Reduction of stress between mothers and their handicapped children.

This paper reports the results of videotaped baselines and a series of behavioral instruction sessions that involved 28 preschool handicapped children and their mothers. The behaviours of mother and child were analyzed from videotaped records before, immediately following, and nine months after the behavioral instruction sessions. The intervention, the instruction sessions, focused on enrichment of the mother-child interaction repertoire and was accomplished with immediate feedback to the mother by using the bug-in-the-ear device. The frequencies of the 216 measures of negative behaviours tested (12 behaviours in each of 18 dyads) decreased in 48 instances immediately following the instruction sessions. Forty of these changes were still present nine months later. The research indicates it is possible to reduce stressful, negative interaction and, in addition, to maintain the mother's behaviors of warmth and acceptance.

A home-treatment program for the cerebral-palsied child.

The process and results of a two-month intensive home-treatment program for a two-year-old athetoid cerebral-palsied boy are described in this article. The exploratory program was designed to develop methods and procedures for the mother to use to promote the child's normal postural tone and movement during daily handling and care. The foundation for the intervention program was based on a collation of the child's history, a one-day assessment of the child's activities and time schedule in the home, and a physical evaluation. Postevaluation identified changes in the child's feeding, playing, and sleep patterns that suggested more normal movement and muscle tone. Also, the mother established new physical handling patterns and the therapist gained skill and a new awareness in home intervention programs.