Gabrielle Simcock

Breaking the Barrier? Children Fail to Translate Their Preverbal Memories into Language

We examined childrens ability to translate their preverbal memories into language following a period of substantial language development. Children participated in a unique event, and their memory was assessed 6 months or 1 year later. At the time of the event and at the time of the test, their language skills were also assessed. Children of all ages exhibited evidence of verbal and nonverbal memory. Their language skills also improved over the delay. By the time of the test, children of all ages had acquired most of the vocabulary necessary to describe the target event. Despite this, they did not translate preverbal aspects of their memory into language during the test. In no instance did a child verbally report information about the event that was not part of his or her productive vocabulary at the time of encoding. We conclude that language development plays a pivotal role in childhood amnesia.

Age-Related Changes in Verbal and Nonverbal Memory During Early Childhood

In the present experiment, age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory performance by 2- to 4-year-old children were assessed. All children participated in the same unique event, and their memory of that event was assessed after a 24-hr delay. Overall, childrens performance on each memory measure increased as a function of age. Furthermore, childrens performance on both the verbal and nonverbal memory tests was related to their language ability; children with more advanced language skills reported more during the verbal interview and exhibited superior nonverbal memory relative to children with less advanced language skills. Finally, childrens verbal recall of the event lagged behind both their nonverbal recall and their general verbal skill. It is hypothesized that despite large strides in language acquisition. preschool-age children continue to rely primarily on nonverbal representations of past events. The findings have important implications for the phenomenon of childhood amnesia.

Planes, trains, automobiles--and tea sets: extremely intense interests in very young children

Some normally developing young children show an intense, passionate interest in a particular category of objects or activities. The present article documents the existence of extremely intense interests that emerge very early in life and establishes some of the basic parameters of the phenomenon. Surveys and interviews with 177 parents revealed that nearly one third of young children have extremely intense interests. The nature of these intense interests is described, with particular focus on their emergence, commonalities in the content of the interests, and the reactions of other people to them. One of the most striking findings is a large gender difference: Extremely intense interests are much more common for young boys than for girls.

Generalization of learning from picture books to novel test conditions by 18- and 24-month old children

Researchers know little about whether very young children can recognize objects originally introduced to them in a picture book when they encounter similar looking objects in various real-world contexts. The present studies used an imitation procedure to explore young childrens ability to generalize a novel action sequence from a picture book to novel test conditions. The authors found that 18-month-olds imitated the action sequence from a book only when the conditions at testing matched those at encoding; altering the test stimuli or context disrupted imitation (Experiment 1A). In contrast, the 24-month-olds imitated the action sequence with changes to both the test context and stimuli (Experiment 1B). Moreover, although the 24-month-olds exhibited deferred imitation with no changes to the test conditions, they did not defer imitation with changes to the context and stimuli (Experiment 2). Two factors may account for the pattern of results: age-related changes in childrens ability to utilize novel retrieval cues as well as their emerging ability to understand the representational nature of pictures.

QF2011: a protocol to study the effects of the Queensland flood on pregnant women, their pregnancies, and their children's early development

BackgroundRetrospective studies suggest that maternal exposure to a severe stressor during pregnancy increases the fetus’ risk for a variety of disorders in adulthood. Animal studies testing the fetal programming hypothesis find that maternal glucocorticoids pass through the placenta and alter fetal brain development, particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, there are no prospective studies of pregnant women exposed to a sudden-onset independent stressor that elucidate the biopsychosocial mechanisms responsible for the wide variety of consequences of prenatal stress seen in human offspring. The aim of the QF2011 Queensland Flood Study is to fill this gap, and to test the buffering effects of Midwifery Group Practice, a form of continuity of maternity care.Methods/designIn January 2011 Queensland, Australia had its worst flooding in 30 years. Simultaneously, researchers in Brisbane were collecting psychosocial data on pregnant women for a randomized control trial (the M@NGO Trial) comparing Midwifery Group Practice to standard care. We invited these and other pregnant women to participate in a prospective, longitudinal study of the effects of prenatal maternal stress from the floods on maternal, perinatal and early childhood outcomes. Data collection included assessment of objective hardship and subjective distress from the floods at recruitment and again 12 months post-flood. Biological samples included maternal bloods at 36 weeks pregnancy, umbilical cord, cord blood, and placental tissues at birth. Questionnaires assessing maternal and child outcomes were sent to women at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. The protocol includes assessments at 16 months, 2½ and 4 years. Outcomes include maternal psychopathology, and the child’s cognitive, behavioral, motor and physical development. Additional biological samples include maternal and child DNA, as well as child testosterone, diurnal and reactive cortisol.DiscussionThis prenatal stress study is the first of its kind, and will fill important gaps in the literature. Analyses will determine the extent to which flood exposure influences the maternal biological stress response which may then affect the maternal-placental-fetal axis at the biological, biochemical, and molecular levels, altering fetal development and influencing outcomes in the offspring. The role of Midwifery Group Practice in moderating effects of maternal stress will be tested.

