Gaetano Rappo

Temporal Abnormalities in Children With Developmental Dyscalculia

Recent imaging studies have associated Developmental dyscalculia (DD) to structural and functional alterations corresponding Parietal and the Prefrontal cortex (PFC). Since these areas were shown also to be involved in timing abilities, we hypothesized that time processing is abnormal in DD. We compared time processing abilities between 10 children with pure DD (8 years old) and 11 age-matched healthy children. Results show that the DD group underestimated duration of a sub-second scale when asked to perform a time comparison task. The timing abnormality observed in our DD participants is consistent with evidence of a shared fronto-parietal neural network for representing time and quantity.

Timing Flickers across Sensory Modalities

In tasks requiring a comparison of the duration of a reference and a test visual cue, the spatial position of test cue is likely to be implicitly coded, providing a form of a congruency effect or introducing a response bias according to the environmental scale or its vectorial reference. The precise mechanism generating these perceptual shifts in subjective duration is not understood, although several studies suggest that spatial attentional factors may play a critical role. Here we use a duration comparison task within and across sensory modalities to examine if temporal performance is also modulated when people are exposed to spatial distractors involving different sensory modalities. Different groups of healthy participants performed duration comparison tasks in separate sessions: a time comparison task of visual stimuli during exposure to spatially presented auditory distractors; and a time comparison task of auditory stimuli during exposure to spatially presented visual distractors. We found the duration of visual stimuli biased depending on the spatial position of auditory distractors. Observers underestimated the duration of stimuli presented in the left spatial field, while there was an overestimation trend in estimating the duration of stimuli presented in the right spatial field. In contrast, timing of auditory stimuli was unaffected by exposure to visual distractors. These results support the existence of multisensory interactions between space and time showing that, in cross-modal paradigms, the presence of auditory distractors can modify visuo-temporal perception but not vice versa. This asymmetry is discussed in terms of sensory–perceptual differences between the two systems.

SELF-ESTEEM AT SCHOOL AND SELF-HANDICAPPING IN CHILDHOOD: COMPARISON OF GROUPS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Recent research has focused on the role of self-esteem and self-handicapping strategies in the school domain. Self-handicapping refers to maladaptive strategies employed by adults and children for protection and maintenance of positive school self esteem. In this study the self-esteem and the self-handicapping strategies of children with dyslexia, reading comprehension disabilities, and mathematical disabilities were compared to a control group with normal learning. There were 56 children whose mean age was 8 (23 girls, 33 boys), attending Grade 3 of primary school. These pupils were selected by scores on a battery of learning tests commonly used in Italy for assessment of learning disabilities. Analyses suggested these children with dyslexia, reading comprehension disabilities, and mathematical disabilities had lower ratings of self-esteem at school and employed more self-handicapping strategies than did children whose learning was normal. More research is required to identify and examine in depth the factors that promote adaptive strategies to cope with childrens reading difficulties.

Depression, Anxiety at School and Self-Esteem in Children with Learning Disabilities

Educational research places emphasis on the fact that pupils with Learning Disabilities may develop depressive and anxiety symptoms characterized by lower levels of self-esteem. The aim of this research is to compare the levels of depression, anxiety at school and self-esteem in children with learning disabilities, mathematical disabilities and a control group who showed typical learning. The participants were 132 children (52 girls and 80 boys), with an average age of 9 years, attending the fourth grade of primary school. These pupils were selected by scores on a battery of tests commonly used in Italy for the assessment of learning disabilities. On the whole, analyses revealed that children with Learning Disabilities and Mathematical Disabilities showed higher level of depression and school anxiety as well as lower rated self-esteem at school than children with typical learning. Moreover our findings highlight the co-occurrence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in pupils with Learning Disabilities. One of the issues that emerges from this study is the need to implement prevention programs aimed at identifying at an early age high-risk children showing increased levels of depression and anxiety. Moreover, these findings highlight the importance to find which are the most appropriate educational and clinical interventions to reduce cognitive maladaptive strategies in school aged children.

Strategie di autosabotaggio e autostima in bambini con differenti profili di apprendimento

Recenti ricerche si sono focalizzate sul ruolo dell’autostima e delle strategie di autosabotaggio nel contesto scolastico. In particolare l’autosabotaggio indica strategie disadattive impiegate da un individuo di fronte ad un compito minaccioso per proteggersi e mantenere un’autostima positiva. Abbiamo condotto due studi per confrontare il livello di autostima e le strategie di autosabotaggio in bambini di eta media 8 anni, frequentanti la terza classe della scuola primaria, con differenti profili di apprendimento. Nello specifico nel primo abbiamo confrontato due gruppi: uno con difficolta generalizzate sia di lettura che di matematica ed uno con normale livello di apprendimento. Nel secondo studio, invece, abbiamo confrontato tre gruppi: uno con dislessia, uno con difficolta generalizzate sia di lettura che di matematica ed uno con normale livello di apprendimento. In generale, i risultati dimostrano che i bambini con dislessia e quelli con difficolta generalizzata di apprendimento hanno livelli di autostima piu bassi dei coetanei con normale livello di appredimento. Relativamente all’impiego di strategie di autosabotaggio solo nel secondo studio abbiamo trovato differenze significative tra i gruppi. In particolare, i bambini con dislessia manifestano un maggiore bisogno di autoprotezione rispetto ai bambini con difficolta generalizzata di apprendimento e rispetto ai bambini con normale livello di apprendimento. Questo risultato enfatizza il ruolo della specificita della difficolta allo scopo di stimolare l’impiego di strategie difensive anche durante la frequenza della scuola primaria.

