Elena Grigorenko

• Yale University

The African kinship system facilitates the movement of children and adults between households to mitigate hardship, yet few studies have documented membership changes in rural African households over time and addressed the effects of these household dynamics on the developmental outcomes of children. We used a household inventory instrument to docu...

This article reviews recent studies of real-time learner-instructor interactions and psychophysiological indicators associated with this process. The initial systematic search of the literature yielded 2,663 articles; 26 peer-reviewed articles in English were included in the final sample. The learner-instructor interpersonal relationships were stud...

The Theory of Successful Intelligence defines intelligence as the integrated set of abilities and competencies in specific domains needed to attain success in life. Informed by this theory, we examined the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of an augmented intelligence test, Aurora- a , a 17-subtest assessment of analytical, practical, and c...

The current study had two aims: (a) to characterize justice-involved youth (JIY) with high verbal intelligence quotient (HVIQ) and (b) to investigate the extent to which HVIQ served as a protective factor for delinquency. This study included 1631 detained youths who received intelligence and academic achievement testing. Important risk factors of d...

Phonological awareness and phonological working memory are essential for successful language acquisition and development of literacy. Although this essence is language‐universal, its degree varies for different languages, depending, in part, on language transparency. The current study analyzes the adapted versions of the pseudoword repetition test...

Previous research has indicated that individuals with varying levels of reading comprehension (often used as a proxy for general cognitive ability) employ distinct reading eye movement patterns. This exploratory eye-tracking study aimed to investigate the text-reading process in adolescents with differing reading comprehension, specifically examini...

Background: A growing body of research supports the role of the microbial communities residing in the digestive system in the host’s cognitive functioning. Most of these studies have been focused on the gut microbiome and its association with clinical phenotypes in middle-aged and older adults. There is an insufficiency of population-based research...

Introduction This study investigated the influence of stimulus color wavelength on cognitive performance in a virtual reality (VR) Go/No-Go task by assessing participant’s reaction time and accuracy. Previous research has indicated that color has a variety of cognitive, physiological, and behavioral effects on individuals, differentiating their per...

Numerous behavioral studies have demonstrated a rhythmic priming effect (RPE) on grammatical processing using grammaticality judgment tasks (GJT), where participants performed better following regular rhythmic sequences compared to baseline conditions or irregular rhythmic sequences (i.e. auditory rhythmic sequences with violated metrical structure...

Background/Objectives: The increase in digital tools in early childhood education highlights the need for evidence-based assessments that support cognitive development and align with educational requirements and technological advances. This study contributes to the evaluation of the Bilingual English Language Learner Assessment (BELLA), designed to...

Purpose We investigated the role of spoken language in the acquisition of literacy in the context of Arabic diglossia, where the written language, Standard Arabic, deviates substantially from the spoken language, Colloquial Arabic, children acquire naturally from birth. Method The participants (N = 110; 40 girls) were Saudi Arabic–speaking childre...

p style="text-align: justify;">Interpersonal synchrony is a notable aspect of communication; it is evident at various levels, including nonverbal. However, research on interpersonal synchrony in the workplace is limited in general and for mentoring in particular. Empathy is essential for both interpersonal synchrony and mentoring. This study aims t...

p>Social media has become integral to education and learning because it provides a platform for access to information and resources beyond traditional classroom settings, enabling students to expand their knowledge and skills in a more interactive and personalized manner. The relationships that are formed with on-screen characters or personas (para...

Maternal care during the early postnatal period of altricial mammals is a key factor in the survival and adaptation of offspring to environmental conditions. Natural variations in maternal care and experimental manipulations with maternal–child relationships modeling early-life adversity (ELA) in laboratory rats and mice have a strong long-term inf...

Наставничество, объединяющее элементы формального и неформального общения, представляет собой перспективную среду для изучения механизмов межличностной синхронизации (сонастройки). На успешность как наставничества, так и сонастройки оказывает влияние эмпатия. В рамках данного исследования рассматривается вклад эмпатии, измеренной с помощью опросник...

