Analysis of linguistic abilities that are concurrently impaired in individuals with language deficits allows identification of a shared underlying mechanism. If any two linguistic abilities are mediated by the same underlying mechanism, then both abilities will be absent if this mechanism is broken. Clustering techniques automatically arrange…

Background: Given the significant behavioral heterogeneity characterizing children with neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities (NDD/D), the current study examined whether cluster analysis could classify a diverse sample into more homogeneous subgroups. Aims: We first utilized cluster analysis to identify subgroups of children demonstrating…

Purpose: The purposes of this study were (a) to introduce "language access profiles" as a viable alternative construct to "communication mode" for describing experience with language input during early childhood for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children; (b) to describe the development of a new tool for measuring DHH…

The heterogeneity among children with learning disabilities still represents a barrier and a challenge in their conceptualization. Although a dimensional approach has been gaining support, the categorical approach is still the most adopted, as in the recent fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." The…

The current study examined the incremental validity of the clinical clusters from the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III COG) for predicting scores on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH). All participants were children and adolescents (N = 4,722) drawn from the nationally representative WJ-III…

Maternal support offered to sexually abused children following disclosure may be a crucial factor in children's recovery. A person-centered approach was used to examine how profiles of nonoffending mothers could better describe their ability to support their children after disclosure. Cluster analyses based on a total of 226 nonoffending mothers…

We conducted three experiments to investigate how opportunities to view objects together in time influence memory for location. Children and adults learned the locations of 20 objects marked by dots on the floor of an open, square box. During learning, participants viewed the objects either simultaneously or in isolation. At test, participants…

The division of cognitive labor is fundamental to all cultures. Adults have a strong sense of how knowledge is clustered in the world around them and use that sense to access additional information, defer to relevant experts, and ground their own incomplete understandings. One prominent way of clustering knowledge is by disciplines similar to…

This study examined the effects of systematic instruction emphasizing phonological awareness using three groups of readers (single deficit, double deficit and no deficit) aged 6:6 to 9:3. Twenty nine subjects identified with language-based learning deficits were assigned to a group based on assessment of phonological core deficit areas. After nine…

Results of three investigations of the development of word definitions indicated that younger childrens' definitions, including use or lack of use of superordinate categorical terms, fell short of adult informativeness, while, by age 10, children generally met such criteria in their definitions. (Author/CB)

This study, based on a PhD dissertation submitted to UCLA and supported by the National Institutes of Health, indicates the extent to which children vary in the type of organization they impose on stimuli and the extent to which organization can be influenced by training. (Author/AP)

Proposes that a school tracking system can be a good context for studying the effects of stratification on socialization. Tracking is found to have a pronounced influence on the dispersion of I.Q. scores. Concludes with speculations on the relationship of stratification and socialization process. (Author/AM)

A motor performance typology of boys and girls (ages 6-10 years) was developed, based on four factors extracted by factor analysis from data on 47 physical growth and motor performance variables. Nineteen variables which best described the four factor-defined components were used in formulating the person-clusters (typologies) following Tryon's…

A 12-item stimulus list composed of three conceptual categories, each with two low- and two high- associated word pairs, was presented for free Ss recall to 20 educable mentally retarded (EMR) preadolescents, 20 EMR adolescents, and 20 nonretarded fourth-grade children who showed associative clustering in accordance with preexperimental interitem…

A grouping task revealed a chronological progression: color and form determined the 4-year-old children's grouping about equally; form dominated in the 5-year-olds; and 9-year-olds grouped primarily by conceptual attributes. Performance on a memory task showed the developmental shift from color to form to concept, while cued recall showed…