Sexualidade e deficiência intelectual: narrativas de pais de adolescentes Sexuality and intellectual handicap: parents' narratives

Pelo senso comum, adolescentes com deficiência intelectual têm a sexualidade exacerbada ou são assexuados. Para conhecer como vivenciam as manifestações sexuais de seus filhos, entrevistamos 14 pais de adolescentes com essa deficiência. A análise das narrativas obtidas foi baseada em autores da antropologia. Nelas, observaram-se os preconceitos e o desconhecimento sobre o tema, bem como a reprodução da ideologia de gênero da nossa sociedade. Nas narrativas dos pais de adolescentes do sexo masculino, a masturbação, a relação sexual e o medo de abuso sexual foram destaques, enquanto nas dos pais das adolescentes privilegiaram-se como tema as mudanças corporais e também o receio de que fossem abusadas sexualmente. A inadequação entre desenvolvimento físico e um comportamento sexual considerado socialmente impróprio também foi alvo de narrativas. Aponta-se a necessidade de ampliação do debate com os adolescentes, seus pais e diversos setores da sociedade para minimizar os preconceitos em relação à sexualidade das pessoas com deficiência intelectual, propiciando a garantia de seus direitos sexuais.<br>By common sense, adolescents with intellectual disabilities have a heightened sexuality or are asexual. To learn how they experience the sexual manifestations of their children, we interviewed 14 parents of adolescents with this deficiency. The analysis of the narratives obtained was based on authors of anthropology. In them, there were prejudices and ignorance on the subject, as well as playing the gender ideology of our society. In the narratives of parents of adolescent males, masturbation, sex and fear of sexual abuse were highlighted, while parents privileged themes such as bodily changes and also the fear that they were sexually abused. The mismatch between physical development and sexual behavior considered socially improper was also the target of narratives. The paper points up the need to expand the discussion with teens, their parents and various sectors of society to minimize biases regarding sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities, providing a guarantee of their sexual rights

Ethnic experience of cancer: A qualitative study of Chinese-Australians in Brisbane, Queensland

This article reports on the findings of a recent study of cancer experiences of members in the Chinese community in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland. Results of the study have shown that the belief in fate and luck, as well as stoicism about cancer, is very common among cancer patients and their family members. Their general strategy for coping with cancer is often passive. Families play the most important role in determining the strategy for helping the cancer patients in coping with the illness. Most prefer to keep the illness secret and private within the family. Implications of the findings from this study will be discussed for the development of culturally appropriate programs for cancer prevention and treatment for the Chinese community. © 2009 Informa pl

Working memory in children and adolescents with Down syndrome: evidence from a colour memory experiment

This paper reports information on the visual and verbal short term memory of individuals with Down syndrome. Colour memory in 16 children and adolescents with Down syndrome was compared with that of 16 typically developing children matched for receptive vocabulary. It was suggested that focal colours should be remembered more successfully than non-focal colours on the basis that the former could be remembered using a verbal recoding strategy. However, children with Down syndrome, for whom a deficit in verbal short term memory makes the use of such a strategy unlikely, should remember focal and non-focal colours equally well. More importantly, if individuals with Down syndrome have more developed visual memory abilities than control children, they should out-perform them in recognising non-focal colours. Although the group with Down syndrome demonstrated significantly better Corsi blocks performance than controls, and displayed similar levels of colour knowledge, no advantage for colour memory was found. Non-focal colours were remembered by individuals with Down syndrome as successfully as focal colours but there was no indication of a visual memory advantage over controls. Focal colours were remembered significantly more successfully than non-focal colours by the typically developing children. Their focal colour memory was significantly related to digit span, but only Corsi span was related to focal colour memory in the group with Down syndrome