What your tot says about learning to talk

This leaflet was developed for parents and carers of babies aged between one and two years old who need help learning to talk.

Avaluació i intervenció psicoeducativa en les relacions materno/paterno-filials en famílies desestructurades

Anàlisi, avaluació i intervenció psicoeducativa en un programa assistencial i de suport a les relacions materno/paternofilials en famílies desestructurades. Els usuaris són els pares i les mares separats o divorciats (i els seus fills menors) amb conflictes entre ells i on ha estat el jutge qui ha establert el règim de visites. Es dóna suport i orientació als progenitors i als menors que acudeixen al centre per a fer l'intercanvi o l'estada del menor amb el progenitor no custodi, per a facilitar i millorar la relació entre les parts (menors, part custòdia i part no-custòdia).

Mothers' feelings about breastfeeding their premature babies in a rooming-in facility

This study aimed at learning about the feelings experienced by mothers while breastfeeding their premature babies in a rooming-in facility, by means of individual interviews with 33 mothers during the period of February to April 2006, at a maternity hospital in Natal/RN/Brazil. The main feelings referred by the mothers regarding their inability to breastfeed their premature babies immediately after delivery were: sorrow, guilt, disappointment, frustration, insecurity, and fear of touching, holding or harming the delicate babies while breastfeeding. However, the mother-child bond that was formed when the baby was discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and taken to the rooming-in facility was reflected by feelings of fulfillment, pride, and satisfaction at experiencing the first breastfeeding.

Meaning of becoming mother and son/daughter through massage


Objective: Revealing the experience of mothers when massaging their children to know the phenomenon in the context of a mother-child healthy development. Method: This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach carried out with 11 women who massaged their children and answered the guiding question: What did the experience of massaging your child mean to you? Results: The experience of massaging their children meant the development of their being a mother and of being a son/daughter, in addition to developing the attachment relationship between them. The massage can operationalize this integrality, become a tool of communication, stimulation and promotion of secure attachment, by promoting the loving interaction between mother and child. Conclusion: This practice should be considered as an option in the programs that promote the comprehensive health of the mother and child.



Understanding triadic and family group interactions during infancy and toddlerhood.

This paper outlines recent conceptual and methodological developments in the assessment of triadic and family group process during infancy and toddlerhood. Foundations of the emerging family group process are identified, and conditions specific to the assessment of the family during the early phases of family formation are summarized. Both microanalytic and global approaches to evaluating mother-father-child interactions are discussed. We highlight both similarities and differences in the strategies and methods employed by several different investigators who have been studying the group dynamics of families with infant and toddler children, and underscore several important family patterns and emerging themes that appear to be cutting across these different methods and measurement strategies. Preliminary evidence for the validity and clinical significance of family-level assessments is summarized, and directions currently being pursued by researchers engaged in studies of the family triad are outlined. We close by identifying several conceptual and clinical issues that remain to be addressed by subsequent work.

Pédiatrie. 1. Comment favoriser le développement de l'oralité en néonatologie [Pediatrics. How can we improve oral feeding in the neonatal intensive care unit?].

Preterm or sick neonates are frequently hampered in establishing a safe and efficient oral feeding. This can delay hospital discharge and impact on parent-child bonding, growth or neurodevelopment. Recent researches identified a pattern of interventions that could allow to reduce these troubles and to shorten hospital stays.

Having a good relationship with their mother: a protective factor against sexual risk behavior among adolescent females?

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess whether having a good relationship with their mother was a protective factor against risky sexual behavior for female adolescents and whether it was independent of family structure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of in-school adolescents aged 14-19 years. SETTING: Catalonia, in northeast Spain. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3677 females divided according on whether they had a good (n=3335) or a bad (n=342) relationship with their mother. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rates of sexual activity and sexual behavior. RESULTS: Adolescents in the good relationship group were significantly younger, more likely to live in an intact family, to have a good relationship with their father and siblings, and to talk about sexuality and their partner with their mother. They were also less likely to have ever had sexual intercourse. Among those sexually experienced, they were significantly older at first intercourse and less likely to have multiple partners or a history of STI. After adjusting for potential confounders, females in the good relationship group were less likely to be sexually active and to have had multiple partners, independently of family structure. CONCLUSIONS: Having a good relationship with their mother is a protective factor against sexual intercourse and having multiple sexual partners independently of family structure. Communication between generations and having a good relationship with their father and siblings also play an important role.

