Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
There is converging evidence that mental disorders are more optimally conceptualized in a hierarchical framework (i.e., the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology, HiTOP) that transcends the categorical boundaries of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). However, the majority of this evidence comes from studies that draw upon predominantly European American or Caucasian populations.
The current study examined the effects of dual language exposure on executive function in 5- to 11-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children with different language skills. Dual language exposure was measured via parent report and was operationalized as the proportion of time spent in an environment where both English and Spanish were present.
We sought to establish normative growth curves for intelligibility development for the speech of typical children as revealed by objectively-based orthographic transcription of elicited single word and multiword utterances by naïve listeners.
Adults and children alike struggle with fractions, but it also turns out that learning fractions is vitally important for later math skills. Our lab has suggested that children’s ability to learn fractions might build on a more basic perceptual ability to see and understand non-symbolic ratios, which has been demonstrated even in non-human primates.
Family research in the field of ASD has focused on describing the impact of child challenges on parents, usually mothers, and given little attention to the ways in which mothers and fathers reciprocally influence the development of the child with ASD.
The Plain community is the fastest-growing religious minority in Wisconsin. This community has a high incidence of genetic disorders, many of which are identifiable through newborn screening. We describe efforts by the Wisconsin Newborn Screening Program (WNSP) to improve health care in the Plain community by targeting early identification of, and intervention for, patients with inherited metabolic disorders.
Alexander disease results from gain of function mutations in the gene encoding glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). At least eight GFAP isoforms have been described, however, the predominant alpha isoform accounts for approximately 90% of GFAP protein.
Expressed emotion (EE) is a measure of the family’s emotional climate and has been shown to be associated with a range of symptoms and psychiatric outcomes in individuals with various disabilities. In addition, growing evidence suggests that high levels of family distress are associated with high EE.
We used Latent Profile Analyses to derive four profiles of infant temperament from 990 twins at 6 and 12 months of age using observed infant behavior. Parents reported on their own emotional experiences.
Loss of photoreceptors through disease or injury is a leading cause of vision loss. Emerging stem cell-based strategies aimed at treating these conditions would benefit from an improved understanding of the complex gene-expression patterns directing photoreceptor development.
