Differential hearing difficulties cause kids to fall behind at school

Some children who have trouble learning in the classroom have difficulty switching their listening attention and so have trouble following a conversation from one talker to the next, according to a University of Sydney study published online in Nature's Scientific Reports.

Imran Dhamani

The PhD study led by Imran Dhamani was a collaboration between the Sydney University's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and Macquarie University's Audiology Section, funded by the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre.

The study looked at three groups of participants, 12 adults, 12 normal children and 12 children with persistent listening difficulties in noisy environments, but no diagnosis of a hearing disorder or other attentional disorder.

Paper co-author Associate Professor Simon Carlile said the researchers were determined to find out why some children, with otherwise normal hearing, fell behind in the classroom.

"A wide battery of clinical tests indicated that children who complained of listening difficulties had otherwise normal hearing sensitivity and auditory processing skills," he said.

Simon Carlile

In our study, we showed that these children were markedly slower to switch their attention compared to their age-matched peers.

In a noisy conversation with many participants, this means that these children were having trouble following a conversation as it moved from one talker to the next, making it difficult for them to get the gist of what was being said."

"A deficit in the ability to switch attention across multiple talkers now provides the basis for this otherwise hidden listening disability, especially in noisy environments involving multiple talkers, such as classrooms.

"What we have done is provide a tool to diagnose a particular symptom that indicates an underlying problem that has been undiagnosed to date."

Dr Mridula Sharma

Co-author, Macquarie University audiologist and Senior Lecturer, Dr Mridula Sharma said the researchers had discovered the answer to an important question, so far not investigated in this population.

"Children had been brought to audiologists by either their parents or teachers, who had done a whole heap of tests on them, only to not be able to diagnose the problem.

Dr Sharma said that, prior to the study, only a third of the children presenting at the audiology clinic at Macquarie University had gone on to be diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD).

"But two thirds of these children were being sent back home without a diagnosis on what the problem was.

We knew there was something there, we just hadn't worked out the right question to ask. We now have a real handle on what the problem is."

Associate Professor Carlile said the group are now developing a test that can be easily used by audiologists and GPs in their consulting rooms.

"Often we see that medical diagnosis is based on a clinical presentation, and to date, neither the audiologists nor the GPs have had the question to ask of these kids having trouble at school," he said.

"A symptom can have many causes and a clinical presentation can only be judged on the symptom."

Some forms of attentional disorders (ADHD) can be treated with medications, we don't know yet whether that is appropriate here and some forms of these attentional disorders can be treated with cognitive and other behavioural or training therapies, where you are helping people latch onto the appropriate cues to help manage these conditions.

"We are now working on developing a simple clinical test to diagnose this differential hearing condition, and aim to make it available to audiologists."

Anxiety Control: A Portion of hippocampus found to play a major role

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first evidence that selective activation of the dentate gyrus, a portion of the hippocampus, can reduce anxiety without affecting learning. 

The findings suggest that therapies that target this brain region could be used to treat certain anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), with minimal cognitive side effects.

The study, conducted in mice, was published today in the online edition of the journal Neuron. The dentate gyrus is known to play a key role in learning.

Rene Hen

Some evidence suggests that the structure also contributes to anxiety. "But until now no one has been able to figure out how the hippocampus could be involved in both processes," said senior author Rene Hen, PhD, professor of neuroscience and pharmacology (in psychiatry) at CUMC.

"It turns out that different parts of the dentate gyrus have somewhat different functions, with the dorsal portion largely dedicated to learning and the ventral portion dedicated to anxiety," said lead author Mazen A. Kheirbek, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at CUMC.

To examine the role of the dentate gyrus in learning and anxiety, the investigators used a state-of-the-art technique called optogenetics, in which light-sensitive proteins, or opsins, are genetically inserted into neurons in the brains of mice.

Neurons with these genes can then be selectively activated or silenced through the application of light (via a fiber-optic strand), allowing researchers to study the function of the cells in real time.

Previously, the only way to study the dentate gyrus was to silence portions of it using such long-term manipulations as drugs or lesions, techniques that yielded conflicting results.

In the current study, opsins were inserted into dentate gyrus granule cells (the principal cells of the dentate gyrus).

The researchers then activated or silenced the ventral or dorsal portions of the dentate gyrus for three minutes at a time, while the mice were subjected to two well-validated anxiety tests (the elevated plus maze and the open field test).

"Our main findings were that elevating cell activity in the dorsal dentate gyrus increased the animals' desire to explore their environment. But this also disrupted their ability to learn. Elevating activity in the ventral dentate gyrus lowered their anxiety, but had no effect on learning," said Dr. Kheirbek.

The effects were completely reversible—that is, when the stimulation was turned off, the animals returned to their previous anxiety levels.

