Adapting Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up for infants and young children with intellectual disabilities and developmental delays in South Africa: Reflections and recommendations from local stakeholders

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is an intervention targeted at enhancing the socioemotional and regulatory functioning of at-risk infants. However, to use the ABC for infants/toddlers with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays (ID/DD) and in novel cultural contexts, such as South Africa, adaptations may be required. This study aimed, therefore, to explore the opinions of clinical experts and perceptions of caregivers regarding the use of ABC for children with ID/DD in South Africa. It also sought to incorporate the experiences of families of children with ID/DD who received, and intervenors who delivered, ABC in its first implementation in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants. Thematic analysis explicated 12 main themes: Intervention Strengths, Points of Concern, and Recommendations (Experts); Focus on Caregiver-child Relationship, and Intervention Targets and Duration (Caregivers); Benefits of ABC, and Cultural Considerations (ABC Recipients); Focused and Targeted, Value of Feedback, Supportive Supervision, Working Alliance, and Challenges Experienced (ABC Intervenors). Practice and training recommendations include psychoeducation for parents and training for intervenors that is ID/DD-specific, expanding supervision capacity, building intervenors’ cultural/linguistic sensitivity and competence, accessing referral networks, including local Community Health Workers as intervenors, and greater flexibility in how the sessions are organized.     

Haut potentiel intellectuel et développement social

The first part of this article presents a theoretical and empirical review on the issue of gifted children's social development. As a whole, data does not allow for straightforward conclusion as to whether gifted children may be socially at risk. Conflicting results may be due in part to heterogeneity across studies in sampling procedures and in assessing social adjustment. Next, we will examine how social skills development could be viewed as a potential domain for the expression of intellectual giftedness, in the light of theories that posit a multi-factorial view of intelligence or creativity. Accordingly, there may be a need to reconsider the notion of giftedness and thus take into account social giftedness, both for identification and education purposes.     

Advances in functional brain imaging technology and developmental neuro‐psychology: their applications in the Jungian analytic domain

Analytical psychology shares with many other psychotherapies the important task of repairing the consequences of developmental trauma. The majority of analytic patients come from compromised early developmental backgrounds: they may have experienced neglect, abuse, or failures of empathic resonance from their carers. Functional brain imagery techniques including Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG), and functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery (fMRI), allow us to track mental processes in ways beyond verbal reportage and introspection. This independent perspective is useful for developing new psychodynamic hypotheses, testing current ones, providing diagnostic markers, and monitoring treatment progress. Jung, with the Word Association Test, grasped these principles 100 years ago. Brain imaging techniques have contributed to powerful recent advances in our understanding of neurodevelopmental processes in the first three years of life. If adequate nurturance is compromised, a range of difficulties may emerge. This has important implications for how we understand and treat our psychotherapy clients. The paper provides an overview of functional brain imaging and advances in developmental neuropsychology, and looks at applications of some of these findings (including neurofeedback) in the Jungian psychotherapy domain.     

MEASUREMENT OF FATHER–CHILD ROUGH‐AND‐TUMBLE PLAY AND ITS RELATIONS TO CHILD BEHAVIOR

Although there is increasing evidence of paternal influence on child outcomes such as language and cognition, researchers are not yet clear on the features of father–child play that are most valuable in terms of child development. Physical play such as rough and tumble play (RTP) is a favored type of father–child play in Western societies that has been linked to children's socioemotional competence. It is important, therefore, to determine the implications of this play for child development. In this review and meta‐analysis, associations between father–child physical play and child behavior were examined. The review also focused on study methods. Sixteen studies are reviewed, N = 1,521 father–child dyads, 35% boys. Study characteristics such as definitions of physical play, play settings, play measures, and coding were examined. The meta‐analysis found weak to moderate population effects for links between father–child physical play and child aggression, social competence, emotional skills, and self‐regulation. Research investigating the effect of father–child physical play on children's development will be improved when definitions clearly identify the nature of play, settings facilitate boisterous play, and measures include frequency and quality of play interactions. This play shows promise as an enhancer of positive father–child relationships and a catalyst for child development.     

Stroop interference and development: Influence of expectation on color-naming response times

Introduction/objective

In a sample of 171 participants aged 6 to 18, the present investigation assessed the changes in the size of the Stroop effect with age, and its relationship with the development of expectancies.

Étude développementale de l’interprétation de combinaisons conceptuelles nominales « relation » et « propriété »

The present research addresses how people interpret novel noun-noun conceptual combinations. First, we focused on two types of conceptual combinations: property and relational combinations. Secondly, we manipulated the order of the constituents. Finally, we studied if the interpretation in terms of “Property” or “Relation” changes along with age. So, four groups of 6-, 8- and 10-year-old children and adults participated in a production task. Our results indicated that the interpretations in terms of relation were more frequent for the “Relation” combinations compared to the “Property” ones. Property-transferring interpretations increased with age when Property combinations are presented. The most frequent interpretations followed the order Head noun-Modifier, which is opposite to the order observed in English.     

À l’école et au supermarché : le développement des connaissances sur deux organisations sociales

The development of naive theories regarding social organizations has not received the same emphasis as other conceptual domains, such as naive biology and naive psychology. However, a number of studies have been devoted to the development of children's naive conceptions of politics, school, or economics, most of them with interviews. In the present study, we studied six-, 10-, 14-year-old children's conceptions regarding two familiar organizations, school and supermarket. Results show that, even young children have knowledge regarding these two institutions. However, even 10-year-old children might fail to integrate these institutions in more general organizational, institutional and social dimensions. In many cases, only children aged 14 consistently integrate these various dimensions.     

Développement de la mémoire de travail : relations du centre exécutif avec la boucle phonologique et le calepin visuospatial chez des enfants de CE1 et de CM2

The aim of this study was to examine the development of working memory's components and their relationships. Phonological loop's, visuospatial sketchpad's and central executive's efficiencies were assessed by simple and complex span tasks and executive tasks with verbal and visuospatial material. The analyses were performed on 64 second-grade and 55 fifth-grade children's data. Developmental performances improvement was examined according to tasks and material. Analyses of variance revealed performances improvement according to age and type of material (verbal > non verbal) for the slave system tasks and for a part of central executive's tasks. Correlation analysis and exploratory factorial analysis suggested that slave systems would become progressively more specific and that central executive's efficiency would be dependent on this specialization.     

Sustainable system-of-systems and francophone activity-centered approaches in ergonomics: Converging and diverging lines of dialogue

This paper initiates a dialogue between the sustainable system-of-systems (SSoS) approach and one particular situated approach of activity analysis within francophone activity-centered ergonomics (FACE). This paper explores the possible cross-fertilizations between FACE and SSoS in coping with the challenge of enlargement which ergonomists have to face in order to address sustainability issues. We present how the SSoS model and FACE have currently considered the challenges of sustainable development and the theoretical-methodological principles that frame their approaches. Then, eight topics of dialogue are introduced and debated in order to open the dialogue between the two approaches where emerging lines of convergence are generated. We conclude by further discussing the complementarity between FACE and SSoS in the objectives of their approaches and the levels analysed by each approach, and by highlighting the importance of taking into account the emergent and complex aspects of systems. One possible way forward might be to “situate the sustainable system-of-systems” while also “systemizing systems of sustainable situations” for the future.