Listen to Me: Parents’ Satisfaction with Special Needs Services in Syria – A Descriptive and Exploratory Study

Parents’ involvement in their child’s educational and therapy choices is an important aspect of their therapy. This involvement may be related to their satisfaction with their child’s service providers’ direct child services family-related involvement. Additionally, civil unrest may influence parents’ satisfaction. For example, the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, has influenced families with children in schools, and specifically children who have disabilities. The purpose of this descriptive and exploratory study was to investigate parents’ perceptions of current services provided in Syria for their children with disabilities, and to identify the services provided to Syrian children with ASD and other developmental disabilities. A total of 466 parents completed the study’s survey, with about half of the participants reporting that their child received early intervention and fewer that their child received other therapies (e.g., speech, behavioral, counseling). Parents also reported feeling unwelcome to contribute to their child’s individualized education program (IEP), and were not satisfied with the services their child received. In addition, some demographic factors, such as place of residence, the child’s current age, the child’s diagnosis, the child’s attending age at school, and which program the child was enrolled in, increased the parents’ satisfaction level. Implications and future research are discussed.

Families Face Pandemic – A Review of Psychological Suggestions and Empirical Findings Regarding the Covid-19 Pandemic

Aims. Even though child psychology researches related to a pandemic are extensive, the knowledge of practitioners about interventions and practices is still very limited. The complete novelty of such an epidemic situation in Europe, the diversity of terminology and methods are factors that make results hard to interpret. Therefore, the current study aims to give an overview of the psychological literature of the family aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods. A search was executed in four databases (Science Direct, Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar) using the following keywords: pandemic, Covid 19, family, children, adolescents, anxiety, depression. Our review focuses only on English language literature. Results. The majority of the articles focus on non-pathological phenomena and draws attention to the behavior of healthy populations (increase in internet use, the decline of concentration). Methods were dominated by online surveys. These surveys were mainly constructed ad-hoc and they preferred to address parents. Direct child investigations are underrepresented, but several suggestions were formulated for their optimal functioning. Conclusion:. Researches focusing on psychopathology emphasize the growth in the prevalence of disorders. However, other researches are needed to explore the psychodynamics of the pandemic on the family level. Our study aimed to contribute to the field by summarizing the main findings, suggestions, and interventions hoping that it might be a useful tool for practitioners and reduce the territory of the unknown.

Association between CCC-2 and Structural Language, Pragmatics, Social Cognition, and Executive Functions in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

(1) Background: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is diagnosed when the child experiences problems in language with no known underlying biomedical condition and the information required for its correct evaluation must be obtained from different contexts. The Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC-2) covers aspects of a child’s communication related to structural language and pragmatic skills, which are linked to social cognition or executive functions. The aim of this article is to examine parents’ reports using the Spanish version of the CCC-2 questionnaire and its association with different formal assessments related to communication. (2) Methods: 30 children with DLD (3; 10–9 years old) and 39 age-matched (AM) children with typical development were assessed using formal measures of structural language, pragmatics, social cognition, and executive functions. Parents of children with DLD answered the Spanish version of the CCC-2. (3) Results: The performance of children with DLD was lower in all the formal assessments in comparison to AM children. The CCC-2 was significantly correlated with all the direct child assessments, although only formal measures of structural language predicted both the structural language and pragmatics scales of the CCC-2. (4) Conclusions: The CCC-2 answered by parents was consistent with formal assessments in children with DLD, and structural language seemed to be the best predictor of all the subscales.

Families face pandemic – A review of psychological suggestions and empirical findings regarding the Covid-19 pandemic

Aims. Even though child psychology researches related to a pandemic are extensive, the knowledge of practitioners about interventions and practices is still very limited. The complete novelty of such an epidemic situation in Europe, the diversity of terminology and methods are factors that make results hard to interpret. Therefore, the current study aims to give an overview of the psychological literature of the family aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods. A search was executed in four databases (Science Direct, Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar) using the following keywords: pandemic, Covid 19, family, children, adolescents, anxiety, depression. Our review focuses only on English language literature. Results. The majority of the articles focus on non-pathological phenomena and draws attention to the behavior of healthy populations (increase in internet use, the decline of concentration). Methods were dominated by online surveys. These surveys were mainly constructed ad-hoc and they preferred to address parents. Direct child investigations are underrepresented, but several suggestions were formulated for their optimal functioning. Conclusion:. Researches focusing on psychopathology emphasize the growth in the prevalence of disorders. However, other researches are needed to explore the psychodynamics of the pandemic on the family level. Our study aimed to contribute to the field by summarizing the main findings, suggestions, and interventions hoping that it might be a useful tool for practitioners and reduce the territory of the unknown.

Reducing Accommodation to Treat Child Anxiety

This chapter discusses reducing family accommodation as a means of treating childhood anxiety. The chapter covers both reducing family accommodation as a stand-alone treatment and reducing family accommodation as part of a broader treatment strategy that also includes direct child-based therapy. Research supporting the efficacy of reducing family accommodation to treat child anxiety is reviewed, and practical considerations such as when to introduce the topic of family accommodation and how to optimize the sequence of child and parent work are discussed. Additional benefits of reducing family accommodation, including improved family functioning, positive impact on siblings, and improved parent–child relationship are also discussed.

Evidence-Based Multifactorial Assessment of Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter

This review summarizes extant findings supporting multifactorial models of stuttering within the context of preschool-age stuttering assessment. Evidence is given for a number of speech-language and associated factors/domains to consider when evaluating young children who stutter. Selected factors are presented in two parts: (1) Caregiver Interview and (2) Direct Child Assessment. Factors addressed during caregiver interviews include: gender, time since and age at stuttering onset, family history of stuttering, caregivers' perception/concerns about stuttering, and temperament. Factors addressed during direct child assessments include: stuttering behaviors, speech-associated attitudes/awareness, and speech rate, as well as speech sound and language development. Interactions/relations among factors are noted, showing their combined effects and contributions to childhood stuttering. Additionally, suggested clinical applications are provided wherever appropriate. Such evidence and practical applications bridge the gap between theory and clinical practice, thus advancing the abilities of speech-language pathologists to conduct well-informed, comprehensive stuttering evaluations.

On the Contribution of Direct Child Observation to Psycho-Analysis

In this essay, Winnicott develops further the theme of his paper ‘The Observation of Infants in a Set Situation’ (1941) and re-emphasises the importance of direct observation to psychoanalysis.

“It Does Affect Me”

Aggressive and delinquent behaviors in preadolescents may be indicators of problems suffered at home from direct child abuse by one or both parents or indirect abuse, such as exposure to domestic violence. A total of 532 Italian preadolescents recruited in their schools took part in this study. They completed a self-report questionnaire measuring direct child abuse from mothers and fathers, exposure to mother-to-father and father-to-mother violence, and externalizing delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Results indicated high levels of delinquent and aggressive behavior, compared to normative data, as well as high levels of reported direct and indirect family abuse. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated an independent significant effect for gender, mother- to-father violence, and both paternal child abuse and maternal child abuse. Discussion includes the importance of addressing externalizing problems of adolescents as indicators of family-related abuse, which may require multiple interventions and coordination between different agencies that work with children.