Bob Hopkins: Played an early role in helping adults learn to read

British actor Bob Hoskins, who recently died aged 71, was the star of several big-screen blockbusters movies as a mobster or as the sidekick to Roger Rabbit but his early role in a BBC adult education series made a different kind of impact.

"On the move, on the move, we're on the move again," crooned 1970s cabaret-poppers The Dooleys over the opening credits.

There followed 10 minutes of clips and sketches aimed at helping adults overcome literacy problems. It was an unlikely setting from which to launch a Hollywood career.

But each episode of the 1976 BBC series On the Move featured a running storyline in which the late Bob Hoskins appeared as Alf Hunt, a furniture removal man who had difficulty reading and writing.

A proud but sympathetic character, Alf would open up to his friend Bert, played by Donald Gee, about his fears and frustrations.

His progress, as he sought help, attracted a huge following well beyond the show's target audience.

Up to 17 million people watched the Sunday tea-time programme, according to George Auckland, who would subsequently take charge of the BBC's adult education programming.

It was Alf's human drama and, specifically, Hoskins's captivating performance that drew them in, said Auckland.

A national campaign to tackle illiteracy was boosted by the series. On the Monday after each episode, says Auckland, "there would be queues around the block" at adult literacy centres.

"There's a strong argument that this makes Hoskins the best educator Britain has ever produced" but this is an exaggeration and Hopkins motive for joining the programme may have more to do with trying to get on the ladder to fame and fortune, which he eventually managed to do.

What we can say is that the broadcasting and media services can go a long way to normalising and helping to overcome the difficulties that some adults have when reading.

The media can also push forward willing celebrities who can captivate audiences and in doing so encourage the expansion and development of adult education in everyday life.

We are sadden by the death of Bob Hopkins as we are saddened by the passing of all men /women. We congratulate and celebrate his success in the film industry and we thank him for the part he played in helping adult education.

Thirty percent of adults with ADHD report childhood physical abuse

Thirty percent of adults with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) report they were physically abused before they turned 18.

This compares to seven per cent of those without ADD/ADHD who were physically abused before 18. The results were in a study published in this week's online Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.

"This strong association between abuse and ADD/ADHD was not explained by differences in demographic characteristics or other early adversities experienced by those who had been abused," says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

"Even after adjusting for different factors, those who reported being physically abused before age 18 had seven times the odds of ADD/ADHD."

Investigators examined a representative sample of 13,054 adults aged 18 and over in the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey including 1,020 respondents who reported childhood physical abuse and 64 respondents who reported that they had been diagnosed by a health professional with either ADHD or ADD.

"Our data do not allow us to know the direction of the association. It is possible that the behaviors of children with ADD/ADHD increase parental stress and the likelihood of abuse," says co-author Rukshan Mehta, a graduate of the University of Toronto's Master of Social Work program.

"Alternatively, some new literature suggests early childhood abuse may result in and/or exacerbate the risk of ADD/ADHD."

According to co-author Angela Valeo from Ryerson University, "This study underlines the importance of ADD/ADHD as a marker of abuse.

With 30 per cent of adults with ADD/ADHD reporting childhood abuse, it is important that health professionals working with children with these disorders screen them for physical abuse."

More information: "Establishing a Link Between Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Childhood Physical Abuse." Esme Fuller-Thomsona*, Rukshan Mehtaa & Angela Valeob. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. Volume 23, Issue 2, 2014 pages 188-198. DOI: 10.1080/10926771.2014.873510

Bullied Children Suffer Lasting Psychological Harm as Adults

Bullied children grow into adults who are at increased risk of developing anxiety disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.

The findings, based on more than 20 years of data from a large group of participants initially enrolled as adolescents, are the most definitive to date in establishing the long-term psychological effects of bullying.

Published online Feb. 20, 2013, in JAMA Psychiatry, the study belies a common perception that bullying, while hurtful, inflicts a fleeting injury that victims outgrow.

