Claudio Toppelberg - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Claudio Toppelberg

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2014

Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), 1996

... Barbara E. Watson Psychiatric Evaluation in a Second Language ... I concur with Dr. Oquendo&#... more ... Barbara E. Watson Psychiatric Evaluation in a Second Language ... I concur with Dr. Oquendo's view that fluency in a second language among bilingual persons fluctuates Page 2. LETTERS 1002 PSYCifiATRIC SERVICES #{149} September 1996 Vol. 47 No. 9 ...

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

The aim of this study is to examine within an ecological model the associations of dual language ... more The aim of this study is to examine within an ecological model the associations of dual language (Spanish/English) competences with the emotional and behavioral well-being of young children of immigrants in kindergarten. Latino children of immigrants (n = 228) from a public school-based community sample were assessed using standardized, comprehensive measures of Spanish and English oral language competence and normed teacher reports on five dimensions of emotional and behavioral well-being and school functioning (interpersonal, intrapersonal, and affective strengths, connection to family, and school functioning). Relevant contextual factors at home (maternal education, poverty, family structure) and school (teacher experience and practices, classroom composition), as well as child factors (non-verbal IQ, gender) were considered. Spanish and English competences accounted for moderate to large portions of variance in all dimensions of well-being. The contributions of child, home, and ...

School Mental Health

International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 2015

Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 2010

In this article the authors discuss first why it is crucial, from a clinical and public health pe... more In this article the authors discuss first why it is crucial, from a clinical and public health perspective, to better understand the development as well as risk and protection processes for the mental health of immigrant children. The authors then shift focus to the main tenet of this article, namely, that specific aspects of the dual language development of immigrant children are highly relevant to their mental health and adaptation. This argument is illustrated with empirical studies on Latino immigrant children, as they represent the majority of immigrant children in America and as a way of exemplifying the risks and circumstances that are potentially shared by other immigrant groups. Finally, the authors conceptually differentiate dual language development and its mental health impact from the dual-culture (bicultural) development and circumstance of immigrant children and their mental health impact.

School Mental Health, 2012

The aim of the study is to examine the rates of mental health service utilization in young Latino... more The aim of the study is to examine the rates of mental health service utilization in young Latino children of immigrants in relation to maternal and teacher reports of child mental health need. Specific knowledge is lacking about gaps in service utilization among young Latino children, the fastest growing and possibly the most underserved segment of the US child population. The associations of mental health service utilization (Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents) and mental health need (clinical levels of internalizing, externalizing, or total problems reported by mothers [Child Behavior Checklist] and teachers [Teacher's Report Form]) were examined in a community sample of young Latino children of immigrants (n = 228; mean age = 6) and compared across mothers' and teachers' responses. Mother-teacher agreement was also studied. Sixty-five children (28.5 %) had a mental health need; most (76.9 %) of these received no services. For all types of mental health need, service utilization was more likely when need was reported by mothers rather than teachers (p = .03). Teachers' reports were not associated with service utilization. Mother-teacher agreement was low for externalizing (r = .23; p ≤ 0.01) and total problems (r = .21; p ≤ 0.05), and nonsignificant for internalizing problems. This study is the first in the United States to document, in such a young Latino group, high rates of unmet need comparable to those among older Latino youth; low or no mother-teacher agreement on which children had a mental health need; low utilization of school-based services; and a lack of association between service utilization and teacher-reported mental health need-both for externalizing and internalizing problems. These findings suggest that schools are not effectively leveraging mental health services for young Latino children. Potential factors responsible for the findings are discussed.

To study the language profiles of a well-characterized sample (n=50) of Spanish-English bilingual... more To study the language profiles of a well-characterized sample (n=50) of Spanish-English bilingual children consecutively referred to psychiatric services.

