i.e., Chinese and English) than science/math achievement and general achievement. These findings were discussed from the perspective of governmental policies on education.
106 citations
TL;DR: Analysis of developmental trajectories enriches the understanding of social development and finds the more prosocial children with better pragmatic language skills and lower levels of emotional problems had less difficulty in developing peer relations.
Abstract: Background Peer relations is a vulnerable area of functioning in children with specific language impairment (SLI), but little is known about the developmental trajectories of individuals. Methods Peer problems were investigated over a 9-year period (from 7 to 16 years of age) in 171 children with a history of SLI. Discrete factor growth modelling was used to chart developmental trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate factors associated with group membership. Results Four distinct developmental trajectories were identified: low-level/no problems in peer relations (22.2% of participants), childhood-limited problems (12.3%), childhood-onset persistent problems (39.2%) and adolescent-onset problems (26.3%). Risk of poor trajectories of peer relations was greater for those children with pragmatic language difficulties. Prosocial behaviour was the factor most strongly associated with trajectory group membership. Overall, the more prosocial children with better pragmatic language skills and lower levels of emotional problems had less difficulty in developing peer relations. Conclusions Analysis of developmental trajectories enriches our understanding of social development. A sizeable minority in the present sample sustained positive relations through childhood and adolescence, and others overcame early difficulties to achieve low levels of problems by their early teens; the majority, however, showed childhood-onset persistent or adolescent-onset problems.
104 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: An attempt is made to link the model to its role in both normal and disordered language functions, with particular reference to implications for both the normal processing of language, and its potential disorders.
1,957 citations
TL;DR: The findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity, in which executive-attention processes drive the broad predictive utility of WM span measures, and domain-specific storage and rehearsal processes relate more strongly to domain- specific aspects of complex cognition.
Abstract: A latent-variable study examined whether verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) capacity measures reflect a primarily domain-general construct by testing 236 participants in 3 span tests each of verbal WM, visuospatial WM, verbal short-term memory (STM), and visuospatial STM, as well as in tests of verbal and spatial reasoning and general fluid intelligence (Gf). Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models indicated that the WM tasks largely reflected a domain-general factor, whereas STM tasks, based on the same stimuli as the WM tasks, were much more domain specific. The WM construct was a strong predictor of Gf and a weaker predictor of domain-specific reasoning, and the reverse was true for the STM construct. The findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity, in which executive-attention processes drive the broad predictive utility of WM span measures, and domain-specific storage and rehearsal processes relate more strongly to domain-specific aspects of complex cognition.
1,524 citations
TL;DR: A framework is used to examine previous individual differences studies of working memory capacity, and new evidence is examined on the basis of predictions of the framework to performance on immediate free recall.
Abstract: Studies examining individual differences in working memory capacity have suggested that individuals with low working memory capacities demonstrate impaired performance on a variety of attention and memory tasks compared with individuals with high working memory capacities. This working memory limitation can be conceived of as arising from 2 components: a dynamic attention component (primary memory) and a probabilistic cue-dependent search component (secondary memory). This framework is used to examine previous individual differences studies of working memory capacity, and new evidence is examined on the basis of predictions of the framework to performance on immediate free recall. It is suggested that individual differences in working memory capacity are partially due to the ability to maintain information accessible in primary memory and the ability to search for information from secondary memory.
1,150 citations
TL;DR: A longitudinal follow-up of 71 adolescents with a preschool history of speech-language impairment, originally studied by Bishop and Edmundson (1987), found that children who still had significant language difficulties at 5;6 had significant impairments in all aspects of spoken and written language functioning, as did children classified as having a general delay.
Abstract: This paper reports a longitudinal follow-up of 71 adolescents with a preschool history of speech-language impairment, originally studied by Bishop and Edmundson (1987). These children had been subd...
846 citations
TL;DR: In a longitudinal study, 87 language-impaired children were assessed at the ages of 4, 4½, and 5½ years on a battery of language measures as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In a prospective, longitudinal study, 87 language-impaired children were assessed at the ages of 4, 4½, and 5½ years on a battery of language measures. In 37% of children, who were termed the "good...
622 citations