David Saldaña

Orthographic and phonological pathways in hyperlexic readers with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often present poor text comprehension relative to their ability to read individual words. Some of them have been considered hyperlexic because of their oustanding word-reading abilities. Although it has been suggested that these children access word reading in an atypical way, there is conflicting evidence on their use of phonological and orthograhic pathways. Fourteen adolescents with ASD with word reading to text comprehension discrepancy and 12 typically developing children, all matched on word reading and chronological age, were administered different lexical and sublexical tasks exploring semantic, orthographic, and phonological word representations and processes. No differences were found on any of the tasks between the children with ASD and the typically developing group. The children with ASD were further subdivided into two groups matched on word reading, one with outstanding word reading rela0tive to verbal IQ and another with word reading consistent with verbal IQ. The first group outperformed the second on tasks involving lexical orthographic and phonological representation. However, they were no different on sub-lexical phonological processing, on rapid naming or working, and short-term memory tasks.

Figurative language processing in atypical populations: the ASD perspective

This paper is intended to provide a critical overview of experimental and clinical research documenting problems in figurative language processing in atypical populations with a focus on the Autistic Spectrum. Research in the comprehension and processing of figurative language in autism invariably documents problems in this area. The greater paradox is that even at the higher end of the spectrum or in the cases of linguistically talented individuals with Asperger syndrome, where structural language competence is intact, problems with extended language persist. If we assume that figurative and extended uses of language essentially depend on the perception and processing of more concrete core concepts and phenomena, the commonly observed failure in atypical populations to understand figurative language remains a puzzle. Various accounts have been offered to explain this issue, ranging from linking potential failure directly to overall structural language competence (Norbury, 2005; Brock et al., 2008) to right-hemispheric involvement (Gold and Faust, 2010). We argue that the dissociation between structural language and figurative language competence in autism should be sought in more general cognitive mechanisms and traits in the autistic phenotype (e.g., in terms of weak central coherence, Vulchanova et al., 2012b), as well as failure at on-line semantic integration with increased complexity and diversity of the stimuli (Coulson and Van Petten, 2002). This perspective is even more compelling in light of similar problems in a number of conditions, including both acquired (e.g., Aphasia) and developmental disorders (Williams Syndrome). This dissociation argues against a simple continuity view of language interpretation.

El maltrato infantil en España: un estudio a través de los expedientes de menores

ResumenUna de las fuentes mas importantes de informacion sobre los malos tratos a menores son los archivos que obran en poder de los Servicios de Proteccion de Menores. En esta investigacion se revisaron los expedientes abiertos en los anos 1991 y 1992 en todas las Comunidades Autonomas del Estado Espanol, lo que supone una cifra de 32.483 archivos. Se detectaron 8.565 ninos y ninas maltratados, lo que supone una media anual del 0,44 por mil de la poblacion infantil espanola. La mayor parte de los menores se veian afectados por la Negligencia (79,1%). El Maltrato Emocional (42,5%) y el Maltrato Fisico (30,1%) suponen el segundo y tercer tipo mas frecuentes, respectivamente. La cifra de ninos maltratados, por otro lado, es ligeramente superior a la de ninas (52,3% y 47,7%, respectivamente). El estudio ha incluido un analisis mas detallado de cada una de las categoryias de maltrato que ha permitido perfilar aun mas cada una de ellas de acuerdo con la forma que adopta el maltrato, la edad del menor y su gene...

