Classroom seating for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: therapy balls versus chairs.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of therapy balls as seating on in-seat behavior and legible word productivity of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Additionally, social validity was assessed to evaluate teacher and student opinions regarding the intervention. METHOD: A single subject, A-B-A-B interrupted time series design was employed across 3 students (2 males, 1 female) with ADHD. The study was conducted in a 4th grade inclusive classroom during daily language arts. During phases 1 and 3, the 3 participants and all other class members sat on chairs (in-seat on chair); during phases 2 and 4, everyone sat on therapy balls (in-seat on ball). Dependent variables were in-seat behavior and legible word productivity. Data were graphed and visually analyzed for differences between phases. RESULTS: Results demonstrated increases in in-seat behavior and legible word productivity for the students with ADHD when seated on therapy balls. Social validity findings indicated that generally the teacher and students preferred therapy balls. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that use of therapy balls for students with ADHD may facilitate in-seat behavior and legible word productivity.     

Facilitating written work using computer word processing and word prediction.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether occupational therapy intervention that focused on teaching children to use word processing, either alone or with word prediction, was effective in improving the written communication skills of children with learning disabilities and handwriting problems. METHOD: A single-subject alternating treatments design was replicated across three children in grades 4 and 5. During the baseline phase the children wrote stories by hand; during the intervention phase, the children wrote stories, alternating among handwriting, word processing, and word processing with word prediction. Dependent variables focused on percentages of legible words, percentages of correctly spelled words, total amount written, and rate of writing. Data were analyzed by visual inspection. RESULTS: Results were variable. Two children had clear improvements in legibility when using either word processing alone or with word prediction. These same children demonstrated clear improvements in spelling when using word prediction. Though rate of writing was best for two children when using handwriting, relative to total amount produced, one method was not clearly preferable to another. CONCLUSION: Occupational therapy intervention involving word processing with word prediction improves the legibility and spelling of written assignments completed by some children with learning disabilities and handwriting difficulties. It is important to evaluate each child individually and provide training and ongoing support for technology use.     

Copy number variation burden does not predict severity of neurodevelopmental phenotype in children with a sex chromosome trisomy

Sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs) (XXX, XXY, and XYY karyotypes) are associated with an elevated risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. The range of severity of the phenotype is substantial. We considered whether this variable outcome was related to the presence of copy number variants (CNVs)—stretches of duplicated or deleted DNA. A sample of 125 children with an SCT were compared with 181 children of normal karyotype who had been given the same assessments. First, we compared the groups on measures of overall CNV burden: number of CNVs, total span of CNVs, and likely functional impact (probability of loss‐of‐function intolerance, pLI, summed over CNVs). Differences between groups were small relative to within‐group variance and not statistically significant on overall test. Next, we considered whether a measure of general neurodevelopmental impairment was predicted by pLI summed score, SCT versus comparison group, or the interaction between them. There was a substantial effect of SCT/comparison status but the pLI score was not predictive of outcomes in either group. We conclude that variable presence of CNVs is not a likely explanation for the wide phenotypic variation in children with SCTs. We discuss methodological challenges of testing whether CNVs are implicated in causing neurodevelopmental problems.     

Intact perceptual and conceptual priming in temporal lobe epilepsy: neuroanatomical and methodological implications

Explicit memory appears to be supported by medical temporal lobe structures, whereas separate neocortical regions may mediate perceptual and conceptual implicit memory. Children and adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and matched controls were administered experimental verbal memory tests. Performance on implicit tests--word identification and word generation--was contrasted with explicit recognition and recall. Encoding conditions emphasized either conceptual or perceptual aspects of study words and were crossed with presentation modality. The priming performance of participants with TLE did not differ from controls, but participants with TLE did show deficits on recognition and recall measures. Thus, intact left temporal cortex does not appear to be necessary for normal implicit memory performance, even when conceptual processing is emphasized at study or test.     

Thymidine kinase-negative bovine herpesvirus type 1 mutant is stable and highly attenuated in calves

Summary Calves were vaccinated intranasally (IN) or intravenously (IV) with a thymidine kinase-negative (tk^–) BHV-1 mutant. Vaccinated calves developed neutralizing antibodies but did not show clinical signs of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR). Vaccination also prevented clinical signs of IBR disease following IN challenge exposure of the calves to parental Los Angeles (LA) and USDA Cooper strains of tk⁺ BHV-1. Nasal swabs were collected for 10 days after the vaccination and the challenge exposures to monitor BHV-1 multiplication. At both 91 and 121 days post vaccination (PV), calves were also stressed for 5 days with dexamethasone (DEX) to induce reactivation of BHV-1 and nasal swabs were obtained. tk^– BHV-1 multiplied in the nasal mucosa of IN vaccinated calves and was also recovered after DEX treatment. Likewise, tk^– BHV-1 was isolated from the buffy coat fraction of IV vaccinated calves, but not from nasal swabs. tk^– BHV-1 vaccination reduced the multiplication of tk⁺ BHV-1 in the nasal mucosa, but did not completely prevent development of a persistent infection by the challenge virus. The phenotypes of viruses isolated from the nasal swabs and buffy coats were analyzed by enzyme assays of extracts from virus-infected cells and by plaque autoradiography. These assays showed that tk^– BHV-1 can persist for at least 3 months in vaccinated calves and may also be transmitted from vaccinated to control calves without revertingin vivo to tk⁺. The results demonstrate that the tk^– BHV mutant is attenuated and efficacious as a vaccine.With 1 Figure     

Physical activity and motor skill outcomes of a 10-week intervention for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities ages 4–13: A pilot study

BackgroundChildren with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often experience increased barriers to engaging in physical activity (PA) which can stem from lack of gross motor function (GMF) development. Intervening on GMF at an early age can create better opportunities for children with IDD to engage in regular PA. In turn, increased PA can improve health outcomes and increase social skills.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this pilot study was to explore the effectiveness of a community-based GMF-focused PA intervention for improving overall motor skills and PA for children with IDD.MethodsAll study participants (n = 24) engaged in 10 weeks of programming for 1 h each week. A convenience sample was utilized.ResultsResults indicated no statistically significant changes pre to post for motor skill scores. However, a visual analysis of mean changes showed a consistent pattern of increased scores from pre to post on most skills. Additionally, we found that a change in participant locomotor skills significantly predicted change in Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA), F (1,11) = 5.16, Adj R² = .26, p = .04.ConclusionsThese results suggest individualized attention on GMF may help to increase motor skills for children with IDD. This study adds to the small but growing amount of research examining the efficacy of community based adapted PA interventions. Further, study results should support continued exploration of effective approaches to address the motor delays experienced by children with IDD.