Applied Psycholinguistics, 2012

Dual language children enter school with varying levels of proficiencies in their first and secon... more Dual language children enter school with varying levels of proficiencies in their first and second language. This study of Latino children of immigrants (N = 163) analyzes their dual language profiles at kindergarten and second grade, derived from the direct assessment of Spanish and English proficiencies (Woodcock Language Proficiency Batteries-Revised). Children were grouped based on the similarity of language profiles (competent profiles, such as dual proficient, Spanish proficient, and English proficient; and low-performing profiles, including borderline proficient and limited proficient). At kindergarten, the majority of children (63%) demonstrated a low-performing profile; by second grade, however, the majority of children (64%) had competent profiles. Change and stability of language profiles over time of individual children were then analyzed. Of concern, are children who continued to demonstrate a low-performing, high-risk profile. Factors in the linguistic environments at school and home, as well as other family and child factors associated with dual language profiles and change/stability over time were examined, with a particular focus on the persistently low-performing profile groups.

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2005

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1997

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2000

To review the past 10 years of research in child language or communication disorders, which are h... more To review the past 10 years of research in child language or communication disorders, which are highly prevalent in the general population and comorbid with childhood psychiatric disorders. A literature search of 3 major databases was conducted. The child language literature, describing the domains of language development--phonology, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics--is reviewed. Disorders of grammar, semantics, and pragmatics, but not phonology, overlap significantly with childhood psychiatric disorders. Receptive language disorders have emerged as high-risk indicators, often undiagnosed. Language disorders and delays are psychiatric risk factors and have implications for evaluation, therapy, and research. However, they are often undiagnosed in child mental health and community settings. The research has focused mostly on monolingual English-speaking children. Awareness of basic child language development, delay, and deviance is crucial for the practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, who must diagnose and refer relevant cases for treatment and remediation. Future research needs to address the growing language diversity of our clinical populations.

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2005

Copyright© 2003 by Michael Tomasello All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ... more Copyright© 2003 by Michael Tomasello All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2005 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tomasello, Michael. Constructing a language: a usage-based theory of language ...

Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 2006

The severity of child psychiatric disorders is commonly associated with child language delays. Ho... more The severity of child psychiatric disorders is commonly associated with child language delays. However, the characteristics of these associations in the fast-growing population of bilingual children remain unknown. To begin to address this gap, we studied a unique sample of Spanish-English bilingual children with significant parent-reported psychopathology (n = 29), focusing on their language proficiencies and psychiatric severity using the Child Behavior Check List. We present cross-sectional analyses of associations of general and specific language proficiency in Spanish and English with the severity of specific psychiatric syndromes. We found Spanish language-proficiency scores to have negative correlations with a wide range of psychiatric symptoms, particularly externalizing (i.e., delinquency and aggression) symptoms (r = −.38 to −.61, p ≤ .05). English scores were similarly associated. Dual language tests covering multiple specific language dimensions explained a large proportion (51%) of overall variance in aggression symptoms and also important proportions (40%) of total and attentional symptoms. While children's proficiency levels in both Spanish and English showed similar associations with the symptom severity measures (explaining close to 20% of the symptom variance; r sp = −.44, p < .01), these proficiency levels explain nonconverging variance in children's symptomatology. The findings suggest that clinical evaluation of language functioning is often needed in such populations and that it should be comprehensive and include both languages. Such thorough evaluation of bilingual children suffering from psychopathology will help us to precisely identify (1) language deficits, (2) specific relations of these deficits to the child's psychopathology, (3) differential implications of communication at home (e.g., in Spanish) and at school (e.g., in English) for clinical presentation and the child's competence in those differing contexts, and (4) language of choice for therapy, evaluation, and educational services. The findings are discussed in the context of clinical and conceptual implications and future research needs. (HARV REV PSYCHIATRY 2006;14:15-29.)

Child Development, 2013

Associations between maternal reports of hours in child care and children's externalizing problem... more Associations between maternal reports of hours in child care and children's externalizing problems at 18 and 36 months of age were examined in a population-based Norwegian sample (n = 75,271). Within a sociopolitical context of homogenously high-quality child care, there was little evidence that high quantity of care causes externalizing problems. Using conventional approaches to handling selection bias and listwise deletion for substantial attrition in this sample, more hours in care predicted higher problem levels, yet with small effect sizes. The finding, however, was not robust to using multiple imputation for missing values. Moreover, when sibling and individual fixed-effects models for handling selection bias were used, no relation between hours and problems was evident.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2010