Big Things Often Have Small Beginnings: A Review on the Development, Use and Value of Small and Big Corpora for Flemish Sign Language Linguistic Research

In 1990, Vermeerbergen started the first larger-scale corpus study with (semi)spontaneous language data from adult signers on the morpho-syntactic aspects of Flemish Sign Language (VGT). After this, a number of lexicographic projects, including the collection of a 90-h corpus, led to the launch of the first online bilingual Dutch/VGT—VGT/Dutch dictionary in 2004. Since then, researchers have developed several corpora of variable sizes, with the greatest realization being the VGT Corpus. The main focus of this chapter is twofold. On the one hand the run-up to, the development and the use of the VGT Corpus will be discussed, while on the other hand smaller specific research corpora will be highlighted such as the corpus on early parent-child interaction and the multifocal eye-tracking corpus. The current chapter will discuss the research and community value of the corpora and future directions. Finally, it will elaborate on the need for corpus research, the associated advantages and disadvantages, and the obstacles faced in smaller deaf communities.

Childhood Memories in Eating Disorders: An Explorative Study Using Diagnostic Imagery

Together with socio-cultural components, the family environment and early parent–child interactions play a role in the development of eating disorders. The aim of this study was to explore the nature of early parent–daughter relationships in a sample of 49 female inpatients with an eating disorder. To acquire a detailed image description of the childhood experiences of the patient, we used diagnostic imagery, a schema therapy-derived experiential technique. This procedure allows exploring specific contents within the childhood memory (i.e., emotions and unmet core needs), bypassing rational control, commonly active during direct verbal questioning. Additionally, patients completed self-report measures to assess for eating disorder severity, general psychopathology, and individual and parental schemas pervasiveness. Finally, we explored possible differences in the diagnostic imagery content and self-report measures in two subgroups of patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The results showed that the most frequently reported unmet needs within the childhood memories of patients were those of safety/protection, care/nurturance, and emotional expression, referred specifically to the maternal figure. Overall, mothers were described as more abandoning, but at the same time particularly enmeshed in the relationship with their daughters. Conversely, patients perceived their fathers as more emotionally inhibited and neglecting. Imagery-based techniques might represent a powerful tool to explore the nature of early life experiences in eating disorders, allowing a more detailed case conceptualization and addressing intervention on early-life vulnerability aspects in disorder treatment.

What Does Our Body Tell Us in Therapy?

Verbal interaction seems to be the main instrument of treatment. In this article the the unconscious language of the body interaction will be looked at, as it seems to be not only an important transmitter of an emotional therapeutic atmosphere, but also valid to find out the conflict contents, relation pattern, and helps to work with structural problems. Results about early parent-child interaction show like a mirror the specific needs of a successful therapy relation especially in personality disorder treatment. Counter transference is based mainly on the awareness for the own body reactions and feelings, mirroring the unconscious themes of the client. To look as a therapist how the own body reacts with specific impulses, feelings and emotions can help to discover the associated psychodynamic terms of conflict contents and structural needs. The interpretation of the own body sensations can be helpful in the application of positive and psychodynamic therapies as well as in cognitive approaches to see the body interaction like an instrument to understand the hidden agenda.

Maternal Use of Decontextualized and Contextualized Talk: An In-Depth Investigation of Early Parent–Child Interactions in Down Syndrome

Purpose The goal of this study was to characterize and quantify maternal use of decontextualized and contextualized input during mother–child interactions including young children with Down syndrome (DS). Method Participants included 22 mother–child dyads with DS ( M age = 42.8 months) and 22 mother–child dyads with typical development ( M age = 44.0 months). Parent–child language samples were collected during free-play, book reading, and snack time, and coded for maternal decontextualized (i.e., pretend, explanatory, and narrative talk) and contextualized input (i.e., descriptions, conversation, praise, questions, and directives). Results Mothers of children with DS used a larger proportion of pretend talk compared to other types of decontextualized input and also used a larger proportion of questions, conversation, and descriptions compared to other types of contextualized language. Mothers of children with DS generally used a smaller proportion of decontextualized input compared to mothers of children with typical development, with the exception of pretend talk. Maternal decontextualized input was not related to children's age or language ability in DS. Conclusions Findings shed new light on the early language environments of children with DS, providing important insight into the ways that mothers of children with DS are incorporating decontextualized and contextualized talk into early mother–child conversations. Additional implications and future directions are discussed.

Reading Aloud with Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Unit-Based Program to Enhance Language Enrichment and Support Early Foundational Relationships

Objective Early meaningful auditory experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) enhance language outcomes and promote cognitive and social–emotional development. Methods This is a descriptive report sharing our level III NICU experience of building a reading-aloud enrichment program with the goals of enhancing infant neurodevelopment and strengthening early parent–infant relationships. Results We propose a roadmap for program development, outline challenges and possible ways to mitigate them, and highlight opportunities for further research in this area. Key Points

Parent–Infant Attachment Insecurity and Emotional Eating in Adolescence: Mediation through Emotion Suppression and Alexithymia

Emotional eating (EE), the propensity to eat in response to emotions, is thought to have its origins in the early parent–infant relationship. This study tested the hypothesis that infant attachment insecurity results in EE in adolescence through the increased use of the emotion regulation strategy suppression of emotions and subsequent alexithymia. At the age of 15 months, parent–infant attachment security (n = 129) was observed with two abbreviated attachment measures: the shortened strange situation procedure (SSSP), and the shortened attachment Q-set (S-AQS). At the age of 12 years, children completed self-report questionnaires to assess the suppression of emotions, alexithymia, and EE. At the age of 16 years, EE was measured again. The mediation models indicated that lower parent–infant attachment security predicted increased use of suppression of emotions, which was related to increased alexithymia, and in turn more EE at the age of 12 years. These results were similar and significant for both attachment measures, and also (marginal) significant with EE at the age of 16 years as an outcome. Lastly, when parental caregiving quality was included, the models with the SSSP as predictor remained significant, but the models with the S-AQS became insignificant. These results indicated that to a certain extent, infant attachment security could predict adolescent EE above and beyond parental caregiving quality.