Maternal correlates of growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families

This study investigated predictors of growth in toddlers' vocabulary production between the ages of 1 and 3 years by analyzing mother-child communication in 108 low-income families. Individual growth modeling was used to describe patterns of growth in children's observed vocabulary production and predictors of initial status and between-person change. Results indicate large variation in growth across children. Observed variation was positively related to diversity of maternal lexical input and maternal language and literacy skills, and negatively related to maternal depression. Maternal talkativeness was not related to growth in children's vocabulary production in this sample. Implications of the examination of longitudinal data from this relatively large sample of low-income families are discussed.     

Evaluation of a course designed to teach physics to students of physiotherapy

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a course in physiotherapy whereby the physics fundamental to the modalities of cold, heat and ultrasound therapies was integrated in lectures and actual physiotherapy activities. The design of the course is described together with the perceptions of physiotherapy students regarding the organisation of the course, safety aspects and how well the integration contributed to their understanding of the physics involved in electrotherapy. Specialization: Physics education. Specialization: electrotherapy. Specializations: Diagnosis of student learning difficulties and teaching for conceptual change, technology education, curriculum evaluation. Specializations: Material science, isotope studies, physics education.     

Mother-infant attachment in adoptive families

Data from 2 separate samples using the Strange Situation paradigm were combined to assess the quality of attachment relationships in adoptive and nonadoptive mother-infant pairs. Infants were between 13 and 18 months at the time of observation. Results indicated no differences in mother-infant attachment between nonadopted and intraracial adopted subjects or between intraracial and interracial adopted subjects. Interracial adoptive mother-infant pairs did show a higher incidence of insecure attachment in comparison to nonadoptive pairs. Mothers of interracial adopted infants also were less comfortable having others care for their babies and perceived less emotional support from extended family and friends for their decision to adopt a child prior to the actual adoption than did other mothers. No relation was found, however, between quality of mother-infant attachment and either perceived social support, infant developmental quotient, infant temperament, number of foster homes experienced by the infant, or infant's age at the time of adoption placement. It was suggested that the higher incidence of psychological problems found among adoptees in middle childhood and adolescence cannot be explained in terms of insecure attachment relationships during the infancy years.     

新千年的挑战:生物心理社会医学模式

疾病的生物心理社会模式是基于细胞、组织、器官、人际关系以及环境影响等多种因素相互作用的一种构想。在新千年中 ,人们最关心的是行为、环境、心理和社会因素在促进疾病的恢复、保持心情愉快以及抵抗疾病中的作用。应付压力机制与社会、行为因素密切相关 ,该机制可以很清楚地说明外部环境压力和由某种心理反应而引发疾病的情形。压力和消极心理及社会因素对身体和细胞的免疫状态和功能方面都将产生影响。未来几十年我们不但要关注行为和心理社会因素通过神经生理机制对健康状况产生影响 ,而且更有必要揭示有利于健康和人体机能最佳发展的生物心理社会医学等综合因素。此外 ,还应推进初级预防科学。     

The Senses of Personhood: Beyond Allegories of the Body

This essay explores the resources for human mindedness that counter-intuitively inhere in representations of human sexuality – coitus specifically. I maintain that the problematic relation between the aesthetic register of representations of the sexual act and the intellectual presuppositions of the readers/viewers of such representations is analogous to the interpretive problems posed by allegory. Drawing upon the mind–body conflicts that are dramatised in allegorical representational practices deployed by writers like Ovid and Dante, painters like Bronzino and Courbet, I argue that it makes sense to think of allegory as continuous with rather than antithetical to figura. Just so, mind may be grasped as continuous with physical experience. This continuity is interestingly and usefully revealed to be a presupposition of contemporary neuro-philosophical accounts of conceptual blending. Finally, my purpose will be to demonstrate that the conceptuality we presuppose in standard notions of allegory is inadequate to the burdens and responsibilities of existential cognitive agency–real personhood. This is specifically true if we come to understand allegory, particularly the allegory of love, as unselfconsciously involved in a form of thinking that brooks no distinction between feeling and knowing.     

Long-term hospitalization of failure-to-thrive infants: Developmental outcome at three years

The present study documented later developmental outcome in a group of 29 failure-to-thrive (FTT) infants who received extended hospitalization in infancy as an intervention for their growth failure. All infants were seen at approximately 3 years of age and were given standardized assessments of intellectual and physical development. A standard interview documented demographic variables, health problems, placements subsequent to hospitalization and additional psychological and medical treatment. Infants were divided into three groups dependent on medical and treatment factors. Means and percentages of occurrence of outcome variables were compared through either one-way ANOVAS or single sample chi-square tests with post hoc analyses. Correlational analyses were used to understand the relationships between outcome and relevant demographic, medical, and treatment variables. In general, the infants manifest persistent intellectual delays at follow-up despite maintenance of weight gains achieved during early hospitalization. More than half the group suffered from chronic health problems. A large percentage of infants had been removed from parental custody at the time of follow-up. Several demographic, medical, and treatment factors bore moderate relationships to developmental outcome. Infants who achieved more optimal growth tended to be full-term at birth, later born and without a question of physical abuse in their social histories. Intellectual functioning was related only to parental and caretaker socioeconomic status. Infants placed in foster care were unlikely to return to their families of origin. The findings suggest the need for further investigation into the determinants and outcome of extended hospitalization as a treatment for FTT.     

Tale of an Innocent

The British novelist Nicky Singer talks about becoming a writer, the role of editors and about who decides what can—and what can’t—be published either side of the Atlantic. Her three novels explore territory which can make publishers nervous: Feather Boy (initiation rites and domestic violence), Doll (self-harm) and The Innocent’s Story (terrorist suicide bombing). The sharply contrasting responses from publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States are described. Through Nicky Singer’s sometimes extraordinary experiences with publishers runs the implicit question, perhaps as important now as it has ever been: What constraints should there be on what is explored in books for young readers?