"The therapeutic implication is that it may be possible to relieve anxiety in people with anxiety disorders by targeting the ventral dentate gyrus, perhaps with medications or deep-brain stimulation, without affecting learning," said Dr. Hen.

Dr Hen is also a director of the Division of Integrative Neuroscience, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, and a member of The Kavli Institute for Brain Science.

"Given the immediate behavioral impact of such manipulations, these strategies are likely to work faster than current treatments, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors."

According to Dr. Hen, such an intervention would probably work best in people with panic disorder or PTSD.

"There is evidence that people with these anxiety disorders tend to have a problem with pattern separation—the ability to distinguish between similar experiences," he said.

"In other words, they overgeneralize, perceiving minor threats to be the same as major ones, leading to a heightened state of anxiety. Such patients could conceivably benefit from therapies that fine-tune hippocampal activity."

Dr. Hen and his team are currently exploring strategies aimed at modulating the activity of the ventral dentate gyrus by stimulating neurogenesis in the ventral dentate gyrus.

"Indeed the dentate gyrus is one of the few areas in the adult brain where neurons are continuously produced, a phenomenon termed adult hippocampal neurogenesis," added Dr. Hen.

More information: The title of the paper is "Differential control of learning and anxiety along the dorso-ventral axis of the dentate gyrus."  

Sleep: Biologists uncover the dynamic between biological clock and neuronal activity

Biologists at New York University have uncovered one way that biological clocks control neuronal activity -- a discovery that sheds new light on sleep-wake cycles and offers potential new directions for research into therapies to address sleep disorders and jetlag.

"The findings answer a significant question -- how biological clocks drive the activity of clock neurons, which, in turn, regulate behavioural rhythms," explained Justin Blau, an associate professor in NYU's Department of Biology and the study's senior author.

Their findings appear in the Journal of Biological Rhythms.

Scientists have known that our biological clocks control neuronal activity but not previously understood is how this process occurs -- that is, how does information from biological clocks drive rhythms in the electrical activity of pacemaker neurons that, in turn, drives daily rhythms?

To understand this mechanism, the researchers examined the biological, or circadian, clocks of Drosophila fruit flies, which are commonly used for research in this area.

Earlier studies of "clock genes" in fruit flies allowed the identification of similarly functioning genes in humans.

In their study, the researchers focused on eight master pacemaker neurons located in the central brain -- these neurons set the timing of the daily transitions between sleep and wake in the fly.

Specifically, they were able to isolate these neurons from animals and identify sets of genes differentially expressed between dawn and dusk.

In a series of follow-up experiments, they concentrated on one gene, Ir, whose expression was found to be much higher at dusk than at dawn and much more highly expressed in pacemaker neurons than in the rest of the brain.

Ir encodes a potassium channel that helps set the resting state of neurons -- and so its rhythmic expression makes it an excellent candidate to help link the biological clock to pacemaker neuron activity.

High levels of Ir expression at dusk should make it much harder for pacemaker neurons to signal than the low levels seen at dawn, a finding that fits with earlier studies showing that pacemaker neurons fire more at dawn than at dusk.

The authors also found that genetic manipulations that either increase or decrease Ir levels affect behavioral rhythms. Perhaps more interestingly, these were also associated with changes in the timing and strength of oscillations in the core clock.

"Biology is never as simple as we imagine it will be," explained Blau. "We were looking for an output of the biological clock that would link the core clock to neuronal activity. Ir seems to do this, but it also, remarkably, feeds back to regulate the core clock itself. Feedback loops seem to be deeply engrained into the biological clock and presumably help these clocks work so well."

BiPolar Disorder: Cannabis increases neuro-cognitive performance

According to a study published online in the journal Psychiatry Research, individuals with bipolar disorder who used cannabis showed higher neuro-cognitive performance than patients who did not use cannabis.

The Researchers; The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Long Island, NY, in collaboration with a team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

They examined the difference in cognitive performance among 50 individuals with bipolar disorder who had a history of cannabis use, with 150 bipolar patients who had no history of cannabis use.

Both groups of patients were similar in age at bipolar onset. In addition, the groups did not differ in racial background, age, or highest education level achieved.

The team discovered that patients who used cannabis showed superior neuro-cognitive performance than those who did not. However, patients who used cannabis did not differ considerably on estimates of premorbid IQ.

The researchers explained: "Results from our analysis suggest that subjects with bipolar disorder and history of (cannabis use) demonstrate significantly better neurocognitive performance, particularly on measures of attention, processing speed, and working memory.

These findings are consistent with a previous study that demonstrated that bipolar subjects with history of cannabis use had superior verbal fluency performance as compared to bipolar patients without a history of cannabis use.

Similar results have also been found in schizophrenia in several studies."

They concluded, "The data could be interpreted to suggest that cannabis use may have a beneficial effect on cognitive functioning in patients with severe psychiatric disorders.

