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ObjectivesThe therapeutic alliance (TA) has been shown to be a predictor of psychotherapy treatment success. In the case of psychotherapy with children, there is a dearth of information on TA's role. The aims of the paper are: (1) To estimate the therapist effects on children TA; (2) to investigate if therapists' TA predicts children's TA; (3) to analyze if children's age and sex predict children's TA; (4) to evaluate if the therapist's characteristics predict children's TA.MethodsThe sample consisted of 77 children undergoing psychotherapy in Argentina, and the therapists (N = 29) providing services to those children. The assessment tools utilized for the study included the Therapy Alliance Scale for Children and the Personal Style of the Therapist Questionnaire (PST-Q).ResultsFindings indicated that 2% of the children's TA was explained by the therapists (ICC = 0.02), while 17% of the therapists' TA was explained by the therapists (ICC = 0.17). Therapists' TA predicted children's TA. Children's age and sex did not have an effect on their own TA. Moreover, therapists with more experience achieved higher scores of children's TA. Finally, the Operative dimension of the PST had a negative effect on children's TA (i.e., therapists who prefer more spontaneous interventions over structured ones may experience higher levels of therapeutic alliance with child patients).ConclusionWe found a positive effect of the therapist's TA on children's TA, especially in the preference for using more spontaneous intervention techniques. We discuss the implications of the findings on the training of psychotherapists who provide services to children.

Objectives: The therapeutic alliance (TA) has been shown to be a predictor of psychotherapy treatment success. In the case of psychotherapy with children, there is a dearth of information on TA's role. The aims of the paper are: (1) To estimate the therapist effects on children TA; (2) to investigate if therapists' TA predicts children's TA; (3) to analyze if children's age and sex predict children's TA; (4) to evaluate if the therapist's characteristics predict children's TA. Methods: The sample consisted of 77 children undergoing psychotherapy in Argentina, and the therapists (N = 29) providing services to those children. The assessment tools utilized for the study included the Therapy Alliance Scale for Children and the Personal Style of the Therapist Questionnaire (PST‐Q). Results: Findings indicated that 2% of the children's TA was explained by the therapists (ICC = 0.02), while 17% of the therapists' TA was explained by the therapists (ICC = 0.17). Therapists' TA predicted children's TA. Children's age and sex did not have an effect on their own TA. Moreover, therapists with more experience achieved higher scores of children's TA. Finally, the Operative dimension of the PST had a negative effect on children's TA (i.e., therapists who prefer more spontaneous interventions over structured ones may experience higher levels of therapeutic alliance with child patients). Conclusion: We found a positive effect of the therapist's TA on children's TA, especially in the preference for using more spontaneous intervention techniques. We discuss the implications of the findings on the training of psychotherapists who provide services to children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the psychometric properties and an initial validation study of the Executive Functioning Scale for Children (EFS). The EFS assesses parents' and teachers' perception of the frequency of certain behaviors schoolchildren may present when performing tasks that demand attentional control, inhibitory control, metacognition, organization, planning, and cognitive flexibility. The participants were 307 schoolchildren, male and female (48.2% female), between 6 and 10 years of age (M = 7.69, SD = 1.07), belonging to the middle-low SES (17%) and low SES (83%). The children attended three primary schools from first to 4th grade in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. The informants were the teachers. The results indicated that the EFS offers a unidimensional structure, adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and predictive capacity of school performance. These results suggest that the EFS is an ecologically valid and reliable assessment instrument that can be used to complement children's neuropsychological evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article was to analyze the evolution of children's drawings according to the first stages proposed by Lowenfeld: the scribbling stage, the pre-schematic stage and the schematic stage, in children living in Argentina and Germany. Three specific objectives were established: 1) to investigate whether, at present, the aforementioned stages occur at the same ages proposed by said author; 2) to analyze the characteristics of children's drawings in children aged 3 to 6 years old living in Argentina and Germany and 3) to compare the graphic productions made by children living in both countries, in order to investigate the differences between both sociocultural contexts. The sample included a total of 136 children between the ages of 3 to 6, 72 children of which were Argentinian and 64 were German. A