Eva Ceulemans

Exploring parental behavior and child interactive engagement: A study on children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay

BACKGROUND AND AIMSnParenting factors are one of the most striking gaps in the current scientific literature on the development of young children with significant cognitive and motor disabilities. We aim to explore the characteristics of, and the association between, parental behavior and childrens interactive engagement within this target group.nnnMETHODS AND PROCEDURESnTwenty-five parent-child dyads (with children aged 6-59 months) were video-taped during a 15-min unstructured play situation. Parents were also asked to complete the Parental Behavior Scale for toddlers. The video-taped observations were scored using the Child and Maternal Behavior Rating Scales.nnnOUTCOMES AND RESULTSnLow levels of parental discipline and child initiation were found. Parental responsivity was positively related to child attention and initiation.nnnCONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONSnCompared to children with no or other levels of disabilities, this target group exhibits large differences in frequency levels and, to a lesser extent, the concrete operationalization of parenting domains. Further, this study confirms the importance of sensitive responsivity as the primary variable in parenting research.

The generic subspace clustering model

In this paper we present an overview of methods for clustering high dimensional data in which the objects are assigned to mutually exclusive classes in low dimensional spaces. To this end, we will introduce the generic subspace clustering model. This model will be shown to encompass a range of existing clustering techniques as special cases. As such, further insight is obtained into the characteristics of these techniques and into their mutual relationships. This knowledge facilitates selecting the most appropriate model variant in empirical practice.