This research was performed to see how useful dynamic testing of reading and writing would be for children with and without dyslexia and to explore the relationship between dynamic testing of...Show moreThis research was performed to see how useful dynamic testing of reading and writing would be for children with and without dyslexia and to explore the relationship between dynamic testing of reading and writing and intelligence, specifically fluid and crystallised intelligence. To research this, this research had an experimental pretest-training-posttest design with two groups—dyslexic and non-dyslexic—as well as two conditions—training and no-training. The participants were children in primary school between the ages of 7 and 9. The study consisted of two sessions: a preliminary investigation and a dynamic test. The dynamic test used was the EPALE-NL. It consists of four subtests: phonemic awareness, prosodic awareness, sounds and verbs, and context words. A significant difference was found between the group that was trained and the group that was not trained, in specific for the subtest prosodic awareness, with the trained group showing more improvement in accuracy. For the performance on the posttest by the dyslexic group and non-dyslexic group, no significant difference was found between the groups. No significant relationship was found between the gain score and fluid and crystallised intelligence. Dynamic testing of reading and writing has shown potential to be used in the classroom for its previously discovered benefits, as well as its ability to teach both dyslexics and non-dyslexics of varying intelligence.Show less
This cross-sectional study was performed to examine the extent to which levels of aloneness in primary school children (8 to 12 years), without autism (n = 30) and with autism (n = 31), were...Show moreThis cross-sectional study was performed to examine the extent to which levels of aloneness in primary school children (8 to 12 years), without autism (n = 30) and with autism (n = 31), were related to their levels of loneliness. The children completed questionnaires about loneliness and friendship nomination, and during break their alone time was measured using Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID). Analyses controlled for age differences between groups were conducted utilizing one-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and linear regression analyses were performed. Results revealed significant effects of autism on reciprocal friendships and alone time, but not on loneliness. Moreover, for non-autistic children, increased alone time contributed to higher levels of loneliness, whereas, for autistic children, this relation was weaker and negative. Friendship did not significantly influence loneliness. The reason autistic children often spend time alone away from social situations may be because social situations are exhausting and overwhelming, prompting the need for time alone to recharge and restore their energy. Consequently, teachers and other people surrounding the children need to be aware that these children have different social preferences in comparison to children without autism. This also applies when interventions against loneliness are made, children with autism may want to have some quiet time alone, and this may even differ within this group, while children without autism do not want this.Show less
Abstract Aim: Sleep difficulties are a common problem among young children. Reduction in sleep affects cognitive processes and therefore has consequences for development and functioning in daily...Show moreAbstract Aim: Sleep difficulties are a common problem among young children. Reduction in sleep affects cognitive processes and therefore has consequences for development and functioning in daily life. Behavioural inhibition, which includes avoidant behaviour, is expected to be an important predictor for Sleep difficulties. Previous research stated that Physical activity on the other hand could reduce Sleep difficulties. Therefore this study investigated the role of Physical activity in the relation between Behavioural inhibition and Sleep difficulties in boys and girls aged five and ten. Methods: This study used data from the GGD Nederland. Questionnaires from the “Jij en Je Gezondheid vragenlijst” are used to measure the three variables. Parents of a total of 12118 five year olds and 11256 ten year olds completed the questionnaire. The data was analysed by a mediation analyses and a moderated mediation analysis in PROCESS SPSS. Results: The results show significant correlations between all the three mutual variables. This means that there is some dependence between the variables. In addition, significant relations were found, however the effect sizes of the mediation model were too small (d=.11) to be of actual meaning. Conclusion: The current study does not find enough evidence for Physical activity to be a mediator in the relationship between Behavioural inhibition and Sleep difficulties. Future research should use different psychometric measures and focus more on exercising rather than Physical activity in general.Show less
1 / 30 Abstract 2 / 30 This study aimed to investigate how feedback influences affective updating and self-perception in healthy adolescents. Adolescence is characterized by significant...Show more1 / 30 Abstract 2 / 30 This study aimed to investigate how feedback influences affective updating and self-perception in healthy adolescents. Adolescence is characterized by significant developmental changes and an important developmental stage for the formation of identity. This identifies formation plays a crucial role in shaping self-esteem and self-confidence. Adolescents compare their self-perception with that of others to explore their identity, relying on their self-confidence as a guiding factor. The way adolescents respond to feedback can significantly influence their self-perception. Affective updating of feelings is the process through which adolescents adapt their emotions in response to feedback, and it plays a vital role in maintaining beliefs about their shortcomings and negative feelings towards self-perception, particularly among anxious adolescents. To explore these dynamics, a social-evaluative speech performance task will be conducted. Eighty adolescents aged 12 to 17 years engaged in a simulated social-evaluating setting, self-evaluated their performance, and received feedback from expert judges. Participants then indicated their emotional state