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This article aims to outline the areas of investigation useful for the clinical evaluation of specific language impairment (SLI) and learning disabilities (LD) in the condition of bilingualism, especially in children who learn Italian as a second language (L2). This is an extremely heterogeneous population in terms of clinical phenotypes, environmental factors and timing of exposure. We focus in particular on the type of bilingualism that is defined subtractive, in which the social value of the mother tongue (L1) is not recognized. Starting from the diagnostic approach of neurodevelopmental disorders in which phenotypic variables intersect with environmental variables in a temporal continuum, we try to apply the same approach to bilingual children. We outline the most important steps of anamnesis and clinical evaluation in both SLI and LD, and the principal environmental and temporal elements that must be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Italian Journal of Nursing (IJN) / Giornale Italiano di Infermieristica is the property of Collegio IPASVI MI-LO-MB - Ordine Professioni Infermieristiche MI-LO-MB and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Questo contributo riguarda la dispersione scolastica in Italia e in Europa. Partendo dall’analisi dei documenti prodotti a livello europeo, si intende ricostruire come si connota l’abbandono scolastico a livello nazionale e internazionale, indagandone le cause, le politiche dirette a contenerlo e l’efficacia delle misure messe in campo per contrastarlo. Successivamente, viene proposta una sintetica rassegna della letteratura dedicata, per meglio comprendere l’evoluzione del fenomeno così recente da non essere ancora del tutto definito e acquisire così una visione dello stato dell’arte.

Gli studi sull’autismo che mostrano un maggior grado di evidenza scientifica derivano dall’Applied Behavioral Analysis (Aba) e dall’orientamento Cognitivo-Comportamentale. La psicoterapia della Gestalt ha iniziato ad occuparsi di autismo recentemente. I concetti della psicoterapia della Gestalt, tra cui il concetto di confine di contatto, il principio di adattamento creativo e la prospettiva fenomenologica del campo organismo-ambiente, sono centrali per le caratteristiche dell’autismo e, in particolare, per la specificità dell’autismo ad alto funzionamento. Psicoterapeuti della Gestalt hanno, inoltre, evidenziato il valore della spiritualità nel trattamento delle persone con autismo. Ciò è di forte pregnanza scientifica in quanto la salute comprende gli aspetti fisici, sociali, psicologici e spirituali come rappresentato dall’Oms nel documento Promoting Mental Health del 2004. La finalità di questo lavoro è produrre un contributo nella direzione del confronto e dell’integrazione. L’obiettivo è porre le basi per la costituzione di un modello integrato per il trattamento del disturbo autistico ad alto funzionamento. Al fine di attuare tale logica d’integrazione, sulla base dello studio dei dati scientifici e della mia esperienza clinica, saranno identificati i principi attivi presenti in questi tre approcci (Aba, psicoterapia Cognitivo-Comportamentale e psicoterapia della Gestalt). La messa a punto di un mix di principi attivi consente di ottenere un maggior controllo dei possibili limiti ed effetti collaterali presenti in ciascun orientamento. Il passo successivo è la conduzione dell’assessment mediante questi criteri d’integrazione. A tale scopo, saranno individuate delle aree d’intervento in cui sarà descritto l’esame delle specifiche caratteristiche.

L’esercizio fisico ha un ruolo di primaria importanza nel trattamento del deficit di disturbo dell’attenzione da iperattività (ADHD). Gran parte della letteratura scientifica sostiene che gli effetti dell’attività fisica, del movimento e dello sport agiscono sulla riduzione dei sintomi principali dell’ADHD, migliorando anche le funzioni esecutive. In questa review, si offre una breve panoramica sulla potenzialità che ha l’esercizio fisico nel miglioramento della sintomatologia dell’ADHD, sia esso a breve, che a lungo termine. Si è riscontrato, infatti, che gli effetti positivi osservati dopo l’esercizio aerobico acuto sono promettenti, mentre sono ancora pochi e carenti gli studi relativi all’intervento fisico a lungo termine, sebbene in entrambi i casi si riscontrino benefici, in generale, per la persona.

Copyright of Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Biocentrism is the position that considers that morally considerable entities are living beings. However, one of the objections is that if we understand that moral consideration should depend on what is valuable, we would have to conclude that the mere fact of being alive is is not what makes someone morally considerable. Ecocentrism is the position that holds that morally valuable entities are not individuals, but the ecosystems in which they live. In fact, among the positions traditionally defended as ecologists there are serious divergences. Some of them, biocentrists, in particular, can ally themselves with holistic positions such as ecocentrism on certain occasions.

