Interactions between mothers and their disabled children: analysis according to the theory of innate intersubjectivity

• Grant number: 05/03262-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2006
• End date: August 31, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Geraldo Antônio Fiamenghi Júnior
• Grantee: Aline Giovanne Vedovato
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Psicologia. Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this work is to observe mothers interacting with their disabled children. Although many researches have been developed in the field of mother-infant interaction with disabled children, very few have focused on direct observation, tending to favor interviews or questionnaires instead. This research is based upon the Theory of Innate Intersubjectivity, which states that there is an innate human feature to share subjective states, and, as such, to share communicative exchanges. Participants will be four dyads of mothers and their disabled children, boys and girls, 1 to 2 years old, recruited on an institution for disabled children in São Paulo state. Interactions will be filmed with a digital camera in three different situations: hygiene, feeding, and playing, in the participants’ homes. There will be a preliminary session aiming to adapt the participants to the researcher and, two further half-an-hour video-sessions will be taken. Frame-by-frame microanalysis of the interactions will be developed, based in other studies. It’ expected that this study may bring new insights on specific situations of mother-disabled children relationships, mainly in the first years of life, when more difficulties in family adaptation to the disabled children are reported.