Brain-imaging-genetic analysis is an emerging field of research that aims at aggregating data from neuroimaging modalities, which characterize brain structure or function, and genetic data, which capture the structure and function of the genome, to explain or predict normal (or abnormal) brain performance. Brain-imaging-genetic studies offer great...

Background The biological embedding theory posits that early life experiences can lead to enduring physiological and molecular changes impacting various life outcomes, notably academic performance. Studying previously revealed and objective biomarkers of early life stress exposure, such as telomere length (TL), glucocorticoid receptor gene DNA meth...

Bringing together an international team of scholars, this pioneering book presents the first truly systematic, cross-linguistic study of variation in literacy development. It draws on a wide range of cross-cultural research to shed light on the key factors that predict global variation in children's acquisition of reading and writing skills, coveri...

While there has been an increase in studies investigating the relationship between endogenous oxytocin (OXT) concentrations and human social interactions over the past decades, these studies still seem far from converging, both in methodological terms and in terms of their results. This systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed at a comprehens...

We investigated the magnitude and direction of differences in parenting styles as they relate to children’s mental health problems, as assessed using the CBCL. The sample consisted of 306 families residing in a large industrial city in Russia. We aimed to expand the cross-cultural literature on parenting styles by assessing a sample of Russian fami...

In this article, we propose that basic cognitive skills may be fostered and assessed in early childhood educational (pre-K) settings using a technology-based approach to assessment. BELLA (Bilingual English Language Learner Assessment), designed for use with both monolingual (English or Spanish speaking) and bilingual (English and Spanish speaking)...

Objective: Responding to the concern about racial/ethnic disparities (R/ED) in the use of risk assessment instruments (RAIs) in justice systems, previous research has overwhelmingly tested the extent to which RAI scores consistently predict recidivism across race and ethnicity (predictive bias). However, little is known about R/ED in the associati...

Introduction This study aimed to investigate (a) the immediate and long-term changes in youth offending rates among 138 neighborhoods within a large metropolitan area in the context of COVID-19 and (b) the extent to which the socioeconomic composition of the neighborhoods accounted for variations of the changes. Methods Discontinuous growth models...

Potocki–Lupski Syndrome (PTLS) is a rare condition associated with a duplication of 17p11.2 that may underlie a wide range of congenital abnormalities and heterogeneous behavioral phenotypes. Along with developmental delay and intellectual disability, autism-specific traits are often reported to be the most common among patients with PTLS. To contr...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one the most disabling developmental disorders, imposing an extremely high economic burden. Obtaining as accurate prevalence estimates as possible is crucial to guide governments in planning policies for identification and intervention for individuals with ASD and their relatives. The precision of prevalence estima...

Individuals raised in institutionalized care settings are more likely to demonstrate developmental deficits than those raised in biological families. One domain that is vulnerable to the impoverished environments characteristic of some institutionalized care facilities is language development. We used EEG to assess ERPs and source-localized event-r...

Twice-exceptionality (2e), broadly defined as the co-occurrence of a gift or talent and a disability, has been a part of the educational lexicon since the 1990s, although its empirical backing is limited. We conducted a comprehensive review of the empirical literature on 2e and created a simulation study of 2e. For the latter, we constructed popula...

Imaging and genetic studies have characterized biological risk factors contributing to specific reading disability (SRD). The current study aimed to apply this literature to a family of twins discordant for SRD and an older sibling with reading difficulty. Intraclass correlations were used to understand the similarity of imaging phenotypes between...

Potocki-Lupski Syndrome (PTLS) is a rare condition associated with a duplication of 17p11.2 that may underlie a wide range of congenital abnormalities and heterogeneous behavioral phenotypes. Along with developmental delay and intellectual disability, autism-specific traits are often reported to be the most common among patients with PTLS. To contr...

Digital technology is increasingly becoming a part of daily life, including the lives of children. Portable digital devices are omnipresent and integrated into activities that did not previously require them. The related skills are often referred to as 21st-century skills, constituting a new type of literacy: digital literacy. These devices and ski...

