Interaction Styles Research Articles

Infant-directed Speech by Dutch Fathers: Increased Pitch Variability within and across Utterances

ABSTRACT Although both fathers and mothers speak differently in infant-directed speech (IDS) compared to adult-directed speech (ADS), the acoustic characteristics of present-day paternal IDS are still insufficiently understood. To extend this understanding, 11 fathers and 17 mothers in The Netherlands were recorded interacting with their infant (260–476 days old; for IDS) and with an adult experimenter (for ADS). Both fathers and mothers were found to raise their average pitch, expand their pitch variability within utterance, and increase their pitch variability across utterances in IDS. Moreover, fathers increased their pitch variability within and across utterances more than mothers. The IDS produced by present-day Dutch-speaking fathers is thus acoustically highly dynamic, in line with fathers’ energetic interaction style.

Teachers’ Beliefs about Authoritative Teaching: Response and Demand, or Response and Control?

In two studies, 254 secondary teachers completed a survey assessing beliefs about three putative factors of “authoritative teaching,” response, demand, and control. Control was positively associated with response, suggesting that teachers viewed development of relationships with students as congruent with classroom discipline. But demand was not associated with response, suggesting beliefs holding that academic rigor does not necessarily undermine relationships. Teachers apparently view authoritative teaching as combining response and control, not response and demand. Beliefs as such provide a window on classroom practices and provide a starting point for teacher educators who aim to facilitate optimal interactional styles in schools.

Etching a place in the design industry – case of DesignTheme Innoventics

Study level/applicability This case can be used in the core course on entrepreneurship for Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Master of Business Administration/Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA/PGDM) students. It will help them to understand the motivations and challenges of women entrepreneurs, strategies to manage challenges, interactive style of leadership and their contribution to the economic growth of the country. Subject area Entrepreneurship. Case overview Roopa Rani, co-founded a digital design company, DesignTheme Innoventics (DTI), with her husband Yoganand, in November 2007, on the first floor of their residence. Yoganand’s creativity and Roopa’s determination made them bootstrap, scale slow and steady. As a novice to the industry, the initial days posed many challenges. Roopa hired artists to be appointed as designers, which gave them a unique selling preposition. They progressed slowly from a team of 2 to 20, with a revenue of INR 0.3M per annum to INR 12M per annum. As the company grew, Roopa wanted Yoganand’s support in handling the responsibilities, and hence, converted DTI into a limited liability partnership in 2013 and the couple were directors. As the client base improved, the need for shifting to a bigger space became more evident. A calculative risk-taker, Roopa, was forced to move DTI to a bigger office space end 2017, with a rent of INR60,000 per month. Meanwhile, they became a team of 20, with revenue of INR12m. The shift from no rent to a rented space made DTI slip to break-even. However, after two years, they moved into a smaller space and it coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak. Although the backlog orders were processed during the first quarter of 2020–2021, the business for the next quarter was affected. Social distancing norms created a shift in the way of doing business, which was a boon for a designing company like DTI. Now, the task before this self-made woman entrepreneur was to formulate strategies to scale up the business. Expected learning outcomes After analysing the case, the students will be able to: i. Value the contribution of women entrepreneurs towards the economy. ii. Examine the motivational factors and challenges of women entrepreneurs. iii. Understand the importance of networking. iv. Appraise the socio-cultural factors in a patriarchal society and their impact on the work-life balance of a woman entrepreneur. v. Appreciate the interactive leadership style of women entrepreneurs. vi. Formulate strategies to scale up the business. Supplementary materials • Agarwal, S., & Lenka, U. (2015). Study on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs – review and research agenda. Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(7), 356–362. doi:10.1108/ict-01–2015-0006 • Amit, R., & Muller, E. (1995). “Push” And “Pull” Entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 12(4), 64–80. doi:10.1080/08276331.1995.10600505 • Buttner, E. H. (2001). Examining Female Entrepreneurs' Management Style: An Application of a Relational Frame. Journal of Business Ethics, 29(3), 253–269. doi:10.1023/a:1026460615436 • Carter, S.C. (1997). E. Holly Buttner and Dorothy P. Moore (1997), ‘Women’s Organisational Exodus to Entrepreneurship: Self-reported Motivations and Correlates with Success', Journal of Small Business Management, January, pp34-47. • Cohoon, J. McGrath and Wadhwa, Vivek and Mitchell, Lesa, Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different from Men? (May 11, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract = 1604653 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1604653 •Fletcher, J. (1998), Relational Practice: A Feminist Reconstruction of Work, Journal of Management Inquiry, 7(2), 163-186. • Kirkwood, J. (2009). Motivational factors in a push‐pull theory of entrepreneurship. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(5), 346–364. doi:10.1108/17542410910968805. • Malyadri, G., Dr. (2012). Role of women Entrepreneurs in the Economic Development of India. Paripex – Indian Journal of Research, 3(3), 104–105. doi: 10.15373/22501991/mar2014/36. Pal, N. (2016). Women Entrepreneurship in India: Important for Economic Growth. International Journal of Pure and Applied Researches, 4(1), 55–64. Pugazhendhi, D. P. (2019). Problems, Challenges and Development of Women Entrepreneurs. Emperor Journal of Economics and Social Science Research, 1(4), 48–53. doi:10.35338/ejessr.2019.1407. Shastri, S., Shastri, S., & Pareek, A. (2019). Motivations and challenges of women entrepreneurs. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 39(5/6), 338–355. doi:10.1108/ijssp-09–2018-0146. Tende, S.B. (2016). The Impact of Women Entrepreneurs towards National Development: Selected Study on Taraba State. Information and Knowledge Management, 6, 30–43. Xheneti, M., Karki, S. T., & Madden, A. (2018). Negotiating business and family demands within a patriarchal society – the case of women entrepreneurs in the Nepalese context. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 31(3–4), 259–278. doi:10.1080/08985626.2018.1551792 Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Art, Design and Communication Theory in Creating the Communicative Social Robot 'Haru'.

