Lidia Maria Marson Postalli

Extending Equivalence Classes to Sentences and to Instructional Control

Sidman proposed that the formation of equivalence relations helps to make rule-governed behavior possible. This paper provides some experimental evidence that meaningless auditory and/or pictorial stimuli began to function as instructional stimuli, after their participation in equivalence classes with actions, and actions directed to objects. Without the formation of equivalence classes the participants could not have followed the instructions; however, belonging to a class contributes to, but does not entirely determine that an instruction will be followed. The contribution of these studies is limited to two types of relationships (word x object; word x action) and to the conditions under which they were carried out. Whether the same findings would extend to relations between words and other aspects of the environment, such as qualities, temporal and spatial relations, among others, is a question for future research. Moreover, the experiments employed well-defined categories (names and verbs), but many of these types of words have no “referents”; and sentences are composed of some elements that also have no referents, except their relationship to other elements within the sentence (e.g., the autoclitics). The comprehension of instructions by a listener is a topic that requires further thought and investigation.

Caracterização de família de mãe com deficiência intelectual e os efeitos no desenvolvimento dos filhos

The way in which parents educate their children seems to be crucial to promoting appropriate behaviors, but most families find it difficult to educate their children. Families of parents with intellectual disability can be at risk for the childrens development. Studies that aim to diagnose, describe and intervene, while empowering these mothers in order to minimize these risks, are important and necessary. This study describes a family about which there was suspicion that the mother presented intellectual disabilities; it discusses their stressors, and some effects of multiple stressors on childrens development and adherence to intervention programs. The family was followed for four years and the children were evaluated during this period to follow up on their development. The study also included assessment of the mothers disability and orientation of the family. There were weekly hour and a half visits. The findings confirm those seen in the literature, i.e. that children showed delayed development for their age. Other risk factors present were: poverty, low parental education, family violence, alcoholism, that worsened the problems. The results suggest the importance of taking care of this population and addressing public policies to minimize the effects of this kind of situation.

A ESCALA DE INTENSIDADE DE SUPORTE - SIS NO BRASIL

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi adaptar a Escala de Intensidade de Suporte – SIS para o Brasil. Primeiramente, a escala foi traduzida e submetida a retrotraducao por dois especialistas da area que dominavam o idioma da escala. Posteriormente, foi submetida a juizes para validacao semântica e de conteudo. O indice de “acertos” na classificacao dos conteudos foi de 83.72% (Variacao: 81% a 92%) de itens classificados de “forma correta” conforme as categorias indicadas. Em relacao a avaliacao semântica, dos 86 itens da escala, 15 geraram algum tipo de duvida entre os juizes, que sugeriram outras formas de traducao e recomendaram, em algumas situacoes, que exemplos esclarecedores fossem fornecidos para atender o contexto cultural brasileiro. O resultado parcial da aplicacao da escala vem demonstrando propriedades de validade e fidedignidade para a realidade brasileira que podera torna-la uma ferramenta util no planejamento e implementacao de Planos Educacionais Individualizados.

Análise da interação mãe e criança cega

Mother-child interaction is an important issue in the study of the development of children with visual impairment. This study aimed to describe interactions between blind children and their mothers during activities of daily personal care (feeding and hygiene). Three blind children aged from zero to three years and their mothers participated in this research. Videotapes were recorded by the mothers and were analyzed using two dyadic interaction protocols (Protocol of Analysis Categories of Interaction Footages and Dyadic Interaction Assessment Protocol). The results showed that the mothers used mainly commands and motivation during the activities, besides showing affection and responsiveness towards their children. The children remained attentive and engaged during the activities. Maternal stimulation of cognitive and language development of the child was also observed. The results demonstrate the importance of mother-child interaction for the growth and development of blind children and its contribution to the development of intervention programs for mothers and children with visual impairment.