Although learning disorders (LD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) can be linked to overlapping psychological and behavioral deficits, such as phonological, morphological, orthographic, semantic, and syntactic deficits, as well as academic (e.g., reading) difficulties, they are currently separate diagnoses in the DSM-5 with explicit phenoty...

According to the framework of the developmental niche, children’s growth and learning in all respects, including the development of their intelligence, are mediated by three key facets of their environment: the physical and social settings in which they live; the culturally regulated customs of child care and child rearing being practiced; and the...

The Russian Federation is a country that, due to a shortage of timely family legislation, still has institutionalized children’s homes, such as orphanages and baby homes. Although family legislation is changing worldwide, with foster care becoming more common, understanding the effects of institutionalized care on individuals remains important. Not...

While the predictive power of genetic information is not yet strong enough to apply to individuals in the classroom, this study aimed to explore how genetic information may be received in educational settings as a potentially important source of individual differences in academic achievement and learning difficulties. Focus group discussions with t...

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a commonly used tool for researchers and clinicians to assess executive functioning, especially in individuals with learning or other developmental disorders. Although it has been translated and used in multiple countries, the BRIEF has only been officially normed by its manufacturers i...

Difficulties in language development are common hallmarks of different neuro-developmental disorders. Early diagnosis is a crucial factor for proper early interventions and better prognosis. Currently, there is a severe shortage of standardized instruments for assessing potential language disorders in Russia. To address this gap, we analyzed the ps...

Mental health concerns are highly prevalent in the juvenile justice system (JJS). Assessment practices vary significantly across probation departments, often relying on past medical history or unstructured clinical interviews. Numerous structured and semi-structured assessment tools exist, some of which have previously been used within JJS samples....

Purpose To assess strengths and weaknesses of the reading level (RL) match approach and its potential to generate insights regarding the cognitive foundations of reading ability and disability. Method We applied RL-match design to a sample of 2nd – 6th graders reading a consistent orthography, Russian, using an “extreme phenotype” approach. Reader...

This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) in a sample of children orphaned or made vulnerable (OVC) by HIV in Zambia. Caregivers of 1,076 OVC (55.1% boys; Mage = 12.91 years) completed the PSC-17. Competing models, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), hierarchical CFA, bifact...

This study provides new data on the whole-exome sequencing of a cohort of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) from an underexplored Russian population. Using both a cross-sectional approach involving a control cohort of the same ancestry and an annotation-based approach involving relevant public databases, we explored exonic single nucl...

Studies focusing on children affected by HIV have shown that they have generally lower academic performance, however, few studies separate children who are HIV exposed and infected (CHEI) and those who are HIV exposed but uninfected (CHEU). Importantly, in rural sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of studies on CHEI and CHEU examine academic performan...

In Zambia, as well as many other African and non-Western cultures, the extent and kind of children’s chores may contribute to their learning, yet often also conflict with their schooling. In the moderation analysis we present in this manuscript, we aimed to explore the interactive effects of schooling and chores on children’s mathematics performanc...

Представлены результаты анализа экзомных вариаций в сельской популяции Европейского Севера России. Популяция, исходно возникнув как монастырское поселение, развивалась на протяжении своей полутысячелетней истории в относительной культурной и географической изоляции. Определенную уникальность популяции составляет установленная высокая превалентность...

This study aimed to (a) reliably obtain intermittency periods (i.e., time gaps between incarcerations) using days as the unit of time and (b) investigate the effects of mental health needs assessed during the first incarceration on the hazard of subsequent reincarcerations among justice-involved youth (JIY). The multiyear administrative data from H...

The majority of the world’s children grow up and receive education in multilingual societies, many being first introduced to literacy in a second language. Most reading science research, however, does not address the influence of linguistic diversity on literacy acquisition and tacitly assumes a scenario in which children learn to read in their mot...