after receiving the feedback. Using computational modeling we examined the affective updating of self-feelings response to positive and negative performance feedback. Additionally, regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between self-confidence and affective updating of feelings. This study contributes to our understanding of the psychological processes involved in self-perception and affective updating in healthy adolescents. The findings may have implications for interventions and support strategies aimed at fostering positive self-perception and emotional adjustment during adolescence. By understanding the impact of feedback on adolescents' affective responses and self-perception, we can provide valuable insights into their emotional well-being and development. Keywords: Social feedback 3 / 30 Affective updating Self-image Self-esteem Adolescents Speech task Layman’s summary During adolescence (12-17 years), there are numerous changes, including the development of one's own identity. Self-perception and self-confidence play a crucial role during this stage. Adolescents compare their self-perception with that of others to discover who they are, relying on their self-confidence. Self-confidence evaluates the value they place on their self-perception. The way adolescents respond to feedback influences their self-perception. The process through which adolescents adjust their emotions after receiving feedback is known as affective updating of feelings. This phenomenon plays a significant role in maintaining beliefs about their shortcomings and negative feelings related to self-perception, particularly among anxious adolescents. Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common disorders among adolescents. Adolescents with social anxiety disorder often have low self-confidence and are more sensitive to negative feedback, struggling with rejecting such feedback. However, we were specifically interested in understanding how this process works in healthy adolescents. We aimed to determine whether positive or negative feedback has a greater impact on affective updating of feelings. Additionally, we wanted to investigate whether the level of self-confidence had any relationship with how adolescents affectively update their feelings in response to positive and negative feedback. We aimed to achieve this by replicating a social-evaluative speech task with 80 healthy adolescents.Show less
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often not included in social interactions. This is mainly because non-autistic people frequently misunderstand them and because of this do not...Show moreChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often not included in social interactions. This is mainly because non-autistic people frequently misunderstand them and because of this do not accept, or even reject and dismiss them (Cage et al., 2018). This can make social participation for children with ASD unpleasant and stressful, even though social participation is vital for their development (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Kawachi & Berkman, 2001). To date, only a few studies have examined the impact of limited access to school participation on the psychosocial development of school-aged children with ASD. Furthermore, one may wonder whether certain factors, e.g., individual, family, or school factors, could influence the relation between social participation and psychosocial functioning in children with ASD. To address this gap of knowledge, this study examined the relation between social participation and psychosocial functioning of Dutch children with ASD aged between 4 and 16 years. Furthermore, this study explored whether and to what extent children’s individual characteristics such as IQ, their family characteristics such as parent self-efficacy, and the school characteristics, such as the social environment of the school, could moderate this relation. Two hundred parents of children with ASD from different areas of the Netherlands filled in questionnaires to report about their children’s socioemotional development through the online platform NAR (Dutch Autism Register). The results showed that the more children with ASD participated in social interactions, the fewer psychosocial problems they had. Higher parent self-efficacy predicted fewer psychosocial problems in children with ASD. However, no moderating effects were found. The current study highlights the importance of promoting social participation at school for children with ASD. It also highlights the importance of providing support to the parents of children with ASD and increasing these parents’ self-confidence in supporting their child with ASD.Show less
The presence of wonder affects how children see the world around them and their openness to experiences. Besides, intellectual capacities greatly impact children’s thoughts and perceptions....Show moreThe presence of wonder affects how children see the world around them and their openness to experiences. Besides, intellectual capacities greatly impact children’s thoughts and perceptions. Therefore, IQ and wonder could be closely related. The first research aim was to investigate differences between academically gifted and non-gifted children on IQ, wonder and Openness to Experience. The second research aim was to examine the interrelations between IQ, wonder and Openness to Experience, and specifically to study the mediating role of Openness to Experience on the relation between IQ and wonder. Children between 9 and 13 years old (N = 116) participated in this study. Because of missing data not all children were included in all analyses. 50 of these children attended gifted and 66 attended mainstream education. The presence of wonder and Openness to Experience were measured by means of self-report questionnaires. IQ was tested using a subtest of a larger IQ measuring instrument. Academically gifted and non-gifted children did not differ in their scores on IQ, wonder and Openness to Experience. A mediation analysis showed that although IQ and wonder were not found to be directly related, the relation between IQ and wonder can be mediated by Openness to Experience. In further research on the relation between IQ and wonder, the role of Openness to Experience has to be taken into account. Including more extensive ways of testing IQ can also help further research connect different types of intelligence to wonder and therefore gain a better understanding of the relation between IQ and wonder.Show less