"We were surprised at how profoundly bullying affects a person's long-term functioning," said William E. Copeland, PhD, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University and lead author of the study.

"This psychological damage doesn't just go away because a person grew up and is no longer bullied. This is something that stays with them. If we can address this now, we can prevent a whole host of problems down the road."

A previous longitudinal study of bullied children, conducted in Finland, found mixed results, concluding that boys had few lasting problems, while girls suffered more long-term psychological harm. That study, however, relied on registry data in the health system that didn't fully capture psychiatric records.

Copeland and colleagues had a much richer data set. Using the Great Smoky Mountain Study, the research team tapped a population-based sample of 1,420 children ages 9, 11 and 13 from 11 counties in western North Carolina. Initially enrolled in 1993, the children and their parents or caregivers were interviewed annually until the youngsters turned 16, and then periodically thereafter.

At each assessment until age 16, the child and caregiver were asked, among other things, whether the child had been bullied or teased or had bullied others in the three months immediately prior to the interview.

A total of 421 child or adolescent participants -- 26 percent of the children -- reported being bullied at least once; 887 said they suffered no such abuse. Boys and girls reported incidents at about the same rate. Nearly 200 youngsters, or 9.5 percent, acknowledged bullying others; 112 were bullies only, while 86 were both bullies and victims.

Of the original 1,420 children, more than 1,270 were followed up into adulthood. The subsequent interviews included questions about the participants' psychological health.

As adults, those who said they had been bullied, plus those who were both victims and aggressors, were at higher risk for psychiatric disorders compared with those with no history of being bullied.

The young people who were only victims had higher levels of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety, panic disorder and agoraphobia.

Those who were both bullies and victims had higher levels of all anxiety and depressive disorders, plus the highest levels of suicidal thoughts, depressive disorders, generalized anxiety and panic disorder. Bullies were also at increased risk for antisocial personality disorder.

The researchers were able to sort out confounding factors that might have contributed to psychiatric disorders, including poverty, abuse and an unstable or dysfunctional home life.

"Bullying is potentially a problem for bullies as well as for victims," said senior author E. Jane Costello, PhD, associate director of research at Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy.

"Bullying, which we tend to think of as a normal and not terribly important part of childhood, turns out to have the potential for very serious consequences for children, adolescents and adults."

Costello and Copeland said they would continue their analysis, with future studies exploring the role sexual orientation plays in bullying and victimization.

Adult Psychiatric Outcomes of Bullying and Being Bullied by Peers in Childhood and Adolescence. JAMA Psychiatry, 2013 DOI:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.504

Measuring Intelligence: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is a test designed to measure intelligence in adults and older adolescents. It is currently in its fourth edition (WAIS-IV).

The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale.

The fourth edition of the test (WAIS-IV) was released in 2008 by Pearson.

The Wechsler-Bellevue tests were innovative in the 1930s because they gathered tasks created for nonclinical purposes for administration as a "clinical test battery".

Because the Wechsler tests included non-verbal items (known as performance scales) as well as verbal items for all test-takers, and because the 1960 form of Lewis Terman's Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales was less carefully developed than previous versions, Form I of the WAIS surpassed the Stanford-Binet tests in popularity by the 1960s.

Wechsler defined intelligence as "... the global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment."

SIDS: 50% Infant Deaths occur during Co-Sleeping

An Adelaide pathologist calls on mothers to let their babies sleep in their cribs and avoid couches as well as other soft surfaces.

In an editorial published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), University of Adelaide forensic pathologist Professor Roger Byard said research confirmed adults sleeping beside a baby could increase risk of infant suffocation.

When infants die in their sleep, pathologists look into the possibility of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) along with suffocation.

Prof Byard said half of all infants found unexpectedly dead were sleeping beside an adult at the time, which means the babies may have died from suffocation and not sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

"Accidental suffocation appears to be a more likely mechanism of death than subtle processes leading to SIDS," the professor said.