Haru is a social, affective robot designed to support a wide range of research into human–robot communication. This article analyses the design process for Haru beta, identifying how both visual and performing arts were an essential part of that process, contributing to ideas of Haru’s communication as a science and as an art. Initially, the article examines how a modified form of Design Thinking shaped the work of the interdisciplinary development team—including animators, performers and sketch artists working alongside roboticists—to frame Haru’s interaction style in line with sociopsychological and cybernetic–semiotic communication theory. From these perspectives on communication, the focus is on creating a robot that is persuasive and able to transmit precise information clearly. The article moves on to highlight two alternative perspectives on communication, based on phenomenological and sociocultural theories, from which such a robot can be further developed as a more flexible and dynamic communicative agent. The various theoretical perspectives introduced are brought together by considering communication across three elements: encounter, story and dance. Finally, the article explores the potential of Haru as a research platform for human–robot communication across various scenarios designed to investigate how to support long-term interactions between humans and robots in different contexts. In particular, it gives an overview of plans for humanities-based, qualitative research with Haru.

3D interactive garment parametric pattern-making and linkage editing based on constrained contour lines

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an interactive 2D–3D garment parametric pattern-making and linkage editing scheme that integrates clothing design, simulation and interaction to design 3D garments and 2D patterns. The proposed scheme has the potential to satisfy the individual needs of fashion industry, such as precise fit evaluation of the garment, interactive style editing with ease allowance and constrained contour lines in fashion design.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first construct a parametric pattern-making model for flat pattern design corresponding to the body dimensions. Then, the designing 2D patterns are stitched on a virtual 3D mannequin by performing a virtual try-on. If the customer is unsatisfied after the virtual try-on, the adjustable parameters (appearance parameters and fit parameters) can be adjusted using the 2D–3D linkage editing with hierarchical constrained contour lines, and the fit evaluation tool interactively provides the feedback.FindingsThe authors observed that the usability and efficiency of the existing garment pattern-making method simplifies the garment pattern-making process. The authors utilize an interactive garment parametric flat pattern-making model to generate an individualized garment flat pattern that effectively adjust and realize the local editing of the garment pattern-making. The 2D–3D linkage editing is then employed, which alters the size and shape of garment pattern for a precise human model fit of the 3D garment using hierarchical constrained contour lines. Various instances have validated the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which can increase the reusability of the existing garment styles and improve the efficiency of fashion design.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the authors do not consider the garment pattern-making design of sophisticated styles. Second, the authors do not directly consider complex garment shapes such as wrinkles, folds, multi-layer models and fabric physical properties.Originality/valueThe authors propose a pattern adjustment scheme that uses the 3D virtual try-on technology to avoid repetitions of reality-based fit tests and garment sample making in the designing process of clothing products. The proposed scheme provides interactive selections of garment patterns and sizes and renders modification tools for 3D garment designing and 2D garment pattern-making. The authors present the 2D–3D interactive linkage editing scheme for a custom-fit garment pattern based on the hierarchical constraint contour lines. The spatial relationship among the human body, pattern pieces and 3D garment model is adequately expressed, and the final design result of the garment pattern is obtained by constraint solving. Meanwhile, the tightness tension of different parts of the 3D garment is analyzed, and the fit and comfort of the garment are quantitatively evaluated.