Investigating the Improvement of Decoding Abilities and Working Memory in Children with Incremental or Entity Personal Conceptions of Intelligence: Two Case Reports

One of the most significant current discussions has led to the hypothesis that domain-specific training programs alone are not enough to improve reading achievement or working memory abilities. Incremental or Entity personal conceptions of intelligence may be assumed to be an important prognostic factor to overcome domain-specific deficits. Specifically, incremental students tend to be more oriented toward change and autonomy and are able to adopt more efficacious strategies. This study aims at examining the effect of personal conceptions of intelligence to strengthen the efficacy of a multidimensional intervention program in order to improve decoding abilities and working memory. Participants included two children (M age = 10 years) with developmental dyslexia and different conceptions of intelligence. The children were tested on a whole battery of reading and spelling tests commonly used in the assessment of reading disabilities in Italy. Afterwards, they were given a multimedia test to measure motivational factors such as conceptions of intelligence and achievement goals. The children took part in the T.I.R.D. Multimedia Training for the Rehabilitation of Dyslexia (Rappo and Pepi, 2010) reinforced by specific units to improve verbal working memory for 3 months. This training consisted of specific tasks to rehabilitate both visual and phonological strategies (sound blending, word segmentation, alliteration test and rhyme test, letter recognition, digraph recognition, trigraph recognition, and word recognition as samples of visual tasks) and verbal working memory (rapid words and non-words recognition). Posttest evaluations showed that the child holding the incremental theory of intelligence improved more than the child holding a static representation. On the whole this study highlights the importance of treatment programs in which both specificity of deficits and motivational factors are both taken into account. There is a need to plan multifaceted intervention programs based on a transverse approach, considering both cognitive and motivational factors.

Emotional Profile and Intellectual Functioning: A Comparison Among Children With Borderline Intellectual Functioning, Average Intellectual Functioning, and Gifted Intellectual Functioning

Insufficient literature has been produced addressing children with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) and gifted intellectual functioning (GIF). The goal of this work is to compare levels of self-esteem, depression, anxiety at school, and insecurity among children with BIF and GIF, and a control group of average intellectual functioning (AIF). There were participants of 104 children (fourth grade of primary school). Analyses revealed that children with BIF showed a lower level of self-esteem and higher levels of depression and school anxiety. Moreover, our findings highlight the co-occurrence of school anxiety, depressed mood, and insecurity among the BIF and AIF groups. One of the issues that emerge from this study is the need to implement prevention programs aimed at identifying children with lower or higher levels of intellectual functioning. These findings highlight the importance of establishing what the most appropriate educational and clinical interventions are in reducing the risks of mental disorders in this population.

Personal conceptions of intelligence affect outcome in a multimedia reading training program.

Personal conceptions of intelligence seem to make a significant contribution to overcoming a reading deficit, as indicated in our earlier research. The present aim was to assess improvements in reading-decoding following training of children with reading-decoding problems and different conceptions of intelligence (incremental or entity). It was expected that treatment of children with an incremental representation would improve more. Participants were 20 children (10 girls, 10 boys) whose average age was 8.6 yr., who attended Grade 3 of elementary school, and who were selected from 675 pupils. Children were given a multimedia test to measure motivational factors such as conceptions of intelligence, achievement goals, perception of controllability, and causal attributions. The participants took part in a multimedia training. Posttest evaluations showed more improvement in reading-decoding by children holding an incremental theory of intelligence. The importance of treatment programmes in which account is taken of both specificity of deficits and motivational factors should be explored further as the present sample was very small.

The effects of school anxiety on self-esteem and self-handicapping in pupils attending primary school

Abstract School anxiety appears to be related to self-esteem and self-handicapping strategies. This study aims at identifying children with atypical levels of anxiety and examining the relationship between their self-esteem at school and their use of self-handicapping strategies. The sample included 120 pupils (M = 8.6 years) attending third grade of primary school and was divided into three groups: pupils with low anxiety, average anxiety and high anxiety. Children were administered the Scale for Evaluation of Anxiety (SAFA A), the TMA - Multidimensional test of Self-esteem- and the Self-Handicapping Scale for Children. On the whole, results demonstrate a nearly normative distribution of school anxiety in a nonclinical sample. Pupils with an average level of school anxiety showed a higher level of Self-esteem and engaged more in self-handicapping strategies. The developmental perspective suggests the importance of preventive research in order to identify any risk factors of subsequent anxiety disorders at an early age.

Strategie di self-handicapping: un confronto tra dominio sportivo e dominio scolastico

Self-handicapping strategies: a comparison between sport domain and school domain ABSTRACT: A growing body of studies focuses on the cross-domain analysis of cognitive and emotional-motivational factors. The aim of this research is to study the relationship between the self-handicapping strategies and motivational beliefs such as the personal conceptions of abilities and the achievement goals and in school and sport domains. Four hundred eighty five subjects, from both sexes and from medium socio-economic status, were administered a questionnaire on self-handicapping strategies (Midgley, Arunkumar and Urdan, 1996), the Personal Conceptions of Intelligence Scale (Faria and Fontaine, 1997) and a questionnaire on achievement goals (Duda and Nicholls, 1992). Results indicate differences in the use of self-handicapping strategies and goals of achievement according to domain and gender. Firstly, athletes used self-handicapping strategies significantly more often than students. In particular, we observe the existence of significant interaction effects between the domain and the gender for self-handicapping strategies, showing that athletes women used more frequently above-mentioned strategies than other groups. Moreover, the study highlights the existence of positive significant correlations between the self-handicapping strategies, the static conception of abilities and the performance goals both in school domain and sport domain. In summary the research emphasizes the importance of analyzing properties of school and sport domains in depth in order to better understand the use of self-handicapping strategies.