No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study utilized a phenomenological approach to examine adult children's views of how their fathers connected with them as children. Participants consisted of 10 men and 12 women between the ages of 30 and 60 who were interviewed about connection experiences with their fathers. Participants completed interviews related to their perspectives on being fathered, experiences as a son or daughter, and what they experienced in connecting with their fathers. Findings indicated that fathers connect with children through a variety of contexts that include memorable occasions, activities, personal interactions, routines, events, and other means. Also. obstacles to connection between fathers and children were explored. Study findings and their implications for theory, research, and practical application are discussed.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Parents become the first teachers of the child and therefore the parent-child relationship is important for the development of a child. Parents who have a child with a disability are often more challenged than parents who do not. In South Africa, there are programmes and policies which are implemented to support parents or primary caregivers who have children with disabilities; however, there is no data or reviews available that provide information regarding the capability of parental strategies to ensure the health and well-being of their children with disabilities.

Well-Child Examinations are an integral part of monitoring growth and development for children. These visits allow for establishment of a therapeutic relationship between patient and caregiver, and provide opportunities to screen for underlying conditions while simultaneously following growth and development milestones. Well-child examinations provide opportunities for parents to voice concerns and help to identify those children at risk for delays or underlying medical conditions. When these conditions are identified early, they tend to have an improvement of outcomes. Since the core items to be included in wellness examinations vary by age, insurance provider, and risk factors, our aim is to measure and improve the knowledge and comprehension of examination components among a group of Family Medicine resident physicians that provide primary care to a pediatric population. Provider knowledge and understanding was measured by means of a set of multiple-choice questions prior to an educational session. A post-educational examination was then administered to assess recruitment and retention of information. There appeared to be an overall positive trend toward increased knowledge base following the education session, indicating and improvement of understanding and medical knowledge.

The study sets out to test the hypothesis that the families of physically abused children will show significant differences regarding their psychological, psychiatric and psychosocial characteristics when compared to families who do not have an abused child. The Index group was formed from 49 physically abused Coloured children and their families who were referred to the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in 1977. The ages of the children ranged from 5 months to 13 years, and 4 died as a result of their injuries. The Control group comprised 24 Coloured children (and their families) who were attending the hospital as outpatients over the same time period, and who were ill enough to be kept for overnight observation in the Emergency Ward. The two groups were matched for social class, age of the child and the marital status of the mother. The Index child was examined by a Paediatrician, and medical investigations requested when indicated. The following schedules were completed during the course of structured interviews with both groups of parents: The Circumstances of Injury/Illness Schedule, The Childrearing Attitudes Schedule and the Psychiatric Interview Schedule (which included a mental state examination). The Psychosocial Interview Schedule and an abbreviated IQ test were administered to the mothers only. The major significant finding of the study was the presence of abnormal personality functioning and psychiatric disorders of parents in nearly all the Index families. The type of psychiatric disorder was characteristically a neurosis in the mothers and personality disorders with alcohol and drug abuse, and criminality, in the fathers. The manifestations of the abnormal personalities of the Index parents included the use of regular physical punishment by the Index mothers, the repetitive physical abuse not only of the Index child but also of his siblings, and physical violence towards adults, especially of the Index fathers towards the Index mothers; the premarital conception of the Index child, the numbers of children of both Index parents by previous liaisons, and the lack of family cohesiveness of the Index parents; the loneliness of the Index mothers and their poor self-esteem; the financial debts of the Index families; and marital dysharmony. The Index families appeared to be of substantially lower social class than the general Coloured population of Cape Town. The following characteristics appeared to be associated with their low social class: low income, poor housing, unemployment, illegitimacy, teenage pregnancies, poor educational achievement and low IQ. Because of the matching for social class these characteristics were found to occur as commonly in the Control group. It was concluded that a combination of abnormal personalities and psychiatric disorders in the parents, factors associated with low social class, and marital dysfunction was the main etiological mechanism in the physical abuse of the Index children. The present study confirmed the finding of others that what distinguishes abusive parents from non-abusive parents is not so much the presence of specific abnormal childrearing practices or disturbances in particular parent-child relationships as the presence of a general disturbance of personality functioning and mental health. In other words, child abuse is only one of many deviant kinds of behaviour manifested by the parents of multi-problem families.

"Research in child development has provided many findings of great significance, but in addition to reading these facts and findings, all individuals dealing with children need to formulate a definite point of view regarding child development. This point of view should include an understanding of the importance of why children react as they do, a spirit of inquiry, a genuine interest, and a sincere attempt to analyze development correctly"--Introduction. / "August, 1951." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Sarah Lou Hammond, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44).

The most commonly used tests for the evaluation of perceptual motor function of children in South Africa are the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests (Ayres, 1972) and Southern California Postrotary Nystagmus Test (Ayres, 1975). These particular tests were revised, changed and restandardized in 1989. For various reasons the new form, Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (Ayres, 1989), is not feasible for use in South Africa. It has thus become imperative to develop tests in South Africa that can replace these tests. The South African Institute of Sensory Integration appointed working committees in various sectors of the country to develop a test for the South African population. The candidate decided to develop a somatosensory Test which could be used as part of a South African test of sensory integration. A test was designed and constructed, based on the model used by Ayres in the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests. This test comprises five subtests, i.e. Non-vestibular Proprioception (in the first phase of the study this subtest was named Kinesthesia), Finger Recognition, Form Recognition, Two Point Discrimination and Tactile Stimuli Placement tests. This proposed test was used in the field by seven voluntary field workers. They each recruited a sample of convenience and administered the proposed test to 58 children. A self-administered questionnaire was completed for each test administered completed to evaluate the mechanics of the test. The data obtained from the questionnaires were statistically analysed and from this the candidate could draw conclusions about changes necessary for the test. Suggested changes were implemented. These included shortening the test, changing verbal instructions, adapting some parts of test items, reorganising the score sheet and changing the instruction manual accordingly. A pilot study was conducted to determine validity and reliability of the proposed test. A representative sample (n = 114) was recruited from the Sub A population in the Durbanville and Kraaifontein area of the Northern suburbs of the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. A comparative study was done to validate the proposed test, using the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests as a gold standard. The Two Point Discrimination test was excluded from this validation study as there is no corresponding test of the SCSIT. Results were compared and levels of sensitivity and specificity were established. In general, higher levels of specificity than sensitivity were obtained. The Form Recognition test had the highest sensitivity level (60%) and in the case of the Finger Recognition test statistically significant differences were obtained between means (p = 0.006). Thirty children from the group of 114 were tested by two testers to establish the reliability coefficient. The Form Recognition test had the highest coefficient (0.83).

This experiment examined the effects of instructions on the prosocial behavior (i.e., helping, sharing, teaching, and sympathy) of preschool children. Forty-eight individual children (X = 56.7 months) interacted with two adult women on two separate occasions, an initial session measuring baseline levels of prosocial behavior, and a second session several days later. In the second session, children received instructions in helping, sharing, and teaching, and an opportunity to rehearse, or practice, these prosocial behaviors. Children were given either power assertive instructions (i.e., instructions which directly told the child what to do), or inductive instructions (i.e., instructions which focused the child's attention on the needs of others). A control group received no instructions to behave prosocially. At the close of the second session, all children were given an immediate test to assess their level of helping, sharing, and teaching in the absence of instructions. An opportunity to display sympathy or comforting behavior was included to test for generalization of the instructional training to a new behavior. Approximately one week later a third session, where the child interacted with two new adult women who gave no instructions but presented opportunities for the child to help, share, teach, and sympathize, was included to test for internalization and long term generalization.