In this article neuroanatomical and verbal developmental process were introduced, followed that disorders and assessment of language function were reviewed. Finally, the causes and assessment of developmental dyslexia as a childhood disorder related to verbal function were reviewed.
Dyslexia ; Neuropsychology

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the reliability and validity of the Korean version of Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (K-ASDS), to calculate the cut-off score in the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. Further, we examined classification error rate when applying cut-off scores. METHODS: One hundred sixty-seven children participated in this study, including 46 with Asperger syndrome, 26 with PDD or PDD NOS, 43 with ADHD, and 52 normal children. RESULTS: An ANCOVA demonstrated no significant differences in the K-ASDS total score between the Asperger and the PDD & PDD NOS groups. However, these groups did show significantly higher scores than the ADHD and normal groups. Among the five subscales on the K-ASDS, the Asperger group obtained significantly higher scores on the language and cognition subscales than the PDD & PDD NOS groups. Two scales were found to be useful in distinguishing the Asperger group from the PDD & PDD NOS group through a discriminant analysis. According to an analysis of ROC curve, the cut-off score on the K-ASDS for the diagnosis of PDD including Asperger syndrome was 121. CONCLUSION: We discussed that K-ASDS has pretty limit.
Asperger Syndrome ; Child ; Cognition ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; ROC Curve ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted in order to examine the reliability and validity of the Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT). The objective of the study was also to provide the Korean normative data for the CCTT. METHODS: Normative samples consisted of 766 children and adolescents living in Seoul and aged from 5 to 15 years. Eighty children who were diagnosed with ADHD, based on the DSM-IV criterion, were recruited from Seoul National University Children's Hospital. Among them, 46 ADHD children were receiving medication, while 34 children were drug-free. RESULTS: The scores of the CCTT were significantly correlated with those of the Stroop test. Three factors were extracted through factor analysis.visual tracking and cognitive flexibility, distractibility and susceptibility to interference, and simple attention and impulsivity. The completion time of the CCTT for all children tended to decrease as age increased. There were significant differences in the CCTT scores between the ADHD group receiving medication, the ADHD-drug free group and the normal groups. The CCTT also showed sound test-retest reliability. These results confirmed the relia-bility and validity of the CCTT. Finally, we provided the Korean normative data for the CCTT. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the CCTT is a reliable and valid test, which can be used to assess frontal function related to child psychiatric disorders in Korean children.
Adolescent ; Aged ; Child ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Pliability ; Reproducibility of Results ; Stroop Test ; Track and Field

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesize that the effect of aging on memory is mediated by executive function. METHODS: Two hundred and thirty healthy adults (101 male, 129 female) were recruited for the study. We used a promising, newly developed, computerized neuropsychological test for the measurement of executive function and memory. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and path analysis. RESULTS: The full mediation model showed a good fit to the data. However, chi-squared (chi2) tests for model comparison indicated that the partial mediation model better fits our data. Thus, the partial mediation model was used as the final model. In terms of auditory-verbal memory, the effect of aging on memory was fully mediated by executive function. However, visuo-spatial memory was significantly affected both indirectly (through executive function) and directly (by aging). Gender differences were not significant in this model. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the importance of executive function in the memory functioning of normal aging adults. It is noteworthy that modality differences were found between auditory-verbal and visuo-spatial memory. Aging is not the only factor that drives memory decline, and its direct, adverse effect on memory was more prominent in the visuo-spatial memory task than auditory-verbal memory task. Since performance in both modalities is fully or partially mediated by executive function, it is important to train normal aging adults in executive control skills, such as planning, strategy formation, and rapid decision making.
Adult ; Aging ; Decision Making ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; Negotiating ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Trail Making Test

OBJECTIVES: In previous studies, significant correlations between depression or somatization and the mode of anger expression were reported. However few studies were done in psychiatric patients, while some evidences were found that anger expression as well as anger suppression were related to development of somatization. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of the state-trait anger and the mode of anger expression to depression and somatization in psychiatiric patients. METHODS: The depression and somatization questionnaire of SCL-90-R and Korean Adaptation of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory were administered to 53 psychiatric patients and 59 normals. The relationship of anger to depression and somatization was analyzed by correlation and regression analyses. RESULTS: In comparison with the normal control group, the psychiatric patient group showed significant differences on trait anger temperament but no significant differences on other anger variables. In regression analysis, the anger-in score was related to depression and somatization. However, the degree of explanatory power was higher in depression than in somatization. In the case of analyzing the state-trait anger, anger-in was significant predictor variable for depression in psychiatric patient group. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that anger-in is the important factor in the onset of depression and somatization. Rather than the relationship of anger-in and somatization, the relationship of anger-in and depression is higher; therefore the caution is necessary in the interpretation of previous studies. The relationship of anger-in to depression and somatization may have important implications for psychotherapy.
Anger* ; Depression* ; Humans ; Psychotherapy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Temperament

