La vidéo dans l’observation d’évaluation et d’intervention en santé mentale du jeune enfant : un outil pour la transmission

Abstract: This paper describes the history of using images in infant development as well as in describing infant psychopathology, firstly through the use of still pictures, then with movies and with video. There has been, to our knowledge, very few papers describing the history of the use of images and movies in infant psychopathology, as well as the growing use in infant development studies and in parent-infant intervention programs. The pioneers in the field of infant psychopathology and early development have been using movies extensively to convince colleagues of the existence of such early troubles. The paper presents a summarized history of the use of images and films by Arnold Gesell, who was the first to use films to document infant development. René Spitz, James and Joyce Robertson, and John Bowlby had an enormous influence on the field in describing through films and the effects of separation on young infants, with the film Grief, a peril in infancy by René Spitz and the series of films by Robertson and Bowlby among which John, a two years old, goes to nursery is the most famous. In France, Myriam David and Geneviève Appell have used films to document the effects of institutionalization and to promote change within infant mental health professionals. The “modern period” in the use of video to describe parent–infant relationships is initiated by Berry Brazelton, then with Cohn & Tronick and the Still Face Paradigm. In the same period, developmental psychologists are making a growing use of video, with the use of sophisticated sequence analysis software, as well as software enabling for following gazes. This review then reviews the principal intervention programs heavily depending on the use of video within work with parents and infants. Susan Mc Donough is clearly the pioneer of the use of video within interactional guidance. She has shown how this can be incredibly effective in building and enhancing a therapeutic alliance, particularly with “hard to reach” and “hard to keep in touch with” families. Intervention programs as “Seeing is Believing” have shown effectiveness and efficiency both in intervention and in prevention, but also programs designed for prevention of attachment disorganization in adopted infants. Our early prevention study (CAPDEP), modelled after David Olds Elmira study, have used video to enhance the effectiveness of home based, attachment oriented interventions for high-risk families. We have used George Downing''s experience and frame of work and analysis of video making with parents and infant. This paper concludes on the growing use of video in daily clinical work with infants, in clinical research, in supervision, in training and teaching as well as in early prevention and intervention and for a transmission process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]