Search

This article focuses on the appreciation of collective work from pupils of three classes of primary schools, based on the observation of these classes and on the interviews of the 67 pupils of these classes. The article questions the role of interactions for the subjective experience of the students, from their own point of view: do the students appreciate the collective work and if so, do they appreciate it for the same reasons? First of all, the results show that collective work is very much appreciated by the pupils, but that the pupils with a high academic level value several modalities of it, whereas the pupils with a lower level value what's opposed the most from formalized exercises. A second part focuses on the experience of insecure students, who find in collective work a source of comfort, which protects them from unpleasant situations, in terms of facing their academic or relational difficulties. Finally, pupils with a high academic level and rather sure of their status within the class find some interest in interactions in terms of intellectual added value. Thus, it is possible to conclude that collective work improve the experience of students from their point of view, but for different reasons depending on their profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of participation of Canadians in civic and public life fell significantly between 1992 and 2005. A better understanding of this change in the life courses of Canadians could allow the development of policies that encourage the engagement of individuals within their communities. Until now, the development of such policies, and the longitudinal analyses done in Canada, have seldom incorporated the collective dimension of communities. In this article, we propose an indicator that makes it possible to include the interaction between individuals and their communities while maintaining an analysis centred on the individual and his or her life course. We propose to use the concept of social participation of an individual, defined as the gift of time to another individual or an organization, to capture formal (volunteering) and informal (mutual aid) contributions to the community. Data from the General Social Survey (GSS) on Time Use for the years 1992, 1998, and 2005 are used to understand changes in the practices of social participation in the lives of Canadians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The process of one''s body mental integration depends notably on the quality of the first cares given to him/her in the beginning of his/her life in a reciprocal game of solicitations in his/her mothering surrounding. However, in autism and pervasive development disorders, the solicitations coming from the child are difficult to translate by parents. Then the sufferance of some parents settles in, from the fact that their child is different. This complicates the process of attachment, this threatens the homeostasis of the family system and then can threaten the required alliance with the family and the homeostasis of the therapeutic system. To prevent this we are looking to establish a partnership with these parents. Peter Pan is a playgroup bringing together children suffering of autism or pervasive development disorders with their parents. It is a part of the Mulhouse Psychotherapeutic Center for Children and Teenagers Daily Hospital, within the child–youthful psychiatrist sector 68I02 incorporated with the Rouffach Hospital (France). The project is a special adaptation to our public of the Calimusette and Pirouli® Concept (parents–young children activities, around corporal and sensorial games). Peter Pan group''s goal is to consolidate the relationship between child and parent notably by restoring a shared pleasure and the self-esteem in this bruised child–parent relationship. The designation “Peter Pan” refers to the child imaginary world and to the creativity potential that can immerged from interactions, where children and parents can learn together. The systemic inspired Structured Observation Model of the Children and Parents Interactions (MOSIPE® in French) is one of our intervention resources. It''s made of eight items: The existence of shared pleasure during the interactions, the possibility to benefit self-esteem from the interaction, child health, parent and child needs, how the interactions take place, the capacity to adapt when change occurs, which type of attachment, parents reactions from our restitution. We insist on the mimicry functions: To observe subtle signs, to get resonance with other with the goal to understand what he/her feels, to take contact with he/her and maintain it, to widen views, by introducing unobtrusively new element into the mimicry behavior, to develop subjectivity, to develop capacities to act. The meetings with our daily hospital colleagues are precious to maintain the homeostasis of the therapeutic system when developing its creativity and relevance. At Peter Pan playgroup, the bodily approach gives opportunities to get onto the relationship between a parent and his/her child in the most archaic dimension with their tonic, emotion, and affective components. All this work of observation, reading/decoding the psychomotor symptom, listening the sufferance of the parents, has enabled the parent to acquire what is required to decode, express ones needs and understanding to enable a better adjustment between each other. Supported in this way, parent recovers his/her parental function thanks the possibility to live shared pleasure and the self esteem in the interactions that restores their feeling of self efficacy and establishes identification ties with his/her child. He/her is recognized as an expert. This project is an answer to parents request to meet other parents that share common points: Having a disabled child who attends the daily hospital. Children come to the hospital with taxi, so parents do not have occasions to meet together, when other parents normally meet others waiting their children at the door of school. During the sessions we observed parents sharing advices to cope with problems, exchanging activities ideas, encouraging into ordeal. After some sessions parents have exchanged their addresses. In other words Peter Pan''s Group has also functioned as a mutual aid group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]