identifying atypical development Flashcards
why is atypical development hard to define?
- individual differences in the rate of development
- individual differences in people’s traits, strengths and weaknesses
what is the text book definition of atypical development?
the extremes of individual differences in development
- can include advanced and delayed development
- generally associated with neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. autism spectrum conditions, ADHD, William’s syndrome, intellectual disability…)
what are the different forms of atypical development?
- delay
- delay with catch up
- lower starting point
- advanced
(we should repeatedly test individuals at different times in their life to help identify the above)
what is developmental regression?
- typically seen in children with autism spectrum conditions and/or intellectual disability
- definition = period where a particular skill is developing along a typical trajectory, but then a child loses aspects of this skill
–> e.g. stop speaking in two word phrases - most often seen in language and motor skills
what are the different domains development occurs across?
- adaptive behaviour
- social
- cognitive
- physical
- motor skills
(they can interact, overlap and affect each other)
what are the 3 main domains of development in psychology?
- adaptive behaviours
- social domain
- cognitive domains
(motor and physical tend to be medically related)
development in adapative behaviours
- daily living skills
- ability to work
- functional decision making
- personal safety
- managing money
- personal responsibility
- independence
development in the social domain
- gestures
- reciprocal eye contact
- empathy
- verbal communication
- social interactions
- non-verbal communication
- turn-taking
- emotional IQ
development in the cognitive domain
- IQ
- attention
- language
- executive function
- numerical ability
- memory
development in physical domain
- facial dysmorphism
- microcephaly
- physical features (e.g. heart)
- macrocephaly
development in motor skills
- balance
- gross motor skills
- activity level
- coordination
- fine motor skills
what is normal distribution?
- obtained testing many Ps (100+)
- for many variables samples from the population generate a normal distribution
–> e.g. height, weight, IQ and other cognitive abilities - normal distribution = normal curve = bell shaped curve
identifying and measuring atypical development
- group comparisons against a representative (or ‘normative’ sample)
- it is important to choose an appropriate control group
what do we need to bear in mind when investigating atypical development?
- it is important to compare performance against appropriate control groups and also to consider the child’s overall ability and profile of strengths and weaknesses
- usual to compare to 2 control groups:
1. one matched on chronological age
2. one matched on mental age - investigating skills and ability over time provides insight into what we can expect of an individual’s development (not just one point in time)
how do we measure adaptive behaviour?
- Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS)
–> semi-structured interview carried out with parent / caregiver / teacher
what does the Vineland adaptive behaviour scale look at/ask about?
- communication
- receptive
- expressive
- written - daily living skills
- personal
- domestic
- community - socialization
- interpersonal relationships
- play and leisure time
- coping skills - motor skills
- gross motor
- fine motor - maladaptive behaviour
- internalizing
- externalizing
how do we measure cognitive development? (2 types)
- standardised tests
- specific experimental designs
examples of standardised tests
- generalised intelligence tests
- examples:
–> Weschler Scales
–> Weschler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC)
–> British Ability Scales
sub-domains of the WISC
- full scale IQ
- performance IQ
- verbal IQ
examples of specific experimental designs
- face perception
–> Benton’s facial recognition task - theory of mind
–> Sally-Anne task - response inhibition
–> go no-go task
how do we administer standardised tests?
- have to do the test
- have to have a copy of the manual (necessary for scoring)
- then score the test
- then use standardised scores to interpret individual results
how do we interpret task performance using standardised scores?
- clinician uses the raw score and a look-up table based on appropriate representative sample to identify a scaled score
- raw scores are scaled by converting to standard scores
–> there are different ways to create standardised scores. (e.g. t-scores) - standardising a score converts the raw score to a value that represents how a participant has performed compared to others of the same age/gender
- this allows us to remove individual differences and generate a score that we can compare across participants
–> e.g. 10 year old girl and a 30 year old man have very different raw scores, but their t scores could be very similar or the same (if they are both typical for their categories)
why do we standardise scores?
- allows us to compare scores in individuals who will have very different raw scores
- people with very different raw scores could have similar t scores
–> in terms of their representative group (age and gender) - this would indicate if this is typical or atypical
- gives a label that can be applied to the bell curve to determine if it is typical or not
–> a lower raw score could actually be a higher t score
how are t scores scaled?
- T-scores are scaled such that 50 represents the mean and 10 represents 1 standard deviation
–> e.g. a t-score of 60 = 1 sd above the mean
–> t-score of 40 = 1 sd below the mean
what are the benefits of using standardised scores?
- using standardised scores enables researchers / clinicians to standardise performance across different groups, different tests, etc…
- they provide a common language for discussing test performance regardless of how the actual test is designed
- easily interpretable for clinicians / researchers
- there isn’t one set way of standardising, although they all end up allowing the same comparison
