Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
337
result(s) for
"Learning disabilities Physiological aspects."
Sort by:
How is COVID-19 Affecting the Mental Health of Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Their Families?
Parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in the UK (
n
= 241) were asked to describe the impact of COVID-19 on their own mental health and that of their child. An inductive content analysis of the data was undertaken. Both parents and children appear to be experiencing loss, worry and changes in mood and behaviour as a result of the rapid social changes that have occurred. Some parents reported feeling overwhelmed and described the impact of child understanding and awareness. Finally, a minority of parents reported that COVID-19 has had little impact on mental health in their family, or has even led to improvements. Implications for how to support these families in the immediate future are discussed.
Journal Article
Social Participation Among Young Adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
Investigating social participation of young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is important given the increasing number of youth aging into young adulthood. Social participation is an indicator of life quality and overall functioning. Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2, we examined rates of participation in social activities among young adults who received special education services for autism (ASD group), compared to young adults who received special education for intellectual disability, emotional/behavioral disability, or a learning disability. Young adults with an ASD were significantly more likely to never see friends, never get called by friends, never be invited to activities, and be socially isolated. Among those with an ASD, lower conversation ability, lower functional skills, and living with a parent were predictors of less social participation.
Journal Article
The ageing systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function
Blood-borne factors affect the ageing brain
Regenerative capacity and cognitive function decline during ageing. A study using heterochronic parabiosis, in which pairs of young and old mice are surgically joined by a shared blood supply, shows that blood-borne factors present in the systemic milieu can inhibit or promote adult neurogenesis in ageing mice. A proteomic screen identified a subset of plasma signalling proteins that correlate with the decreased neurogenesis observed in both normal ageing and parabiosis. CCL11 (also known as eotoxin) and β2-microglobulin — factors classically involved in immune responses — were among the identified factors able to decrease progenitor frequency and neural differentiation.
In the central nervous system, ageing results in a precipitous decline in adult neural stem/progenitor cells and neurogenesis, with concomitant impairments in cognitive functions
1
. Interestingly, such impairments can be ameliorated through systemic perturbations such as exercise
1
. Here, using heterochronic parabiosis we show that blood-borne factors present in the systemic milieu can inhibit or promote adult neurogenesis in an age-dependent fashion in mice. Accordingly, exposing a young mouse to an old systemic environment or to plasma from old mice decreased synaptic plasticity, and impaired contextual fear conditioning and spatial learning and memory. We identify chemokines—including CCL11 (also known as eotaxin)—the plasma levels of which correlate with reduced neurogenesis in heterochronic parabionts and aged mice, and the levels of which are increased in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy ageing humans. Lastly, increasing peripheral CCL11 chemokine levels
in vivo
in young mice decreased adult neurogenesis and impaired learning and memory. Together our data indicate that the decline in neurogenesis and cognitive impairments observed during ageing can be in part attributed to changes in blood-borne factors.
Journal Article
Effects of an Inclusive Physical Activity Program on the Motor Skills, Social Skills and Attitudes of Students with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
This study investigated the effects of an inclusive physical activity (IPA) program on the motor and social skills and attitudes of students with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study sample consisted of 45 ASD and typical development (TD) students aged between 6 and 11 years. The students were randomly divided into two groups: a training group consisting of 27 students (n = 13 with ASD and n = 14 with TD) and a control group consisting of 18 students (n = 9 with ASD and n = 9 with TD). In conclusion, the IPA program increased the motor and social skills of the ASD students and improved the motor skills of the TD students and positively affected their attitudes towards the ASD students.
Journal Article
Changing College Students’ Conceptions of Autism: An Online Training to Increase Knowledge and Decrease Stigma
College students with autism may be negatively impacted by lack of understanding about autism on college campuses. Thus, we developed an online training to improve knowledge and decrease stigma associated with autism among college students. Participants (
N
= 365) completed a pre-test, online training, and post-test. Women reported lower stigma towards autism than men. Participation in the training was associated with decreased stigma and increased knowledge about autism. Although participants exhibited relatively high baseline knowledge of autism, misconceptions were common, particularly in open-ended responses. Participants commonly confused autism with other disorders, such as learning disabilities. This study suggests that online training may be a cost-effective way to increase college students’ understanding and acceptance of their peers with autism.
