Explaining the relation between early mind-mindedness and children’s mentalizing abilities: The development of an observational preschool assessment.

Aims: We explored the relation between mothers’ protective attachment strategies and those of their school-age children. Methods: In total, 49 child–mother dyads participated in a short longitudinal study when the children were 5.5 and 6.0 years old. Their strategies were first assessed with the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) and then with the School-age Assessment of Attachment (SAA). Mothers were assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). The Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM) was used to classify the assessments. Results: The validity and precision of the DMM-AAI were supported: Mothers’ AAI classifications were related to their referral group (normative or clinical) and measures of stress and distress. The DMM categories were more associated with risk than the Ainsworth categories. Types A, C and A/C were differentiated by trauma, triangulation and depression. Mothers’ and children’s protective attachment strategies were related, with B mothers having B children and A or C mothers having children using the same or opposite strategy. Children whose classification changed from the PAA to the SAA had mothers with complex traumas. Conclusion: When psychosocial treatment is needed, knowing whether mother and child use the same or different strategies and whether mothers have complex trauma can affect treatment success.

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Traduction française de la DIPA (Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment, DSM-5)

L Encéphale ◽

10.1016/j.encep.2020.11.005 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

S. Thümmler ◽

M. Gindt ◽

M. Battista ◽

F. Askenazy ◽

T. Baubet

Keyword(s):

Preschool Assessment ◽

Dsm 5

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Preschool Assessment

Encyclopedia of Special Education ◽

10.1002/9780470373699.speced1654 ◽

2008 ◽

Keyword(s):

Preschool Assessment

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The role of scaffolding in children’s questions: Implications for (preschool) language assessment from a usage-based perspective

Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association ◽

10.1515/gcla-2016-0015 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 237-260

Author(s):

Heike Behrens ◽

Karin Madlener ◽

Katrin Skoruppa

Keyword(s):

Language Production ◽

Language Assessment ◽

Test Environment ◽

Preschool Assessment ◽

Complex Sentences ◽

Preschool Language ◽

Language Assessments ◽

New Perspective ◽

Communicative Abilities

AbstractThis article outlines a range of theoretical, empirical, and practical desiderata for the design of (preschool) language assessments that follow from recent insights into language development from a cognitive-linguistic and usage-based perspective. To assess children’s productive communicative abilities rather than their ability to judge the acceptability of complex sentences in isolation is a new perspective in language testing that requires theoretical motivation as well as operationalizable criteria for judging the appropriateness of children’s language productions, and for characterizing the properties of their language command. After a brief review of the basic rationale of current strands of preschool assessment in Germany (Section 2), the fundamental usage-based assumptions regarding children’s developing linguistic competence and their implications for the design of preschool language diagnostics are characterized (Section 3). In order to assess children’s language production, in particular its flexibility and productivity in context, a test environment needs to be created in which children are allowed to use a certain range of language in meaningful contexts. Section 4 thus zooms in on the central question of scaffolding. Section 5 presents corresponding corpus evidence for adult strategies of prompting children to elaborate their answers and for typical child responses. Sections 6 and 7 discuss the corpus-based findings with respect to their implications for the design of ( preschool) language assessment and point to further challenges.

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Assessing parent—child interaction in the preschool years: A pilot study on the psychometric properties of the toddler CARE-Index

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/1359104510367585 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 379-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Anne Katrin Künster ◽

Jörg Michael Fegert ◽

Ute Ziegenhain

Keyword(s):

Assessment Tool ◽

Total Sample ◽

Clinical Settings ◽

Preschool Assessment ◽

Parental Sensitivity ◽

Child Interaction ◽

Parent Child Interaction ◽

Test Retest Reliability ◽

Care Index ◽

Parent Child

The purpose of this study was to test the utility of the Toddler CARE-Index, an assessment tool for parent—child interaction among preschool-aged children, for screening of parental sensitivity. The CARE-Index was initially developed for infants and had been adapted for toddlers up to 3 years of age. This study tests its utility for children up to 5.8 years old. Sixty-four children (2.3 to 5.8 years) and their mothers took part in the study and were examined with both the Toddler CARE-Index and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment. The sample comprised two groups, a sample that had come to professional attention ( n = 21) and a normative sample ( n = 43). Analysis of coder agreement showed adequate correspondence among three coders. Test-retest reliability was less robust. Testing validity, there was a significant relation between sensitivity of the mother and attachment security of the child in the total sample as well as in both subsamples. These results are a first step for using the Toddler CARE-Index as an economical and promising instrument for the assessment of parental sensitivity with children beyond toddlerhood in both normative and clinical settings.

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Introduction to the special issue: Preschool assessment and intervention

Psychology in the Schools ◽

10.1002/pits.20564 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 48 (5) ◽

pp. 427-429 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kimberly E. Ward ◽

Barbara A. Rothlisberg

Keyword(s):

Special Issue ◽

Preschool Assessment

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Attachment, parenting, and marital dissatisfaction as predictors of disruptive behavior in preschoolers

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579401002024 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 215-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

CRYSTAL DEVITO ◽

JOYCE HOPKINS

Keyword(s):

Disruptive Behavior ◽

Parenting Practices ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Insecure Attachment ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Preschool Assessment ◽

Attachment Parenting ◽

Permissive Parenting ◽

Marital Dissatisfaction ◽

Attachment Pattern

The aim of this study was to examine if an insecure coercive attachment pattern is associated with disruptive behavior in preschoolers, as well as to examine the concurrent and joint effects of attachment pattern, marital dissatisfaction, and ineffective parenting practices on disruptive behavior. Participants included 60 preschoolers and their mothers, recruited from three sites to ensure an adequate range of disruptive behavior. The Preschool Assessment of Attachment (Crittenden, 1992) was used to measure attachment pattern. Results of an analysis of variance revealed that children in the coercively attached dyads scored significantly higher on the measure of disruptive behavior than either the defended or secure children. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the combination of a coercive pattern of attachment, marital dissatisfaction, and permissive parenting practices accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in disruptive behavior in preschoolers. These data suggest that a specific type of insecure attachment, a coercive pattern, is associated with disruptive behavior in preschoolers. Also, the data are consistent with previous findings of associations among marital dissatisfaction, ineffective parenting practices, and disruptive behavior.

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