However, it is also possible that these findings may be due to the requirement for a certain level of cognitive function and related social skills in the acquisition of illicit drugs."

What is Bipolar Disorder?  
Bipolar disorder, more commonly known in the past as manic depression or manic depressive illness, is a mental disorder in which the patient has mood instability, often severe. In severe cases the illness can be very disabling, psychologically and socially.

An individual with bipolar disorder typically has unusual shifts in mood, energy, and the ability to function - these changes can last for weeks and sometimes months.

The fluctuations present in bipolar disorder are much more severe than the "ups-and-downs" we all go through. The changes are much steeper and last longer.

They can damage relationships, destroy job prospects, and undermine school performance. Some patients find their symptoms so unbearable that they attempt to commit suicide.

Crickets, Books, and Bach: Develop a Summer Listening Program

The importance of learning to listen

Listening is an engaging way to learn, a primary approach to developing or strengthening reading strategies, and, in some cases, a necessary means to access information and knowledge.

Listening media, such as audio books and text-to-speech, can be especially helpful to children with learning disabilities, such as those with dyslexia and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , who struggle with print-based learning, and central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), who may struggle to listen.

For such students well-chosen listening experiences can open up new vistas of learning, providing access to information and ideas previously 'hidden' in books and supporting the reading process itself.

Such opportunities provide a powerful supplement or alternative to a reading program focused around printed text.

Research has shown that combining reading and listening through the use of audio books or text-to-speech programs improves the literacy skills of struggling readers, including those with learning disabilities.

Reading comprehension, listening comprehension, phonological awareness and blending, and naming skills have shown to be improved with a combined reading-listening program.

Listening while reading helps children learn the patterns of language, the obvious 'code' of letters and words on the page as well as less obvious codes, such as tone, nuance, and implied meaning.

Brain imaging technologies show that when we listen, different parts of the brain are engaged than when we read—or even when we merely hear something.

Listening can provide whole levels of information that are essential to determining the value and validity of a source.

Teaching children to listen to tone of voice not only helps them develop reading skills but can help in the development of their social and conversational skills, too.

For more information, see Plato Revisited: Learning Through Listening in the Digital World by David Rose& Bridget Dalton, published by RFB&D.

Read more here: Crickets, Books, and Bach: Develop a Summer Listening Program | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

Auditory Hallucinations in Children Suggest Underlying Psychiatric Disorder

Children aged between 11 years to 13 years tend to hear strange voices, according to a new report.

Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have discovered that auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) can affect up to one-in-five children between the ages of 11 to 13.

"We found that auditory hallucinations were common even in children as young as 11 years old. Auditory hallucinations can vary from hearing an isolated sentence now and then, to hearing "conversations" between two or more people lasting for a several minutes.

It may present like screaming or shouting and other times it could sound like whispers or murmurs. It varies greatly from child to child, and frequency can be once a month to once every day," said Dr Ian Kelleher, professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, in a statement.

Researchers had conducted four separate studies on 2,500 children, aged between 11 and 16 years. They found that 20 to 23 percent of younger adults, aged 11 years to 13 had experienced auditory hallucinations. Among them more than 57 percent have mental disorders.

In older adolescents (aged 13-16 years), just 7 percent reported hearing voices. However, among this category, more than 80 percent had psychiatric disorder - showing a clear association between auditory hallucinations and serious mental illness.

In several children, these experiences appear to represent a 'blip' on the radar that does not turn out to signify any underlying or undiagnosed problem.

However, for the other children, these symptoms turned out to be a warning sign of serious underlying psychiatric illness, including clinical depression and behavioural disorders, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Some older children with auditory hallucinations had two or more disorders.

It is a significant finding which can help the doctors to consider more than one diagnosis, if the child reports auditory hallucinations.

Our study suggests that hearing voices seems to be more common in children than was previously thought. In most cases these experiences resolve with time.

However in some children these experiences persist into older adolescence and this seems to be an indicator that they may have a complex mental health issue and require more in-depth assessment," said Mary Cannon, professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, in a statement.

Link Between Childbirth and Bipolar Affective Disorder

New research show that risks of developing bipolar affective disorder is increased if a woman experiences a psychiatric episode within the first 30 days after childbirth.

"Childbirth has an important influence on the onset and course of bipolar affective disorder, and studies have shown that episodes of post-partum psychosis are often best considered as presentations of bipolar affective disorder occurring at a time of dramatic psychological and physiological change," the researchers said in the report which was published in Archives of General Psychiatry.

The researchers led by Trine Munk-Olsen, Ph.D., of the National Centre for Register-Based Research, Arhus University in Denmark, collected data on 120,378 women from 1950 to 1991who had a history of a first-time psychiatric contact with any type of psychiatric disorder excluding bipolar affective disorder.