Magic Memories: Young Children’s Verbal Recall After a 6-Year Delay

This report describes the first prospective study specifically designed to assess childrens verbal memory for a unique event 6 years after it occurred. Forty-six 27- to 51-month-old children took part in a unique event and were interviewed about it twice, after 24-hr and 6-year delays. During the 6-year interview, 9 children verbally recalled the event, including 2 who were under 3 years old when the event occurred. This may be the most convincing evidence to date that such early experiences can be verbally recalled after long delays. These data have important implications for current theories of memory development and childhood amnesia and underscore some of the problems associated with evaluating the veracity of early memories under less controlled conditions.

A Potential Psychological Mechanism Linking Disaster-Related Prenatal Maternal Stress with Child Cognitive and Motor Development at 16 Months: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study.

Fetal exposure to prenatal maternal stress can have lifelong consequences, with different types of maternal stress associated with different areas of child development. Fewer studies have focused on motor skills, even though they are strongly predictive of later development across a range of domains. Research on mechanisms of transmission has identified biological cascades of stress reactions, yet links between psychological stress reactions are rarely studied. This study investigates the relationship between different aspects of disaster-related prenatal maternal stress and child cognitive and motor development, and proposes a cascade of stress reactions as a potential mechanism of transmission. Mothers in the Queensland Flood Study (QF2011) exposed to a major flood during pregnancy completed questionnaires assessing flood exposure, symptoms of peritraumatic distress, dissociation, and posttraumatic stress (PTSD), and cognitive appraisal of the overall flood consequences. At 16 months post-partum, children’s (N = 145) cognitive and motor development was assessed using the Bayley-III. Flood exposure predicted child cognitive development and maternal PTSD symptoms and negative cognitive appraisal were significantly negatively related to child motor development, with all relationships moderated by timing of exposure. Together, a cascade of stress reactions linked maternal flood exposure to poorer fine motor development. These findings suggest that the way stress reactions operate together is as important as the way they operate in isolation, and identifies a potential psychological mechanism of transmission for the effects of prenatal stress. Results have implications for conceptualizing prenatal stress research and optimizing child development in the wake of natural disasters.

Continuous, emerging, and dissipating associations between prenatal maternal stress and child cognitive and motor development: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

• Disaster-related PTSD symptoms were associated with poorer child fine motor development, and this association persisted from 16 to 30 months.

Prenatal maternal distress: a risk factor for child anxiety?

The deleterious association between various types of prenatal maternal psychological distress (PNMS, anxiety, depression, psychological distress, stress) and childhood anxiety symptomatology (internalizing behaviors, anxiety symptoms) has been established using both retrospective and prospective longitudinal studies across varied demographic cohorts and throughout development. Yet, the existing literature cannot claim maternal distress during pregnancy to be a specific risk factor for anxiety symptomatology, as studies utilizing such observational designs are unable to adequately account for confounding of potential genetic factors and the postnatal environment. In this review, we examine studies that attempt to minimize such confounding and thus disentangle the unique intrauterine exposure effect of varying types of PNMS on childhood anxiety symptomatology. Such methodologies include paternal versus maternal comparison studies, sibling comparisons, prenatal cross-fostering designs and timing of exposure studies (including disaster studies). Of the identified studies, findings indicate that prenatal maternal distress is likely to constitute a risk factor for anxiety symptomatology, although more studies are needed to replicate current findings in order to determine whether there are clear differences in effects across specific types of PNMS and for specific subpopulations. We review the methodological limitations and strengths of the literature prior to exploring avenues of future research and implications for theory and clinical practice.

Flood-related Prenatal Maternal Stress effects Childhood Anxiety Symptomatology; The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

University, the Waikato District Health Board, the Univeristy of Auckland, the University of Auckland, Liggins Institute On behalf of the CHYLD Study Team. Background: Higher and unstable glucose concentrations in the first 48 hours in neonates at risk of hypoglycaemia have been associated with neurosensory impairment. It is unclear what defines and contributes to instability. Methods: Prospective study of term and late preterm babies (N = 139) born at risk of neonatal hypoglycaemia with interstitial glucose (IG) monitoring and > =1 hypoglycaemic episode <48 hours after birth. Masked IG parameters were analyzed for 6-hour epochs after each episode (blood glucose concentration <2.6 mmol/l) and related to treatment and neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 and 4.5y. Results: Glycaemic instability in the first 48 hours was related to instability after hypoglycaemia. IG parameters were not related to risk factors for hypoglycaemia. Treatment with intravenous dextrose was associated with higher IG maximum and range, and lower minimum compared to treatment with dextrose gel plus breast milk, breast milk alone or formula alone. The risk of neurosensory impairment was increased with both long and short time to reach IG maximum (middle vs upper tertile OR = 3.33, 95%CI 1.44-7.70 and lower tertile OR = 2.94, 95%CI 1.31-6.59). Conclusion: Glycaemic response to hypoglycaemia contributes to overall glycaemic instability in newborns and is influenced by treatment. Slow or rapid recovery from hypoglycaemia is associated with neurosensory impairment.