quantitative, descriptive-comparative approach with a cross-sectional design was used. The instruments used were the free drawing technique and an assessment form made ad hoc. It was observed that the sequence in which the stages of drawing were presented was identical to that presented by Lowenfeld. However, the advance in the ages in relation to said stages was evident. When analyzing the stages of children's drawing, no statistically significant differences were found between both groups of children (Argentina-Germany). Also, drawing characteristics were similar in both groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the role of focal visual attention and visual-spatial perception as modulators of reading performance. A correlational-causal cross-sectional design was employed. A sample of 118 schoolchildren from Mendoza, Argentina, of both sexes, between 8-11 years of age, was selected through purposive, non-probabilistic sampling. The schoolchildren took the CARAS Test, the REY Test, and the Letter-Word Identification and Passage Comprehension subtests of the Woodcock-Muñoz Test Battery. Student t-test showed that the ability to identify words and understand a text varied significantly in relation to the students' attentional capacity. A regression analysis revealed that attention and perception jointly accounted for the ability of 8-9 year-old children to identify words. On the other hand, for the 10-11 year-old group, attention modulated reading ability and text comprehension. Promoting the development of attentional focalization may have an impact on discrimination capacity and, as a result, decrease reading errors and enhance text comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to read and write requires a set of initial skills, such as lexical development, identification of letters and words, association between grapheme and phoneme, handling the spelling code. Children begin to internalize these skills, and knowledge, at an early age, in the interactions they have with others in their family context. The sociocultural characteristics, the availability of educational, and literacy resources in family, vary depending on the socioeconomic status of the family, and differentially model the acquisition of these skills (Andrés et al., 2010; Piacente et al., 2006; Rosemberg & Stein, 2009). In Argentina, it has been reported that children from marginalized contexts tend to be exposed to fewer words, and less diversity of words, in everyday interactions at home, which can affect language development and consequently, learning to read and write (Rosemberg & Stein, 2009). Child's cognitive development is another factor of interest. In recent decades, the predictive role of executive functions (EF) has gained relevance: a set of cognitive control capacities involved in cognitive, emotional and behavioral self-regulation. The literature documented interrelationships between developmental trajectories of executive functions, language development, and learning to read and write (Booth et al., 2014; De Franchis et al., 2017; Marder & Barreyro, 2019; Skibbe et al., 2019). In line with these postulates, this study set out to analyze the predictive value of EFs -attention, planning, inhibitory control, metacognition and cognitive flexibility-in initial reading and writing skills (IRWS, letter-word identification and dictation) in Argentine children, controlling for the effects of age and family socioeconomic status (SES). A causal-correlational transectional design was used. The intentional non-probabilistic sample was made up by 186 children (48 % girls), 6 to 10 years old, belonging to marginalized urban contexts (41 % low superior SES, 39 % low inferior SES, and 20 % marginal SES). The children were evaluated with Word Identification and Dictation of Woodcock-Muñoz Achievement Battery, and a set of neuropsychological tests of FE. The SES was estimated based on the educational level and occupation of the children's parents. The analysis of structural equations indicated that the proposed model presented an excellent fit to the data (χ2(23, 178) = 27.52, p = .234; GFI = .97; CFI = .99; RMSEA = .03) and explained the 66 % of the variance of the children's IRWS. EFs were the factor that most strongly modulated IRWS performance in children, presenting direct effects (β = .60), and mediating the impact of the variables age (β= .34) and SES (β= .16). In line with the literature (Booth et al., 2014; De Franchis et al., 2017; Marder y Barreyro, 2019; Skibbe et al., 2019), the results report that EFs are significant resources for learning to read and write in infancy, and make three contributions of interest. First, the implication of EFs in tasks of reading words, writing letters and handling the spelling code, was documented in children 6 to 10 years of age, which could indicate that the automation of IRWS would be achieved later in schoolchildren from marginalized contexts. Another finding of interest was to document that the evolutionary gains in the EFs drove the learning of the HILE, which indicates an overlap in the development trajectory, and an optimal moment, for its strengthening. Another contribution was to report that the EFs modulated the relationship between the family SES and the IRWS. Taken together, these findings make it possible to