Development of mother–infant interaction in tickling play: The relationship between infants’ ticklishness and social behaviors

This study examined the development of mother–infant tickling interaction and the relationship between infants’ ticklishness and social behaviors including infants’ looking at mothers’ face, mothers’ narrative tickling, and mothers’ laughter. Twenty-two Japanese infants aged 5 months (n = 10, five girls) and 7 months (n = 12, four girls) and their mothers were videotaped. Results revealed that the mothers’ narrative tickling was more frequent at 7 than at 5 months and the infants’ strong ticklishness showed the same tendency. The infants’ strong ticklishness was linked with the occurrence of other social behaviors. In conclusion, infants’ ticklishness was heavily connected with social behaviors. The mode of the tickling interaction at 7 months was different from that at 5 months especially in the increase of mother’s narrative tickling. A possible function of such mother’s narrative tickling to facilitate infant active communication at a higher cognitive level including anticipation, was discussed.     

COMMENTARY ON FATHERS’ PLAY: MEASUREMENT,CONCEPTUALIZATION, CULTURE,AND CONNECTIONS WITH CHILD DEVELOPMENT

The diverse set of studies in this special issue on fathers' play includes empirical research from several countries, observational measures of play, and multiple children's outcomes, including language, negativity, social competence, aggression and internalizing problems. The chief conclusion across studies is that the role of paternal play is important in various domains of child development. This is encouraging, yet also disturbing given the results of the State of the World's Fathers: Time for Action report 2017, revealing the low amount of care fathers provide to their children worldwide, relative to mothers. In this commentary, the measurement and conceptualization of play are discussed, as well as cultural considerations regarding the meaning and consequences of play. The findings of the studies are integrated in order to guide future research, addressing what domains of child development appear to be influenced by what types of paternal play, and discussing the contexts that affect paternal play. Lastly, the collective results are related to recent efforts to increase fathers' involvement and implications for interventions are discussed.     

Open-Trial Pilot of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

In this pilot study, the effectiveness and feasibility of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for decreasing disruptive behavior was evaluated in 17 young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). PCIT is a behaviorally based play therapy which targets the parent-child relationship through live coaching of play interactions and the implementation of consistent discipline techniques. Following an average of 19 sessions, disruptive behavior as measured by multiple indices significantly decreased. Congruently, parents increased positive parental following skills and decreased negative parental leading skills across the course of treatment. In addition, parents reported increased levels of child functional communication and prosocial behavior. High levels of parent acceptability of the intervention were also noted. Effect sizes were medium to large across measured dependent variables, including parent report and behavioral observations. Implications for the clinical use of PCIT within an ASD population and future research with controlled outcome studies are discussed.     

Los Degradados: Out,down, dead: Transmitted and inflicted trauma as encountered in the analysis of a 6‐year‐old girl1

The author presents the analysis of a precocious traumatized little girl, which reveals the ways in which historical trauma is transmitted and intrafamilial trauma is both disguised and represented. The play as it evolves is seen to simultaneously communicate what the child struggles with and to resolutely try to hide what has actually happened. Analyst and child together participate in play which utilizes displacement, enactment and interactive enactment, the latter play mode being the very hallmark of profound traumatic experience. Carlotta, the child, helps the analyst to follow her quest for meaning making even as the interaction between them adheres to and departs from the deepening pentimenti of traumatic experience, which needs to be unraveled and reconstructed in order that her own developmental progression can be rejoined. The analysis facilitates Carlotta's capacity to play in a more unfettered fashion and to assist her family's recovery as well.     

在家庭自由游戏和智力任务游戏中亲子交往行为特征

本研究采用家庭录像观察,考察了53名4岁儿童及其父母在自然的家庭环境中的两个情境———自由游戏和完成拼图任务的智力游戏情境中儿童与其父母交往的行为特征和互动类型。结果发现:(1)在儿童4岁时,在家庭自由游戏情境中母亲的各种行为均显著多于父亲的各种行为,这表明在游戏过程中,母亲是儿童主要的交往对象。在拼图游戏情境中,除了父亲和母亲在商量和交流行为上没有显著差异之外,母亲的其他行为显著多于父亲的其他行为。儿童在这两个游戏情境中均表现出较多的顺从行为。(2)在自由游戏情境中,亲子互动类型包括四种:父母交流-儿童不交流型、母亲高控-儿童顺从型、父亲控制-儿童不顺从型和母亲不交流-儿童交流型。拼图游戏情境中,亲子互动类型有四种:父母放任-儿童独立型、父母控制-儿童顺从型、母子交流型和父亲控制-儿童顺从型。     

Visuo‐spatial play experience: forerunner of visuo‐spatial achievement in preadolescent and adolescent boys and girls?