Validity of Psychiatric Evaluation of Asylum Seekers through Telephone

The goal of the psychiatric assessment of asylum seekers is to evaluate the asylum seeker's mental health and credibility. The shortage of mental health providers trained in this particular type of evaluation makes in-person evaluation not always feasible. Telephonic interview has been occasionally utilized to fill this void. The validity of such evaluations in assessing credibility has yet to be fully established. In the case of telephonic interviews, evaluators are limited with no access to facial or body language cues that can indicate deception or honesty. We will present a case of a client evaluated via telephone that was deemed credible and eventually released to pursue asylum in the US. Assessment of credibility relied solely on cues obtained from the client's narrative, reported symptoms, and their style of interaction with the evaluator. We will highlight the findings from the client's interview that supported credibility in the case and discuss the challenges of assessing asylum seeker's credibility via telephonic interview. Telephonic evaluation of credibility can be considered a valid method despite major challenges, but psychiatric evaluators should be aware of the limitations of telephonic evaluations given the high possibility of secondary gains and deception.

What Do New Findings About Social Interaction in Autistic Adults Mean for Neurodevelopmental Research?

Deficit-based accounts of social and communication abilities continue to dominate autism research. However, emerging findings suggest that this view may be overly simplistic and discount the two-way nature of interaction. Here we discuss the reconceptualization of social cognition to consider such difficulties as examples of bidirectional, multifaceted misattunement between autistic and nonautistic individuals. Aligned with progressive theoretical frameworks, emerging empirical research indicates that mismatches in communication styles can contribute to autistic social difficulties and the important role that nonautistic difficulties play. We highlight two areas of future research with the aim of providing empirical support for the views that the autistic community has proposed over the past 2 decades. We discuss the impact of such a paradigm shift on a number of levels, including how bridging the gap between different interaction styles can reduce stigma and increase understanding. Adopting such a framework will provide radical opportunities for transformative societal changes and education around inclusion.

Interaction Styles in Context: Comparing Drag-and-Drop, Point-and-Touch, and Touch in a Mobile Spelling Game

ABSTRACT The choice of appropriate interaction style for children’s application has been a divisive subject of debate. For example, drag-and-drop is often said to perform worse than point-and-click in educational applications – and vice versa. In this article, we argue for the need to choose the interaction style in context, considering a range of factors. We compare drag-and-drop, point-and-touch, and simple touch for selecting letters to form words in a spelling line as part of an educational spelling game. We evaluate the perceived workload, user experience, preference, and writing times of twenty-five children (8–11 years), eight of whom were dyslexic. We found that touch received better ratings and was ranked highest most often on all subscales compared to drag-and-drop and point-and-touch. Children needed less time using touch and 68% chose it as their favorite interaction style. We also found small advantages for drag-and-drop over point-and-touch, which runs counter to some recent recommendations. This becomes particularly clear when using ranking responses, which support a particularly fine-grained picture.

A heutagogical interactive tutorial involving Fishbowl with Fish Battle and Round Robin Brainstorming: A novel syndicate metacognitive learning strategy