identify EF as an intervention target, while its strengthening may be a way to reduce the educational gap between the most and least favored children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research has documented factors that predict happiness in adults; however, studies on children's happiness have just begun. The aim of this study was to explore Argentine children's reasons for happiness. The sample included 120 children between the ages of 7 and 9 years (M = 8.03; SD = 0.72) who attended Argentine public schools. The Face Scale was used to evaluate how children assess happiness and a focused interview was conducted to obtain their spontaneous verbal descriptions of what made them happy. A content analysis was then conducted was after the interviews. Most of the children reckoned that family and friendships were the main sources of happiness. They also mentioned different kinds of activities as sources of happiness, like school, recreation and leisure activities, and owning and playing with pets. These findings may be useful for designing mental health programs aimed at promoting positive socio-emotional development during childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We understand attention as an active and constructive mechanism that can be improved with regular practice. The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the efficiency of an intervention program aimed at stimulating attention abilities in Argentinean school children between 7-12 years old previously detected as having low attention efficiency, and considering age and sex. We formed two groups: a) under study, with 72 students, and b) control, with 66 students. In the post-intervention stage the results showed a statistically significant increase of attention efficiency in the children involved in the program. These are promising results regarding their application to different cognitive performance profiles and the various development contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines social skills, behavior problems and performance on tasks of social information processing. The sample included 184 children of five and seven years old of both sexes (59.24% women), who observed vignettes of social interaction situations where predominated expression of anger, happiness or sadness in the provocateur. Teachers provided information on social performance of children in the school context. Girls five years old showed better social skills and fewer behavior problems, and boys more behavior problems. Younger children and boys had a worse performance on the tasks of social information processing, with different results according to emotional stimulus. There were special relations between dimensions of the social skills and the behavior problems and some steps of the social information processing. Limitations and future lines of action are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention plays a key role in school performance of children. Different studies have reported that the attentional capacity is positively correlated with the skills of reading, writing and math in primary school. In the teaching-learning process, a child uses different forms of attention. In one task, the child selects relevant information and inhibits the others. Perhaps, should divide his attention and switch his focus of attention between two or more sources of information, holding -intentionally- these activities for a specified time. In this context, it is important evaluate the attentional abilities of children in education with valid, reliable and adapt ed instruments to the school population. The main perceptual-attentional skills used in assessing attentional tasks are: perception of differences, visual discrimination, visual integration and perceptual speed. These tasks can be characterized as simple, yet include a lot of tests, which requires a relatively large time to be realized. In this way become continuous performance tasks in which the subject must locate significant stimulus to a wider set of stimuli acting distracting way. The purpose of this work was the development of normative data of performance indicators in Perception Test Similarities and Differences or FACES. This test is used to evaluate the focused and sustained attention and the ability to perceive, quickly and correctly, similarities, differences and partially ordered stimulating patterns. As a main feature, the CARAS, has 60 blocks stimuli each composed of three schematic drawings of faces (with elementary strokes representing the mouth, eyes, eyebrows and hair), one of which is different. The task is to determine the different side and cross it off. The research was descriptive and cross-sectional non-experimental design was used. The analysis was performed on a standardized sample stratified random sample of 4.462 students between 7 and 12 years of public primary schools of Mendoza (República Argentina). As a result are obtained performance attentional scores: attentional efficacy (AE), attentional efficiency (AE) and attentional yield (AY) in partial evaluation time (t1 and t2) and total time (T), for each sex and age. These attentional assessment indicators are proposed by the authors in previous work. Mathematical expressions derived from these indicators, emerged from the