While many parents believe that sleeping next to their baby is related to establishing a more solid bond between them, Prof Byard said the risks far outweighed any of the perceived gains.

Prof Byard also raised the issue on letting babies sleep on couches and other soft surfaces, as these are also high risk factors for shared-sleeping death.

He explained that adults do not necessarily have to be lying over an infant completely for respiration to be compromised. He said surfaces and the immediate surroundings of a sleeping baby should be free from anything or anyone that could reduce oxygen flow for the baby.

Parental obesity and fatigue are also among the risk factors, he said.

"Some infants are particularly vulnerable to the effects of compromised breathing and there is often no clinical predictor of this vulnerability," Prof Byard wrote in his column.

Fixing the Problem
Apart from being dangerous to the young child, co-sleeping has a serious affect on the adults' lifestyle, their own sleep and their relationship with their partner, if present.

Co-sleeping can be used as a barrier between partners at a particularly difficult time in their relationship. The child is introduced into the bed to avoid addressing the real problem.

Do Not Despair
If you have gone down the route of co-sleeping and now find it is not working for you or is seriously affecting your relationship with your partner, do not despair, it is possible to teach your child to sleep on their own in their own bed.

Contact the Sleep Consultants at Dream Angus and they will be able to help you through the difficult transition of undoing your co-sleeping decision. And they will do this in a sensitive and thoughtful way so as to improve the family dynamics and partner relationships.

Email your questions and contact details to: info@dream-angus.com

Scottish Government's Strategy for Autism - Document in PDF format

The Scottish Government, working in partnership with the Autism Specturm Disorder (ASD) Reference Group, have developed a draft Scottish Autism Strategy.

The Strategy sets out what the Scottish Government in partnership with users, carers and professionals proposes to do to meet the needs of people with ASD in response to growing concerns that, whilst much has been achieved in Scotland to date, much has yet to be done.

Click on the picture to view the document

Overprotective parents may impact heart anxiety in adults with congenital heart conditions

Adults with congenital heart disease are more likely to suffer heart-focused anxiety — a fear of heart-related symptoms and sensations — if their parents were overprotective during their childhood and adolescence.

Dr. Lephuong Ong from Orion Health Services in Vancouver, and colleagues from University Health Network and York University in Toronto, Canada, suggest that health care professionals could encourage greater independence for adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease to improve their psychosocial adjustment. Dr. Ong’s work1 is published online in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Approximately one percent of all infants are born with congenital heart defects and over 90 percent of these children survive into adulthood, thanks to recent medical advances. As well as their medical condition, these patients face mental health issues including anxiety, neurocognitive deficits, body image concerns and difficulties with relationships. Research suggests that levels of parental protection are likely to be higher in children with congenital heart disease compared with healthy children.

Ong and team investigated the relationship between patient recollections of parental overprotection — defined as intrusion, excessive contact, infantilization and prevention of independent behavior — and heart-focused anxiety in adults with congenital heart disease. The researchers assessed heart defect severity, heart-focused anxiety and perceived parental overprotection during childhood for a sub-sample of 192 adults participating in the study.

Their analyses showed that levels of heart-focused anxiety rose as levels of parental overprotection increased. Disease severity was also linked to higher anxiety levels. Surprisingly, levels of parental overprotection did not vary with disease severity.

The authors conclude: “Adults with congenital heart disease, who report their parents as being overprotective, might have learned to form negative interpretations of their symptoms and use maladaptive coping behaviors, like avoidance and fearful responding, when experiencing cardiac symptoms or when faced with situations that trigger cardiac-related sensations. Clinicians could consider providing recommended activity guidelines for parents and their children to reduce limitations on activities that are deemed medically appropriate, to encourage independence among adolescents and young adults with congenital heart defects.”

