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[pt] Propomos através desta pesquisa uma reflexão sobre a sintomatologia e a etiologia dos quadros de sofrimento psíquico infantil, especialmente em casos nos quais se apresentam os chamados sintomas de base psicótica em crianças não necessariamente psicóticas, e de como podemos perceber a expressão desses quadros na infância. Nossa hipótese é a de que estes sofrimentos, caracterizados por desorganizações egóicas, tem suas raízes no processo de subjetivação como consequência das distorções no processo de constituição do self, que se dá através da relação entre o bebê e seu objeto primordial, que deve apoiá-lo na transição entre o estado psicológico de não separação para o dualismo eu-não eu. Cientes das dificuldades e riscos de um diagnóstico precoce, dada a plasticidade do psiquismo do infante, nos baseamos nos benefícios potenciais de um bom prognóstico para o melhor tratamento possível. / [en] We propose through this research a reflection on the symptomatology and aetiology of cases of infantile psychic suffering, especially in cases when the socalled psychotic-based symptoms are presented in children not necessarily psychotic, and how we can perceive the expression of these conditions in childhood. Our hypothesis is that these sufferings, characterized by egoic disorganizations, have their roots in the process of subjectivation as a consequence of distortions in the process of constitution of the self, which takes place through the relationship between the baby and its primordial object, that should support him in the transition from the psychological state of nonseparation to the dualism Me-not me. Aware of the difficulties and risks of an early diagnosis, given the plasticity of the psyche of the infant, we are based on the potential benefits of a good prognosis for the best possible treatment.

Identifying family strengths is central to early childhood practices. Moving beyond identification to exploring and explicitly applying those strengths can evolve strengths-based and family capacity-building practices. Assessment and planning processes that focus on the strategies families use to help their child learn can give agency to families in this parenting role. This exploratory study examined the perspectives of seven families who participated in an early intervention assessment-to-planning approach that sought to uncover, understand, and utilize the strategies families used to help their child learn and their appraisals of those strategies. Family responses during qualitative interviews were analyzed into three themes: (1) naturalistic observations yield naturalistic understandings, (2) practices that honor family strengths and family fit, and (3) self-discovery and self-affirmation. Implications for evolving family capacity-building approaches are discussed.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that carries high costs for families and the healthcare system, requiring extensive management both in terms of diagnosis and treatment. The implementation of AI-based systems in clinical practice represents a possible supportive solution that can help clinicians by providing more systematic meth- ods to monitor child behavior. The main advantage over more traditional observational approaches is to offer quantitative and refined analysis solutions that can be ecological at the same time. The relevance of AI in clinical applications can have a role both in the challenge of early detection and in designing intervention programs better tai- lored to the specific functioning of children with ASD. The research project presented in this dissertation focused on developing AI-based systems for fine-grained analysis of autism-related social behaviors and their validation in concrete clinical environments. Specifically, in Chapter 2, our first study is presented, which targets on implementing a computational phenotyping system to address the need for new early markers of the condition. Through fine-grained analytics of facial dynamics in videos, we identified a set of features that distinguished young (6-12 months) infants with ASD (18 ASD, 15 non-ASD) during unconstrained at-home interactions. In Chapters 3 and 4, we introduce EYE-C, a Behavior Imaging model for robust analysis of eye contact episodes in eco- logical therapist-child interactions. The system was validated in the clinical setting for personalized early intervention. First, we investigated the influence of extracted features in categorizing spectrum heterogeneity across a sample of 62 preschool (<6 years) chil- dren with ASD. Further, we tested our metrics as predictors of early intensive treatment outcomes in a sub-sample of 18 subjects with ASD. The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of effective computational systems that are robust to the high variability of unstructured interactions, with emphasis on the applicative value in real-world scenar- ios. Even though based on limited sample sizes, the work presented may offer interesting insights into the perspective of integrating AI into clinical practice. The research project was funded by an FBK scholarship and developed in a double in- ternship at ODFLab (University of Trento) and the FBK Data Science for Health (DSH) research unit.

The intent of this thesis was to study, in depth, the experiences of four adolescent mothers who underwent a home intervention program. I studied two mothers who did well with teaching their 12-month old children during play, and two mothers who did not do as well. All four mothers received weekly intervention from the time of their child's birth through 12-months of age. I studied the following variables: 1) how much time the home visitors spent on selected child development and parenting topics; 2) the mother's perceived social support; 3) how many community resources the mother used; and 4) if the infant was healthy and within normal developmental range. All of the mothers struggled in their lives, yet varied in the quality and time of most of the variables. It was striking how different each one was from the other. The implications of the study are important for child development specialists who can use the qualitative data within this document to better understand first time adolescent mothers in order to improve the outcomes of the home visitation services that they provide to mothers and infants. After spending time studying these four adolescent mothers, I would recommend that adolescent women not get pregnant. Adolescence is a time that is meant for experiences and self-discovery and should be spent free from a dependent child who critically needs them. Future research and funding should be spent on preventing adolescent pregnancy and ensuring that flexible curriculum be utilized by the home visitors in order to meet the varying needs of adolescent mothers.

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