The specificity of the familial aggregation of early-onset bipolar disorder: A controlled 10-year follow-up study of offspring of parents with mood disorders.

BACKGROUND: Two major sources of heterogeneity of mood disorders that have been demonstrated in clinical, family and genetic studies are the mood disorder subtype (i.e. bipolar (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD)) and age of onset of mood episodes. Using a prospective high-risk study design, our aims were to test the specificity of the parent-child transmission of BPD and MDD and to establish the risk of psychopathology in offspring in function of the age of onset of the parental disorder. METHODS: Clinical information was collected on 208 probands (n=81 with BPD, n=64 with MDD, n=63 medical controls) as well as their 202 spouses and 372 children aged 6-17 years at study entry. Parents and children were directly interviewed every 3 years (mean duration of follow-up=10.6 years). Parental age of onset was dichotomized at age 21. RESULTS: Offspring of parents with early onset BPD entailed a higher risk of BPD HR=7.9(1.8-34.6) and substance use disorders HR=5.0(1.1-21.9) than those with later onset and controls. Depressive disorders were not significantly increased in offspring regardless of parental mood disorder subtype or age of onset. LIMITATIONS: Limited sample size, age of onset in probands was obtained retrospectively, age of onset in co-parents was not adequately documented, and a quarter of the children had no direct interview. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide support for the independence of familial aggregation of BPD from MDD and the heterogeneity of BPD based on patterns of onset. Future studies should further investigate correlates of early versus later onset BPD.

La importancia de las emociones en los períodos sensibles del desarrollo = The importance of emotions in sensitive developmental periods

Investigaciones recientes sugieren que en la adolescencia tienen lugar importantes cambios en la estructura,bioquímica y fisiología del cerebro que podrían explicar la dificultad que experimentan los adolescentes en elcontrol de sus emociones así como también otros rasgos de su comportamiento inestable. En este artículo presentamosalgunas investigaciones que establecen, asimismo, una correlación entre las reorganizaciones cerebrales quetienen lugar en el primer año de vida con signos de irritabilidad y desazón emocional que muestra el bebédurante este periodo. En ambos casos la dificultad de controlar los impulsos emocionales es susceptible de afectarla relación de los padres con el niño o joven. Discutimos la posible relevancia de esta coincidencia dentro de unaperspectiva evolucionista así como la posible vulnerabilidad de estos períodos. Finalmente, apuntamos la necesidadde una teoría integradora del desarrollo humano y ofrecemos algunos puntos de debate

Learning to be literate : parental empowerment in early literacy interventions

Considerable research has focused on the success of early intervention programs for children. However, minimal research has focused on the effect these programs have on the parents of targeted children. Many current early intervention programs champion family-focused and inclusive programming, but few have evaluated parent participation in early interventions and fewer still have evaluated the impact of these programs on beliefs and attitudes and parenting practices. Since parents will continue to play a key role in their child's developmental course long after early intervention programs end, it is vital to examine whether these programs empower parents to take action to make changes in the lives of their children. The goal of this study was to understand parental influences on the early development of literacy, and in particular how parental attitudes, beliefs and self efficacy impact parent and child engagement in early literacy intervention activities. A mixed method procedure using quantitative and qualitative strategies was employed. A quasi-experimental research design was used. The research sample, sixty parents who were part of naturally occurring community interventions in at- risk neighbourhoods in a south-western Ontario city participated in the quantitative phase. Largely individuals whose home language was other than English, these participants were divided amongst three early literacy intervention groups, a Prescriptive Interventionist type group, a Participatory Empowering type group and a drop-in parent- child neighbourhood Control group. Measures completed pre and post a six session literacy intervention, on all three literacy and evidence of change in parental empowerment. Parents in all three groups, on average, held beliefs about early literacy that were positive and that were compatible with current approaches to language development and emergent literacy. No significant change in early literacy beliefs and attitudes for pre to post intervention was found. Similarly, there was no significant difference between groups on empowerment scores, but there was a significant change post intervention in one group's empowerment score. There was a drop in the empowerment score for the Prescriptive Interventionist type group, suggesting a drop in empowerment level. The qualitative aspect of this study involved six in-depth interviews completed with a sub-set of the sixty research participants. Four similar themes emerged across the groups: learning takes place across time and place; participation is key; success is achieved by taking small steps; and learning occurs in multiple ways. The research findings have important implications for practitioners and policy makers who target at risk populations with early intervention programming and wish to sustain parental empowerment. Study results show the value parents place on early learning and point to the importance of including parents in the development and delivery of early intervention programs. groups, were analyzed for evidence of change in parental attitudes and beliefs about early literacy and evidence of change in parental empowerment. Parents in all three groups, on average, held beliefs about early literacy that were positive and that were compatible with current approaches to language development and emergent literacy. No significant change in early literacy beliefs and attitudes for pre to post intervention was found. Similarly, there was no significant difference between groups on empowerment scores, but there was a significant change post intervention in one group's empowerment score. There was a drop in the empowerment score for the Prescriptive Interventionist type group, suggesting a drop in empowerment level. The qualitative aspect of this study involved six in-depth interviews completed with a sub-set of the sixty research participants. Four similar themes emerged across the groups: learning takes place across time and place; participation is key; success is achieved by taking small steps; and learning occurs in multiple ways. The research findings have important implications for practitioners and policy makers who target at risk populations with early intervention programming and wish to sustain parental empowerment. Study results show the value parents place on early learning and point to the importance of including parents in the development and delivery of early intervention programs.