A total of 2,870 of these women had their initial psychiatric contact within the first year after delivery of their first child. During follow-up, 3,062 of the 120,378 women were diagnosed of bipolar affective disorder, of which 132 had their initial psychiatric contact 0 to 12 months post-partum.

Researchers found a significantly higher conversion rate to bipolar affective disorder in women having their initial contact within the first post-partum month. In addition, evidence that the severity of the initial post-partum psychiatric episode may be important, as inpatient admissions were associated with a higher conversion rate than were outpatient contacts, were found.
After fifteen years from initial psychiatric contact, 13.87 percent of women with onset in the immediate post-partum period (0 to 30 days) had converted to bipolar disorder, the study said.

"The present study confirms the well-established link between childbirth and bipolar affective disorder and specifically adds to this field of research by demonstrating that initial psychiatric contact within the first 30 days post-partum significantly predicted conversion to bipolar affective disorder during the follow-up period," the authors conclude.

Low birthweight Infants at risk from Autism (5x)

Autism researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing have found a link between low birthweight and children diagnosed with autism, reporting premature infants are five times more likely to have autism than children born at normal weight.

The children, some born as small as about a pound, were followed for 21 years making this study, published in the prestigious journal Paediatrics, one of the most remarkable of its kind.

The infants were born between September 1984 through July 1987 in Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties in New Jersey at birthweights from 500 to 2000 grams or a maximum of about 4.4 pounds.

“As survival of the smallest and most immature babies improves, impaired survivors represent an increasing public health challenge,” wrote lead authorJennifer Pinto-Martin, MPH, PhD, director of the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology (CADDRE) at Penn Nursing.

“Emerging studies suggest that low birthweight may be a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders.”

Links between low birthweight and a range of motor and cognitive problems have been well established for some time, but this is the first study that establishes that these children are also at increased risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

“Cognitive problems in these children may mask underlying autism,” said Dr. Pinto-Martin. “If there is suspicion of autism or a positive screening test for ASD, parents should seek an evaluation for an ASD.

Early intervention improves long-term outcome and can help these children both at school and at home.”

In future studies, Penn researchers will investigate possible links between brain hemorrhage, a complication of premature birth, and autism by examining brain ultrasounds taken of these children as newborns.

The researchers, including a team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, followed 862 children from birth to young adulthood finding that five percent (5%) of the children were diagnosed with autism, compared to one percent (1%) of the general population in what researchers called “the first study to have estimated the prevalence of ASD . . . using research validated diagnostic instruments.”

The $3 million study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.(NIMH)

Notes From a Dragon Mom - A child with Tay-Sachs, a rare genetic disorder

We found this very moving and interesting article in the NY Times. It's from Emily Rapp is the author of “Poster Child: A Memoir” She is also a professor of creative writing at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design:


MY son, Ronan, looks at me and raises one eyebrow. His eyes are bright and focused. Ronan means “little seal” in Irish and it suits him.

I want to stop here, before the dreadful hitch: my son is 18 months old and will likely die before his third birthday. Ronan was born with Tay-Sachs, a rare genetic disorder.

He is slowly regressing into a vegetative state. He’ll become paralysed, experience seizures, lose all of his senses before he dies. There is no treatment and no cure.

How do you parent without a net, without a future, knowing that you will lose your child, bit by torturous bit?

Depressing? Sure. But not without wisdom, not without a profound understanding of the human experience or without hard-won lessons, forged through grief and helplessness and deeply committed love about how to be not just a mother or a father but how to be human.

Parenting advice is, by its nature, future-directed. I know. I read all the parenting magazines. During my pregnancy, I devoured every parenting guide I could find.

My husband and I thought about a lot of questions they raised: will breast-feeding enhance his brain function? Will music class improve his cognitive skills? Will the right preschool help him get into the right college? I made lists. I planned and plotted and hoped. Future, future, future.

We never thought about how we might parent a child for whom there is no future. The prenatal test I took for Tay-Sachs was negative; our genetic counselor didn’t think I needed the test.

I’m not Jewish and Tay-Sachs is thought to be a greater risk among Ashkenazi Jews. Being somewhat obsessive about such matters, I had it done anyway, twice. Both times the results were negative.

Our parenting plans, our lists, the advice I read before Ronan’s birth make little sense now. No matter what we do for Ronan, choose organic or non-organic food; cloth diapers or disposable; attachment parenting or sleep training, he will die. All the decisions that once mattered so much, don’t.

All parents want their children to prosper, to matter. We enroll our children in music class or take them to Mommy and Me swim class because we hope they will manifest some fabulous talent that will set them and therefore us, the proud parents, apart.

Traditional parenting naturally presumes a future where the child outlives the parent and ideally becomes successful, perhaps even achieves something spectacular.

Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” is only the latest handbook for parents hoping to guide their children along this path. It’s animated by the idea that good, careful investments in your children will pay off in the form of happy endings, rich futures.

I have abandoned the future, and with it any visions of Ronan’s scoring a perfect SAT or sprinting across a stage with a Harvard diploma in his hand.

We’re not waiting for Ronan to make us proud. We don’t expect future returns on our investment.

We’ve chucked the graphs of developmental milestones and we avoid parenting magazines at the pediatrician’s office. Ronan has given us a terrible freedom from expectations, a magical world where there are no goals, no prizes to win, no outcomes to monitor, discuss, compare.

The day-to-day is often peaceful, even blissful. This was my day with my son: cuddling, feedings, naps.

He can watch television if he wants to; he can have pudding and cheesecake for every meal.

We are a very permissive household. We do our best for our kid, feed him fresh food, brush his teeth, make sure he’s clean and warm and well rested and, healthy?

Well, no. The only task here is to love, and we tell him we love him, not caring that he doesn’t understand the words. We encourage him to do what he can, though unlike us he is without ego or ambition.

Ronan won’t prosper or succeed in the way we have come to understand this term in our culture; he will never walk or say “Mama,” and I will never be a tiger mom.

The mothers and fathers of terminally ill children are something else entirely. Our goals are simple and terrible: to help our children live with minimal discomfort and maximum dignity.

We will not launch our children into a bright and promising future, but see them into early graves. We will prepare to lose them and then, impossibly, to live on after that gut wrenching loss.

This requires a new ferocity, a new way of thinking, a new animal. We are dragon parents: fierce and loyal and loving as hell.

Our experiences have taught us how to parent for the here and now, for the sake of parenting, for the humanity implicit in the act itself, though this runs counter to traditional wisdom and advice.

To read the full story follow this link Notes From a Dragon Mom - NYTimes.com

ADHD: Increasing Risk Of Written Language Disorder

Children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) have a higher chance of having WLD (written language disorder).

Although the risk is greater for both sexes with ADHD, girls with ADHD have a higher chance of having WLD together with reading difficulties than boys with ADHD, researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Children's Hospital Boston reported in the journal Pediatrics.

Kouichi Yoshimasu, M.D. and team set out to determine what percentage of children - 5,718 of them, 2,762 girls and 2,956 boys - had WLD. Some of the children had ADHD, while others did not.

They were all born in Rochester between 1976 and 1982 and were still there when they were five years old. They gathered information from school, private tutorial and medical records. They calculated cumulative incidences of WLD, hazard ratios (HRs) and with or without RD.

Author Dr. Slavica Katusic explained that problems with reading and math will usually catch a teacher's attention, whereas writing difficulties are often overlooked.

The USA has one of the highest rates of ADHD in children in the world. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) estimates that up to 10% of 4 to 17 year old American kids have ADHD.

The investigators found that for boys and girls with ADHD, there was a considerably higher cumulative WLD rate by the time they were 19 years old, compared to children without ADHD. 64.5% of boys with ADHD and 16.5% of boys without ADHD had WLD by 19 years of age, compared to 57% and 9.4% among the girls.

Girls with ADHD were found to have a higher risk of having WLD combined with reading difficulties than boys with ADHD. The chances of having just WLD for both girls and boys with ADHD was similar.

The authors concluded:

"ADHD is strongly associated with an increased risk of WLD (with or without RD) for both boys and girls. Girls with ADHD are at higher risk of having WLD with RD compared with boys with ADHD, whereas boys and girls are at the same risk of having WLD without RD."

Article Reference:
"Written-Language Disorder Among Children With and Without ADHD in a Population-Based Birth Cohort"

Kouichi Yoshimasu, MD, William J. Barbaresi, MD, Robert C. Colligan, PhD, Jill M. Killian, BS, Robert G. Voigt, MD, Amy L. Weaver, MS, Slavica K. Katusic, MD Pediatrics August 2011. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-2581

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

An Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disruption in the auditory nervous system that interferes with the rapid and efficient awareness, recognition, decoding and integration of acoustic signals, especially speech.

An auditory processing disorder may be considered a breakdown in a child's fine resolution abilities. By fine resolution I imply the hearing system's ability to discretely resolve the fine differences that we use to locate, separate, and distinguish sounds in the environment.

In terms of speech perception, there are many fine grained distinctions needed to successfully distinguish the many sounds that are embedded in the ongoing stream of running speech.

For instance, recognising the differences between the sounds in the words [bat] and [mommy] is not too demanding. However, distinguishing the sounds in the words [ran] and [ram] or [lift] and [list] is a more difficult task.

The latter tasks require a more efficient auditory system to rapidly identify and distinguish each pair's sounds than it does to distinguish between the sounds in the first pair. This relates to rapidly resolving the small and fine grained speech sound distinctions.

