As an information-bearing auditory attribute of sound, pitch plays a crucial role in the perception of speech and music. Studies examining pitch processing in autism spectrum disorder have produced equivocal results. To understand this discrepancy from a mechanistic perspective, we used a novel data-driven method, the reverse-correlation paradigm,…

The current prospective cohort study investigated whether early perceptual abilities, measured at preschool age, could predict later intellectual abilities at school age in a group of 41 autistic (9 girls, 32 boys) and 57 neurotypical children (29 girls, 28 boys). More than 80% of the autistic children were considered minimally verbal.…

Self-regulation forms the rudiments for children's academic achievement and socialization. Although one's executive control and verbal skills are needed in both of the core aspects for academic performance: processing to regulate one's own learning and behavior, young students' cognitive capacity for that is still immature influencing the…

Phenotypical heterogeneity in language abilities is a hallmark of autism but remains poorly understood. The present study collected naturalistic language samples from parent-child interactions. We quantified verbal abilities (mean length of utterance, tokens, types) of 50 Chinese-speaking children (M = 5; 6) and stratified subgroups based on their…

The article focuses on a current issue in modern linguistics: linguistic consciousness. Linguistic consciousness refers to the outcomes of mental activity, perception and assimilation of information verbalized by means of the national language. Theoretical issues with the functioning of the term of "linguistic consciousness" in…

Several models of working memory (WM) have been proposed in the literature. Most of the research on the architecture of WM is based on adults or older children, but less is known about younger children. In this study, we tested various models of WM on a sample of 739 Italian children, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, primarily of European…

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore cognitive performance and visual motor integration, and investigate the relationship between them in preschool children in a community. Forty-nine participants were selected by stratified random sampling from a local community school and community child development center in Thailand. The instruments…

Notwithstanding their relevance to children's cognitive development, home literacy activities of preschool children with migration backgrounds have only been partly explored. Therefore, the current understanding of this topic, particularly in a German setting remains incomplete. This study aimed to evaluate the differences between preschool…

A cluster randomized design was used to investigate effects of the Story Friends vocabulary curriculum on learning of 84 preschoolers in 24 classrooms who were at risk for language difficulties. Children in the treatment condition received explicit vocabulary instruction of 36 words during small-group storybook listening centers with extended…

This research examines how the human genome and SES jointly and interactively shape verbal ability among youth in the U.S. The youth are aged 12-18 when the study starts. The research draws on findings from the latest GWAS as well as a rich set of longitudinal SES measures at individual, family and neighborhood levels from Add Health (N = 7194).…

Few measures are appropriate to assess autism symptoms in minimally verbal adolescents and adults. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2, Lord et al., in Autism diagnostic observation schedule--2nd edition (ADOS-2). Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, 2012) Modules 1 and 2 were designed and validated with…

Understanding gender differences in human cognitive development may contribute to understanding the gender differences in outcomes in cognitive ageing. However, evaluation of this topic has been hindered by a lack of representative, longitudinal data from different aged cohorts measured on the same cognitive tests. Gender differences in cognitive…

Purpose: Adults who stutter (AWS) often attempt, with varying degrees of success, to suppress their stuttered speech. The ability to effectively suppress motoric behavior after initiation relies on executive functions such as nonselective inhibition. Although previous studies found that AWS were slower to inhibit manual, button-press response than…

Most researchers have studied students' academic self-concept within native language and mathematics, indicating the multidimensional nature of academic self-concept. However, there is a shortage of studies that examined the twofold multidimensional structure of verbal self-concept within the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model of two…

Identifying and measuring anxiety in young people on the autism spectrum can be challenging. The present study investigated the use of the Anxiety Scale for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASC-ASD), a self- and caregiver-rated screening tool in a Singaporean sample of ninety-one verbal autistic youths and their caregivers. Internal…