Becker, Angelika

After pediatric stroke, children often exhibit impairments in their cognitive, language, and behavioral development. This study investigates the relationship between language abilities and behavioral problems in preschool children (n = 56) following pediatric stroke, focusing on age at the time of testing, sex, time of stroke, left middle cerebral artery involvement, and cognitive abilities. About one-third of the children showed below-average language development and overall behavior problems. Binomial logistic regressions revealed that sentence comprehension had a protective effect (OR = 0.707) on overall behavioral problems. The regression model for externalizing problems was not significant or externalizing problems was not significant. The results highlight the importance of language comprehension skills in preventing mental health problems in this clinical group.

Measurement invariance of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) 10-primary subtest battery was analyzed across a group of children and adolescents with ADHD (n = 91) and a control group (n = 91) matched by sex, age, migration background, and parental education or type of school. First, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were performed to establish the model fit for the WISC-V second-order five-factor model in each group. A sufficiently good fit of the model was found for the data in both groups. Subsequently, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFAs) were conducted to test for measurement invariance across the ADHD and control group. Results of these analyses indicated configural and metric invariance but did not support full scalar invariance. However, after relaxing equality constraints on the Vocabulary (VC), Digit Span (DS), Coding (CD), Symbol Search (SS), and Picture Span (PS) subtest intercepts as well as on the intercepts of the first-order factors Working Memory (WM) and Processing Speed (PS), partial scalar invariance could be obtained. Furthermore, model-based reliability coefficients indicated that the WISC-V provides a more precise measurement of general intelligence (e.g., represented by the Full-Scale IQ, FSIQ) than it does for cognitive subdomains (e.g., represented by the WISC-V indexes). Group comparisons revealed that the ADHD group scored significantly lower than the control group on four primary subtests, thus achieving significantly lower scores on the corresponding primary indexes and the FSIQ. Given that measurement invariance across the ADHD and the control group could not be fully confirmed for the German WISC-V, clinical interpretations based on the WISC-V primary indexes are limited and should only be made with great caution regarding the cognitive profiles of children and adolescents with ADHD.

Studies show that early academic precursor skills are linked to later school achievement. Due to COVID-19 pandemic related preschool and kindergarten closures in 2020 and 2021, school readiness skills might have been affected negatively in first graders in Germany. Here, we examine whether school readiness skills in first graders differ between the years 2021 and 2022 and whether possible differences persist into second grade. German and math skills were assessed by the KEKS1 test (May & Bennöhr, 2013) at the start of school in N = 1831 first graders in 2021 and N = 1567 first graders in 2022 in Hamburg. Sociodemographic factors like sex, socioeconomic status, and non-German mother tongue did not differ between the cohorts. In Hamburg, the competence levels of primary school students in mathematics and German are regularly and comprehensively assessed in grades 2 and 3. While the results of the KEKS1 test are already available for the 2021 and 2022 cohorts, the link to the competence tests in grade 2 is still pending for both cohorts, but will be available and reported at the time of the conference. Results show that the cohorts differed at the beginning of school with regard to competence levels in German (U = 1182953.50, Z = -7.33, p <.001) with a higher proportion of weak and very weak competence levels and a lower proportion of strong and very strong competence levels in 2021 compared to 2022, while competence levels in mathematics did not differ.

The prevalence of substance abuse is high during adolescence, and several studies have linked the use of alcohol and cannabis in adolescence to different cognitive impairments. To investigate whether specific cognitive deficits can be observed in adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD), we compared the cognitive profiles of inpatient adolescents diagnosed with SUD to a control group matched for sex, age and educational status. The inpatient adolescents received diagnoses of cannabis use disorder, alcohol use disorder or both. We compared the WISC-V profiles of 22 inpatients (45.5% female, Mage: 14.5; SD: 0.8) and the WAIS-IV profiles of 27 inpatients (44.4% female, Mage: 17.1; SD: 0.9) to 49 matched control participants with no diagnosed SUD. At the time of testing, participants were hospitalized for treatment of their SUD and were abstinent for a period of at least 6 weeks. To gain greater power, we jointly analyzed the Verbal Comprehension Index, Working Memory Index, Processing Speed Index and Full Scale IQ as assessed by WISC-V and WAIS-IV. The clinical group performed significantly worse than the control group on all the above indices. When only the group of inpatients was observed, in a model with the factors sex, educational status, presence of a comorbid diagnosis of depression and the number of comorbid diagnoses, only the factor educational status was significantly associated with the Full Scale IQ, whereas the factors sex and a comorbid diagnosis of depression in this group were associated with the Processing Speed Index. The results show that adolescents diagnosed with SUD (cannabis and/or alcohol) display broad cognitive impairments after 6 weeks of abstinence. Future research is required to further explore the role of comorbid diagnoses.

Pandemiebedingt mussten Lernen und Lehren oft auf ungewohnten Wegen stattfinden. Auch in der Lerntherapie, in der Schüler_innen mit Schwierigkeiten im Erwerb von Lesen, Schreiben und/oder Rechnen unterstützt werden, musste umgedacht werden. Lerntherapie wurde teilweise auf Distanz sowie digital durchgeführt. Anknüpfend an eine erste, 2020 im Rahmen des Projektes DigitLern durchgeführte explorative Befragung, bei der deutschlandweit Lerntherapeut_innen (n = 69) zu ihren Erfahrungen mit Lerntherapie auf Distanz befragt wurden, ergaben sich für diese Studie die Fragestellungen, welche Chancen und Herausforderungen sich mit Fokus auf die digitale Durchführung der Lerntherapie ergeben und welche Bedeutung dabei der Medienkompetenz zukommt. Von Februar bis Juni 2021 wurden daraufhin in einer deutschlandweiten Online-Umfrage n = 137 Lerntherapeut_innen zu ihren Erfahrungen mit digitaler Lerntherapie befragt und ihre Medienkompetenz erfasst. Erste qualitative und quantitative Analysen wurden durchgeführt. Bei einem Vergleich der 2020 und 2021 erhobenen Stichproben der Lerntherapeut_innen zeigte sich eine höhere Medienkompetenz in der 2021 erhobenen Gruppe (M = 2.50 (SD = 0.86) vs. M = 3.69 (SD = 0.81)). Weiter scheint das Format, in dem die Lerntherapie durchgeführt wird (in Präsenz oder digital), mit der Medienkompetenz zusammenzuhängen. Es gibt Hinweise, dass Lerntherapeut_innen mit einer höheren Medienkompetenz stärker auch Chancen wahrnehmen, die durch eine digital durchgeführte Lerntherapie entstehen können. Differenzierte Aspekte von Chancen und Herausforderungen der digitalen Lerntherapie sollen herausgearbeitet, diskutiert und dabei die Bedeutsamkeit der Medienkompetenz der Lerntherapeut_innen berücksichtigt werden.