Judith L. Charlton

Differences in traffic judgements between young and old adult pedestrians

Older pedestrians have been shown to be over-involved in casualty crashes, compared to younger pedestrians, in recent reports. This study set out to investigate whether older pedestrians road crossing behaviour might render them more vulnerable to crashes because of declines in their physical, sensory, perceptual or cognitive abilities. An initial blackspot accident analysis highlighted the types of crashes in which older (and younger) adult pedestrians were involved and likely crossing actions. Road crossing behaviour was then systematically measured from unobtrusive video recordings of individual road crossings for a sample of younger and older pedestrians at several urban locations. On two-way undivided roads, older pedestrians crossed more frequently when there was closer moving traffic and generally adopted less safe road crossing strategies than their younger counterparts. On one-way divided roads, their crossing behaviour was considerably more safe and similar to that of younger pedestrians. The findings suggest that age-related perceptual and cognitive deficits may play a substantial role in many of the crashes involving older pedestrians.

Self-awareness following traumatic brain injury and implications for rehabilitation.

Primary objective : Many studies investigating self-awareness following traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been conducted more than 2 years post-injury, thereby providing limited information regarding the implications of insight for rehabilitation. The present study aimed to investigate awareness of deficits in a group of patients who were less than 2 years post-injury and still involved in rehabilitation. Research design : Thirty patients with a history of moderate or severe TBI and their significant other (SO) were studied in a cross-sectional analysis. A sub-group also participated in an interdisciplinary Memory Group at the Bethesda Rehabilitation Centre. Methods and procedures : Level of insight was measured by the degree of agreement between self and significant other (SO) report on the Awareness of Deficit questionnaire (ADQ), assessing various domains of daily functioning. Results : There was substantial agreement between patients and their SO, although the patients with TBI were less likely to acknowledge executive problems. Interestingly, both groups reported only low-to-moderate levels of difficulty. Conclusions : The data indicate that SOs awareness may also be limited in the early recovery stages. A sub-group of the patients obtained benefit from participation in the Memory Group in a rehabilitation setting.

Kinematic characteristics of reaching in children with Down Syndrome

Abstract Movement abnormalities observed in children with Down Syndrome (DS) may arise from difficulties in perceiving or using relevant task cues for planning actions. Kinematic characteristics of reaching in 8–10-year-old DS children were investigated and compared with normally developing children, matched in chronological (CA-C) and in developmental (DA-C) age. Task cues were varied by manipulating size (little, big) and function of objects (hold, place, throw). Reaching actions were recorded using OPTOTRAK. Compared to control children, particularly CA-C, DS subjects moved more slowly and their wrist trajectories varied considerably over trials. The proportion of total movement time in deceleration was greater and less smooth (more movement units) for DS children. This may reflect feedback guidance to correct spatial inaccuracy of the reach or difficulties in grasping. While there were no systematic group differences in kinematic features as a function of task cues, trajectory shapes of DS children were least variable when reaching was followed by a low-precision task when context was available (throw). Possible explanations of these findings are considered.

Case studies in learning disability: Implications for instruction

Abstract This paper reports the findings of an assessment program for children who were experiencing learning difficulties at school. The aim of the present study was to examine the patterns of (earning disabilities experienced by a group of students who viere referred by their parents and to look at the kinds of attributions these children held about their ability. The results provide evidence for the existence of at least two distinct patterns of learning disability similar to those described by Rourke and Del Dotto (1994). The results also suggest that a significant number of children with learning disabilities may hold negative attributions about themselves that may impact on their willingness to learn new information and also put them at risk of developing depression. It is concluded that interventions need to focus not only on content areas, but also take into account the individual attributions the child holds about his or her own ability and potential.