In Saudi Arabia, the country’s progress toward appropriate and inclusive education programs for children with disabilities is still evolving. A crucial aspect of this evolution has been the development of a comprehensive assessment battery that covers a broad range of cognitive factors for the diagnosis of neurodevelopment disorders and other types...

This mini-review attempts to provide a capsule overview of the role of genetic factors in reading and its development across languages and writing systems. The review is conceived and executed with a scoping review approach, synthesizing the methods employed in the existing research rather than producing a summary of evidence to answer a discrete r...

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) datasets are susceptible to several confounding factors related to data quality, which is especially true in studies involving young children. With the recent trend of large-scale multicenter studies, it is more critical to be aware of the varied impacts of data quality on measures of interest. Here, we i...

Background Studies exploring neuroanatomic correlates of reading have associated white matter tissue properties with reading disability and related componential skills (e.g., phonological and single-word reading skills). Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) are widely used surrogate measures of tissue microstructure with high sensit...

На примере исследования отдельного семейного случая, показано успешное применение экзомного секвенирования семейных трио (ребенок-пробанд и родители) в качестве первого метода геномной диагностики множественных необъясненных нарушений и задержек развития, с целью скриннинга на наличие патогенных однуклеотидных замен и структурных геномных вариантов...

This short report on a family case study provides evidence of the effectiveness of exome sequencing of family trios (proband-parents) as the first-tier test in genomic diagnostics of unexplained developmental delays and disorders, as a genomic screening for both pathogenic single-nucleotide variants and copy number variations (CNVs). In this study,...

The imaging genetics of specific reading disabilities (SRD) is an emerging field that aims to characterize the disabilities’ neurobiological causes, including atypical brain structure and function and distinct genetic architecture. The present review aimed to summarize current imaging genetics studies of SRD, characterize the effect sizes of report...

Despite substantial grounds for such research, the role of chronic exposure to stressors in the onset and aggravation of learning disabilities (LDs) is largely unexplored. In this review, we first consider the hormonal, (epi)genetic, and neurobiological mechanisms that might underlie the impact of adverse childhood experiences, a form of chronic st...

To learn to read, the brain must repurpose neural systems for oral language and visual processing to mediate written language. We begin with a description of computational models for how alphabetic written language is processed. Next, we explain the roles of a dorsal sublexical system in the brain that relates print and speech, a ventral lexical sy...

Recent research has provided evidence on genome-wide alterations in DNA methylation patterns due to trisomy 21, which have been detected in various tissues of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) across different developmental stages. Here, we report new data on the systematic genome-wide DNA methylation perturbations in blood cells of individuals w...

The past over-usage of the DSM-IV category of “not otherwise specified” (NOS) resulted in it becoming a vague, catch-all label. The new nomenclature in the DSM-5 is Unspecified Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorder (UDICCD), however, there are little to no data available on the new nomenclature. The current article is aimed at examining...

Some children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate unusual islets of abilities or “splinter skills” that represent relative strengths in their development. In this paper we present a clinical case of an 11-year-old Russian boy with ASD who spontaneously acquired the English language. While the child demonstrated language deficits in bot...

Specific reading disability (SRD) is defined by genetic and neural risk factors that are not fully understood. The current study used imaging genetics methodology to investigate relationships between SEMA6D, brain structure, and reading. SEMA6D, located on SRD risk locus DYX1, is involved in axon guidance, synapse formation, and dendrite developmen...

Millions of children worldwide are raised in institutionalized settings. Unfortunately, institutionalized rearing is often characterized by psychosocial deprivation, leading to difficulties in numerous social, emotional, physical, and cognitive skills. One such skill is the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions. Children with a history...

Research into reading difficulties in Russian has been taking place for about a century, since the 1920s. Early research established a line of studies on reading acquisition difficulties in the context of highly structured practices of teaching reading. These practices were propagated in the mid-late 19th century by Konstantin Ushinskii, who design...

