TIAP: an observational procedure for assessing family relationships: a clinical case from the parenting evaluation context.

TIAP is an observational procedure to assess family functioning detecting simultaneously the role of each participant and the interdependence of relational behaviors. In particular, the procedure requires family members to play according to different interactive configurations (parent1-children; parent2-children, all together, children and parents as separate units) and therefore different microtransitions from one configuration to another. As such, the procedure allows to study how family members coordinate to maintain stability, promote change, and encourage members to explore different interactive configurations within the family system. TIAP has been validated through several studies conducted with different non-clinical groups of families that have highlighted the salient aspects of family functioning, and significant correlations with variables external to the family system, such as children's social-emotional competence in the educational context. This paper focuses on the use of TIAP in the contexts of assessing parental competence. Specifically, the article aims to describe, through the reference to a clinical case, the results emerged from a study conducted with 33 families involved in a parenting assessment process. The study is part of a broader collaborative project between the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Clinic of the Italian National Health Service in Parma, the University of Parma, and the Bologna Family Therapy Center. TIAP was administered to all the families involved as a complement to other tools routinely used for all cases handled by the professionals of the clinic. The coding system includes different indices. Some analyze the interactive family modes: family coordination (mutual attention and responsiveness), the responses to potentials for change (disregard, absorption, amplification), and intra-familiar exploration. Other indices concern the quality of the interactions: the relational triadic dynamic of microtransition (detaching-entrusting-welcoming-joining) and the consistency/inconsistency of the communication channels. The results highlighted how TIAP makes it possible to identify the specific interactive modalities of the different members and their interdependence and reciprocity, favoring the identification of both family weaknesses and family resources, including the children's contribution. Furthermore, the general data trend showed that TIAP indices detect some important prognostic elements capable of guiding the court's decisions.

Synchrony perception across senses: A systematic review of temporal binding window changes from infancy to adolescence in typical and atypical development.

Sensory integration is increasingly acknowledged as being crucial for the development of cognitive and social abilities. However, its developmental trajectory is still little understood. This systematic review delves into the topic by investigating the literature about the developmental changes from infancy through adolescence of the Temporal Binding Window (TBW) - the epoch of time within which sensory inputs are perceived as simultaneous and therefore integrated. Following comprehensive searches across PubMed, Elsevier, and PsycInfo databases, only experimental, behavioral, English-language, peer-reviewed studies on multisensory temporal processing in 0-17-year-olds have been included. Non-behavioral, non-multisensory, and non-human studies have been excluded as those that did not directly focus on the TBW. The selection process was independently performed by two Authors. The 39 selected studies involved 2859 participants in total. Findings indicate a predisposition towards cross-modal asynchrony sensitivity and a composite, still unclear, developmental trajectory, with atypical development associated to increased asynchrony tolerance. These results highlight the need for consistent and thorough research into TBW development to inform potential interventions.

DRAW.IN.G.: A tool to explore children's representation of the preschool environment.

The use of drawing as a research tool has often been the subject of debate in the field of developmental psychology, especially for the exploration of children's meanings on a specific topic. Methodological limitations do emerge when using drawing in research, especially in preschool age. One of the main critical aspects concerns the lack of systematic and standardized coding methods that include clear and operationalizable categories to analyze the content of the drawings, and that associate a brief interview with the children aimed at avoiding misinterpretations. To bridge this gap, the present contribution introduces a new methodological tool named DRAW.IN.G. (DRAWing and Interview Grid), consisting of a specific procedure and a coding system that allow for a systematic investigation of implicit and explicit levels of children's representation emerging via drawings and interviews. The specific topic investigated by DRAW.IN.G. is children's representation of the preschool environment; the scarcity of studies on this issue, despite the importance of including children's point of view in the design processes of educational spaces makes the tool particularly current and relevant to fill some gaps in research in the educational field. The DRAW.IN.G. coding system, developed on the basis of existing literature on the analysis of drawings, includes five main dimensions of children's representation of the educational environment: physical, behavioral, relational, emotional and motivational dimensions, articulated in 18 macro-categories and 90 categories that make up the scoring grid. To assess the validity of the method, a first application was conducted with a sample of 262 children (141 males, 121 females; mean age = 55.78 months; SD = 11.10; range 37-77 months) from five Italian preschools. Categorical inter-rater reliability of two independent raters showed good to excellent agreement for the categories of the grid, indicating their appropriateness and clarity. The validation study indicated the potential of the method, also revealing some critical aspects to be considered. Both methodological and practical implications are discussed.

Perspective Taking Ability in Psychologically Maltreated Children: A Protective Factor in Peer Social Adjustment.

