No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Learning Disorders* ; Learning*

Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SCD) is a new diagnosis included under communication disorders in the neurodevelopmental disorders section of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5. SCD is defined as a primary deficit in the social use of nonverbal and verbal communication. SCD has very much in common with pragmatic language impairment, which is characterized by difficulties in understanding and using language in context and following the social rules of language, despite relative strengths in word knowledge and grammar. SCD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are similar in that they both involve deficits in social communication skills, however individuals with SCD do not demonstrate restricted interests, repetitive behaviors, insistence on sameness, or sensory abnormalities. It is essential to rule out a diagnosis of ASD by verifying the lack of these additional symptoms, current or past. The criteria for SCD are qualitatively different from those of ASD and are not equivalent to those of mild ASD. It is clinically important that SCD should be differentiated from high-functioning ASD (such as Asperger syndrome) and nonverbal learning disabilities. The ultimate goals are the refinement of the conceptualization, development and validation of assessment tools and interventions, and obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the shared and unique etiologic factors for SCD in relation to those of other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Autism Spectrum Disorder ; Communication Disorders ; Diagnosis ; Learning Disorders ; Neurodevelopmental Disorders ; Social Communication Disorder*

Headache is one of the most common neurological symptoms reported in childhood and adolescence, leading to high levels of school absences, learning problems, and poor psychiatric conditions. Pediatric headache has been associated with several neurological and psychiatric comorbidities; in particular, depression, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and epilepsy have been associated with pediatric migraine. The goal of this article is to review the comorbidities associated with pediatric headache, thereby enabling pediatric neurologists to identify shared triggers and develop synergistic management strategies that address headache and its comorbidities.
Adolescent ; Anxiety Disorders ; Child* ; Comorbidity* ; Depression ; Epilepsy ; Headache* ; Humans ; Learning ; Migraine Disorders ; Sleep Wake Disorders

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted in order to develop a computerized test to measure the level of mathematic achievement and related cognitive functions in children and adolescents in South Korea. METHODS: The computerized Comprehensive Learning Test-Mathematic (CLT-M) consists of the whole number computation test, enumeration of dot group test, number line estimation test, numeral comparing test (magnitude/distance), rapid automatized naming test, digit span test, and working memory test. To obtain the necessary data and to investigate the reliability and validity of this test, 399 children and adolescents from kindergarten to middle school were recruited. RESULTS: The internal consistency reliability of the CLT-M was high (Cronbach's alpha=0.76). Four factors explained 66.4% of the cumulative variances. In addition, the data for all of the CLT-M subtests were obtained. CONCLUSION: The computerized CLT-M can be used as a reliable and valid tool to evaluate the level of mathematical achievement and associated cognitive functions in Korean children and adolescents. This test can also be helpful to detect mathematical learning disabilities, including specific learning disorder with impairment in mathematics, in Korea.
Adolescent* ; Child* ; Cognition ; Dyscalculia ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning ; Learning Disorders ; Mathematics* ; Memory, Short-Term ; Reproducibility of Results ; Specific Learning Disorder

OBJECTIVES: This study was to investigate the verbal memory and learning ability in remitted schizophrenic patients and euthymic bipolar patients in order to explore trait-dependent cognitive deficits of each disorder. METHODS: Verbal memory was assessed with KAVLT(the Korean version of Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) in outpatients with remitted schizophrenia(N=30), euthymic bipolar disorder(N=28), and normal control(N=72). KAVLT is made for assessment of immediate supraspan memory, registration, retention, retrieval, recognition, learning strategy, and interference effect. Several confounding factors including age, sex, educational level, attention span, residual psychopathology, and extrapyramidal symptoms were controlled among 3 groups. Patient groups were matched according to the age of onset, duration of illness, and frequency of hospitalization. RESULTS: 1) The performance of bipolar group generally fall between the performance of schizophrenia and normal controls, while being most impaired in retroactive interference. Schizophrenic group showed significant impairment on most variables of KAVLT in comparison with the groups of bipolar disorder and normal control. 2) Within group analysis revealed that residual negative symptoms, duration of illness, and number of admission were highly correlated with the impairment of verbal memory and learning in schizophrenics. Number of depressive episodes and age were negatively correlated with verbal memory and learning among bipolar disorder patients. CONCLUSIONS: Both remitted schizophrenia and euthymic bipolar patients showed distinctive impairment in verbal memory and learning compared with controls. These results suggest that specific impairment of verbal memory and learning in remitted state can be a trait-dependent marker in both diseases. These deficits can give clues to the understanding of the pathophysiology and searching for more appropriate therapeutic interventions of mental disorders to improve cognitive deficits in remitted patients.
Age of Onset ; Bipolar Disorder ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Learning* ; Memory* ; Mental Disorders ; Outpatients ; Psychopathology ; Schizophrenia ; Verbal Learning