Children with APD also have problems resolving other acoustic properties, such as time variations in speech.

The two words [dime] and [time] are distinguished, predominantly, by the initiation of vocal fold vibration. The vocal folds begin to vibrate earlier when producing the [d] in dime then when producing the [t] in time.

A child who does not resolve fine time differences may have difficulty distinguishing these two words.

Timing is also important in 'juncture'. Juncture relates to the way we separate words with spaces (or time) when speaking.

Examples of varying junction include: 1) "Are you a light housekeeper?" vs. "Are you a lighthouse keeper?" 2) "Look at the snow, drift by the window." vs. "Look at the snowdrift, by the window." 3) "Look at the cargo." vs. "Look at the car go."

How do you Recognise APD?
Children who present with APD have difficulty with some or all listening activities. They have particular problems when the activities occur in less than ideal listening environments.

Hence, they may exhibit only mild problems with sound discrimination and they may make occasional errors when speaking on a one to one basis in a good (relatively quiet) environment.

They will perform worse, however, when there is competing background noise or speech, when speakers talk rapidly, when they are not devoting their complete attention to the listening task, when the discussion topic is unfamiliar to them, or when they have to perform or remember several verbal tasks in a row.

In addition, they often have weak phonemic systems (speech sound memories used in phonics, reading, and spelling). They also often appear as though they do not hear well. It is common for children with APD to say, "what?" or "huh?". They are not always intimately in touch with the sounds in the environment, hence they do not always grasp exactly what has been said.

TV Exposure and Eating Disorders in Girls

Researchers from Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine examined the link between media consumption and eating disorders among adolescent girls in Fiji.

What they found was surprising. The study’s subjects did not even need to have a television at home to see raised risk levels of eating disorder symptoms.

In fact, by far the biggest factor for eating disorders was how many of a subject’s friends and schoolmates had access to TV. By contrast, researchers found that direct forms of exposure, like personal or parental viewing, did not have an independent impact, when factors like urban location, body shape and other influences were taken into account.

It appeared that changing attitudes within a group that had been exposed to television were a more powerful factor than actually watching the programs themselves. In fact, higher peer media exposure were linked to a 60 percent increase in a girl’s odds of having a high level of eating disorder symptoms, independently of her own viewing.

Lead author Anne Becker, vice chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said this was the first study to attempt to quantify the role of social networks in spreading the negative consequences of media consumption on eating disorders.

“Our findings suggest that social network exposure is not just a minor influence on eating pathology here, but rather, IS the exposure of concern,” she said.

“If you are a parent and you are concerned about limiting cultural exposure, it simply isn’t going to be enough to switch off the TV. If you are going to think about interventions, it would have to be at a community or peer-based level.”

Becker hopes the paper will encourage debate about responsible programming and the regulation of media content to prevent children from secondhand exposure.

“Up until now, it has been very difficult to get people who produce media as entertainment to come to the table and think about how they might ensure that their products are not harmful to children,” she said.

To read more got to Science Blog article

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - Background

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person (generally over the age of eighteen years, although it is also found in adolescents), characterised by depth and variability of moods.

The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the disorder often manifests itself in idealisation and devaluation episodes, as well as chaotic and unstable interpersonal relationships, self-image, identity, and behaviour; as well as a disturbance in the individual's sense of self.

In extreme cases, this disturbance in the sense of self can lead to periods of dissociation. BPD splitting includes a switch between idealising and demonising others.

This, combined with mood disturbances, can undermine relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. BPD disturbances also may include self-harm.

Without treatment, symptoms may worsen, leading (in extreme cases) to suicide attempts. There is an ongoing debate among clinicians and patients worldwide about terminology and the use of the word borderline and some have suggested that this disorder should be renamed.




The  ICD-10 manual has an alternative definition and terminology to this disorder, called Emotionally unstable personality disorder.

There is related concern that the diagnosis of BPD stigmatises people and supports pejorative and discriminatory practices. It is common for those suffering from borderline personality disorder and their families to feel compounded by a lack of clear diagnoses, effective treatments, and accurate information.

This is true especially because of evidence that this disorder originates in the families of those who suffer from it and has a lot to do with Axis IV factors, rather than belonging strictly in Axis II.

Conceptual, as well as therapeutic, relief may be obtained through evidence that BPD is closely related to traumatic events during childhood and to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), about which much more is known.

U is for urban environments and autism

Teaching in urban environments requires comprehensive assessment and specifically designed instruction to meet the needs of children in difficult situations.

Too often, teachers in urban environments are transient and only stay in a given location for a short amount of time. For the child with autism, especially, the frequent change in routine, adult care, and academic approach is problematic and a source of anxiety.