Dyscalcula and Number-processing skills in adults with dyslexia

Overall Summary of Scientific Study and Results
The present study investigated basic numerical skills and arithmetic in adults with developmental dyslexia. Participants performed exact and approximate calculation, basic numerical tasks (e.g., counting; symbolic number comparison; spatial-numerical association of response codes, SNARC), and visuospatial tasks (mental rotation and visual search tasks).

The group with dyslexia showed a marginal impairment in counting compared to age- and IQ-matched controls, and they were impaired in exact addition, in particular with respect to speed. They were also significantly slower in multiplication. In basic number processing, however, there was no significant difference in performance between those with dyslexia and controls. Both groups performed similarly on subtraction and approximate addition tasks.

These findings indicate that basic number processing in adults with dyslexia is intact. Their difficulties are restricted to the verbal code and are not associated with deficits in nonverbal magnitude representation, visual Arabic number form, or spatial cognition.

The Study details
It has long been recognised that language is a uniquely human ability. More recently it has been proposed that humans have an innate capacity to perceive numerosity, sometimes called the “number sense”.

The role of language in the development of human number representations (and hence mathematics) is debated. According to Dehaene's triple code model, three codes underpin our ability to process numbers and hence become numerate: a verbal code (linked to the language system); an analogue magnitude representation (underlying approximate calculation); and a visual code (linked to the Arabic number form).

Neuropsychological patients
Research on neuropsychological patients provides evidence for a double dissociation between language and number-processing systems, but this evidence does not imply that these systems develop independently.

From a developmental perspective, some theorists propose that language is essential for the development of numerical competencies, and there is evidence that the structure of the language system in which one grows up shapes the development of numerical concepts. Others, however, argue that numerical competence can develop independently of language.

Although less studied than reading difficulties, problems of mathematical development provide one way of understanding the relationships between language and number skills. Moreover, reading difficulties (RD) are often accompanied by problems with number work: Estimates of the overlap between reading difficulties and mathematical difficulties (MD) range from 2.3% to 40%.

Within the framework of the triple code model proposed by Dehaene, the most likely candidate for explaining the overlap between reading and mathematical difficulties is the verbal code. According to Dehaene, the verbal code is used most strongly for counting, for addition, and in multiplication tables, while approximate calculation and comparison as well as parity decision are supported more by the nonverbal codes.

Number-processing deficits in dyslexia
A number of clinical studies have documented the mathematical difficulties experienced by people with dyslexia.

Reviewing this literature, Simmons and Singleton concluded that the main difficulty is in recalling number facts. Thus, several studies report children with dyslexia to be slow at calculating or verifying sums.

Problems in multiplication and subtraction are common. Simmons and Singleton proposed that the mathematical difficulties observed in dyslexia might be related to phonological-processing deficits (that also cause reading and spelling problems).

Consistent with this, a number of studies have reported that phonological-processing abilities predict arithmetic impairment.

Contrary to this view, Landerl, Bevan, and Butterworth argue that learning to read and learning arithmetic are independent processes and that “fact retrieval is not, in essence, a verbally mediated process”.

The basis for their assertion came from a study of 8-9-year-old children with reading and/or arithmetic difficulties in which they classified children into three groups:

• (a) children with dyslexia who did not have arithmetical difficulties (dyslexia-only);
  
• (b) children with mathematical difficulties who did not have dyslexia (MD-only);
  
• (c) children with dyslexia and MD.
  

NB: In tests of digit number naming, children with dyslexia-only performed at the same level as controls.

Children classified as having MD-only, however, had longer response latencies—indeed, even longer than those of the children with dyslexia and MD. They went on to argue that children with pure dyslexia do not experience number-processing deficits.

This conclusion needs to be treated with caution. First, the cut-offs used to define mathematical difficulties (3 standard deviations below the mean) and dyslexia (below the 25th percentile) were different, and the criterion used to define dyslexia was relatively lenient.