Corporal punishment : understanding the debate in Canada

There has been considerable debate over whether corporal punishment against children should be prohibited in Canada. Various organizations, most notably the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law, have argued that the Canadian Government should ban the use of corporal punishment by repealing the specific section of the Canadian Criminal Code that provides parents with a legal defence to use corporal punishment against their children; this provision is outlined in Section 43 of the Criminal Code. Recently, the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law challenged the constitutionality of Section 43 before the Supreme Court of Canada. The organization claimed Section 43 is unconstitutional. It violates children's Charter rights, such as the right to security of a person (Section 7), the right to be protected from cruel and unusual treatment (Section 12), and denies children the same protection adults receive under the law. Both the Canadian government and the Supreme Court of Canada reject the Foundation's arguments. Examining the federal government and the judicial system's rationale for refusing to remove Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code discloses how the parent-child relationship is perceived. This thesis examines how the parent-child relationship is perceived by the Canadian government and the issues that arise from such a view. This examination is essential for the comprehension of why Canada's corporal punishment law was enacted and remains in effect today.

Problem children with and without communication delays : the changes in their parents' report of challenging behaviour, parental hassles and family conflict over a two -year period

The goal of this study was to examine the change, over a two year period, in mothers' reports of children's challenging behaviour and family conflict as they relate to change in parenting hassles (stress) among families who have preschool children with and without communication delays. Forty-four parent-child dyads participated in this Family Resource Project study that was funded by the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. Thirty-one ofthese families had preschool children with communication delays and 13 children were identified as not having communication delays. Child behaviour was evaluated using the Oppositional Subscale and ADHD Index of the Conners Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-R:S), the Conflict Subscale ofthe Family Environment Scale was used to examine family conflict, and the Parent Hassles Scale was used to examine parental stress. Results showed that change in mothers' daily hassles was influenced by change in their preschool children's ADHD behaviour and change in family conflict. Change in child oppositional behaviour did not predict change in mothers' hassles scores.

Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Children's influence on mothers' beliefs, values, and social/cultural practices.

Obtaining mothers' perspectives and descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mothers' values, beliefs, and/or social or cultural practices, that is, the content of socialization, was the primary aim of this research. Bakhtin's (2004) metatheoretical account of dialogism was used to frame this study. From a dialogic perspective utterances (for example, the utterances of children in the present study) are events or acts and are presented as one way to view the process of socialization. In part this purpose, and the decision to utilize a qualitative research orientation, was to address a call (Lollis & Kuczynski, 1997) for qualitative or microanalytic analyses to help elucidate the processes of socialization. Mothers (N=10) in this study were able to provide descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mother and hence we have some description of the concept of bidirectionality, a well accepted, but undertheorized concept in developmental psychology. While the concepts of multiple sources of influence and contexts are salient areas of research in parent-child socialization, and were mentioned in the informants reporting these areas did not appear to be as salient in the mothers' accounts. Emotions and the meaning mothers 'derived' from the interactions did, however, take much more prominence in the described incidents.

Intervention éducationnelle de massage auprès de parents de nouveau-nés prématurés dans le but de favoriser leur sensibilité parentale

Rapport de stage présenté à la Faculté des sciences infirmières en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître ès sciences (M.Sc.) en sciences infirmières option expertise-conseil en soins infirmiers