As we face the newest epidemic to grow out of modern living, additional effort and work will be needed to educate all children with autism disorders, in accordance with their unique needs.

The empathy imbalance hypothesis of autism: a theoretical approach to cognitive and emotional empathy in autistic development

The empathy imbalance hypothesis of autism: a theoretical approach to cognitive and emotional empathy in autistic development. - Free Online Library

Autism
Autism is a pervasive developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain. It is characterised by the abnormal development of communication skills, social skills, and reasoning.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Any of several disorders, such as autism and Asperger's syndrome, characterised by severe deficits in many areas of development, including social interaction and communication, or by the presence of repetitive, that continues to fascinate researchers, challenge clinicians, and distress affected families.
Empathy
Empathy is a set of processes and outcomes at the heart of human social behaviour.

Social Behaviour
In biology, psychology and sociology social behaviour is behaviour directed towards, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behaviour such as predation which involves members of different species is not social. Fascination with autism is often with the study of empathy because the prevailing theory suggests that people with autism lack empathy.

For example, according to Decety and Jackson (2004), "Children with autism ... display a broad range of social communication deficits, and most scholars agree that a lack of empathy prominently figures amongst them" (p. 90).

The empathy imbalance hypothesis (EIH - External Interrupt Handler ) of autism, in keeping with the theory of mind hypothesis (Baron-Cohen, 1995), proposes that autism involves a significant cognitive empathy (CE) deficit.

However, the hypothesis also proposes, in contrast to prevailing theory, that people with autism actually have a heightened capacity for basic emotional empathy (EE). This combination of a CE deficit and an excess of EE can be termed EE-dominated empathic.

Read the full article here...........

Autism: Digestive Problems are not more common in affected children

Autism
Autism is a spectrum of disorders affecting a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Children with autism may make poor eye contact or exhibit repetitive movements such as rocking or hand-flapping. About 1 in 110 U.S. children have autism, according to a recent government estimate.

More than 25 experts met in Boston in 2008 to write the consensus report after reviewing medical research. The Autism Society and other autism groups funded the effort, but gave no input.

Scientific Report
A panel of scientific expert says; 'There is no rigorous evidence to support the concern that digestive problems are more common in children with Autism compared to other children, or that special diets are effective in treating the condition.' This is contrary to claims made by product sponsors, celebrities and anti-vaccine protestors.

Digestive Problems
Painful digestive problems can trigger problem behaviour in children with Autism and should be treated medically, according to the panel's report published in the January issue of Paediatrics.

"There are a lot of barriers to medical care to children with autism," said the report's lead author, Dr. Timothy Buie of Harvard Medical School. "They can be destructive and unruly in the office, or they can't sit still. The nature of their condition often prevents them from getting standard medical care."

Pain and behaviour
Some pediatricians' offices "can't handle those kids," Buie said, especially if children are in pain or discomfort because of bloating or stomach cramps. Pain can set off problem behavior, further complicating diagnosis, especially if the child has trouble communicating — as is the case for children with autism.

Leaky Gut hypothesis
The report refutes the controversial idea that there's a digestive problem specific to autism called "leaky gut" or "autistic enterocolitis." The hypothesis was first floated in 1998 in a now-discredited study by British physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield. His paper tied a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine.

The new report says the existence of autistic enterocolitis "has not been established." Buie said researchers and doctors have avoided digestive issues in autism because of their connection with Wakefield's disputed research, which set off a backlash against vaccines that continues to this day.

Report claims
The new report calls for more rigorous research into the prevalence of digestive problems and whether special diets might help some children. For now, the report states, available information doesn't support special diets for autism.

Celebrity Diets
Diets have been promoted by actress Jenny McCarthy, whose best-seller "Louder Than Words" detailed her search for treatments for her autistic son.

Nearly 1 in 5 of children with autism are on a special diet, according to a project that tracks what treatments parents are trying. Most of them were on diets that eliminate gluten, found in many grains, or casein, a protein in milk, or both, according to the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Md.

Nutritional Balance
The new report advises doctors to watch for nutritional deficiencies in patients with autism. It recommends a nutritionist get involved if a patient is on a special diet or only eats certain foods.

The report drew praise from Rebecca Estepp of Poway, Calif., who believes a special diet is helping her autistic son. She said the paper gives pediatricians credible recommendations they've needed.

"I'm filled with hope after reading this report," said Estepp of the support group Talk About Curing Autism. "I wish this report would have come out 10 years ago when my son was diagnosed."

Autism Society
Lee Grossman, president of the Autism Society, a funder, said many doctors have written off autistic children's digestive problems as untreatable. "I think we still have a lot to learn about the gut and how it contributes to behavioural symptoms," Grossman said. "We have a lot to learn about how to treat this."

