The role of personal development groups in counsellor training: understanding factors contributing to self-awareness in the personal development group

Personal development groups (PD groups) are widely employed in counsellor training with the aim of developing the self-awareness of trainee counsellors, and the intention of this paper is to open a discussion forum of the use of these groups and understand their use more fully. A quantitative and qualitative approach was employed in this study, using focus groups with a cross section of 88 trainees of counselling, at different points in their training, to establish those factors that were felt to contribute to developing self-awareness in the group. A questionnaire was used to measure both trainees' perceptions of their own self-awareness and the extent to which the contributory factors were felt to be both present and helpful in their current PD group (this is referred to as the 'comfort fit'). Statistical findings, from the full cohort of 88 trainees, indicated that they were more comfortable in the PD group at the start of their training and less comfortable at the end, although there was no clear relationship between there being a better 'comfort fit' and increased self-awareness. These findings are discussed in relation to alternative methods of facilitating the self-awareness of trainees of counselling (such as mandatory personal therapy) alongside the associated complexities of undertaking research of this kind.     

The role of midfrontal theta oscillations across the development of cognitive control in preschoolers and school‐age children

The development of cognitive control enables children to better resist acting based on distracting information that interferes with the current action. Cognitive control improvement serves different functions that differ in part by the type of interference to resolve. Indeed, resisting to interference at the task‐set level or at the response‐preparation level is, respectively, associated with cognitive flexibility and inhibition. It is, however, unknown whether the same neural mechanism underlies these two functions across development. Studies in adults have revealed the contribution of midfrontal theta (MFT) oscillations in interference resolution. This study investigated whether MFT is involved in the resolution of different types of interference in two age groups identified as corresponding to different latent structures of executive functions. Preschool (4–6 years) and school children (6–8 years) were tested with a task involving interference at the response level and/or the task‐set level while (electroencephalogram) EEG was recorded. Behaviorally, response time and accuracy were affected by task‐set. Both age groups were less accurate when the interference occurred at the task‐set level and only the younger group showed decreased accuracy when interference was presented at the response‐preparation level. Furthermore, MFT power was increased, relative to the baseline, during the resolution of both types of interference and in both age groups. These findings suggest that MFT is involved in immature cognitive control (i.e., preschool and school‐ages), by orchestrating its different cognitive processes, irrespective of the interference to resolve and of the level of cognitive control development (i.e., the degree of differentiation of executive functions).     

Perceived age and sex characteristics of voices of institutionalized children with Down's syndrome.

It was hypothesized that the voices of children with Down's syndrome would be perceived as younger than their true chronological age and that perceptual auditors would have considerable difficulty in identifying the correct sex of these children by voice alone. Perceived age and sex were investigated in 20 institutional children with Down's syndrome who were matched for sex and age with a control group of 20 normal children. Randomized matched verbal samples were played backwards to a group of 16 listener/judges who rated the samples as to age and sex. The results indicated that the voices of these Down syndrome children were perceived as being more than 2 yr. younger than their group mean age and that there was a negative correlation between the biological sex of such children and their perceived sex.     

Secondary enuresis in institutionalized conduct-disordered children

The incidence of secondary enuresis in 16 institutionalized conduct-disordered children was examined. In contrast to a control group of 16 noninstitutionalized conduct-disordered children, the former showed significantly more enuretic behaviour. Also, enuresis began within 6 mo. of the children's separation from their families, suggesting this problem is very likely related to the emotional trauma surrounding the change in living conditions. However, the small number of subjects limits further interpretation of the findings.     

Piagetian measures of cognitive development for children up to age two

This paper proposes a measure of cognitive development which is based primarily on Piaget's concepts. The choice of the particular items was determined by their assumed relation to general representational ability, including linguistic and nonverbal communication abilities. The present approach is distinguished from those of some linguists who suggest that a child's early linguistic development is not compatible with his cognitive skills and, thus, that a child's grammatical competence implies the existence of some innate set of principles for the generation of language. In contrast, the present approach hypothesizes that a child's cognitive skills during the first 2 years, particularly nonverbal representational abilities, not only precede but enhance his subsequent acquisition of language. The assumption that the items of the proposed scale together test a common ability was supported by a multidimensional homogeneity analysis of the scale, which indicated that it defines an essentially unitary ability dimension and also has strong ordinal characteristics.This study was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Grant MH 13509. This is an updated version of a paper that was presented at the International Days of Sociolinguistics, 1969, Rome, Italy.     

The role of maternal responsivity in the development of children with intellectual disabilities

There is growing evidence that cumulative exposure to highly responsive parenting styles throughout the early childhood period may provide a variety of important child benefits in terms of language, cognitive, social, and emotional development. We view maternal responsivity as a dynamic construct of central importance to the development of children with intellectual disabilities just as it is for typically developing children. In this study, we selectively review the theoretical and conceptual evidence for the effects of responsivity on development, discuss factors known to influence responsivity including the nature of a child's disability, and review intervention approaches intended to enhance maternal responsivity. We conclude with a set of recommendations for future research.     

The role of brothers and sisters in the gender development of preschool children

The study examined whether the sex of older siblings influences the gender role development of younger brothers and sisters of age 3 years. Data on the Pre-School Activities Inventory, a measure of gender role behavior that discriminates within as well as between the sexes, were obtained in a general population study for 527 girls and 582 boys with an older sister, 500 girls and 561 boys with an older brother, and 1665 singleton girls and 1707 singleton boys. It was found that boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters were more sex-typed than same-sex singletons who, in turn, were more sex-typed than children with other-sex siblings. Having an older brother was associated with more masculine and less feminine behavior in both boys and girls, whereas boys with older sisters were more feminine but not less masculine and girls with older sisters were less masculine but not more feminine.     