BackgroundThe increasing tutorial size poses every teacher with the problem of student attention and participation; hence, newer strategies are needed to engage adult learners into cooperative learning. This study aims to assess the knowledge gained and retained and perceptions of students using an interactive syndicate learning style tutorial vis-a-vis conventional tutorials. MethodsA quasi-experimental crossover study was conducted wherein students of phase 1 MBBS physiology tutorials were divided into two batches (interactive tutorials involving learning Fishbowl with Fish Battle and Round Robin Brainstorming and conventional didactic tutorials), with 65 students in each over 3 days. In the interactive tutorial group, students were seated in 2 concentric circles, the inner circle engaged in Fish Battle (a seminar followed by rebuttal), whereas the remaining students belonged to the Round Robin Brainstorming (outer circle) group, wherein brainstorming using index cards was carried out and a mind map was prepared, followed by a summary. Both batches underwent the pre- and post-MCQ test followed by the crossover study the subsequent week. For testing retention, an Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) test was conducted after 3 weeks. In the end, 5 physiology tutorial modules were completed. ResultsThere was a statistical improvement in the post-test scores (9.7%) gain in the Interactive Tutorial (IT) group as compared with the Conventional Tutorial (CT) group. Of the students, 56% retained the topics after undergoing IT compared with CT. Around (90%) students felt improved conceptual thinking, and 92% felt it encompassed active learning. ConclusionInteractive tutorials involving such learning styles facilitate active self-determined learning, develop mutual interdependence, equal representation, and group dynamics as adult learners, and transform them into lifelong critical thinkers.

Examining the usability of touchscreen gestures for adults with DS

This document is part of a global investigation that aims to establish best practices in usability testing of mobile applications, that fit the specific needs of persons with cognitive disabilities. The motivating factor is to improve the quality of life of people with special needs. As a first step, we want to discover what are the skills of people with DS (DS) when using a mobile device. Thanks to its direct manipulation interaction style, multi-touch technology is the ideal mechanism for learning activities with a view to the social inclusion of people with DS. This paper investigates the most common touchscreen gestures on commercial existing software. A commercial analysis was carried out to discover the touch screen gestures used by 103 free software Apps running on a mobile touch screen tablet of 11 where the applications run”. The commercial analysis showed that most applications support tap and drag operations on multi-touch technology. Additionally, the research sought to discover the adults with DS (19–54 years of age) ability to perform other gestures on multi-touch surfaces. A DS user skill study was performed to assess the ability of this user segment to interact with multi-touch surfaces. The analysis involved 53 participants, aged between 19 and 54 years, from two vocational training centers attended by people with DS in Madrid. Authors used the Gesture Games App for experimenting with multi-touch gestures such as tap, double tap, long press, drag, scale up, scale down, and one-finger rotation. Tap, double tap, and drag were the three gestures that the most participant could use. In contrast, participants had difficulty performing one-finger rotation and long press gesture. Our statistical analysis showed that the ability to perform each gesture was independent of gender, age group, and previous experience with touchscreen of a participant.

Deliberative and Paternalistic Interaction Styles for Conversational Agents in Digital Health: Procedure and Validation Through a Web-Based Experiment

BackgroundRecent years have witnessed a constant increase in the number of people with chronic conditions requiring ongoing medical support in their everyday lives. However, global health systems are not adequately equipped for this extraordinarily time-consuming and cost-intensive development. Here, conversational agents (CAs) can offer easily scalable and ubiquitous support. Moreover, different aspects of CAs have not yet been sufficiently investigated to fully exploit their potential. One such trait is the interaction style between patients and CAs. In human-to-human settings, the interaction style is an imperative part of the interaction between patients and physicians. Patient-physician interaction is recognized as a critical success factor for patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and subsequent treatment outcomes. However, so far, it remains effectively unknown how different interaction styles can be implemented into CA interactions and whether these styles are recognizable by users.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to develop an approach to reproducibly induce 2 specific interaction styles into CA-patient dialogs and subsequently test and validate them in a chronic health care context.MethodsOn the basis of the Roter Interaction Analysis System and iterative evaluations by scientific experts and medical health care professionals, we identified 10 communication components that characterize the 2 developed interaction styles: deliberative and paternalistic interaction styles. These communication components were used to develop 2 CA variations, each representing one of the 2 interaction styles. We assessed them in a web-based between-subject experiment. The participants were asked to put themselves in the position of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These participants were randomly assigned to interact with one of the 2 CAs and subsequently asked to identify the respective interaction style. Chi-square test was used to assess the correct identification of the CA-patient interaction style.ResultsA total of 88 individuals (42/88, 48% female; mean age 31.5 years, SD 10.1 years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and participated in the web-based experiment. The participants in both the paternalistic and deliberative conditions correctly identified the underlying interaction styles of the CAs in more than 80% of the assessments (X21,88=38.2; P<.001; phi coefficient rφ=0.68). The validation of the procedure was hence successful.ConclusionsWe developed an approach that is tailored for a medical context to induce a paternalistic and deliberative interaction style into a written interaction between a patient and a CA. We successfully tested and validated the procedure in a web-based experiment involving 88 participants. Future research should implement and test this approach among actual patients with chronic diseases and compare the results in different medical conditions. This approach can further be used as a starting point to develop dynamic CAs that adapt their interaction styles to their users.