This cross‐sectional study explored whether participation, from early childhood, in play involving different cognitive abilities predicts visuo‐spatial achievement at ages 9, 12, and 15. Based on parental assessment, prior and present practice of spatial manipulation play was found to be consistently more frequent in boys than in girls; the reverse held true for verbal expression play. Whereas boys did not significantly outperform girls in three visuo‐spatial tasks, girls were superior on a contrastive vocabulary task. In general, with IQ statistically controlled, regression analyses showed that estimated past and present spatial manipulation play predicted both genders' proficiency in the water‐level task and Embedded Figures Test, as did mothers' socioeconomic status for Block Design performance. Contrastingly, a negative relation was established between spatial manipulation play and vocabulary scores. Similar to the activity‐ability association often identified among adults, the relation established here between spatial play experience and visuo‐spatial ability was only modest. Further research should aim at more definitive conclusions through augmenting both diversity in the visuo‐spatial skills measured and sophistication in play behaviour appraisal. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Where science starts: spontaneous experiments in preschoolers' exploratory play

Probabilistic models of expected information gain require integrating prior knowledge about causal hypotheses with knowledge about possible actions that might generate data relevant to those hypotheses. Here we looked at whether preschoolers (mean: 54 months) recognize “action possibilities” (affordances) in the environment that allow them to isolate variables when there is information to be gained. By manipulating the physical properties of the stimuli, we were able to affect the degree to which candidate variables could be isolated; by manipulating the base rate of candidate causes, we were able to affect the potential for information gain. Children’s exploratory play was sensitive to both manipulations: given unambiguous evidence children played indiscriminately and rarely tried to isolate candidate causes; given ambiguous evidence, children both selected (Experiment 1) and designed (Experiment 2) informative interventions.     

Behavioral intervention to treat selective mutism across multiple social situations and community settings

We evaluated a behavioral intervention for a 9-year-old girl with selective mutism. The intervention consisted of role play and video self-modeling. The frequency of spoken initiations, responses to questions, and communication breakdowns was measured during three social situations (i.e., ordering in a restaurant, meeting new adults, and playing with new children) and in three community settings. Results demonstrated increases in spoken initiations and responses and decreases in communication breakdowns across all situations and settings.     

学前儿童合作认知及合作行为的培养研究

选取幼儿园大、中、小12个自然班,共317名幼儿为被试,进行为期四周的观点采择合作认知故事及游戏形式的合作行为训练。结果表明：①合作认知故事及游戏形式的合作行为训练,对提高学前儿童合作认知及合作行为水平影响显著,两者结合的训练方式最有效。②合作认知故事的培养训练对不同年龄儿童合作认知水平的提高影响显著;合作游戏训练对中班儿童合作水平的提高影响显著。③合作认知及合作行为训练的性别差异不显著。     

父亲参与教养状况对学前儿童社会技能的作用

作为孩子成长的关键人物之一,父亲对儿童早期的社会性发展具有重要作用。本研究以184名学前中班儿童及其父母为被试,考察父亲参与教养的量(参与教养的时间)和质(积极教养行为)对儿童早期社会技能的作用。结果发现:(1)控制母亲积极教养行为以后,父亲参与教养时间仍显著预测儿童的社会技能,父亲积极教养行为的预测作用不再显著。(2)控制母亲积极教养行为后,父亲参与教养时间显著预测女孩的合作性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,边缘显著预测男孩的主张性;父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测男孩的主张性,对女孩各项社会技能的预测均不显著。(3)父亲参与教养时间显著预测母亲积极教养水平低组儿童的合作性、主张性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测母亲积极教养低组儿童的合作性和总体社会技能。表明父亲参与教养对母亲消极教养具有缓冲作用,其中父亲参与教养时间的缓冲效应更明显。