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Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more at risk for academic underachievement compared to their typically developing peers. Understanding their greatest strengths and challenges at school, and how these can be supported, is vital in order to develop focused classroom interventions. Ten primary school pupils with ADHD (aged 6-11 years) and their teachers (N = 6) took part in semi-structured interviews that focused on (1) ADHD knowledge, (2) the child's strengths and challenges at school, and (3) strategies in place to support challenges. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts and three key themes were identified; classroom-general versus individual-specific strategies, heterogeneity of strategies, and the role of peers. Implications relating to educational practice and future research are discussed.

Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are strongly socially motivated, many have friendship difficulties. The parents of 21 children with WS and 20 of the children themselves participated in a semi-structured interview about the children's friendships. Parents reported that their child had difficulties sustaining friendships and low levels of interaction with peers. Barriers to friendships included difficulties with play and self-regulating behaviour. However, there was within-group variability, with a small number of children reported to have strong friendships. While parents reported friendship challenges, all of the children named at least one friend, and most said that they had never felt excluded by their peers. Future research is needed to determine optimal ways to support children with WS in their friendships., Author(s): Amanda E. Gillooly [sup.1] [sup.3] , Deborah M. Riby [sup.2] , Kevin Durkin [sup.3] , Sinéad M. Rhodes [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/00vtgdb53, grid.8756.c, 0000 0001 2193 314X, School [...]

Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are reported to show a strong motivation towards social interaction, evidence suggests many experience difficulties with peer relations. Less is known regarding the characteristics of such difficulties. Parents and teachers of 21 children with WS (7- to 16 years) completed questionnaires measuring aspects of social functioning and peer interactions. Parents and teachers reported that children with WS demonstrated significantly greater peer problems than population norms, including difficulties sustaining friendships and increased social exclusion. More substantial social functioning difficulties were associated with greater peer relation problems. The study provides multi-informant evidence of peer relationship difficulties in children with WS that require further consideration within the broader WS social phenotype.

Research examining cognition and science learning has focused on working memory, but evidence implicates a broader set of executive functions. The current study examined executive functions and learning of biology in young adolescents. Fifty-six participants, aged 12-13?years, completed tasks of working memory (Spatial Working Memory), inhibition (Stop-Signal), attention set-shifting (ID/ED) and planning (Stockings of Cambridge), from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. They also participated in a biology teaching session, practical and assessment on the topic of DNA designed specifically for the current study that measured (a) memory for biology facts taught and (b) understanding of information learned in the practical. Linear regression analysis revealed that planning ability predicted performance on the factual assessment, and both spatial working memory and planning were predictive of performance on the conceptual assessment. The findings suggest that planning ability is important in learning biological facts but that a broader set of executive functions are important for conceptual learning, highlighting the role of executive functions in understanding and applying knowledge about what is learned within science teaching.

