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This paper describes an experience linked to a gender-sensitive university orientation project for young men and women. In particular, the contribution intends to offer some meta-reflections following the reformulation of the project itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution is developed starting from the project «Piano Lauree Scientifiche» (PLS – Plan for Scientific Degrees) in collaboration with ABCD Interdepartmental Center for Gender Studies of the University of Milan-Bicocca. The project initially envisaged the involvement of some high school students in a preliminary focus group phase to collect suggestions and points of view about their future projects. The pandemic completely reversed plans in several moments: it was no longer possible to meet students in schools. Therefore, the study was based on focus groups aimed at university students who should have followed double interviews to be carried out in person. The worsening of the pandemic situation led then to online interviews rather than face to face interviews. This article aims to highlight this experience to inform future research and encourage flexibility and reflexivity in research. It is hoped that this article can be helpful to develop cross-cultural qualitative methodology and expand upon the emerging field of literature surrounding video conferencing qualitative research, first of all those regarding the link between gender and university orientation.

The QUVA-p is a screening tool for identifying preschoolers with self-regulation difficulties. In the present study, preliminary normative age-related data (3, 4, 5 years) are provided separately for males and females and the relationship between self-regulation difficulties and adaptation is analyzed. The questionnaire is preschool teacher-completed, easy and quick to fill-out, and showed good psychometric properties. It can be valuable for the clinician in the early stage of the assessment to detect self-regulation problems potentially predicting Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).

Introduction: Since serial ordering has an important role in both language development and learning abilities, the present study aims to describe a new instrument, the Sequential Reasoning Task (SRT), specifically designed to assess children’s ability to place events in temporal order. Methods: Participants were 200 typically developing children, ranging from 3 to 8 years of age. Each child was individually administered a battery of cognitive and linguistic tasks. Results: The scores obtained in the SRT by children at different age levels appeared to be significantly different (except for 6- and 7-year-old children). Moreover, the scores obtained in the task were significantly related to the children’s non-verbal and linguistic competence. Conclusions: The SRT appeared to be a valid instrument to assess children’s sequential reasoning skills. It is engaging for children and easy to be administered also by teachers and therapists.

Il pianto rappresenta il principale mezzo di comunicazione del bambino durante i primi mesi di vita. Nonostante diversi autori si siano occupati dello studio delle caratteristiche acustiche proprie dei diversi tipi di pianto, del livello di stress da esso suscitato nel caregiver e delle capacità di quest'ultimo nell'identificazione delle cause, ad oggi alcune questioni rimangono aperte. La presente ricerca si pone tre principali obiettivi: descrivere le caratteristiche acustiche di diversi tipi di pianto; indagare se il riconoscimento delle cause del pianto avvenga sulla base di indizi contestuali e/o acustici; infine, valutare quali caratteristiche acustiche del pianto influenzino il livello di stress percepito e come questo possa guidarne l'interpretazione della causa. Sono state incluse nello studio 8 coppie madre-bambino (6 mesi di età). I risultati mostrano come la frequenza fondamentale sia la caratteristica acustica che maggiormente consente di distinguere i pianti e l'unica correlata con il livello di stress percepito. Tuttavia, per un corretto riconoscimento delle cause del pianto del proprio bambino, le informazioni acustiche non sembrano essere sufficient, Crying represents one of the main means of infant communication during their first months of life. Although several researchers dealt with the exploration of the acoustic characteristics of different cries, as well as with the investigation of the role played by cries in determining the stress in the caregiver and the maternal ability to recognize its causes, some questions are still open. This study has three main aims: to describe the acoustic characteristics of different types of crying; to verify if and to which extent crying correct identification is based on contextual and/or acoustic indices; finally, to identify which acoustic characteristics mainly influence the levels of stress perceived and, in turn, if this stress influences the identification of the reason of crying. 8 mother-child dyads (6-month-old) were included in the study. The results show that the cry fundamental frequency is the acoustic characteristic that most allows the classification of the different cries and the only one that significantly correlates with the stress perceived by the caregiver. However, the acoustic characteristics seem to be not sufficient for parents for a correct identification of their own baby cry's cause.

Attualmente non sono disponibili dei dati di riferimento sullo sviluppo del vocabolario nei bambini con sindrome di Down di lingua italiana. Essendo stata verificata la validità dell’utilizzo del Primo Vocabolario del Bambino (Caselli e Casadio, 1995) (versione italiana del questionario MacArthur-Bates) all’interno di questa popolazione, il presente studio ha lo scopo di valutare la produzione di parole e le relazioni che intercorrono fra questa e le età cronologica e di sviluppo in tale popolazione tramite l’utilizzo di questo strumento. Complessivamente 152 questionari sono stati somministrati ai genitori di bambini con sindrome di Down di età compresa fra 2 e 5 anni. La produzione di parole risulta essere correlata con l’età di sviluppo, ma non con quella cronologica. Inoltre, dal confronto con quanto rilevato nei bambini con sviluppo tipico, lo sviluppo lessicale risulta essere maggiormente rallentato rispetto al loro sviluppo cognitivo., Normative data on vocabulary size of Italian children with Down syndrome are not available at the present time. The principal aim of this study is to assess word production and its relationships with chronological and developmental age in this population, using Il Primo Vocabolario del Bambino (Caselli and Casadio, 1995) (i.e., the Italian version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories) whose validity in this population has been already demonstrated. An amount of 152 questionnaires has been collected from parents of children with Down syndrome aged two to five years. Word production appears to be correlated to developmental age but not to chronological age. Moreover, in comparison with typically developing children, lexical development seems to lag behind their cognitive development.