Second, it is not clear whether the dyslexia group had impairments in phonological processing. These issues limit the ability to generalise on the findings, and therefore the results may not be applied to all people with dyslexia.

17% of UK Adults have lowered Literacy Rate

One in six adults has lower literacy than the level expected of an 11-year-old, new research shows today.

It finds that only half of children enjoy reading, and that a quarter do not recognise any link between reading and success.

The report, Literacy: State of the Nation is the first coherent, national picture of reading and writing abilities, according to the National Literacy Trust.

It conducted a study of more than 17,000 pupils from 112 schools. Most read e-mails, blogs and websites more frequently than books, the survey suggests. However children who engage in technology are more likely to enjoy writing than their classmates.

Check out NLT's Reading for Life and Fun website

While literacy levels have risen among 11-year-olds in the past decade, they have plateaued in writing. Yet three-quarters of parents said their child often read for pleasure.

The report also analysed reading and writing in the workplace, and found widespread concerns.

Almost seven in ten retail firms and half of manufacturing companies reported problems with literacy among staff.

Check out the NLT's Reading for Younger Children website

Nearly two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women with very low literacy skills had never received a promotion, it found.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said the findings were “extremely worrying”.

“We believe this should be of great concern to all political parties as reading for pleasure helps to develop strong literacy skills and ultimately, supports academic and future success,” he said.

“The Treasury estimated the cider tax will bring in £30 million. For just a tenth of this money the Government could establish which adults are most in need of literacy support and run a year-long campaign to support children and adults who are struggling with literacy.

“It is estimated that poor literacy costs the economy £2.5bn a year.”

Parenting Skills: Trust Issues in Children

Researchers examining 'trust' issues in children conducted a study whereby children were shown a video of a ficticious game called 'daxing'. In the video shown to the children, either a boy or a man argued over the correct way to 'dax'.

The child was then asked to play the game 'dax', and the method they chose to use was recorded. Children were also shown a puppet, who interjected and said it was his time to 'dax'.

The Puppet's role
I find the inclusion of a puppet very interesting in this study. I believe that the puppet here represented a non-threatening neutral or objective character, neither adult nor peer and therefore exerted little or no social pressure on the child.

It had no established role, except that of an object that had a social status equal to, or lower than the child and therefore, can easily be addressed and controlled by the child. Perhaps moreso than his peers, perhaps not, but I digress.

To return to the study, the puppet performed 'daxing' either in the way the boy in the film or the man in the film did it, and the children's reactions were recorded.

Results
The researchers found that the children imitated the adult's method of 'daxing' significantly more often than they imitated the boy's method.

Children were also more likely to intervene when the puppet performed 'daxing' using the boy's method, protesting that the puppet was 'daxing' wrongly.

Lessons Learned
The results from the study suggest that children prefer to learn from adults rather than other children when it comes to rule-governed activities like learning a new game.

They also expect other people (the puppet) to learn and perform actions in the way that the adults have defined. This is demonstrated by the expectation that the puppet would also follow the adult's actions and not the boy's and consequent protests if it did not.

Social Norms
These findings tell us many things. Firstly, that young children will more readily accept adult's instructions and behaviour as being right, in normal circumstances and that adults' behaviour should be copied and followed or repeated, accordingly. Certainly, if the other choice is to listen to or comply with their peers or, heaven forbid, a puppet (other people).

This has wide spread implications for social learning of both good, bad and corrective guidance and behaviour in children and adults, especially for parents. The basic expectations of the children are that their parents are the leaders, good role models and positive examples to be trusted, obeyed and followed.

For more information on the study click on the link to the British Psychological Society (BPS)

A Thousand and One Sleepless Nights

A Thousand and One Sleepless Nights - NYTimes.com

An interesting article full of good information and clear thinking.

If you need further information on sleep related issues, especially in babies and children of Northern Europe and the UK, click on this link to Dream Angus - Sleep Management website . Also available in Dutch