Journal Article
Perinatal Mother-to-Child Chikungunya Virus Infection: Screening of Cognitive and Learning Difficulties in a Follow-Up Study of the Chimere Cohort on Reunion Island
In this cohort study, we evaluated the cognitive and learning difficulties of school-age children perinatally infected with Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) on Reunion Island using the Evaluation of Cognitive Functions and Learning in Children (EDA) battery screening test compared to the healthy children cohort used for EDA development. Of the 19 infected children, 11 (57.9%) exhibited subnormal or abnormal scores, of whom 3 were classified as high risk, and 8 were classified as at risk for cognitive and learning difficulties. Children who had encephalopathy were at higher risk for displaying at least one difficulty than non-encephalopathic children (relative risk 2.13; 95% CI 1.05–4.33). The difficulties observed affected verbal functions, non-verbal functions, and learning abilities, such as phonology, lexical evocation and comprehension, graphism, selective visual attention, planning, visual–spatial reasoning, dictation and mathematics, as well as core executive functions, such as inhibitory control, shifting, and working memory. Neurocognitive dysfunctions could be linked to severe brain damage, as evidenced by severe white matter reduction mainly in the frontal lobes and corpus callosum and potentially in all functional networks involved in difficulties. These results should motivate further investigation of intellectual and adaptive functioning to diagnose intellectual deficiency and severe maladaptive behaviour in children perinatally infected with Chikungunya virus.
Journal Article
Virtual Reality and Metacognition Training Techniques for Learning Disabilities
The current research aims to investigate the effectiveness of brain-rewiring techniques applied in virtual reality environments as a pioneer intervention for people with learning disabilities and various disorders. In addition, we examine whether these VR-assisted techniques can improve metacognitive skills. Specifically, we emphasize the advantage of VR clinical hypnosis, VR neurolinguistic programming, VR subliminal training, VR fast learning, VR mindfulness, and VR breathing training. The results of this review study revealed that virtual reality provides a fertile ground for the practice of therapeutic metacognitive techniques. In addition, experimental research revealed beneficial effects on learning disabilities, cognitive impairments, autism, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), depression, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, and behavioral and emotional disorders. It was revealed that VR brain-rewiring techniques constitute effective metacognitive strategies for people with various disorders. Therapists, educators, parents, and even patients could utilize VR brain-rewiring techniques at home, at school, or in the workplace to train the 21st-century meta-abilities. This study also highlights the need to create virtual metacognitive training environments to accelerate inclusion, equity, and peak performance.
Journal Article
Maternal prepregnancy weight status and associations with children’s development and disabilities at kindergarten
Objective:
Obesity is prevalent among women of reproductive age, and developmental disabilities in children continue to increase. We examined associations between mother’s prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and physical and developmental disabilities, and objective measures of reading and math skills and fine and gross motor function in children.
Methods:
We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B;
n
=5200), a cohort of children born in 2001 and followed until kindergarten. Children were classified according to maternal prepregnancy BMI (in kg per m
2
): underweight (BMI <18.5), normal weight (BMI 18.5–24.9), overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9), obese class I (BMI 30.0–34.9) and obese class II/III (BMI ⩾35.0). Parent reports of doctor-diagnosed disabilities were collected up to kindergarten and classified as learning and behavioral or physical. Children’s reading and math and fine and gross motor function were assessed at kindergarten according to standardized tests. Linear and modified logistic regression models were adjusted for maternal sociodemographic variables, family enrichment variables, and children’s sex, age and year of kindergarten entry. Additional adjustment for current child BMI was performed in separate models. All data are weighted to be nationally representative of the children born in 2001.
Results:
Compared with children of normal-weight mothers, children born to obese class II/III mothers had an increased risk of learning or behavioral (risk ratio 1.67; 95% confidence interval 1.27, 2.21)), but not physical disabilities (risk ratio 0.57; 95% confidence interval 0.27, 1.22). Gross (
P<
0.001), but not fine (
P
=0.06) motor function was significantly associated with maternal BMI, but gross motor function was attenuated after adjustment for current child BMI (
P
=0.05). Children’s reading scores (
P
=0.01) but not math scores (
P
=0.11) were significantly associated with maternal BMI.
Conclusions:
In this nationally representative US cohort, children born to severely obese mothers had an increased risk for diagnosed learning and behavioral but not physical disabilities by kindergarten.
Journal Article
The murine ortholog of Kaufman oculocerebrofacial syndrome protein Ube3b regulates synapse number by ubiquitinating Ppp3cc
Kaufman oculocerebrofacial syndrome (KOS) is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by intellectual disability, developmental delays, microcephaly, and characteristic dysmorphisms. Biallelic mutations of UBE3B, encoding for a ubiquitin ligase E3B are causative for KOS. In this report, we characterize neuronal functions of its murine ortholog Ube3b and show that Ube3b regulates dendritic branching in a cell-autonomous manner. Moreover, Ube3b knockout (KO) neurons exhibit increased density and aberrant morphology of dendritic spines, altered synaptic physiology, and changes in hippocampal circuit activity. Dorsal forebrain-specific Ube3b KO animals show impaired spatial learning, altered social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. We further demonstrate that Ube3b ubiquitinates the catalytic γ-subunit of calcineurin, Ppp3cc, the overexpression of which phenocopies Ube3b loss with regard to dendritic spine density. This work provides insights into the molecular pathologies underlying intellectual disability-like phenotypes in a genetically engineered mouse model.
Journal Article