Soile Loukusa

The development of narrative productivity, syntactic complexity, referential cohesion and event content in four- to eight-year-old Finnish children

This study focuses on the development of narrative structure and the relationship between narrative productivity and event content. A total of 172 Finnish children aged between four and eight participated. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for productivity, syntactic complexity, referential cohesion and event content. Each measure showed a developmental trend. Concerning consecutive age groups, significant differences were observed between four- and five-year-olds in productivity and event content and between five- and six-year-olds in referential cohesion. Multiple regression analysis showed that the relationship between productivity and event content was important, and especially the number of different word tokens proved to be useful in explaining the event content, whereas the number of communication units did not. This suggests that some productivity measures should be interpreted with caution.

Theory of mind and emotion recognition skills in children with specific language impairment, autism spectrum disorder and typical development: group differences and connection to knowledge of grammatical morphology, word-finding abilities and verbal working memory

BACKGROUND Social perception skills, such as understanding the mind and emotions of others, affect childrens communication abilities in real-life situations. In addition to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is increasing knowledge that children with specific language impairment (SLI) also demonstrate difficulties in their social perception abilities. AIMS To compare the performance of children with SLI, ASD and typical development (TD) in social perception tasks measuring Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion recognition. In addition, to evaluate the association between social perception tasks and language tests measuring word-finding abilities, knowledge of grammatical morphology and verbal working memory. METHOD & PROCEDURES Children with SLI (n = 18), ASD (n = 14) and TD (n = 25) completed two NEPSY-II subtests measuring social perception abilities: (1) Affect Recognition and (2) ToM (includes Verbal and non-verbal Contextual tasks). In addition, childrens word-finding abilities were measured with the TWF-2, grammatical morphology by using the Grammatical Closure subtest of ITPA, and verbal working memory by using subtests of Sentence Repetition or Word List Interference (chosen according the childs age) of the NEPSY-II. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Children with ASD scored significantly lower than children with SLI or TD on the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest. Both SLI and ASD groups scored significantly lower than TD children on Verbal tasks of the ToM subtest of NEPSY-II. However, there were no significant group differences on non-verbal Contextual tasks of the ToM subtest of the NEPSY-II. Verbal tasks of the ToM subtest were correlated with the Grammatical Closure subtest and TWF-2 in children with SLI. In children with ASD correlation between TWF-2 and ToM: Verbal tasks was moderate, almost achieving statistical significance, but no other correlations were found. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Both SLI and ASD groups showed difficulties in tasks measuring verbal ToM but differences were not found in tasks measuring non-verbal Contextual ToM. The association between Verbal ToM tasks and language tests was stronger in children with SLI than in children with ASD. There is a need for further studies in order to understand interaction between different areas of language and cognitive development.

Development of pragmatic language comprehension in Finnish-speaking children

This research explores the development of pragmatic comprehension within the framework of relevance theory. Participants were 210 typically developing Finnish children aged from 3 to 9 years. The children were asked questions targeting the pragmatic processes of reference assignment, enrichment and implicature, as proposed by relevance theory. Results indicate that increasing ability to use contextual information in comprehension is related to age. The largest increase in correct answers occurred between the ages of 3 and 4 years. Answering reference assignment questions was not problematic for any of the age groups. Answering enrichment and implicature questions reflected the childrens increasing ability to use more complex contextual information in the comprehension process. This supports the processing model suggested by relevance theory.

Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment.

Abstract This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children’s narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.

language and pragmatic profile in children with aDHD measured by children's communication checklist 2nd edition

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study was to explore whether children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have language and/or pragmatic difficulties compared to typically developing children. Methods. Nineteen children with ADHD (age 5–12 years) and nineteen typically developing children (age 5–8 years) were evaluated using the Finnish version of Childrens Communication Checklist 2nd edition (CCC-2). The CCC-2 questionnaire was filled in by their parents. Results. According to the CCC-2 questionnaire, differences between the groups were found in linguistic abilities, pragmatics skills, and social interaction. Conclusion. According to the CCC-2 profiles, many children with ADHD may have various kinds of communication difficulties, even if they do not have a diagnosed language disorder.

How Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Watch and Interpret Pragmatically Complex Scenes.

The aim of the current study was to investigate subtle characteristics of social perception and interpretation in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to study the relation between watching and interpreting. As a novelty, we used an approach that combined moment-by-moment eye tracking and verbal assessment. Sixteen young adults with ASD and 16 neurotypical control participants watched a video depicting a complex communication situation while their eye movements were tracked. The participants also completed a verbal task with questions related to the pragmatic content of the video. We compared verbal task scores and eye movements between groups, and assessed correlations between task performance and eye movements. Individuals with ASD had more difficulty than the controls in interpreting the video, and during two short moments there were significant group differences in eye movements. Additionally, we found significant correlations between verbal task scores and moment-level eye movement in the ASD group, but not among the controls. We concluded that participants with ASD had slight difficulties in understanding the pragmatic content of the video stimulus and attending to social cues, and that the connection between pragmatic understanding and eye movements was more pronounced for participants with ASD than for neurotypical participants.

Understanding Contextual and Social Meaning in Typically Developing Finnish-Speaking Four- To Eight-Year-Old Children

Abstract This study examined the development of social-pragmatic comprehension in 170 Finnish four- to eight-year-old children. The children were asked to respond to socially and contextually demanding questions targeting their social-pragmatic language processing, and to explain their correct answers in order to elicit their awareness of how they had derived the answers from the context. The results showed that the number of correct answers increased especially between the ages of four and seven years. We found that questions demanding contextual processing without mind-reading were the easiest to understand, followed by questions demanding processing of feelings of others and false beliefs. The questions demanding understanding of relevant language use and processing of contextual factors including mental states and intentions were the most challenging for the children. Between four and five years of age there was a remarkable developmental phase in children’s ability to give proper explanations.

Assessing social-pragmatic inferencing skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

By utilizing the Pragma test this study investigated how sixteen five- to ten-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sixteen typically developing (TD) children comprehended contextually challenging scenarios demanding 1) contextual inference with theory of mind (ToM), 2) contextual inference without ToM, 3) relevant use of language, 4) recognition of feelings, and 5) understanding false beliefs. The study also compared childrens ability to explain their own correct answers. In addition, this study evaluated the sensitivity of three different methods for discriminating the children with ASD from the TD children: 1) the Pragma test, 2) the Social Interaction Deviance Composite (SIDC) of Childrens Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2), and 3) the Theory of Mind subtest of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, Second edition (NEPSY-II). The results showed that children with ASD differed from TD children in questions demanding context utilization. However, the demand of mind-reading in utterance interpretation increased the difference between groups. Compared to TD children, children with ASD had more difficulties in explaining how they had used context to arrive at the correct answer. The discrimination power for detecting children with ASD from TD children was excellent in the Pragma test, good in the SIDC CCC-2 and fair in the Theory of Mind subtest of NEPSY-II. This study showed that by using contextually sensitive materials, such as the Pragma test, it is possible to detect the social-pragmatic inferencing difficulties of high-functioning children with ASD in structured test situations and not only in real-life situations or by using parental reports.

Neuropsychological performance of Finnish and Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder

Background Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted. Objective Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities. Design Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6). Results Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance. Conclusions Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.Background Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted. Objective Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities. Design Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6). Results Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance. Conclusions Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.Background Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted. Objective Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities. Design Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6). Results Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance. Conclusions Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.