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Maternal responsive-didactic caregiving in play interactions with 10-month-olds and cognitive development at 18 months
No full textMaternal responsive–didactic caregiving (RDC) and infant advanced object play were investigated in a sample of 400 mothers and their 10-month-old infants during video-recorded semi-structured play interactions. Three maternal behaviours: contingent response, cognitively stimulating language and autonomy-promoting speech were coded and infant object play. Factor analysis confirmed the three maternal behaviours loaded onto one underlying factor, labelled RDC. Based on ecological and transactional theories of development, associations between RDC and infant (advanced object play), maternal (age, education, ethnicity and first language) and family (size and home adversity) factors were investigated. Multiple regressions (1) explored the predictors of maternal RDC and (2) tested the possible role of maternal RDC in predicting infant intellectual development at 18 months. At 10 months, infants showing higher levels of play maturity experienced more maternal responsive and didactic feedback. All mother and family characteristics predicted variations in maternal RDC. Predicting 18-month cognitive development, RDC had significant effect over and above maternal education, home adversity and infant play. Mother's first language remained significant, reflecting that RDC, in this investigation, relies heavily on language input. The findings highlight the importance of both contingent response and didactic contributions in interactions to subsequent cognitive development as early as the first year
'You kind of pull back the layers': The experience of inter-professional supervision with educational psychologists
No full textSupervision is considered by the British Psychological Society to be an essential element of delivering high quality services. In a national online survey, it was found that 28.6% of Educational Psychologists (EPs) reported supervising other professionals who work with children and young people in a range of settings. In the context of a large county council, Family Support Key Workers (FSKWs) work with pre-school aged children with significant and severe needs, their families and pre-school settings. EPs have been commissioned by the Local Authority as part of their core work to offer supervision to FSKWs for over 15 years. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experience of FSKWs engaging in inter-professional supervision with EPs and enhance the findings of previous studies through gaining a deeper insight into how FSKWs experience and make sense of supervision. Seven FSKWs who had engaged in supervision with EPs over a period of 10-15 years took part in the study. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to ask about experiences, and the transcriptions were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Five overarching themes were identified and are discussed. Supervisees experienced a safe relationship with the EPs and the opportunity for the deeper exploration of the self. They also experienced supervision as a learning space and had the choice of whether to engage in supervision. The findings also describe movements in, and changes in these experiences over time. Each of the themes are considered in light of existing literature. The importance of establishing a foundational relationship to create space for the deeper exploration of the self to support learning and development is emphasised. The implications these findings have on EP practice are considered in relation to existing theories and frameworks
You can't always be at school, you need to move on: A multi-perspective study exploring the experiences of young people with learning difficulties and their parents during post-school transition
No full textThe experience of post-school transition for young people with learning difficulties can be a challenging time as it marks a significant change in their lives. Although government policy has recommended that schools involve both young people and their parents in all aspects of post-school transition processes, research has frequently found low levels of involvement by parties during post-school transition planning (e.g. collaboration and decision-making). The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of young people with moderate learning difficulties and their parents as they transition from a special school sixth-form unit to a post-school provision (mainstream Further Education college). An idiographical investigation of the experiences of young people and their parents of post-school transition was conducted. Through applying a multi-perspective approach and an exploratory qualitative research design, data in the form of twelve transcripts, derived from sound recording was obtained using semi structured interviews with six participants (three young people with moderate learning difficulties and one of each of their parents) before the young people moved to college and after their move. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse the young people’s and parents’ accounts of their transition and the following three key themes were found to be applicable across all cases: (i) Adjusting to Change; (ii) Involvement and Support; and (iii) Moving Towards Adulthood. These themes are similar to previous research, which has explored experiences of post-school transition for youngsters and parents. These research findings raised some important implications for Educational Psychologists with regards to support for both young people with learning difficulties and their parents and carers during transition, including support and training for key adults in order to enable them to think about the emotional impact of transition and individual therapeutic support for young people during this significant period in their lives
A systematic audit and evaluation of archival assessment records in a residential assessment service for children, adolescents, and families
No full text“Actually we have it all wrong, when we say we look forward to the future. The future is a void and we walk, so as to say, blindly with our backs towards it. At best we see what we have left behind”. (Fritz Perls, 1969). “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” (Richard Rohr, 2003). This work is an evaluation of assessment work completed in my employment setting. I work as Senior Psychologist for Tusla, Child and Family Agency, (formerly Health Service Executive, H.S.E.), in a residential assessment service that provides multi-discipline assessment of children, adolescents, and families for community social work teams, located in counties Cork and Kerry, in the Republic of Ireland. The service was established in 2000. Over the years there have been changes in the landscape of service provision, (in terms of: legislation; service configuration and provision; changes in the personnel of the assessment team, and among referring agents). During the existence of the service, there has been an apparently unlimited range of reasons for referral, with a large number of referrals lacking clear, specifically, stated reasons, (rather being stated in the form of a list, or history of problems within a family unit, ort within a child/adolescent). This mixed methods evaluation examines archival assessment Report records for the first 10 years of service operation. Data have been managed using MaxQDA qualitative analysis software. Quantitative analysis of information about all completed assessments for the first ten years of operation of the service is undertaken, with qualitative content analysis of a smaller sample of electronic records from five selected annual cohorts. I have discussed how findings from the research have supported the design, development, and implementation of a new model for practice within the service
A good death?
Get PDFThis paper offers some personal reflections on the idea of ‘a good death’, a theme in the writing of philosophers since classical times. The hospice movement has made immense progress in creating conditions in which we can ‘die better’. But such experiences are still the exception rather than the rule. The psychological challenge is how to relate to the dying as they are dying, and how as we die we relate to the living. I reflect on my own experience of my father’s death, and a moment of fleeting but genuine contact between us. Atul Gawande’s idea of the ‘hard conversations’ we must learn to have as we approach death are enlightening. Ultimately I argue, we die alone, and how we are, or are not, ‘held in mind’ as we approach death may be an index of the nearest we can approach to the idea of an ‘afterlife’
A 'fifth wave' systemic practice punctuating liberation: Reflective practice and collective social action
No full textUnaccompanied asylum seeking children emotional health and wellbeing: Early interventions. An action research project
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Teaching Meltzer: Modes and approaches
No full textThis book is one of a short series on the teaching of post-Kleinian analysis, with a companion volume on Teaching Bion.The trials and tribulations of teaching are intimately connected with those of learning, and indeed have parallels with psychoanalysis in so far as this may in itself be considered a specialised mode of education. The variety of approaches recounted in this volume have been devised and refined over time and demonstrate the imaginative commitment and struggles of practitioners.Donald Meltzer's hopes for the survival of psychoanalysis rested not on schools and didacticism but on the capacity of the next generation to learn from their own experience with the aid of their internal teachers.His writings are often said to be 'difficult' by students without personal experience of his teaching. Yet Meltzer himself said his motto was 'simplicity' and he never tried to be obscurantist, but concentrated increasingly on how to make complex matters 'simple', relevant and digestible.This book shows how this aspiration to a complex simplicity can be conveyed by those who have absorbed it. Its relevance therefore goes beyond the conceptual framework of an individual analyst, and sheds new light on the task of enabling the psychoanalytic attitude in both students and teachers