Detección y caracterización del maltrato infantil en la Comunidad Autónoma Andaluza

ResumenEste articulo presenta un resumen de los resultados obtenidos en una investigacion realizada con el objetivo de analizar la magnitud y caracterizacion que presenta el problema del maltrato infantil en la Comunidad Autonoma Andaluza. Para recoger esta informacion se solicito la colaboracion de distintos servicios publicos que desde diferentes aproximaciones (educativas, sanitarias y de servicio social) tienen contacto con la infancia. A tal efecto se facilito un sistema de definiciones que ayudaba a operativizar las diferentes tipologias de maltrato manejadas. Los resultados permiten estimar la incidencia del maltrato en torno a un 15 por mil, con una mayor presencia de las tipologias de Negligencia, Maltrato Emocional y Maltrato Fisico (en ese orden), con un perfil de incidencia diferente segun las edades y el sexo de quienes lo padecen, asi como unas caracteristicas de los padres, de las familias en las que se produce y de los propios ninos que anaden una informacion de cierto interes a la literat...

Ideas sobre la infancia y predisposición hacia el maltrato infantil

ResumenEntre los distintos factores que suelen relacionarse con el maltrato infantil algunos autores destacan la importancia de las ideas o representaciones sociales que los padres tienen acerca de la infancia. Con el objetivo de evaluar la relacion existente entre estas ideas y la predisposicion hacia el maltrato, se llevo a cabo un estudio sobre 900 madres y padres andaluces elegidos al azar. Fue utilizado un cuestionario que recogia informacion sobre valores, expectativas y otras ideas referidas a la infancia y al maltrato. Ademas se aplico una version reducida del Child Abuse Potential Inventory para evaluar el riesgo potencial que los padres tenian de maltratar a sus hijos. Los resultados del estudio muestran que los padres difieren entre si tanto en su predisposicion hacia el maltrato como en las representaciones sociales que tienen sobre la infancia. Ademas existe una clara relacion entre ambos aspectos, por lo que cabe suponer que estas ideas juegan un papel importante en la aparicion de las condu...

Readers with Autism Can Produce Inferences, but they Cannot Answer Inferential Questions

Readers with autism (ASD), poor comprehension (PC), and typical development (TD) took part in three reading experiments requiring the production of inferences. In Experiments 1 and 2 reading times for target phrases—placed immediately after text implicitly indicating the emotion of a protagonist or after a number of filler sentences, respectively—were used as measures of inferencing. In Experiment 3, participants were explicitly asked to identify the protagonist’s emotion. There were no significant differences among groups in Experiment 1. Compared to TD readers, the PC group performed poorly in Experiments 2 and 3. ASD readers performed worse than PC participants only in the explicit-question task. Although ASD readers can produce inferences, they respond to questions about them with difficulty.

Visual versus phonological abilities in Spanish dyslexic boys and girls

Phonological and visual theories propose different primary deficits as part of the explanation for dyslexia. Both theories were put to test in a sample of Spanish dyslexic readers. Twenty-one dyslexic and 22 typically-developing children matched on chronological age were administered phonological discrimination and awareness tasks and coherent motion perception tasks. No differences were found between groups on the coherent motion tasks, whereas dyslexic readers were impaired relative to controls on phonological discrimination tasks. Gender differences followed the opposite pattern, with no differences on phonological tasks, and dyslexic girls performing significantly worse than dyslexic boys in coherent motion perception. These results point to the importance of phonological deficits related to speech perception in Spanish, and to possible gender differences in the neurobiological bases for dyslexia.

La evaluación de los procesos metacognitivos: estrategias y problemática actuales