We investigated neural correlates of traumatic experience related to the lack of family care in adults with a history of institutionalization (IC) using the Emotional Stroop paradigm. The goals of our study were two‐fold: we investigated whether adults with IC history (n=24; Mage = 22.17, SD = 6.7) demonstrate atypical processing of emotionally‐sal...

Complementary and alternative therapy (CAT) methods for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are widespread in European countries and the Russian Federation; however, their efficacy and safety is not routinely considered by parents and clinicians when recommended or used. The current narrative review presents the most widely known CAT inte...

Purpose We examined indices of narrative microstructure as metrics of language development and impairment in Arabic-speaking children. We examined their age sensitivity, correlations with standardized measures, and ability to differentiate children with average language and language impairment. Method We collected story narratives from 177 childre...

This study, utilizing whole‐exome sequencing (WES), reports on a previously detected disease‐related variant in the androgen receptor gene AR [c.528C>A (p.Ser176Arg)] and novel candidate variants in the DHCR24, BMPR1B, NODAL, and WDR48 genes detected in the genome of a 15‐month‐old child diagnosed with MPH, manifested as partial androgen insensitiv...

The effectiveness of a 10-session social problem-solving training (SPST) was evaluated in two independent studies in a juvenile justice (JJ) setting. In both studies, we aimed to examine main intervention effects on social problem-solving skills and recidivism, as well as differential effects as modulated by anger, anger regulation, and single nucl...

The BDNF gene is a prominent promoter of neuronal development, maturation and plasticity. Its Val66Met polymorphism affects brain morphology and function within several areas and is associated with several cognitive functions and neurodevelopmental disorder susceptibility. Recently, it has been associated with reading, reading-related traits and al...

Orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS (HIV OVC) are at risk for cognitive difficulties and lack of access to education. Interventions addressing cognitive or educational outcomes for HIV OVC worldwide were examined through systematic searches conducted from October 2016 to 2019. We examined the summative effectiveness of intervention...

The BDNF gene is a prominent promoter of neuronal development, maturation and plasticity. Its Val⁶⁶Met polymorphism affects brain morphology and function within several areas and is associated with several cognitive functions and neurodevelopmental disorder susceptibility. Recently, it has been associated with reading, reading-related traits and al...

Approximately 30% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience developmental regression, the etiology of which remains largely unknown. We performed a complete literature search and identified 47 genes that had been implicated in such cases. We sequenced these genes in a preselected cohort of 134 individuals with regressive autism....

Efavirenz (EFV) is a well‐known, effective anti‐retroviral drug long used in first‐line treatment for children and adults with HIV and HIV/AIDS. Due to its narrow window of effective concentrations, between 1 and 4 μg/mL, and neurological side effects at supratherapeutic levels, several investigations into the pharmacokinetics of the drug and its g...

Background Worldwide, there are more than 13.3 million orphans and vulnerable children affected by Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) (HIV OVC), defined as individuals below the age of 18 who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS or have been made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS; they are at risk fo...

The current study investigated language development of children residing in institutional care (IC) in Russia, compared to peers raised by biological family care (BFC). We used standardized behavioral testing (Preschool Language Scale‐5, McArthur CDI), and an event‐related potential picture–word matching paradigm. Children in IC significantly under...

The current study investigated the long‐term effects of institutionalization on the inhibitory control of young adults raised in orphanages using the color‐word Stroop task. We examined whether young adults raised in institutions (IC group; n = 24; M = 22.17 years, SD = 6.7) would demonstrate poorer behavioral performance and atypical neural respon...

The etiological mechanisms of the genetic underpinnings of developmental language disorder (DLD) are unknown, in part due to the behavioral heterogeneity of the disorder's manifestations. In this study, we explored an association between the SETBP1 gene (18q21.1), revealed in a genome‐wide association study of DLD in a geographically isolated popul...

There is an increasing attention to the phenomenon referred to as “twice exceptional” (“2e”) children, namely, children who demonstrate both exceptional abilities and disabilities. In this essay, this concept is applied to delinquency and/or emotional‐behavior disorder and gifts (talents) in the performance arts, exploring the presence of this asso...

