Reversible Aphasia in Adolescence: A Late-Onset form of Landau Kleffner Syndrome? Report of a Single Case

An adolescent boy developed a long-lasting pattern of global aphasia, concomitant to focal (left temporal) EEG abnormalities; this was followed by complete recovery. Laboratory and neuroimaging studies were within normal limits. The possibility of a late-onset Landau Kleffner syndrome is discussed

Children’s total blindness as a risk factor for early parent-child relationships: preliminary findings from an Italian sample

BackgroundVision provides crucial information for parent-child attunement that scaffolds social development from the first months of life. Congenital blindness might affect both parental wellbeing and children’s behavior during parent-child interaction. In this study, we compared families of young children with total versus partial blindness to understand the link between residual vision, parenting stress and perceived social support, and children’s behavior during parent-child interaction.MethodsParticipants were 42 white parents (21 fathers and 21 mothers) and their congenitally blind children (14 females, mean age = 14.81 months, SD = 10.46) with no co-occurring disability, recruited at the Robert Hollman Foundation rehabilitation centers in Italy. Parents’ scores on the Parenting Stress Index and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support questionnaires, as well as children’s behaviors signaling joint engagement during video-recorded episodes of parent-child interaction, were compared between the Total Blindness (TB, n = 12 children with no light perception or light perception in the dark but no quantifiable visual acuity) and Partial Blindness (PB, n = 9 children with a residual visual acuity below 3/60) groups.ResultsWe found that parents of TB children had higher parenting stress and lower perceived social support scores than parents of PB children. In fathers, total stress and stress linked to perceiving the child as difficult negatively correlated with perceived support from friends. There was no difference in the time TB and PB children spent displaying joint engagement behaviors during parent-child interaction. However, TB children directed their gaze and face less often toward their parents than PB children. We observed a trend of association between this behavior and maternal stress.ConclusionThese preliminary results suggest that the complete absence of vision from birth has adverse effects on stress linked to parenting and parental perceived social support. These findings support the importance of early family-centered interventions that extend to the parents’ communities and facilitate the parent-child dyad’s communication through non-visual behaviors. Replication is warranted in larger and more diverse samples

Filoni di ricerca in psicoterapia nella Facoltdi Psicologia dellUniversitdi Padova

Il moltiplicarsi di proposte di intervento psicologico e la crescente richiesta da parte degli utenti e delle istituzioni di cura di misurare efficacy ed effectiveness delle psicoterapie, rende necessaria una valutazione empirica dei modelli di intervento applicati, attraverso lo studio di ciò che avviene in psicoterapia e dei relativi meccanismi di cambiamento e azione. Scopo del presente lavoro è introdurre il lettore ai diversi disegni di ricerca per la valutazione empirica della psicoterapia nel complesso contesto di alcuni servizi Universitari dell’Ateneo Patavino. L'interesse sarà posto sui diversi progetti e strumenti per la valutazione dell’esito, dei macro e dei micro processi di cambiamento di terapie ad indirizzo psicodinamico, caso singolo e di gruppo, anche in relazione alle neuroscienze

Reversible Aphasia in Adolescence: A Late-Onset form of Landau Kleffner Syndrome? Report of a Single Case

An adolescent boy developed a long-lasting pattern of global aphasia, concomitant to focal (left temporal) EEG abnormalities; this was followed by complete recovery. Laboratory and neuroimaging studies were within normal limits. The possibility of a late-onset Landau Kleffner syndrome is discussed

Alexithymia in juvenile primary headache sufferers: a pilot study

Starting in the 1990s, there has been accumulating evidence of alexithymic characteristics in adult patients with primary headache. Little research has been conducted, however, on the relationship between alexithymia and primary headache in developmental age. In their research on alexithymia in the formative years, the authors identified one of the most promising prospects for research, as discussed here. The aim of this study was to verify whether there is: (a) a link between tension-type headache and alexithymia in childhood and early adolescence; and (b) a correlation between alexithymia in children/preadolescents and their mothers. This study was based on an experimental group of 32 patients (26 females and 6 males, aged from 8 to 15 years, mean 11.2 ± 2.0) suffering from tension-type headache and 32 control subjects (26 females and 6 males, aged from 8 to 15 years, mean 11.8 ± 1.6). Tension-type headache was diagnosed by applying the International Headache Classification (ICHD-II, 2004). The alexithymic construct was measured using an Italian version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children in the case of the juvenile patients and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) for their mothers. Higher rates of alexithymia were observed in the children/preadolescents in the experimental group (EG) than in the control group; in the EG there was no significant correlation between the alexithymia rates in the children/preadolescents and in their mothers

Relazioni fraterne e adolescenza

Il lavoro tratta delle relazioni fraterne in adolescenza e degli aspetti conflittuali del rapport

"Della stessa madre,dello stesso padre" Relazioni fraterne, trauma, elaborazione del lutto in adolescenza

Il lavoro tratta delle relazioni fraterne quali emergno nel lavoro psicoterapeutico con una adolescente che ha subito il trauma della perdita della sorell

Il piacere offuscato o l'intollerabile piacere: sessualit\ue0\ua0 e rischio in adolescenza

Il capitolo tratta dei rischi in adolescenza nell'ambito della sessualit\ue0, nel cammino verso l'acquisizione di una identit\ue0 adult

Originalit\ue0 e valore euristico del pensiero di Ferdinando Vanni sulla psicoterapia di gruppo

In questo lavoro vengono illustrati alcuni degli aspetti ritenuti pi\uf9 significativi nel pensiero di Ferdinando Vanni riguardo ai piccoli gruppi interattivi ed al loro uso a fini terapeutici. Lo scopo \ue8 quello di dimostrarne l\u2019originalit\ue0 ed il valore euristico, sia per la ricerca sui gruppi sia per la pratica psicoterapeutica quotidiana. Il primo problema affrontato \ue8 se la mente presenti uno specifico funzionamento nella situazione gruppale: viene illustrata la soluzione proposta da Vanni al riguardo. Viene quindi presentata la teorizzazione dell\u2019autore sulla possibilit\ue0 e i limiti dell\u2019osservazione nel gruppo e infine evidenziata, anche mediante la presentazione di materiale clinico originale, l\u2019importanza del concetto di sviluppo tematico spontaneo per la pratica terapeutica