Relationship among children’s perception of parental relationship and parental empathy and prosocial behaviour during childhood

The objective of this work is to study if children’s perception of parental relationship and parental empathy can predict prosocial behaviour during childhood. The sample was composed of 934 Argentine children, aged 9 to 12, of middle socio-economical level. The participants completed Argentine scale of Children Perception of Parental relationship (richaud de Minzi, 2007), an Argentine adaptation of scale of Prosocial Behaviour (Caprara and Pastorelli, 1993) and a questionnaire to measure children’s perception of parental empathy (richaud de Minzi, 2006). structural equations modelling (sEM) analyses were conducted to explore our hypotheses. Six theoretical models fit the data very well. The results showed that parental styles of acceptance and pathological control impact on children prosocial behavior. Children’s perception of parental empathy was positively associated with children prosocial behavior. Finally, parental acceptance and pathological control were associated with children’s perception of parental empathy, but negligent parental behaviour did not.  

Programa de orientación en el desarrollo sensorial para niños y niñas de 3 a 7 años de la fundación children’s vision dirigido a educadoras y profesores

Este trabajo se realiza como un Proyecto de Aplicación Práctica (PAP), en la Especialización de Desarrollo infantil y Procesos de Aprendizaje; se basa principalmente en la teoría de integración sensorial y la relación con el aprendizaje. El objetivo es implementar un programa de desarrollo sensorial para niños y niñas de 3 a 7 años en condiciones de Institucionalización en la Fundación Children’s Vision, orienta a educadoras y profesoras en el manejo de diferentes estrategias y actividades de índole sensorial que permiten al equipo de trabajo y apoyo de la Fundación potencializar comportamientos adaptativos de los niños acordes con las necesidades y desempeño propio para su edad. El programa se divide en tres fases: la primera comprende la recolección de datos acerca del desempeño sensorial de la población a estudio (utilización de lista de chequeo1 y trabajo directo con niños); en la segunda fase se realiza talleres y charlas de sensibilización dirigidas a docentes y educadores; la tercera fase plantea estrategias de manejo en el área sensorial.

Determining the efficacy of summer school on maintaining hearing-impaired children’s language levels

This paper discusses the process of determining the efficacy of summer school on maintaining hearing-impaired children’s language levels.

Children’s understanding of counterfactual alternatives

This study examines how children integrate information about counterfactual alternatives in making judgments. Previous research in adults had shown that they make judgments on the basis of comparisons between factual events and counterfactual alternatives. We suggest that children adopt a summative strategy instead, where they focus on the presented outcomes, both real and counterfactual, and base their judgments on the overall affective quality of these outcomes. Results from a single experiment comparing adults’ and children’s responses to a counterfactual judgment task show that children do tend to use a summative strategy as opposed to the comparative strategy adopted by adults. These results were further supported by participants’ justifications of their judgments, which were alternative focused for the adults, but outcome focused for the children. The results are discussed in relation to complexity-based theories of the development of human reasoning.

The impact of maternal control on children’s anxious cognitions, behaviours and affect: an experimental study

Controlling parenting is associated with child anxiety however the direction of effects remains unclear. The present study implemented a Latin-square experimental design to assess the impact of parental control on children’s anxious affect, cognitions and behaviour. A non-clinical sample of 24 mothers of children aged 4-5 years were trained to engage in (a) controlling and (b) autonomy-granting behaviours in interaction with their child during the preparation of a speech. When mothers engaged in controlling parenting behaviours, children made more negative predictions about their performance prior to delivering their speech and reported feeling less happy about the task, and this was moderated by child trait anxiety. In addition, children with higher trait anxiety displayed a significant increase in observed child anxiety in the controlling condition. The pattern of results was maintained when differences in mothers’ levels of negativity and habitual levels of control were accounted for. These findings are consistent with theories that suggest that controlling parenting is a risk factor in the development of childhood anxiety.