Thesis (MEdPsych)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: My study aims to explore whether a Developmental Play Programme can be implemented in a primary school with learners, using trained volunteer therapists from an old age home in the area. I also looked at the experiences of the learners and that of the volunteer therapists using Developmental Play Therapy as a therapeutic technique. The technique facilitates the development of child-adult relationships that are necessary for the development of children. The research is in the form of a qualitative case study. It is approached from an ecosystemic perspective i.e. learners are viewed as a core system which in turn is part of several other systems, for example the family, school, church, community etc. The systems are interdependent, which means that change in the one system also results in change within other systems. In the data production video recordings, unstructured interviews, observations and field notes are used. Data analysis was done using principles of coding. The results of the study show that Developmental Play Therapy is indeed an effective psychotherapeutic technique to use in a primary school with a group of learners and to use senior citizens as volunteer therapists to do the therapy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel met die studie is om na te vors of die Ontwikkelende speelprogram op leerders in 'n primêre skool toegepas kan word, deur inwoners van 'n ouetehuis in die area op te lei as vrywillige terapeute. Ek het die ervaringe van die leerders en die van die vrywillige terapeute observeer waar Ontwikkelende Speelterapie as terapeutiese tegniek toegepas is. Die tegniek bevorder onder andere die ontwikkeling van ouer - kindverhoudings, wat noodsaaklik is vir die ontwikkeling van kinders. Die navorsing neem die vorm van 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie aan. Dit word benader vanuit 'n ekosistemiese perspektief, dit wil sê die leerders word gesien as die kernsisteem wat deel is van verskeie ander sisteme soos byvoorbeeld die familie, skool, kerk en gemeenskap. Die sisteme is interafhanklik wat beteken dat verandering in een sisteem ook verandering in die ander sisteme tot gevolg het. In die data - produksie is tegnieke naamlik video - opnames, ongestruktureerde onderhoude, observasies en veldnotas gebruik. Data - analise is volgens die beginsels van kodering gedoen. Die resultate van die onderhewige studie toon dat Ontwikkelende speelterapie 'n effektiewe psigoterapeutiese tegniek is om in 'n primêre skool te gebruik met 'n groep leerders, en om gebruik te maak van senior burgers as vrywillige terapeute om die terapie te doen.

Previous research has been interested in studying parental emotion socialization practices in parents of typically developing (TD) children. The current study aimed to explore such practices among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Seventy-eight families participated in this study. Self-reported rating scales were adopted to measure the child's social competence, parenting stress and maternal emotional styles. As hypothesized, results showed significantly different patterns in maternal emotional styles between mothers of children with ASD and those with TD children. However, inconsistent to our hypothesis, the maternal emotional styles were found to be neither related to child's social competence nor parenting stress within the ASD group. Implications of findings on future research and practice are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate some psychosocial factors that may be related to the development of childhood cancer. The questions that guided the study were: When compared to families of healthy children (1) Do the family structure, dynamics and atmosphere present any commonalities among children with cancer? (2) Are there any personality characteristics common to children with cancer? (3) Have children with cancer experienced more of stressful events during the year that preceded diagnosis? (4) Have children with cancer experienced a major loss? Twelve children between the ages of 2 to 13 who were diagnosed with a form of cancer were compared to twelve healthy but accidently injured children of the same age, and sex and socioeconomic background hospitalized at the 2nd Pediatric Department of The University of Athens. A semistructured interview was used to gather information from their mothers within the month that followed the child's diagnosis or accident. Chi-square and T-test analyses were used at the .05 level of significance to determine differences between groups on each of the variables. Findings revealed that, compared to healthy children, children with cancer tended to belong to "broken home" families in which most had experienced (a) the loss or absence of a significant person (particularly the father) early in their life or (b) an unhappy marriage between their parents, frequently resulting from an "arranged" marriage. Within their family children occupied a special status and were raised as "only" or "first-borns." A major upcoming event was anticipated in most of their families within the same month that the diagnosis was pronounced; this event was aborted as a result of the child's diagnosis. Limitations of the study, discussion of the methodology and recommendations for further research are presented.

Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection endemic to the southwestern United States. Hematogenous dissemination of the etiologic agent produces a chronic basilar meningitis in a small percentage of children. While new and aggressive therapy has decreased mortality, children with coccidioidal meningitis (CM) continue to suffer significant morbidity. A comprehensive investigation of intellectual, achievement, and behavioral outcomes in a series of 9 children who were diagnosed and treated for CM at the Arizona Health Sciences Center between 1977 and 1988 was conducted. Nearest-age siblings were also evaluated. Findings revealed compromised cognitive abilities and an increased incidence of academic and behavioral difficulties in the patient group as compared to normative expectations and the performance of siblings. Results support the need for timely educational interventions to assist such patients in maximizing their potential in the academic environment.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between attachment and emotion understanding in preschoolers. Data was collected from 16 preschool children and their mothers recruited from a private learning center in a downtown metropolitan area. Attachment was measured by use of the Attachment Q-sort, 3.0 (Waters, 1995), while emotion understanding was assessed through use of Denham's (1986) affective perspective-taking task and interviews of children concerning naturally occurring emotions and emotion causes (Fabes et al., 1991). Results included a significant correlation (p < .05) between secure attachment and preschooler's ability to decipher the cause of another's emotion; however, a significant correlation was not found between secure attachment and preschooler's perspective-taking ability or ability to name other's emotions. Thus, conclusions about the impact of attachment upon emotion understanding were mixed, and more research on the subject was implicated.

The problem of this study was the relationship of the self-concept of fifth-grade Negro students with their knowledge of Negro leaders and events. Sub-problems of this study were (1) the relationship between the self-concept of fifth-grade students and their reading achievement and (2) the relationship of their knowledge of Negro leaders and events and their reading achievement.

Using a clinical sample of 63 girls aged 5 - 16 years, the Psychoanalytic Rorschach Profile (PRP; Burke et al., 1988), a measure of drive, ego, and object relations functioning, was examined for differences between sexual abuse (SA) victims and distressed but nonabused (NA) peers. The hypothesis that the SA group would evidence more pathological, less developed levels of drive, ego, and object relations functioning than the NA group was not supported. Limitations of the use of archival data are discussed. The effects of controlling for the number of responses (R) in Rorschach research were examined by comparing entire protocols of a clinical sample of girls from 5 - 16 years of age to shortened versions which included only the first one (N = 89; R = 10) or two (N = 17; R = 20) responses to each blot. Of 12 PRP scales compared, differences between the R = 10 and entire protocols were found on 5 variables, but when R was increased to 20, only 2 differences remained. Support was given for the notion of uniform Rorschach administration in which 2 responses per card are solicited.

The improving prognosis for pediatric leukemia patients requires that involved professionals increase attention to the emotional adjustment of these children. This study was designed to determine (a) how mothers of leukemia patients perceived their children's personalities in order to identify any specific emotional difficulties which these children may experience and (b) if their perceptions differed from either mothers of cystic fibrosis and diabetes patients or mothers of healthy children. Subjects included 24 mothers in each of three groups: leukemia, other illness, and healthy. Children in both illness groups received higher scores than healthy children on Adjustment, Achievement, Somatic Concern, Depression, Psychosis, and Social Skills scales as measured by the Personality Inventory for Children; however, only the leukemic children were rated higher in areas of Anxiety and Withdrawal. Implications for treatment and future research are discussed.

This study examined differences in social self-concept, as measured by the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), between boys and girls with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while controlling for internalizing symptoms. Ninety-six children between the ages of 8 and 13 participated in the study as part of a larger project. Teacher reports of social competence were collected using the Teacher Rating Scale (TRS). The results indicated ADHD children experienced more peer rejection than control children. ADHD girls appeared to be more susceptible to low social self-concept and competence than control children or ADHD boys. Inattentive symptoms were most predictive of teacher reports of competence. Positive illusory bias was not found to serve a protective function in children regardless of ADHD status. The implications of the current study and directions for future research are presented.

Teachers appear to feel challenged by children’s off-task behavior in the classroom. Children’s off-task behavior can result in reduced academic engagement, increased teaching stress, and strained teacher-child relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of kinder training on young children’s on-task behavior in the classroom. This study utilized an experimental single-case methodology and a multiple baseline across subjects design. Three elementary school teachers conducted weekly individual play sessions with students they identified as frequently exhibiting off-task behavior. The three children ranged in age from five to six years: two males and one female, two Caucasian non-Hispanic and one biracial. Two trained observers repeatedly assessed the child participants’ on-task behavior using the Direct Observation Form throughout the baseline and intervention phases. The findings provide support for kinder training as an effective play-based professional development-training model that can improve children’s on-task behavior. Results demonstrated that all child participants showed improvement in on-task classroom behavior. Visual analysis revealed that all child participants demonstrated a positive change in on-task behavior during the intervention phase. All teacher participants reported observing improvement in the child participants’ on-task behavior and teacher-child relationships. Teachers’ post-intervention reports supported the notion of reciprocal interactions among teacher-child relationships, understanding of children’s lifestyle and goals of misbehavior, and children’s on-task behavior.