Neurophysiological evidence for rapid processing of verbal and gestural information in understanding communicative actions

During everyday social interaction, gestures are a fundamental part of human communication. The communicative pragmatic role of hand gestures and their interaction with spoken language has been documented at the earliest stage of language development, in which two types of indexical gestures are most prominent: the pointing gesture for directing attention to objects and the give-me gesture for making requests. Here we study, in adult human participants, the neurophysiological signatures of gestural-linguistic acts of communicating the pragmatic intentions of naming and requesting by simultaneously presenting written words and gestures. Already at ~150 ms, brain responses diverged between naming and request actions expressed by word-gesture combination, whereas the same gestures presented in isolation elicited their earliest neurophysiological dissociations significantly later (at ~210 ms). There was an early enhancement of request-evoked brain activity as compared with naming, which was due to sources in the frontocentral cortex, consistent with access to action knowledge in request understanding. In addition, an enhanced N400-like response indicated late semantic integration of gesture-language interaction. The present study demonstrates that word-gesture combinations used to express communicative pragmatic intentions speed up the brain correlates of comprehension processes – compared with gesture-only understanding – thereby calling into question current serial linguistic models viewing pragmatic function decoding at the end of a language comprehension cascade. Instead, information about the social-interactive role of communicative acts is processed instantaneously

O momento da avaliação na intervenção precoce: o envolvimento da família estudo das qualidades psicométricas do ASQ-2 dos 30 aos 60 meses

A relação entre pais e profissionais de saúde e de educação é fundamental para o desenvolvimento da criança. Esta se torna ainda mais essencial em crianças que apresentam risco de desenvolvimento. Essa mesma relação é valorizada numa abordagem centrada na família tendo implicações significativas nas práticas nos diferentes contextos e na sua aplicabilidade, exigindo que os profissionais assumam novos papéis e que aprendam novas competências no trabalho com as famílias. Estas competências concretizam-se nos primeiros contactos com a família desde o momento da avaliação até à efetiva prestação de serviços. A realização deste estudo surgiu da necessidade constatada de envolver os pais desde o primeiro momento do processo em intervenção precoce através de um instrumento formal e de simples aplicação. O ASQ-2 é constituído por 19 questionários divididos por diferentes idades entre os quatro e os 60 meses. Cada questionário é composto por 30 itens divididos pelas áreas de desenvolvimento comunicação, motricidade global, motricidade fina, resolução de problemas e pessoal-social. Este trabalho constitui a análise dos questionários dos 30 aos 60 meses para observar as qualidades psicométricas do ASQ, tendo sido aplicados a uma amostra de conveniência de 127 famílias do distrito de Braga. Foi possível verificar que o ASQ-2 traduzido apresenta resultados atraentes o que significa que poderá vir a ser utilizado pela população portuguesa de pais e profissionais (de saúde e de educação) que pretendam concretizar as suas dúvidas através de um instrumento formal de rastreio e de monitorização do desenvolvimento da criança.The relationship between parents and health and education professionals is fundamental to the development of the child. This becomes even more important in children who are at risk. This relationship is valued in a family-centered approach and there are significant implications for practice in different contexts, requiring professionals to take on new roles and learn new skills in working with families. These skills come to the foreground during the first contacts with the family beginning at the time of assessment through to the effective provision of services. This study arose due to the perception that parents needed to be involved from the very beginning of the process in Early Intervention, by means of a formal instrument and simple application. The ASQ-2 is composed of 19 different questionnaires organized according to age intervals from 4 to 60 months. Each questionnaire comprises 30 items grouped according to the developmental areas of communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving and personal-social. This study presents the analysis of questionnaires from 30 to 60 months to observe the psychometric properties of the ASQ applied to a convenience sample of 127 households in the district of Braga. We concluded that the ASQ-2 presents attractive results suggesting that it could be used by the Portuguese population of parents and professionals (health and education) who wish to answer some questions using a formal screening and monitoring of child development instrument

Chronic and structural poverty in South Africa: Challenges for action and research

Ten years after liberation, the persistence of poverty is one of the most important and urgent problems facing South Africa. This paper reflects on some of the findings based on research undertaken as part of the participation of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape in the work of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), situates it within the broader literature on poverty in South Africa, and considers some emergent challenges. Although PLAAS’s survey, being only the first wave of a panel study, does not yet cast light on short term poverty dynamics, it illuminates key aspects of the structural conditions that underpin long-term poverty: the close interactions between asset poverty, employment-vulnerability and subjection to unequal social power relations. Coming to grips with these dynamics requires going beyond the limitations of conventional ‘sustainable livelihoods’ analyses; and functionalist analyses of South African labour markets. The paper argues for a re-engagement with the traditions of critical sociology, anthropology and the theoretical conventions that allow a closer exploration of the political economy of chronic poverty at micro and macro level