Resumen El estudio de la metacognición ha sido uno de los ámbitos de investigación más fructíferos de los últimos treinta años y su relevancia en diferentes campos de investigación teórica y aplicada es, en la actualidad, un hecho aceptado. El presente trabajo ofrece una revisión de los distintos procedimientos e instrumentos empleados para su evaluación. En él, tras una introducción centrada en aspectos conceptualesy de definición de la metacognición, se expondrán los distintos procedimientos que se han empleado con este objetivo, distinguiendo entre métodos individuales verbales, individuales no verbales y métodos basados en interacciones sociales. El artículo concluye señalando los principales problemas que aparecen en la evaluación de la metacognición y con algunas recomendaciones generales que parecen derivarse de la investigación actual para la valoración de los procesos metacognitivos.ResumenEl estudio de la metacognicion ha sido uno de los ambitos de investigacion mas fructiferos de los ultimos treinta anos y su relevancia en diferentes campos de investigacion teorica y aplicada es, en la actualidad, un hecho aceptado. El presente trabajo ofrece una revision de los distintos procedimientos e instrumentos empleados para su evaluacion. En el, tras una introduccion centrada en aspectos conceptualesy de definicion de la metacognicion, se expondran los distintos procedimientos que se han empleado con este objetivo, distinguiendo entre metodos individuales verbales, individuales no verbales y metodos basados en interacciones sociales. El articulo concluye senalando los principales problemas que aparecen en la evaluacion de la metacognicion y con algunas recomendaciones generales que parecen derivarse de la investigacion actual para la valoracion de los procesos metacognitivos.

Can you play with fire and not hurt yourself?: A comparative study in figurative language comprehension between individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with High functioning autism (HFA) are distinguished by relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive skills. However, problems with pragmatic language skills have been consistently reported across the autistic spectrum, even when structural language is intact. Our main goal was to investigate how highly verbal individuals with autism process figurative language and whether manipulation of the stimuli presentation modality had an impact on the processing. We were interested in the extent to which visual context, e.g., an image corresponding either to the literal meaning or the figurative meaning of the expression may facilitate responses to such expressions. Participants with HFA and their typically developing peers (matched on intelligence and language level) completed a cross-modal sentence-picture matching task for figurative expressions and their target figurative meaning represented in images. We expected that the individuals with autism would have difficulties in appreciating the non-literal nature of idioms and metaphors, despite intact structural language skills. Analyses of accuracy and reaction times showed clearly that the participants with autism performed at a lower level than their typically developing peers. Moreover, the modality in which the stimuli were presented was an important variable in task performance for the more transparent expressions. The individuals with autism displayed higher error rates and greater reaction latencies in the auditory modality compared to the visual stimulus presentation modality, implying more difficulty. Performance differed depending on type of expression. Participants had more difficulty understanding the culturally-based expressions, but not expressions grounded in human experience (biological idioms). This research highlights the importance of stimulus presentation modality and that this can lead to differences in figurative language comprehension between typically and atypically developing individuals. The current study also contributes to current debates on the role of structural language in figurative language comprehension in autism.

Interactive assessment of metacognition: Exploratory study of a procedure for persons with severe mental retardation

Metacognition is an important construct for the understanding of mental retardation and the design of educational treatment for this population. However, assessment procedures used for the testing of metacognition do not seem appropriate for these subjects. This article presents an interactive assessment procedure that uses a game-like task. Results show that this format adequately reflects low levels of self-regulation in persons with mental retardation and, more important, individual differences among these individuals in a manner not possible with more static approaches. Adaptive behaviour and learning of metacognition in a cognitive enrichment programme are used as external criteria, with significant correlations between these and interactive assessment scores. Implications for educational practice and assessment of metacognition are discussed.RésuméLa métacognition s’avère un concept approprié pour une meilleure compréhension du retard mental et des approches pédagogiques adaptées à cette population. Cependant, les méthodes d’évaluation utilisées pour mesurer la métacognition ne semblent pas s’adapter à leurs besoins. L’article propose une méthode d’évaluation interactive qui met en place un exercice type-jeu. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que cette méthode fait apparaître des niveaux d’autorégulation faibles chez les personnes souffrant d’un retard mental. Qui plus est, elle révèle des différences interindividuelles entre aux qui ne sont pas décelées avec des approches trop figées. La faculté d’adaptation et l’apprentissage de la métacognition ont été utilisés en tant que critères externes. De corrélations significatives entre ces deux critères et les résultats de l’évaluation interactive sont apparues. Leurs possibles incidences sur la pratique pédagogique/éducative et l’évaluation de la métacognition sont sujets à discussion.