Developmental Differences Flashcards
What are developmental differences?
-Atypical development that tends to be identified within childhood
-Sticks with them for life normally, but could be remitted in adulthood
-Includes atypical cognitive, social, behavioural, language or motor development
-Boyle et al. (2011) found that 1:10 children tend to have atypical development
Genetic influence on developmental disorders
-Based on genetics, such as inheritance or mutations
-Can be known genetic basis
-Includes down’s syndrome, fragile x, rett’s syndrome, turner syndrome, williams syndrome
-Can be putative genetic basic
-Includes autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, language disorder
Environmental influence on developmental disorders
-Based on environmental factors
-Such as access to therapy, home environments, nutrition and diet
-Includes cerebral palsy
How can diagnosis occur for developmental differences?
-Child tends to be taken to GP is parents are worried
-GP refers them to specialist services
-Assessments will be completed by paediatricians and clinical psychologists
-They look into history of difficulty and complete standardised assessments, observations and questionnaires that will be completed by parents/teachers
What are the characteristics of autism?
-Leo Kanner (1943) and Hans Asperger (1944) first described this disorder
-Marked by differences in social interaction, communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviours
State the statistics of autism
-1 in 44 children in the USA have autism (CDC, 2018)
-Present in people with high IQ as well as people with low IQ
-More common in boys than girls
-Nearly 40% of people with autism become nonverbal
Describe the Theory of Mind hypothesis as a theory of autism
-Baron-Cohen et al., (1985)
-Children completed an unexpected transfer test
-Children with autism performed worse than verbal and non-verbal ability matched groups, compared with those with downs syndrome and children with typical development
-They don’t have the ability to understand others minds
Describe the Theory of Weak ‘Central Coherence’ as a theory of autism
-Frith (1989)
-Proposed to help account for non-social differences and perceptual strengths that can be seen in someone with autism
-Individuals who had autism were faster and more accurate on embedded figures task and block design task
Describe the characteristics of ADHD
-First recognised in early 1900’s as ‘hyperkinetic disorder’ and renamed ADHD in 1987
-Found by differences in attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity
-Attention - unresponsive but distractible
-Hyperactivity - constantly fidgeting and finding it impossible to sit still
-Impulsivity - struggle to wait in queues and wait for their turn in games
State the statistics of ADHD
-Occurs in 8 in 100 people (Faraone et al, 2003)
-More common in boys than girls
-High heritability estimates, Saviouk et al. (2011) found around 75%
-Can be affected by environmental factors such as diet (McCann et al, 2007)
Describe the Primary differences in executive functioning theory as a theory of ADHD
-Barkley, 1997
-Things such as reflective thinking, organisation, emotional control, planning
Describe the Primary differences in reward and motivation theory as a theory of ADHD
-Sonuga-Barke, 2005
-Difficulty with delayed gratification e.g. knowing you need to study for an exam but putting it off as you don’t get a reward yet
Describe the characteristics and statistics of language disorder
-Found in around 7 in 100 people
-More common in boys than girls
-Language areas within the brain may be implicated in disorders e.g. broca’s area and wernicke’s area
What is developmental dyslexia?
-Marked by difficulty within reading and spelling that can’t be explained by poor ability
-For example, unable to identify syllables in a word, can’t identify rhyming words, struggle to distinguish between sounds of letters
-Affected by both genetic and environmental factors
-Much more common in non-transparent languages such as english rather than transparent languages like italian and japanese
Describe the medial model of disability
-Disabled = less able to do things such as have potential, make meaningful relationships etc.
-Due to bad luck, interpreted as impairment
-Problem is with the individual, and disability is caused by something within the person