Clinical visits
Buie said his clinic has various techniques for treating children with problem behaviour. They schedule early morning appointments so children aren't delayed unecessarily in the waiting room. As a last resort, they do use a mild anesthesia.

"If a child is going to be asleep because of a dental evaluation or an MRI study, we will do our endoscopy, our blood work, spinal tap, haircuts or teeth cleaning at the same time," Buie said. "Our nurses do beautiful haircuts."

Further Reading on ASD and Digestive Disorders

The full report from the Pediatrics Journal in PDF format

Autism: Digestive Problems are not more common in affected children

Autism
Autism is a spectrum of disorders affecting a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Children with autism may make poor eye contact or exhibit repetitive movements such as rocking or hand-flapping. About 1 in 110 U.S. children have autism, according to a recent government estimate.

More than 25 experts met in Boston in 2008 to write the consensus report after reviewing medical research. The Autism Society and other autism groups funded the effort, but gave no input.

Scientific Report
A panel of scientific expert says; 'There is no rigorous evidence to support the concern that digestive problems are more common in children with Autism compared to other children, or that special diets are effective in treating the condition.' This is contrary to claims made by product sponsors, celebrities and anti-vaccine protestors.

Digestive Problems
Painful digestive problems can trigger problem behaviour in children with Autism and should be treated medically, according to the panel's report published in the January issue of Paediatrics.

"There are a lot of barriers to medical care to children with autism," said the report's lead author, Dr. Timothy Buie of Harvard Medical School. "They can be destructive and unruly in the office, or they can't sit still. The nature of their condition often prevents them from getting standard medical care."

Pain and behaviour
Some pediatricians' offices "can't handle those kids," Buie said, especially if children are in pain or discomfort because of bloating or stomach cramps. Pain can set off problem behavior, further complicating diagnosis, especially if the child has trouble communicating — as is the case for children with autism.

Leaky Gut hypothesis
The report refutes the controversial idea that there's a digestive problem specific to autism called "leaky gut" or "autistic enterocolitis." The hypothesis was first floated in 1998 in a now-discredited study by British physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield. His paper tied a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine.

The new report says the existence of autistic enterocolitis "has not been established." Buie said researchers and doctors have avoided digestive issues in autism because of their connection with Wakefield's disputed research, which set off a backlash against vaccines that continues to this day.

Report claims
The new report calls for more rigorous research into the prevalence of digestive problems and whether special diets might help some children. For now, the report states, available information doesn't support special diets for autism.

Celebrity Diets
Diets have been promoted by actress Jenny McCarthy, whose best-seller "Louder Than Words" detailed her search for treatments for her autistic son.

Nearly 1 in 5 of children with autism are on a special diet, according to a project that tracks what treatments parents are trying. Most of them were on diets that eliminate gluten, found in many grains, or casein, a protein in milk, or both, according to the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Md.

Nutritional Balance
The new report advises doctors to watch for nutritional deficiencies in patients with autism. It recommends a nutritionist get involved if a patient is on a special diet or only eats certain foods.

The report drew praise from Rebecca Estepp of Poway, Calif., who believes a special diet is helping her autistic son. She said the paper gives pediatricians credible recommendations they've needed.

"I'm filled with hope after reading this report," said Estepp of the support group Talk About Curing Autism. "I wish this report would have come out 10 years ago when my son was diagnosed."

Autism Society
Lee Grossman, president of the Autism Society, a funder, said many doctors have written off autistic children's digestive problems as untreatable. "I think we still have a lot to learn about the gut and how it contributes to behavioural symptoms," Grossman said. "We have a lot to learn about how to treat this."

Clinical visits
Buie said his clinic has various techniques for treating children with problem behaviour. They schedule early morning appointments so children aren't delayed unecessarily in the waiting room. As a last resort, they do use a mild anesthesia.

"If a child is going to be asleep because of a dental evaluation or an MRI study, we will do our endoscopy, our blood work, spinal tap, haircuts or teeth cleaning at the same time," Buie said. "Our nurses do beautiful haircuts."

Further Reading on Digestive Disorders

What is dyspraxia? How does it impair development?

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted.

It can create a clumsy child that is more uncoordinated, slower to walk and develop good motor and hand to eye skills.

Praxis
The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means 'doing, acting'. (The largest DIY retail hardware outlet is named Praxis.) Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the population but like many disorders the child may experience only minor disorder. Unfortunately, some children will experience severe symptoms but they are only two per cent.

Males v Females
Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families and like other developmental disorders, the child may experience other related conditions. If you are concerned then simply seek the advice of a qualified consultant.

Name magic
Other names for dyspraxia include Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, and Motor Learning Difficulties. It used to be known as Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.

Statistically, it is likely that there is one child in every class of 30 children. We need to raise the awareness of this debilitating condition and make sure that everyone understands and knows how best to help this significant minority.