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to investigate the executive function deficit and the lack of theory of mind in children with autistic disorder. METHODS: Forty children, aged between 11 and 15, were involved in this study: 14 autistic disordered, 12 non-autistic mentally retarded(psychiatric control), and 14 normal children(normal control). In addition to the "Sally-Ann" task to test theory of mind, three other neuropsychological tests were administered individually to assess executive function in all subjects. RESULTS: Significant group differences were found on the executive function and the theory of mind tests. Those deficits were more widespread in the autistic group than in the non-autistic mentally retarded group. The autistic group was impaired on the test requiring inhibition of prepotent responses compared to the two control groups. Both of the autistic and the non-autistic mentally retarded groups exhibited difficulties in predicting other's behavior based on their understanding of other's mental states. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that executive function and theory of mind deficits coexist in children with autistic disorder. This co-occurrence of deficits suggests the possibility that prefrontal cortex may be the neurological region responsible for causing autistic disorder.
Autistic Disorder* ; Child ; Executive Function* ; Humans ; Mentally Disabled Persons ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Theory of Mind

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to develop the Korean version of Wahler Physical Symptom Inventory (WPSI), to examine the reliability and validity of it, and to investigate usefulness for diagnosing somatization. METHODS: The normal group was composed of 242 persons consist of middle and high school students, university students, and adults living in Seoul, Puchon, and Suwon. The two clinical groups consisted of 33 persons with somatic symptoms and 38 diabetic patients. RESULTS: Internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.91) was very high. Test-retest reliability was calculated from 46 university group, and it's correlations was also high (.87). And the total score of K-WPSI was significantly and positively correlated with subscales of SCL-90-R. There was significant difference between the normal, psychiatry group, and diabetic group of K-WPSI (F=15.48, p<.001). Especially, K-WPSI was very useful to differentiate between the somatization group and diabetic group. CONCLUSION: K-WPSI was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for diagnosing somatization, and for differentiating somatization and diabetic groups. K-WPSI is a brief and economical questionnaire, which may curtail medical expenses of patients. It is also expectated that K-WPSI can be used for identifying somatization and providing information which may contribute to ascertain diagnosis. The limitation of this study is the small normative data, and not distinguishing sex differences. This limitation should be supplemented by future studies.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Seoul ; Sex Characteristics

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the deficits in executive function in children with ADHD and anxiety disorder, and further, to characterize executive function deficits among the two groups. METHODS: Subjects consisted of 60 children between the ages of 5 and 14 (16 Normal, 24 ADHD, 20 Anxiety Disorder). Neuropsychological tests (KEDI-WISC, CCTT, STROOP, WCST, ROCF) for assessing cognitive and executive function were individually administered to all subjects. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in FSIQ or PIQ among the three groups. However, the ADHD group tended to score lower on the VIQ and subtest of similarity, vocabulary, and digit span tests. The three groups did not significantly differ with respect to CCTT test results. On the STROOP test, the ADHD group showed poor performance on the word, color, and color-word subtests. The three groups did not exhibit significant differences in WCST test results ; however, the anxiety group performed poorly belonging to below 25 percentile rank on perseverative response. On the ROCF test, the ADHD group performed poorly with respect to their organization score and in particular, regarding copy and immediate recall. The anxiety group also performed poorly with regard to organization ; however, this was limited only to immediate recall. CONCLUSION: Children with ADHD displayed poor inhibition and organizational abilities compared to children with anxiety and normal controls. Further, children with anxiety disorder exhibited low cognitive flexibility and voluntary problem-solving abilities compared to ADHD children and normal controls. Based on these results, we suggest that the characteristics of executive dysfunction in ADHD and anxiety disorder in children are different.
Anxiety ; Anxiety Disorders ; Child ; Coat Protein Complex I ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Memory, Short-Term ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Pliability ; Stroop Test ; Vocabulary

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of an internet-based anger management program for school-aged children. METHODS: Forty-eight elementary school students took part in an anger management training program; subsequently, participants, their parents, and their teachers answered questionnaires assessing the participants' anger, aggressiveness, and other emotional/behavioral problems, pre- and post-training. RESULTS: At the post-training self-assessment, the participants showed significant reductions in their "anger-out" tendencies and physical aggressiveness. In addition, the effects of the program on "anger-out" tendencies, aggressiveness, anger and peer relational problem were found to be more significant in participants who reported depressive symptoms. Teachers rated the participants' peer-relational problems as having decreased after the training. CONCLUSION: The proposed internet-based anger management program had a significant effect on the school-aged children's abilities to control their anger.
Anger* ; Child* ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Parents ; Self-Assessment ; Violence* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The world-wide universal language of children is drawing. This non-verbal language gives us an insight into how children see, feel, and think about the world around them. For children younger than age 11, drawing is a very effective window through which they can express and reflect their wishes, emotions, thoughts and concerns. Drawing is useful for all children, including those too young to have yet developed language skills. This tool is equally effective when working with children who have been diagnosed with communication disorders. This paper reviews the historical background of the development of the drawing test as a diagnostic tool. In addition, the characteristics of drawings are reviewed according to the stage of child development. Even though a projective drawing gives us lots of hypothetical information regarding a child's internal psychological and emotional state, it is not a formal psychological test in a strict sense. Therefore, it is inaccurate to reach a conclusion about children's psychological problems based only on clues from a drawing. Moreover, it is important to get additional information through means such as post-drawing inquiry and interviews with family members.
Child Development ; Child* ; Communication Disorders ; Humans ; Psychological Tests