[The sensory-motor approach to support the development of hospitalised children]

In intensive care units, the priority is to provide the care and treatments essential for the child's survival. However, the psychological aspect must not be ignored. The sensory-motor approach contributes to the provision of high-quality care in this context. It enables individualised care to be delivered in an environment optimising the child's resources.

Links between early child maltreatment, mental disorders, and cortisol secretion anomalies

Early child maltreatment has been widely associated with the development of mental disorders in both childhood and adulthood. However, such association cannot be systematically established, as only few factors are observed regularly, such as high prevalence of comorbidities and externalized disorders. Similarly, the association between early abuse and cortisol secretion anomalies has been well-documented. Whereas early hypercortisolism followed by hypocortisolism was often described, the results proved inconsistent and at times contradictory. The physiopathological mechanisms are quite complex and varied, including mixed neurotoxicity and stress response anomalies, linked to circadian rhythm disturbances. One of the difficulties inherent to research on this topic is to better define maltreatment in childhood. Studying children's groups at risk of maltreatment, such as children followed by juvenile justice or in child welfare systems, could be a very good tool, provided that social, judiciary, and mental health professionals are able to work together and implement common research objectives.