Implementing the MAMAACT intervention in Danish antenatal care: a qualitative study of non-Western immigrant women's and midwives’ attitudes and experiences

IntroductionImmigrant women have an increased risk of negative pregnancy and birth outcomes compared to women from European host populations. Similar trends are seen in Denmark, where especially some groups of non-Western immigrant women have an increased risk of stillbirth and infant mortality. This study reports on an implementation analysis of The MAMAACT Intervention, which was developed to increase midwives' and women's responses to pregnancy complications (trial registration number: NCT03751774). The intervention consisted of a training session and two dialogue meetings for midwives, and a leaflet and mobile application for women. ObjectiveTo explore midwives' and non-Western immigrant women's attitudes towards and experiences of using the MAMAACT intervention to enhance mutual interactions and improve responses to potential pregnancy complications. DesignA multi-method qualitative study was used to collect data. Data consisted of non-participant observations of midwifery visits, field notes, focus group interviews with midwives and in-depth interviews with non-Western immigrant women. Data were initially analysed using systematic text condensation according to Malterud. Subsequently, Shim's concept of cultural health capital was applied to the data analysis. SettingData were collected from ten Danish antenatal care facilities affiliated with five maternity care wards. ParticipantsTwenty-three midwives participated in observations of 40 midwifery visits, and 27 midwives participated in nine focus group interviews. Twenty-one non-Western immigrant women each participated in one in-depth interview. FindingsTwo main themes were identified: ‘the MAMAACT intervention as a tool to build knowledge and skills’ and ‘intervention experiences’. Training sessions and dialogue meetings promoted midwives’ reflection on practice, however, at the visits, habitual ways of interacting impacted encounters between midwives and non-Western immigrant women. Among midwives, informing was a more dominant communication strategy than the use of dialogue, and competing tasks affected their follow-up on women's use of the information material. Women seemed hesitant to use the MAMAACT leaflet and app to actively engage with midwives at the visits although they used this material to distinguish between normal and abnormal conditions in pregnancy and to contact emergency maternity care services when at home. Conclusions and implications for practiceThe acceptability and usability of the intervention were high among participants. The leaflet and app showed potential in prompting women to contact emergency care maternity services. Despite midwives’ increased reflections on immigrant women's care provision, this did not appear to increase their use of a needs-based dialogue at the antenatal visits. Institutional structures, especially power relationships between midwives and non-Western immigrant women, affected mutual interactions. Attention to midwives’ task loads and time resources are needed if midwives are to have the necessary space to adapt their interactional styles to immigrant women's individual needs.

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder’s perception on parent-implemented home-based developmental, individual-difference and relationship (DIR)/Floortime® intervention

PurposeThe developmental, individual-difference and relationship (DIR)/Floortime® approach is a commonly used parent-implemented intervention with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, no evidence is available about the intervention’s implementation and utility in Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to investigate the applicability and impact of implementing the parent-implemented home-based DIR/Floortime® intervention program for children with ASD and their parents in a Malaysian context from parents’ perspectives.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with eight mothers and four fathers of children with ASD was conducted. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis.FindingsFive themes were developed. Theme 1 described the implementation of DIR/Floortime® intervention; Theme 2 reported challenges parents faced when implementing the intervention; Theme 3 explored parents’ perspective on play; Theme 4 explained the improvements and changes in children with ASD and parents’ abilities and skills; and Theme 5 reported parents’ comments and suggestions about the intervention program.Research limitations/implicationsInvolvement of a limited number of participants and an absence of baseline data limits the interpretation of the impacts of the DIR/Floortime® program’s implementation by parents with their children with ASD.Originality/valueUtilization of DIR/Floortime® intervention is practical and appropriate in the Malaysian context. From the parents’ perspective, the DIR/Floortime® approach was beneficial for children with ASD and parents’ skill development and well-being. Further refinement to the program and involvement of participants from various cultural backgrounds are recommended. A greater emphasis for parents on child-led interaction style and play with children are also recommended.