PURPOSE: Medical education is perceived as being very stressful, which leads to declines in subjective well-being in medical students. Therefore, student counseling is becoming an exigent issue. The goal of this study was to investigate the academic difficulties and subjective well-being of medical students to identify their needs with regard to counseling. In addition, we analyzed help-seeking behaviors of students to develop an effective counseling program. METHODS: We performed a survey (n=205) to determine the extent to which medical students encounter academic difficulties in their lives in medical school and how they attempt to resolve their problems. In addition, we used the Oxford Happiness Scale to examine the relationships between academic performance, previous help-seeking behavior, and happiness in medical students. RESULTS: Of various types of problems, 62% of medical students perceived learning difficulties to be the most serious issue in medical school. Despite encountering difficulties, more than 67% of students failed to seek help from faculty or their fellow students. There was a significant relationship between happiness score and previous help-seeking behavior. A lack of perceived seriousness was identified as the most significant barrier to seeking help. CONCLUSION: Access to counseling programs must be improved for students with apparent academic difficulties who do not seek counseling. Through such programs, students can learn and practice methods of coping with their difficulties and develop medical and professional competence.
Counseling ; Education, Medical ; Happiness ; Humans ; Learning ; Learning Disorders ; Professional Competence ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical

OBJECTIVE: This open-label study examined the effects of ramelteon on cognitive functions in 10 outpatients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Ramelteon (8 mg/day) was administered to 10 patients with schizophrenia for six months. The verbal fluency test, Trail-Making Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Stroop Test, the Digit Span Distraction Test, Iowa Gambling Task, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test were evaluated at baseline and 6 months after treatment with ramelteon. RESULTS: Ramelteon improved significantly the scores of Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Additionally, ramelteon exerted improvements in the verbal fluency and Iowa Gambling Task in 4 patients. CONCLUSION: Ramelteon could be a potential therapeutic drug, in adjunctive treatment of learning and memory deficits seen in patients with schizophrenia.
Gambling ; Humans ; Iowa ; Learning ; Memory Disorders ; Outpatients ; Schizophrenia* ; Stroop Test ; Verbal Learning ; Wisconsin

OBJECTIVES: Memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia have been well established, but it is still unclear how memory performance changes during verbal learning tasks. This study was designed to assess the pattem of verbal learning and memory performance to test the inefficiency of encoding processes in learning of schizophrenia. METHOD: Subjects consisted of 26 patients with schizophrenia who were unmedicated for atleast seven days and 22 normal controls who were matched for age,sex,and education. Verbal memory and learning were evaluated with computerized tasks composed of three consecutive immediate recall trials, a yes/no recognition test, and a delayed recall trial of a word list. RESULTS: Thepatients with schizophrenia showed significant learning deficits characterized by impaired immediate recall performance and poor learning of a word list. However, both verbal recognition performance and forgetting were comparable in both groups. Word clustering correlated significantly with recall performance. Clustering of patients decreased significantly over immediate and delay recall tasks and showed poor increase during consecutive recall tasks. CONCLUSION: Thest findings indicate that verbal learning and mnemonic strategy are impaired but learned information appears to be preserved in patients with schizophrenia. The results are consistent with the notion that a learning deficit is closely related with impaired encoding precesses in schizophrenia.
Education ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory Disorders ; Memory* ; Memory, Short-Term ; Schizophrenia* ; Verbal Learning

This study was a quasi-experimental study to confirm the effects of a memory training program using efficacy sources. The purpose was to develop an effective memory training program for elderly people and to identify the effects of the memory training program. This study was carried out between February 24 and July 18, 1999 and the subjects of the study were 102 elderly people who were participants at a welfare institute in Seoul. The experimental group (51) and the control group (51) were assigned by means of participation order. The control group was matched to the experimental group and was selected considering age, sex, and religion. The experimental group participated in the memory training program. The memory training program was based on the literature of Fogler & Stern (1994), Wang & Lee (1990), Lee (1991) and Lee (1993). The memory training program was given twice a week for two weeks with each program lasting two hours. Task centered memory self-efficacy was measured using the Memory Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Berry & Dennehey (1989) and Meta Memory was measured by the MIA developed by Dixon et al. (1988) Memory performance was measured by the Data were analyzed by SPSS PC and the results are described below. 1. The experimental group which participated in the Memory Training Program showed higher task centered memory self-efficacy scores as compared to the control group (t=4.354, P=.0001). 2. The experimental group which participated in the Memory Training Program showed higher metamemory scores as compared to the control group (t=4.733, P=.0001). 3. The experimental group which participated in the Memory Training Program showed higher memory performance scores as compared to the control group (t=7.500, P=.0001). The memory performance involved an immediate word recall task, a delayed word recall task, a word recognition task, and the face recognition task. 4. In the experimental group, there was significant correlation between the task centered memory self-efficacy scores and the metamemory scores (r=.382, P=.006), but the correlation between the task centered memory self-efficacy scores and the memory performance scores and between the metamemory scores and the memory performance scores were not significant. The results showed that task centered memory self-efficacy, meta memory and memory performance improved following the Memory Training Program including the memory process, changes in memory with aging, and appropriate use of memory strategies. Memory Training Program is an effective nursing intervention for improving memory in elderly people and, also, in people with complaints of memory loss. word list developed by Cho Sung Won (1995) and the face recognition task (Face Recognition Task developed for this study).
Aged* ; Aging ; Fruit ; Humans ; Learning* ; Memory Disorders ; Memory* ; Nursing ; Seoul

Developmental disorders such as mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, and learning disorders are frequently associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The existing data for the pharmacological treatment of ADHD symptoms with developmental disorders suggest that the agents used to treat ADHD in typically developing children appear to have some benefit. However, the risks of treatment including side effect in these population appear to be greater than in typically developing children. Therefore, when considering pharmacotherapy for developmental disorders with ADHD symptoms, a cautious approach of starting with a low dosage and close monitoring of side effect are recommended.
Child ; Autism Spectrum Disorder ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Learning Disorders