Evidence suggests that cognitive and literacy difficulties are common for children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the relationship between cognition and literacy in children with ADHD. Ten thousand and thirty-eight articles were screened against the inclusion criteria and six eligible studies were retained for final review. Where two or more studies used comparable measures of cognition and literacy, a meta-analysis of the relationship between these measures was undertaken. Anarrative synthesis of all included studies was also completed. There were medium effect sizes between working memory and aspects of reading, and small effect sizes between processing speed and reading. Inhibition and attention had differential relationships with aspects of literacy with varying effect sizes. This systematic review demonstrates differential relationships between aspects of literacy and cognition in children with ADHD. Further examination of these relationships is warranted to support intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has suggested that particular content of television programmes, such as watching fantastical scenes, can have negative consequences on cognitive functions in young children. We examined the effects of watching fantastical programmes on executive functions measured at both pre‐ and post‐television viewing. Eighty 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children participated and were randomized into either fantastical or non‐fantastical conditions. They completed inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning tasks both before and after watching either the brief fantastical or non‐fantastical television clip. Whilst there were no differences between the groups at pre‐test on any of the cognitive measures, children in the fantastical condition were poorer on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility tasks at the post‐test session. Watching fantastical television content, even briefly, seems to disrupt cognitive function performance in young children across a broad range of aspects of executive function. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?Exposure to fantastical content within a television programme may impair executive functions in young children.What does this study add?Exposure to fantastical content within television programmes impairs executive functions in children of early primary school age.Impairment extends to all three core aspects of executive functions.Watching fantastical clips slows down planning performance without improving accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language comprehension studies have identified the N400, an event-related potential (ERP) correlate of the processing of meaning, modulation of which is typically assumed to reflect the activation of semantic information. However, N400 studies of conscious language processing have not clearly distinguished between meaning derived from a semantic relationship and meaning extracted through association. We independently manipulated the presence of associative and semantic relationships while examining the N400 effect. Participants were asked to read and remember visually presented word pairs that shared an association ( traffic– jam), an association+semantic relationship ( lemon– orange), a semantic relationship alone ( cereal– bread), or were unrelated ( beard– tower). Modulation of the N400 (relative to unrelated word pairs) was observed for association and association+semantic word pairs but not for those that only shared a semantic relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and objective: Children with the behaviourally defined disorder ADHD and individuals with the chromosomal disorder William syndrome (WS) share a similar neuropsychological profile and the gene SNAP-25 has been implicated in the expression of both disorders. While there are a number of anecdotal reports in the literature concerning the similarity of the behaviour of individuals with ADHD and WS, no study has directly compared the behavioural or neuropsychological profile of the two disorders. Here we compared the behavioural profile of ADHD and WS with typically developing controls in relation to parent ratings on the Conners ADHD behaviour scale and measures of cognitive functioning, including short-term memory and a range of aspects of executive functioning. Methods: Nineteen individuals with WS (mean age 18.4 years), 19 drug naı¨ve children with ADHD (mean age 11.7 years), and 19 typically developing children (mean age 11.4 years) were matched on verbal ability (BPVS raw score) and compared on standardized validated tasks from the CANTAB neuropsychological battery. All participants completed the executive ID/ED attention set-shifting, Spatial Working Memory (SWM), and Stockings of Cambridge (SOC) planning tasks and the STM Delayed Matching to Sample task. Parents of all participating children completed the Conners ADHD (CPRS) rating scale. Results: Children with WS and ADHD showed highly similar behavioural profiles on the CPRS. Like children with ADHD and in contrast to typically developing controls, children with WS scored within the abnormal range for oppositionality, cognitive problems/ inattention, hyperactivity subscales and on the ADHD Index and the clinical groups did not differ in severity of symptoms on these four measures. Critically, all of the children with WS had scores within the abnormal range of the ‘ADHD index’. Both groups showed similar impaired performance in comparison to controls on the executive attention set-shifting, working memory, and planning tasks, although the WS group were more severely impaired in their WM and planning abilities (SWM and SOC tasks). The WS group showed comparable delay dependent impairment on the DMtS STM task to children with ADHD. Conclusion: Despite the clinical and aetiological differences between ADHD and WS both conditions are characterised by a strikingly similar behavioural profile of both oppositional behaviour and inattention and hyperactivity. The disorders also share a similar neuropsychological profile of executive function and STM impairments. These findings may have clinical implications for the management of individuals with WS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and objective: We investigated computer console use and its relationship to working memory (WM) in children with ADHD and ODD. Methods: The groups comprised age-matched drug naïve boys with (1) ADHD (N = 16), (2) ADHD + ODD (N = 22), (3) ODD (N = 14), and (4) typically developing children (N = 20). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire which examined frequency and type of console use and WM component tasks and memory tasks from the CANTAB battery. Results: All four groups reported spending similar time daily using computer games and owned a similar number of consoles. Both ADHD and ODD were characterised by a range of WM impairments but the groups showed variations in their pattern of performance. Children with ADHD showed a broader range of deficits within the spatial domain while verbal deficits were more closely associated with ODD. ADHD + ODD was characterised by an additive effect of these deficits. In children with ADHD + ODD increased console ownership was positively related to spatial span and executive spatial WM. Conclusion: Computer use may be positively related to WM in combined ADHD + ODD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systematic data regarding long-term neurobehavioral effects of maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy are sparse. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of gestational exposure to antidepressants on later neurodevelopmental function., Methods: This study describes a cohort of mother-child dyads (44 mothers, 54 children) in which maternal depressive symptoms and medication exposures were prospectively collected across pregnancy and the postpartum period. Children age 6 to 17 were assessed using validated instruments across domains of childhood behavior and executive memory and functioning., Results: No associations were found between maternal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy and atypical neurodevelopment of children. Borderline clinical or clinical ranges of internalizing symptoms were associated with exposure to a higher maternal depressive symptom burden during pregnancy compared with those in the normal range. Compared with age- and sex-matched controls, the SSRI-exposed group showed superior performance on executive function tasks; findings did not demonstrate elevated risk for abnormal neurodevelopment in children age 6 to 17 exposed to SSRIs in utero. Deviations from the norm were instead associated with higher in utero exposure to maternal depression burden., Conclusions: This study highlights the need for rigorous studies of long-term outcomes after fetal antidepressant exposure.