Multidimensional correlates of individual variability in play and exploration

Relation of maternal intelligence and schooling to offspring nutritional intake

For parents and children living in less developed countries the contributions of maternal education level to child survival and growth has been well established. What is less clear is the mechanism through which more education for women in less developed countries translates into positive child outcomes. Given evidence linking education to adult intellectual performance, and evidence linking children’s dietary quality to development, we hypothesised that more educated or more intelligent women in less developed countries may be providing a more nutritionally adequate diet to their offspring. This hypothesis was tested on a sample of 76 Egyptian mothers and their toddlers and a sample of 57 Egyptian mothers and their school age children living in an agricultural village outside of Cairo. Our predictor variables consisted of family demographics, maternal years of education, and maternal performance on four subscales from the Egyptian WAIS-R plus the Raven’s Matrices. Over a 12-month period dieticians collected monthly data on offspring dietary intake, including macronutrients (protein, calories), and micronutrients (trace minerals and vitamins). After controlling for family socioeconomic status, total caloric intake, and maternal educational level, results indicated that maternal intelligence was a unique predictor of toddler dietary quality intake. For school age children, after partialling, maternal educational level rather than maternal intelligence was found to be a better predictor of offspring nutritional intake. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children’s food intake are discussed.

Play technique in psychodynamic psychotherapy

Imaginary play is often a child's best way of communicating affects, fantasies, and internal states. In play children are freer to express their forbidden and conflicted thoughts. Consequently, one of the best ways for the therapist to enter the child's world is to do so from within the displacement of the play process. For children who cannot play, the therapist's goal is to teach the child to use play as a means of communication and to create meaning. This article present clinical examples to illustrate how the author uses play in the clinical situation.