Perspective taking is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct characterized by three components: cognitive, affective, and visual. The experience of psychological maltreatment impairs the child's emotional competence; in particular, maltreated children present difficulty in understanding and regulating emotions and in social understanding ability. In addition, the literature contains several contributions that highlight maladaptive behaviors of children with a history of maltreatment in peer interactions in the school context. Perspective taking ability has rarely been studied in maltreated children and the existing studies have produced different and often conflicting results that require further insights. On the grounds of these premises, the main objective of the present research is to investigate perspective taking ability in preschool children from maltreating and non-maltreating family contexts and its role in social adjustment, in terms of prosocial and aggressive behavior toward peers inside the kindergarten. A second objective is to verify the effectiveness of a training aimed to promote perspective taking ability in victims of psychological maltreatment. This research, organized into two separate studies, involved 249 preschool children: 206 children from non-maltreating family contexts and 43 brought up in psychologically maltreating families. Perspective taking was measured via the administration of several tests, and prosocial behavior and aggressiveness were observed via non-participant observations in the school context. The training involved maltreated children in small-group meetings based on familiar and appealing activities within the mother-child community. The overall results show that children's perspective taking ability, in particular the affective perspective taking, contributed to social adjustment. In fact, greater affective perspective taking ability was correlated to a higher frequency of prosocial behaviors toward peers and minor frequency of aggressiveness. Finally, the results of the training (pre/post-test comparison) showed an increase in perspective taking, especially in the affective dimension, and a consequent increase in prosocial behaviors and a decrease in aggressive ones. Therefore, the affective perspective taking ability seems to represent a very significant protective factor, which should be focused and strengthened in order to improve the social adaptation of preschool children who are victims of psychological abuse.

'Putting oneself in someone else's shoes during childhood: How to learn it' Training for preschool age children.

BACKGROUND: Perspective taking, defined as the aptitude to understand the cognitive, affective, and visual point of view of others, represents a fundamental social ability for the development of socio-cognitive and affective skills. AIMS: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possibility of promoting perspective taking in typically developmental preschoolers using an evidence-based training procedure. SAMPLE AND METHOD: The research used a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design in which 206 typically developmental preschoolers (104 males and 102 females) were categorized into the experimental or the control group. In order to try to improve perspective taking, we proposed an evidence-based ecological intervention inside the kindergarten in which children, in small groups, were involved in activities such as storytelling, discussion, drawing, and dramatization. We measured the perspective taking ability through several tests and prosocial behaviour through repeated ecological non-participant observations both before and after the training. The training, which lasted 15 days, was subdivided into nine different sessions, each lasting 45 min, and involved small groups of 6-7 children. Before and after the training, each child completed nine perspective taking tasks (three tasks for each perspective taking dimension) and was observed three times, each one for 45 min, on different days. RESULTS: Results showed a significant increase in perspective taking scores after training in the experimental condition relative to the control condition, supporting the possibility of promoting perspective taking ability in preschoolers. An increase in prosocial behaviour after training was also observed in the experimental group as compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, these results suggest it is possible to improve perspective taking in preschoolers, also promoting prosocial abilities.

Reflective Practice: A Method to Improve Teachers' Well-Being. A Longitudinal Training in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers.

Various studies focused on educational contexts (0-6 years) point out that early childhood multi-age classrooms provide better learning strategies and socio-emotional competences of children, compared to single-grade classrooms. However, these studies have also shed light on the significant role of teachers. The multi-age classroom in particular is an opportunity for child development, provided that teachers consider problem-solving, flexibility, and co-construction as effective education strategies. Starting from these reflections, this study aimed to verify the efficacy of longitudinal training for the purpose of advancing the perceived well-being of early childhood teachers of multi-age groupings (18-54 months). Eight teachers and one pedagogical coordinator of an Italian Early Childhood Education and Care center took part in the study. All the participants were females. The critical aspect identified by the teachers was the multi-age classroom, which was perceived as making teaching and learning very difficult and ineffective for both themselves and for the children. The training lasted 10 months and implied a methodology focused on observations of some activities and reflective practice in the group that concerned both teachers and the pedagogical coordinator. The training involved the drafting of two types of written protocols: the observational reports of the specific activities observed (20), and the descriptive reports of reflective sessions (6). The content analysis of the reports revealed various and interesting themes regarding the teachers' perceived well-being, in terms of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. The qualitative and longitudinal analysis of the themes that emerged in these protocols highlighted different processes of change in the teachers' perception, in particular with respect to three specific dimensions of well-being: sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and agency. At the end of the training, the teachers experienced a greater sense of belonging to the group of colleagues, a greater sense of self-efficacy, and an idea of themselves as active and meaningful participants. These results supported different reflections regarding the modalities through which to enhance the perceived well-being of teachers.

The study of Triadic Family Interactions: the Proposal of an Observational Procedure.

In the present article we provide an analytical review of 26 recent studies, which investigated triadic mother-father-child interactions through observational procedures. We focused on the methodological framework and compared the studies according to different criteria, in order to highlight the complexity of the object of study as well as the variety of dimensions and measures that have been used. Even if all the considered studies were designed to analyze triads, very few used coherently triadic categories; most of them focused on the individual members of the triad or on the parents with respect to the child. Joining the research that have stressed the importance of focusing on the reciprocal interactions of all members of the triad, we propose a methodological procedure that allows to describe the triad as a system without losing sight of the single participants and the simultaneity, interdependence, and processuality of their actions.

Speaking about emotional events in hospital: the role of health-care professionals in children emotional experiences.

This paper presents a qualitative study aimed at exploring the role of health-care professionals in hospitalized children's emotional experiences. A total of 27 children and adolescents from ages 6 to 15 years admitted to the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology ward of an Italian hospital participated in the study. Each participant was asked to talk about an emotional experience of happiness, anger, sadness and fear, felt in the presence of a doctor or nurse on the ward. The emotional tales were coded and analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that all the emotions considered were experienced when the staff was present, nurses in particular. Doctors and nurses played a role of active participants, encouraging children's emotions, especially for happy events. More research is needed to clarify the role of the staff in supporting children to cope with negative emotions.