chronological review of the progress made in this assessment tool and the need to know more accurately the capabilities of the subjects tested. In this context, the term attentional performance is introduced as an inclusive concept of attentional efficiency, attentional efficiency and attentional yield of a subject in visual search tasks. Attentional efficiency allows to evaluate the accuracy with which a child discriminate stimuli within a series of similar stimuli; attentional efficiency (AF) is defined as the cognitive ability to regulate and optimize the attentional mechanism to select and maintain attention for an extended period of time, using minimal resources of time available. Moreover, attentional yield (AY) is the product resulting from the level of effectiveness and efficiency obtained in selection and sustained attentional task. Then, the cumulative frequencies, which were subsequently transformed to percentile ranks, were determined. With this kind of normative study is to provide, in different attentional performance indicators, greater diagnostic accuracy in assessing attentional mechanism in children. The attentional capacity is key to proper cognitive functioning, thus its evaluation is relevant for the purposes of precise diagnosis and adequate psycho-educational intervention programs that interrupt the cycle of failure and frustration helping to increase the feeling of self-efficacy in the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current neurocognitive models define attention as a cognitive control system responsible for activation and hierarchical organization of the processes to elaborate information. It plays a key role in child cognitive performance and in school learning. It has been documented that children with greater attention capabilities show better performance in tasks that require cognitive control and better school performance. Therefore, it is important to have valid and reliable assessment instruments, which allow evaluating attentional performance in children with greater precision, and that are adapted to the sociocultural context of the target population. In line with these postulates, this paper presents a new instrument designed to evaluate visual attention in children called the Ring Test. The Ring Test is a visual discrimination test that has been constructed using Landolt's C optotype and following the tristimulus structure proposed by the Perception of Similarities and Differences (FACES) Test. Ring Test is a pencil and paper test that is made up of 60 blocks of stimuli each with triads of optotypes, where two optotypes are the same and one different. Subject's task is to find the different optotype in each stimulus triad and cross it out. This instrument brings into play focused and sustained attention and makes it possible to assess attentional effectiveness (AE), attentional efficiency (AF) and attentional performance (AP). Also, the Ring Test measures impulsivity (ICI) and net correct answers (NCA). The purpose of the study is to analyze psychometric properties for the Ring Test. Study's specific objectives were: (1) analyze the convergent validity between the Ring Test and the FACES Test, and (2) analyze the reliability of the Ring Test through the temporal stability. This study is framed in an instrumental design. The sample was composed of 86 schoolchildren, between 8 to 10 years. The results indicated that the Ring Test presented accurate values of convergent validity with the FACES test. The indicators of the Ring Test (AE, AF, AP, ICI and NCA) weighted for the complete execution of the test, showed the highest convergent validity indexes with the FACES Test (rho: from .55 to .62). AR and NCA for the complete execution of the test were the indicators that presented the highest validity (rho > .58), within the analyzed indicators. Also, the Ring Test presented a satisfactory temporal stability between the first and second measurement. It was observed that the most stable indicators are those that are calculated for the complete performance of the test (rho: from .56 to .76), and not for the partial times. AR and NCA calculated for the complete execution of the test were the indicators that denoted the greatest temporal stability (rho > .65). Another interesting aspect to highlight is that the Ring Test proved to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure attentional efficacy and impulsivity. AE evaluates the accuracy with which a child discriminates targeted stimuli within a set of similar stimuli and, consequently, can be considered a good indicator of attentional control. The ICI assesses the reflexivity or impulsiveness with which a subject performs a visual discrimination task. In sum, the results indicated that the Ring Test is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring visual attention in children. It is recommended to apply the complete test, not in time fractions, because the indicators calculated for the complete execution of the test showed greater convergent validity with the FACES test and greater temporal stability than the part-time indicators. It is concluded that the Ring Test is a contribution to the neuropsychological instruments available for the proper evaluation of visual attention in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]