Estado del arte de la intervención con familias en atención temprana durante la última década en España

La intervención familiar supone un factor clave en la intervención de niños con cualquier tipo de discapacidad, por ello con este estudio se pretende revisar la literatura científica realizando una búsqueda bibliográfica que recoja los trabajos realizados sobre la familia en Atención Temprana. Se realizó una búsqueda sistemática en las bases de datos de Psicodoc y PsycInfo de las publicaciones académicas realizadas en los últimos diez años (2010-2019) en España, con los siguientes descriptores: “Atención Temprana” y “Familia”. Como resultado del proceso realizado se obtuvieron un total de 26 artículos. Los resultados presentados en este estudio permiten extraer diversas lecturas de interés tanto del contenido como de la productividad. Gran parte de los artículos revisados han intentado proporcionar una puesta al día de conceptos sobre la Atención Temprana, responder a preguntas sobre aspectos etiológicos, diagnósticos o terapéuticos,eincluso presentarcasosclínicoscon propuestas de intervenciones. Otra gran parte de los artículos analizados han sido estudios empíricos de diferentes metodologías cuyas temáticas han sido muy variadas, destacando los dedicados a los estilos de interacción entre los profesionales y las familias, las necesidades de formación y el desarrollo profesional de los trabajadores, la influencia de la discapacidad de un hijo en la familia, y la relación entre las interacciones de los progenitores con los hijos y el desarrollo adecuado infantil. En relación a la productividad, llama la atención que en la última década sólo se hallan encontrado 26 artículos de trabajo con familia contextualizados dentro de la Atencion Temprana en España. A pesar de la importancia del trabajo en familia resulta escasa la literatura que se centra en investigar sus prácticas.

The Effect of Interactive Multimedia and Learning Styles on Students' Physics Creative Thinking Skills

One of the innovations in physics learning needs to be done by using creative learning media, namely interactive multimedia. This is done so that physics learning becomes more effective and not monotonous towards the delivery of material by the teacher. In addition to media factors, factors from within students need to be studied to improve the quality of learning physics. This study aims to test the effectiveness of interactive multimedia on students' creative thinking skills in physics. In addition, this study aims to influence learning styles on creative thinking skills and to see the interaction between interactive multimedia and learning styles in influencing creative thinking skills. This research is included in the quasi-experimental research. The total sample consisted of 74 tenth grade students, who were divided into two groups, namely the experimental class and the control class. The sample was determined by purposive sampling. Data on creative thinking skills were tested using N-Gain, and learning styles were analyzed quantitatively. To see the effectiveness of the research variables, an Anava test was performed. The results showed that interactive multimedia had an effect on students 'creative thinking skills, while the learning styles and interactions of the two independent variables did not affect students' creative thinking skills

Pragmatic Profiles of Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder at the Onset of Speech.

Using speech to communicate pragmatic functions is challenging among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Given the role language plays in developing everyday skills, we traced the unique pragmatic profile of early words, seeking comparison to typically developing (TD) toddlers at similar lexical stages. Twenty-four mother-toddler dyads participated (9 ASD and 15 TD). Dyads were video recorded when toddlers reached a productive lexicon of 40–70 words. These recordings were captured three times during naturalistic interaction and at two consecutive visits with a 2-month interval. Seven thousand three hundred seventy-six productions were analyzed and classified into four communicative intentions (Declaratives, Requests, Objections, and Non-Communicative speech). ASD toddlers were delayed in the emergence of words compared to TD toddlers, with a greater within-group variability (median 28 months, IQR 24.5–35, median 17 months, IQR 17–18, respectively, p < 0.001). In both groups, the most common communicative intention was Declarative. However, the percentage of Declaratives was higher among TD toddlers across visits compared to ASD toddlers. In both groups, most productions were directed toward the communicative partner, but ASD toddlers used Non-Communicative speech more often than TD peers. Non-Communicative speech gradually decreased over time. We conclude that while TD toddlers begin to talk with an already-established knowledge of the main communicative functions of words, ASD toddlers seem to have only a partial understanding and gradually improve communicative use as they expand their lexicon. These findings bear theoretical and practical implications for early intervention in ASD. We suggest that communicative profiles are affected by individual characteristics and by the interaction style.

