Behaviour and skills in six‐year‐old children in a ‘high risk’ programme

Problem behaviour hampers learning and the normal development of skills and competencies. The children in focus in this article from Norway are six‐year‐olds with persistent problem behaviour. Early identification of these children is imperative for the implementation of structured educational interventions. Knowledge about their behaviour and skills is therefore important. The aim of the study reported here by Ann‐Mari Knivsberg, professor of special education at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research at the University of Stavanger, Synnøve Iversen, physiotherapist and research fellow at the University of Bergen, Magne Nødland, speech therapist and special educator, and Karl‐L Reichelt, senior consultant and researcher at the Paediatric Research Institute at the National Hospital in Oslo, was to assess the participants' behaviour and their cognitive, linguistic and motor skills and to correlate behaviour and skills. The participants were 31 children enrolled in a ‘high‐risk’ programme for children with problem behaviour. Standardised test materials were used to obtain information on their behaviours and skills. Social problems, attention problems, anxiety and depressive traits were the most frequently reported behavioural problems. Linguistic delay, lower than normal cognitive scores and severe motor co‐ordination difficulties were also detected. Correlations were found between various behavioural traits and between the behaviour and the skills. Attention problems were most frequently correlated to cognitive, linguistic and motor functioning. At the end of their article, the authors call for multi‐disciplinary approaches to the design of future assessment and intervention strategies and to further research into the effectiveness of available screening instruments and intervention programmes.