Children with reading disabilities (RD, n = 17), mathematical disabilities (MD, n = 22), combined reading and mathematical disabilities (RD + MD, n = 28) and control peers (n = 45) were tested on behavioral inhibition with a Go/no-go task in a picture, letter and digit-modality. In contrast to children without RD, children with RD made…

Previous word learning studies suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty understanding pictorial symbols. Here we investigate the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder and language-matched typically developing children to contextualize symbolic information communicated by pictures in a search task that did…

Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have shown deficits in switching between rules governing their behaviour, as have high-functioning children with ASD. However, there are few studies of flexibility in lower-functioning children with ASD. The current study investigated this phenomenon with a group of low-functioning children with ASD…

Temperamental shyness in children is characterized by avoidance of faces and eye contact, beginning in infancy. We conducted two studies to determine whether temperamental shyness was associated with deficits in sensitivity to some cues to facial identity. In Study 1, 40 typically developing 10-year-old children made same/different judgments about…

To address the specific impairment of imitation in autism, the imitation abilities of 22 children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with and without autism were compared. Based on previous research, we predicted that children with FXS and autism would have significantly more difficulty with non-meaningful imitation tasks. After controlling for…

This study investigated the relationship between parenting stress and relational conditioning. Fourteen students who were not mothers, 14 mothers who reported high parenting stress and 14 mothers with low parenting stress completed two matching-to-sample (MTS) computer tasks, each requiring formation of three 3-member classes. The first MTS task…

Compared 3- and 5-year olds' recall of a pediatric examination in verbal versus enactment interviews. Found that children in the enactment condition provided more spontaneous, elaborate reports than did children in verbal interview. Enactment produced increased errors by 3-year olds one week after examination, by both age groups after six weeks.…