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Caregivers’ Mind-mindedness in Family and Out-of-home Contexts: Methodological Perspectives
No full textCaregivers’ Mind-mindedness in Family and Out-of-home Contexts: Methodological Perspectives Veronica Ornaghi 1 & Chiara Suttora 2 1 Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy 2 Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy [email protected] Chair: Veronica Ornaghi, Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy Discussant: Dorit Aram, Department of School Counseling and Special Education Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel Keywords: mind-mindedness, childcare, mental-state talk, interaction skills, emotion socialization Caregivers’ mind-mindedness (MM) has been shown to be a key predictor of children’s socio-cognitive, emotion and language development (Meins et al., 2003; Longobardi et al., 2017, Senhei et al., 2018). MM has been widely studied in the family context and less in out-of-home educational settings such as childcare centers (Degotardi & Sweller, 2012). It is usually measured through adults’ mental-state comments when talking to or about the children. The recent new lines of research request these traditional methodological procedures to be revised and adapted to other contexts. The aim of the symposium is to investigate MM both in the family and early childcare center through new methodological perspectives. Furthermore, the symposium contributes to advance our understanding of adults’ MM by investigating its unexplored associations with other psychological variables, such as beliefs, socialization styles, and interactive skills. The symposium consists of three contributions, one of which has been carried out in the family context while the other two have been conducted in early childcare centers. The first study longitudinally investigates the association between maternal MM and the emergence of mental-state language in 18-to-30 months old children. The second paper focuses on how and to what extent early childhood teachers’ MM relates to their beliefs about emotion and their emotion socialization, while also taking into account their age, level of education, teaching experience and training in emotion education. Finally, the third study investigates the relationship between caregivers’ MM and some structural quality factors (such as children’s group size, group type, and situation), as well as caregivers’ education, work experience, and interactive skills. This symposium will offer an occasion to focus on the new lines of research on MM and to discuss new methodological perspectives
Semantic Contingency of Maternal Verbal Input Directed at Very Preterm and Full-Term Children
Full text linkSeveral studies have testified to the importance of a responsive linguistic input for children's language acquisition and development. In particular, maternal use of expansions, imitations, interpretations, and labels has been shown to promote both children's language comprehension and production. From this perspective, the present study examined the semantically contingent linguistic input addressed to very preterm children's comparing it to that directed to full-term children observed during a semi-structured play session when the children were 24 months of age. The relationships between maternal contingent utterances and children's communicative repertoires were also investigated. The main results showed that mothers of full-term children produced a higher proportion of semantically contingent utterances than those of very preterm children; moreover, this variable was associated with children's more advanced communicative-linguistic outcomes. Overall, this study supports the interdependence between mothers' use of certain linguistic strategies and children's communicative-linguistic repertoire, extending this evidence to children born very preterm and suggesting the importance of considering the semantic contingency aspect of child-directed speech to support the communicative and linguistic development of these children
Comunicazione gestuale e sviluppo linguistico nei bambini nati pretermine
No full textGestural communication and linguistic development in children born pre-term Several studies on typically developing children have demonstrated an inherent continuity between the ability to use communicative gestures and subsequent linguistic development. In particular, the production of pointing, as well as its onset, are valid predictors of language production and comprehension. The development of communicative gestures has also been explored in atypically developing populations, starting from the assumption that gestural communication may compensate for deficits or delays in linguistic development. However, with regards to children born pre-term, studies on gestural communication have not been carried out. This study aims to examine the development of communicative gestures in a group of children born pre-term. Further, the relation between the ability to produce communicative gestures and the development of productive and receptive vocabularies shall be investigated. 17 preterm children, with their mothers, participated in a 15 minute video-recorded session of play with objects when they were 12 and 18 months of corrected age. All spontaneous gestural productions were coded as deictic, referential and emphatic; moreover, mental and motor development was assessed by means of Bayley Scales of Infant Development and linguistic competences with MacArthur Communicative Inventory. Results indicate that at both developmental stages the children showed low levels of comunicative-gestural productions, despite the continuity in the individual differences with regard to the frequency of gestures produced per minute. In particular, the production of pointing seems to be associated to both the Bayley Scales scores and, to a lesser degree, to the gestational age and birth-weight. Regarding the relation between communicative gestures and language development a positive correlation between pointing gestures and linguistic comprehension was found, as well as an association between the production of referential gestures and productive vocabulary size
Adolescenti e comunicazione mediata tecnologicamente: impostazione e dati di una ricerca
No full textQuali sono le ragioni evolutive, affettive e profonde che spingono un adolescente a utilizzare la tastiera per dialogare con la migliore amica o con i compagni di scuola? Quali comunicazioni, significati e contenuti transitano in internet e nella rete telefonica, attraverso l’utilizzo di programmi come Messenger, nella scrittura degli sms e nell’invio degli “squilli”? Il volume mette a disposizione di genitori, insegnanti ed educatori degli strumenti per sostenere il processo di crescita degli adolescenti
Gestural development and its relation to language acquisition in very preterm children
No full textThis longitudinal study examined the development of communicative gesture in 16 preterm children and two groups of full term children at 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Children's spontaneous communicative gestures were analyzed during mother–child observation sessions. Preterm children's motor, mental and linguistic development were also measured. The development of gestural communication did not significantly differ between the groups except for the use of gesture-plus-word combinations at 18 and 24 months, when full term children produced significantly more combinations than preterm children. For preterm children, the production of pointing at 12 months was positively associated with lexical skills at 24 months as was the use of gestures-plus-word utterances at 18 months with morphosyntactic skills at 24 months. Our analyses also revealed a subgroup of preterm children characterized by a low birth-weight and mental scores who demonstrated an enduring increase in communicative gesture production over time. This profile could be associated with later delays in language acquisition
Maternal speech to preterm infants during the two years of life: stability and change
No full textBackground: Studies on typical language development documented that mothers fine‐tune their verbal input to children's advancing skills and development. Although premature birth has often been associated with delays in communicative and language development, studies investigating maternal language addressed to these children are still rare.