Psychological factors influencing the formation of therapeutic cooperation in pulmonary tuberculosis patients undergoing in-patient treatment

The objective of the study: the comparative study of psychological characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis patients with different levels of therapeutic cooperation during in-patient treatment.Subjects and nethods. 318 pulmonary tuberculosis patients aged 18-60 years old were enrolled in the study; they all underwent in-patient treatment in Central Tuberculosis Research Institute in 2017-2019, of them 195 (61.3%) were women and 123 (38.7%) were men. In all patients, the level of therapeutic cooperation was studied using the specially designed questionnaire; psychological characteristics were assessed using certain psychodiagnostic methods.Results. It was found that the proportion of patients with a high level of therapeutic cooperation (44.3% of cases) significantly prevailed versus patients with low (29.6% of cases) (Pearson χ2 = 9.4; p &lt; 0.01) and moderate level of cooperation (26.1% of cases) (Pearson χ2 = 15.02; p &lt; 0.001). A comparative study of the psychological characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis patients demonstrating different levels of therapeutic cooperation allowed identifying psychological prognostic parameters of therapeutic cooperation, the main of which were the severity of suspicion, negative affective states (irritability, aggressiveness), distrustful-skeptical style of interaction, confrontation with others, as well as the level of quality life, primarily the emotional and social aspects of functioning. The detected psychological differences are considered as targets of psychological work focused on the formation of appropriate therapeutic cooperation during in-patient treatment.

Working with Autistic Children and their Families from a Mentalization Based Therapy for Children (MBT-C) Approach

Work with children on the autistic spectrum and their families is described and illustrated from a mentalization-based therapy lens. Focus on the importance of working with parents from a therapeutic stance that models an interactive style and on the capacity to “find and be with” a child on the autistic spectrum is described. The MBT intervention seeks to offer an alternative model of relationship which fits both the child’s “regulation profile” and his caregiver’s capacity to learn and generalize a new way of connecting and communicating. These aims are achieved through the application of a scaffolding approach, one that seeks to provide a developmental experience within a secure and predictable, yet flexible, therapeutic framework with the central aim of improving psycho-social functioning and increased emotional regulation skills for this population.

How much variability is there in children's experiences with different educators?

Early childhood education and care settings consist of educators clustered into classrooms, clustered into centers. Yet, little empirical research has examined variance in the interaction styles of full-time educators who work in the same classroom. In this study we engage in preliminary work to examine variability in children's experiences with different educators. The sample consisted of 172 full-time educators from 86 classrooms. We conducted hierarchical linear modeling using the difference in the interaction styles of the two educators in each classroom as the outcome. Educators’ interaction styles were measured using the Responsive Interactions for Learning (RIFL-E) scale. Approximately 58% of the variance was accounted for at the classroom level and 42% at the center level. Educators with similar interaction styles tended to be grouped together in classrooms. Classrooms where educators had smaller discrepancies in interaction styles had higher overall quality and a higher percentage of educators with early childhood education degrees, but a bigger difference between educator's highest level of education. These findings highlight the importance of considering educator-level variance in conceptualizing and measuring quality. Implications for how quality of educator/child interaction is conceptualized and measured, and research and policy on oversight and quality improvement are discussed.

Stability of father- and mother-child synchrony in a playful setting from preschool to middle childhood: Associations with children's behavior problems

As scholars move away from distinct conceptualizations of mothering and fathering (Fagan et al., 2014), scholars have developed novel observational paradigms that are adapted to mothers’ and fathers’ interactive style. For example, the Laughing Task procedure allows for the assessment of parent-child synchrony in a playful setting. However, parent-child synchrony has rarely been assessed at multiple time points, especially in middle childhood. This study aims to extend the applicability of the Laughing Task procedure to middle childhood by 1) exploring the stability between dimensions of dyadic synchrony in 76 intact biparental Canadian families over a five-year period, and 2) examining the longitudinal and concurrent association between dyadic synchrony and children's behavior problems in middle childhood. Children participated in a playful interaction with their father and their mother during separate laboratory visits at both time points. Both parents reported on their child's behavior problems at Time 2. Results showed a strong stability between the dimensions of playful interactions over time, but only for father-child dyads. Nonetheless, the interaction of mother-child and father-child coordination was a significant predictor of children's behavior problems. Result shows that children presented higher behavior problems when concurrent dyadic coordination was low with both parents. Moreover, high coordination with one parent buffered against low coordination with the other parent in the prediction of behavior problems. These results support the validity and reliability of the Laughing Task procedure in middle childhood, especially for father-child dyads.