The role of second formant transitions in the stop-semivowel distinction

An experiment was conducted which assessed the relative contributions of three acoustic cues to the distinction between stop consonant and semivowel in syllable initial position. Subjects identified three series of syllables which varied perceptually from [ba] to [wa]. The stimuli differed only in the extent, duration, and rate of the second formant transition. In each series, one of the variables remained constant while the other two changed. Obtained identification ratings were plotted as a function of each variable. The results indicated that second formant transition duration and extent contribute significantly to perception. Short second formant transition extents and durations signal stops, while long second formant transition extents and durations signal semivowels. It was found that second formant transition rate did not contribute significantly to this distinction. Any particular rate could signal either a stop or semivowel. These results are interpreted as arguing against models that incorporate transition rate as a cue to phonetic distinctions. In addition, these results are related to a previous selective adaptation experiment. It is shown that the “phonetic” interpretation of the obtained adaptation results was not justified.     

The development of sustained attention in children: the effect of age and task load.

This study explored how children's sustained attention develops and the effect of manipulating task parameters on sustained attention. The sample comprised 57 children (5-12 years) who completed CogState and Score! (Test of Everyday Attention for Children). Novel variability and traditional indices indicated rapid development from 5-6 to 8-9 years on all measures and a developmental plateau from 8-9 to 11-12, with growth evident on some measures. Findings suggest that sustained attention improves to age 10, then plateaus with only minor improvements. Further, performance was generally poorer on high load tasks compared to low load, with the same developmental pattern uncovered.     

The role of inhibitory control in the development of human figure drawing in young children

We investigated the role of inhibitory control in young children’s human figure drawing. We used the Bear–Dragon task as a measure of inhibitory control and used the classification system devised by Cox and Parkin to measure the development of human figure drawing. We tested 50 children aged between 40 and 64 months. Regression analysis showed that inhibitory control predicted development in human figure drawing even after the effect of age was excluded. These data suggest that inhibitory control plays a role in the development of children’s drawing and imply a relation between the executive functions and representational change.     

The development of conceptual and rote recall skills among school age children

One hundred eighty children from Grades K, 5, and 9 performed a recall task within one of four instructional conditions: serial recall; standard free recall; labeling free recall; labeling cued recall. The task required that Ss view and recall items from three successively presented sets of categorized pieture stimuli. Controls were imposed upon the associatice relatedness of items within sets so as to minimize the occurrence of associative responding during recall. The clustering data showed that kindergarten and fifth grade children are able to use conceptual skills to effectively mediate recall, but fail to effect these skills on a spontaneous basis in free recall. The results were discussed in line with the hypothesis that young children fail to engage in planful cognitive activity in recall tasks.     

The role of learning in social development: Illustrations from neglected children

Children who experience early caregiving neglect are very likely to have problems developing and maintaining relationships and regulating their social behavior. One of the earliest manifestations of this problem is reflected in indiscriminate behavior, a phenomenon where young children do not show normative wariness of strangers or use familiar adults as sources of security. To better understand the developmental mechanisms underlying the emergence of these problems, this study examined whether institutionally reared children, who experienced early social neglect, had difficulty associating motivational significance to visual stimuli. Pairing stimuli with motivational significance is presumably one of the associative learning processes involved in establishing discriminate or selective relationships with others. We found that early experiences of neglectful caregiving were associated with difficulties in acquiring such associations, and that delays in this developmental skill were related to children's social difficulties. These data suggest a way in which early social learning experiences may impact the development of processes underlying emotional development.     

The development of violence from age 8 to 61

The main aim of this study is to investigate the development of violence from childhood to adulthood. In the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), 411 London males have been followed up from age 8 to 48 in interviews, and from age 10 to 61 in criminal records; 19% were convicted for violence. There was a surprising amount of violence committed at older ages (40–61). The number of violence convictions was similar at ages 10–20, 21–39, and 40–61. There was considerable continuity in violent offending from ages 10–20 to 40–61. There was also continuity in self-reported violence from ages 15–18 to 43–48, and violence convictions were related to self-reported violence at all ages. The most important childhood risk factors for violence convictions were high daring or risk-taking, low verbal intelligence, a disrupted family, harsh parental discipline, high hyperactivity, and large family size. The extent to which these risk factors predicted violence at ages 40–61 was noteworthy. The “integrated cognitive antisocial potential (ICAP)” theory was proposed to explain the development of violence, and methods of preventing violence, targeting childhood risk factors, were reviewed.     

Language and disfluency variables in normal speaking children from discrete chronological age groups

Thirty male and female children from three chronological age groups were compared on Developmental Sentence Score, total words spoken in a language sample, total disfluency, and eight specific disfluency subtypes. Analyses were performed to determine in differences existed among the three age groups, between sexes, and whether language and disfluency were related. No sex differences in either language or disfluency were found. Total disfluency showed only a slight decrease with an increase in chronological age between 4 and 8 years. This suggests that the major disfluency decrease must occur subsequent to age 8. Although the total disfluency changed minimally between ages 4 and 8, some of the disfluency subtypes shifted considerably. Older children were almost as disfluent as younger children, but the topography of their disfluency was different. No significant relationship was found between the disfluency and language variables studied.