Aims: The principal aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the maternal speech directed at very preterm children by examining its changes across time and the stability of maternal individual styles.
Methods & Procedures: A sample of 16 mother–preterm infant dyads participated in semi‐structured play sessions when children were 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of corrected age. Maternal speech directed at the children was analysed in terms of lexical and syntactical complexity as well as verbal productivity. Also children's motor, cognitive and communicative skills were assessed.
Outcomes & Results: Results highlight an overall increase in the lexical and syntactical complexity and in the amount of maternal speech across the first years of life. At the same time, individual maternal communicative styles seem stable as infants grow older, even if between 12 and 18 months all the indices’ predictive values decrease, indicating a noteworthy modification in individual maternal styles. Furthermore, between 12 and 18 months predictive relationships between children's motor and vocal skills and maternal changes in input were found.
Conclusions & Implications: Verbal input addressed to children born preterm during the first 2 years of life does not seem to differ considerably from the language usually used with full‐term infants. Nevertheless, maternal verbal adjustments seem to be predicted by earlier infant achievements in vocal and motor development. This suggests that infants’ motor skill maturation may function as a major signal for mothers of preterm babies to adjust aspects of their linguistic interactive style
From prematurity to parenting stress: The mediating role of perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder
No full textPreterm delivery may lead to the emergence of symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD), which may, in turn, affect the quality of the mother-child relationship. The aim of this study is to shed light on the development of parenting stress in mothers of preterm and full-term children. It is hypothesized that PTSD symptoms mediate the relationship between preterm/full-term birth and the levels of parenting stress. Perinatal PTSD, parenting stress and social support were assessed in 156 mothers of full-term children and 87 mothers of preterm children. Mothers of preterm children experienced more post-traumatic stress and parenting stress than mothers of full-term children. However, the relationship between preterm delivery and subsequent levels of parenting stress was mediated by PTSD symptoms. These findings suggest that the maternal perception of childbirth as a traumatic experience and the subsequent development of PTSD symptoms are pivotal in the emergence of parenting stress
A comparison of characteristics of early communication exchanges in mother-preterm and mother-full-term infant dyads
No full textCommunication in 32 mother-infant dyads (18 mother-preterm infants and 14 mother-full-term infants) was observed during semi-structured play sessions when the children were 6 months of age. Maternal speech directed to the child was assessed in terms of complexity, verbal productivity and function of the utterances. This study also analysed turn-taking interaction structure and the children's prelinguistic development. The results show differences between the interactive patterns of term and preterm mother-infant dyads. In particular, mother-preterm infant conversations were characterized by high maternal responsiveness and lack of activity on the part of the infant
Can you hear what I feel? A validated prosodic set of angry, happy, and neutral Italian pseudowords
No full textThis contribution aims to establish a set of validated vocal Italian pseudowords that convey three emotional tones (angry, happy, and neutral) for prosodic emotional processing research. We elaborated the materials by following a series of specific steps. First, we tested the valence of a set of written pseudowords generated by specific software. Two Italian actors (male and female) then recorded the resulting subset of linguistically legal and neutral pseudowords in three emotional tones. Finally, on the basis of the results of independent ratings of emotional intensity, we selected a set of 30 audio stimuli expressed in each of the three different emotions. Acoustic analyses indicated that the prosodic indexes of fundamental frequency, vocal intensity, and speech rate anchored individual perceptions of the emotions expressed. Finally, the acoustic profile of the set of emotional stimuli confirmed previous findings. The happy tone stimuli showed high f0 values, high intensity, high pitch variability, and a faster speech rate. The angry tone stimuli were also characterized by high f0 and intensity, but by relatively smaller pitch variability and a lower speech rate. This last profile echoes the description of “cold anger.” This new set of prosodic emotion stimuli will constitute a useful resource for future research that requires emotional prosody materials. It could be used both for Italian and for cross-language studies
Indici di rischio nello sviluppo linguistico dei nati pretermine: il ruolo dell’input linguistico materno
No full textUn modello di riferimento fondamentale per progettare percorsi di cura e supporto dei bambini nati pretermine. L’assistenza prosegue per diversi anni dopo le dimissioni e coinvolge, oltre ai neonatologi e agli psicologi, diverse figure professionali tra cui il pediatra di famiglia, il neuropsichiatra infantile, il fisiatra, il fisioterapista, il logopedista, l’educatore e l’insegnante
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