Although the past decade has witnessed growing research interest in positive psychological interventions (PPIs), their potential as adjunctive interventions for psychotherapy remains relatively unexplored. Therefore, this article expands the frontiers of PPI research by reporting the first randomized controlled trial to test a gratitude writing adjunctive intervention for psychotherapy clients. Participants were 293 adults seeking university-based psychotherapy services. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) control (psychotherapy only), (b) a psychotherapy plus expressive writing, and (c) a psychotherapy plus gratitude writing. Participants in the gratitude condition wrote letters expressing gratitude to others, whereas those in the expressive writing condition wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings about stressful experiences. About 4 weeks as well as 12 weeks after the conclusion of the writing intervention, participants in the gratitude condition reported significantly better mental health than those in the expressive and control conditions, whereas those in the expressive and control conditions did not differ significantly. Moreover, lower proportions of negative emotion words in participants’ writing mediated the positive effect of condition (gratitude versus expressive writing) on mental health. These findings are discussed in light of the use of gratitude interventions as adjunctive interventions for psychotherapy clients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The fanatic behavior could be better understood through the analysis of some intrapsychic and interpersonal mechanisms that could be common to every kind of fanaticism, also to those not analyzed in this study. Particularly, identity problems, the membership need, the activation of the agonistic motivational system and the presence of many biases, could cause cognitive rigidity, which should contribute to the organization of fanaticism. Therefore, it is possible to hypothesize some kind of interventions directed to change this rigidity and let the individual acquire some decentralization and metacognitive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay examines the potential contribution of technology disciplines to the sphere of restoration, renovation and enhancement of a specific category of building in the traditional or "consolidated" city: the diffused architecture of the Italian Modern Movement. It aims to highlight how the issue of the Modern - in the various critical forms which frame the debate about it - is still open and far from resolved: on the one hand, disciplines dedicated to pure conservation often become entangled in theoretical positions which blur into each other and are not sufficiently actionable, on the other there is a long-felt, pressing need to shore up the debate surrounding the salvaging of modern diffused architecture with clear, operationally efficacious methodological approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of psychotherapy is to help clients address and overcome problems troubling them in their everyday lives. Therapy can therefore only work if clients include it in their ongoing lives to deal with their problems. Detailed, systematic research is needed on how clients do so in their everyday lives outside their sessions. A design of exploratory case studies on this topic is presented in this article. The main outcomes of such a case study on family therapy are then laid out in general terms. They highlight how treatment practices and clients’ ordinary everyday practices interact when clients change their everyday lives to overcome their troubles. They also highlight what it involves for clients to accomplish this. It is concluded that we need more research on how to understand intervention; on the interaction between interventions and clients’ conduct of their everyday life; on sessions as a particular, secluded part of clients’ ongoing everyday lives, and on how to consider therapists’ procedures and conduct of sessions accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study evaluated the use of a procedure called the Bedtime pass, a strategy based on the principle of differential reinforcement associated with Extinction in order to reduce Bedtime Resistance in a 9-year-old girl. Resistance to bedtime is one of the most common child problems addressed in outpatient paediatrics. Prevalent forms of bedtime resistance include crying out from and leaving the bedroom (Ferber, 1985; Blum & Carey, 1996). An ABAB experimental design was implemented, the Dependent Variable was the number of times the child called out and had tantrums while the Independent Variable was the Pass plus Extinction. During the baseline (A), parents were instructed to respond to bedtime behaviour problems in their usual fashion such as doing what the girl wanted or giving her a telling off. During the intervention (B), they gave her a pass she could use once a night for a pleasant activity. Bedtime resistance was eliminated for the participant and follow-ups show maintenance of results. Furthermore, treatment did not produce extinction bursts, as is common when using extinction procedures alone. Further investigation is needed in order to establish the importance of the components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metacognitive teaching approach was implemented in a special education class with five children, aged 12 to 13 years. One day per week, the regular school activities were enriched with a metacognitive intervention with curriculum-unrelated tasks during the morning hours and curriculum-related tasks during the afternoon. The children first worked in dyads, after which the tasks were discussed in the whole class. The discussions served indirectly to teach cognitive and metacognitive strategies and to develop metacognitive awareness in an indirect manner. In the afternoon, the learned strategies were applied to the curriculum related task to foster transfer. In addition, a strategy of the day was defined in the final discussion of both types of exercises, and children were encouraged to use these on other school days. The application of the strategies and the children's metacognitive knowledge were evaluated through self-report questionnaires (both general and task specific), observation of their behavior and verbalizations, and their performance in the various tasks. Children progressed in cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in both types of tasks as well as in their overall performance on the tasks, but their evaluations in the general metacognitive questionnaire decreased. The latter was interpreted as a metacognitive adjustment in the children, who, after repeated reflection on their behavior in different types of tasks, were better able to evaluate their cognitive and metacognitive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]