Richard H. Passman

The Presence of Security Blankets or Mothers (or Both) Affects Distress During Pediatric Examinations

Because of parental interference, some pediatricians prefer examining children without parents nearby. Can inanimate, noninterfering attachment agents placate children during medical evaluations? Accompanied through random assignment by their mother, blanket, mother plus blanket, or no supportive agent, 64 blanket-attached or blanket-nonattached 3-year-olds underwent 4 routine medical procedures. Behavioral and physiological measures showed that mothers and blankets (for children attached to them) equally mitigated distress compared with no supportive agents. However, simultaneously presenting 2 attachment agents did not produce additive soothing effects. For comforting blanket-attached children during moderately upsetting medical procedures, blankets can function as appropriate maternal substitutes. Distress evidenced by children with no attachment agent demonstrates the undesirability of conducting medical examinations without supportive agents.

A procedure for eliminating writer's block in a college student☆

Abstract A 25-yr-old female student was in danger of failing a required college course due to difficulties in writing her term papers. The administration of reinforcement was made contingent upon the completion of one small writing requirement at a prescheduled time. Attenuation of the writers block was accomplished within five therapy sessions. Follow-up after the end of that semester and after the next revealed satisfactory completion of all courses and no relapses in the obstructions to her writing papers.

Pretend companions (imaginary playmates): The emergence of a field.

Over the last century, investigation of pretend companions has developed as an emerging field. Although pretend companions are a commonplace childhood phenomenon and perhaps an epitome of childrens imagination, that topic received little attention before the end of the 19th century. Only since the last decade has attention to it truly begun to burgeon. Broad developments in the history of thought and research on pretend companions fall into 6 stages: (a) early history, (b) early theory, (c) earliest empirical research, (d) midcentury lull, (e) a renewal of empirical attention, and (f) emergence into a significant field whose investigators are committed to reliable, increasingly sophisticated methods and to the examination of pretend companions within the broader context of pretend play. Following depictions of the fields past and current status, the authors present future directions for its progress.

An automatic device for toilet training

Abstract A chain of subject-initiated toileting behavior was established and maintained in three enuretic and encopretic profoundly retarded adults through the use of an automatic device which both monitored eliminations and dispensed candy reinforcers. When the device reinforced elimination, the incidence of urinations and defecations in clothing was sharply reduced in each subject, while the frequency of appropriate toileting behavior increased. With the device nonoperative (extinction), the behavior relapsed toward pretraining levels. In reconditioning, with the device again functional, post-training levels were re-established. The device was reliable and was seen to eliminate many of the difficulties inherent in toilet training.

Establishing Rapport With Preschool-Age Children: Implications for Practitioners

Professionals must often deal with children apart from their mothers. What techniques can be used to facilitate adjustment to maternal separation and establish rapport? Previous recommendations seem contradictory and are rarely based on research findings. In their mothers presence, sixty-four 31/2-year-olds were greeted with either a gradual or quick approach by a female stranger who interacted with them for either 0, 1, 10, or 20 min. (The 20 min included a 10-min home visit 1 day earlier.) The children were subsequently left alone with the stranger in another room. Lengthier preliminary interaction by the stranger resulted in the childrens electing to remain with her longer before leaving the room to return to their mother-but only when the stranger approached them quickly. Conversely, shorter preliminary interactions led to childrens returning to their mother more slowly than did lengthier initial interactions if the children originally received an extended, gradual greeting. Any positive effects from visiting the children at their home were nullified by having approached them gradually. Thus, too much preparation may be deleterious for establishing rapport. In contrast to the matter-of-fact, quick greeting, the excessive extended greeting may have served to signal children that aversive events were imminent. Interacting with children beforehand can help establish rapport and adaptation to novel situations; however, overdoing this preparation may have deleterious effects.

Relations between children's attachments to their mothers and to security blankets.

Are attachments to security objects and mothers related? Do children securely and insecurely attached to mothers use security blankets differently? Following the Strange Situation procedure (M. D. S. Ainsworth, M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978), 67 toddlers were left alone in a novel playroom with a stranger and their blanket. Although being blanket attached was unrelated to their security of attachment to mothers, avoidantly and securely attached children adjusted differently depending on their blanket attachments. Blanket-attached children also classified as avoidantly attached to mothers remained longer than did blanket-nonattached maternally avoidant, blanket-attached maternally secure, and blanket- blanketnonattached maternally secure children. Blanket-attached, maternally avoidant children may nonattached have relied on blankets as support to allay distress during separation. Availability of security blankets produces different adaptations to maternal separations among avoidantly and securely attached children.

Exoneration Reduces Adult Conflict's Effects on Preschoolers' Cognitions, Behavioral Distress, and Physiology.

In this experiment, the authors investigated the influence of exoneration from blame on childrens overt behavioral distress and physiological reactivity following the presentation of overheard adult conflict. The participants were 48 children (48-71 months of age) and their mothers. Through random assignment, the authors presented 16 children with statements that exonerated them from an overheard disagreement between two adults, did not address 16 during a similar disagreement, and presented 16 with a neutral discussion of difficulties. Exonerated children responded with less distress than did nonaddressed children, but did not differ from children presented the neutral discussion, except for overt behavioral distress. Nonaddressed children most often blamed themselves for the argument. Exonerating statements may protect children from attributional error and resultant physiological arousal during adult conflict.

Explaining to young children about an upcoming separation from their mother: When do i tell them?☆

Abstract This study investigated the effects of some popularly recommended techniques to prepare two-year-olds for brief separations from their mother. Some mothers discussed on upcoming separation with their child for three days beforehand, whereas others gave no advance preparation. In addition, immediately before they left the child alone with a stranger in an unfamiliar playroom, the mothers used one of three procedures to ready the child. They either provided a brief amount of information about the departure, lingered for 60 seconds after providing the brief preparation, or left in their customary “natural” manner. Regardless of the technique used immediately before the separation, children receiving no preparation at home remained with the stranger longer and played more than children given advance preparation. Furthermore, among those children prepared naturally directly before the separation, the less the mother lingered before leaving, the longer the child remained in the room and played. These results are consistent with previous findings that slight variations in maternal preparatory and departure behaviors can dramatically alter the effectiveness of the preparation.

The smoked plastic screen: An alternative to the one-way mirror ☆

Abstract A double thickness, smoked plastic screen is presented as an alternative to the one-way mirror. Relative to the glass mirror, the use of the plastic screen provides a safe, nondistracting, durable, light weight, and inexpensive method for unobserved viewing without an appreciable loss in light transmission.