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This study aims to (a) describe demographic and mental health (MH) differences between truant juvenile justice–involved youth (JJY) and nontruant JJY; (b) classify MH needs of truant JJY; and (c) investigate if the interactions between race, ethnicity, gender, and MH needs predict truancy recidivism. Participants were 10,603 truant JJY (55.4% male;...

The objective was two-fold: to examine possible associations between dopamine-related genetic polymorphisms and (1) substance dependence; and (2) self-reported psychiatric disturbances, behavioral problems, and personality. Genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP: s) in COMT, DAT and DRD4 was conducted in 174 Russian male juvenile inmate...

The lack of valid and standardized instruments, directed on an assessment of the language domain in adolescents and adults in Russia postulates the urgent necessity of their development. To fi ll this gap, the language battery, ARFA-RUS, was created and applied in a large project investigating the long-term consequences of raring in institutional c...

Children left without parental care and placed in institutional settings represent a particularly vulnerable group. In the absence of sufficient social interaction, children with experience of early deprivation demonstrate neural, social, and emotional deficits. In the present study, we use electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques to examine the fu...

Digital media is becoming increasingly prevalent in households and classroom settings lowering the age of fi rst exposure to technology; however, little is known about how children experience digital media and how their experiences relate to learning and social engagement. In this case study, we followed a 28-month-old boy in a naturalistic setting...

Children abandoned to institutions display a host of developmental delays, including those involving general cognition and language. The majority of published studies focus on children over 3 years of age; little is known about whether these delays may be detected earlier when children undergo rapid lexical development. To investigate the early lan...

Digital environments — simulations, games and realities — have been gaining more attention in behaviour research as the relevant technology has become more advanced and affordable. This increased attention has been paralleled by the growing research literature, a corner of which belongs to studies of creativity in digital environments. This mini re...

Developmental Dyslexia across Languages and Writing Systems - edited by Ludo Verhoeven October 2019

The attunement of speech perception/discrimination to the properties of one’s native language is a crucial step in speech and language development at early ages. Studying these processes in young children with a history of institutionalization is of great interest, as being raised in institutional care (IC) may lead to lags in language development....

Recent studies of the genetic foundations of cognitive ability rely on large samples (in extreme, hundreds of thousands) of individuals from relatively outbred populations of mostly European ancestry. Hypothesizing that the genetic foundation of cognitive ability depends on the broader population-specific genetic context, we performed a genome-wide...

Вопрос формирования физиологического и поведенческого фенотипа под воздействием неблагоприятного раннего опыта рассматривается с точки зрения взаимодействия генетического и эпигенетического факторов. На примере двух генов, участвующих в обеспечении нейрогуморального ответа на стресс, а именно гена транспортера серотонина SLC6A4 и гена глюкокортикои...

This article reports on new data on the association of breastfeeding with DNA methylation in the peripheral blood cells of 37 children aged from 9 months to four years. Whole-genome DNA methylation profiling was performed using the Illumina Methylation EPIC array. The Epigenome-Wide Association Study (EWAS) revealed an association between the durat...

The objective was to delineate the prevalence of criminal behavior and school discipline in juvenile justice-involved youth (JJY) with autism. A sample of 143 JJY with autism was matched to comparison groups of JJY without a special education classification, JJY with learning disabilities, and JJY with other special educational needs (N = 572). Res...

Представлены данные об ассоциации грудного вскармливания с метилированием ДНК в клетках периферической крови 37 детей в возрасте от 9 мес. до четырех лет. Полногеномные профили метилирования ДНК изучались с помощью биочипа высокой плотности Illumina MethylationEPIC. Поиск полно-эпигеномных ассоциаций позволил выявить связь между продолжительностью...

Arabic is characterized by extensive dialectal variation, diglossia, and substantial morphological complexity. Arabic lacks comprehensive diagnostic tools that would allow for a systematic evaluation of its development, critical for the early identification of language difficulties in the spoken and written domains. To address this gap, we have dev...