Design of a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of a haptic interaction-based rehabilitation intervention for a foster family

Abstract

The article presents the empirical and theoretical background of a prospective experimental work to determine the effectiveness of a tactile-based rehabilitation intervention for foster families. The intervention is a system of training and accompanying foster parents in the process of mastering tactile contact with the child for 6 months. The methodological basis and description of the rehabilitation intervention are presented. The study will involve 135 families (mother-child dyads), of which 90 are substitute families, distributed into experimental and control groups by randomization. The age of children is from 4.5 to 6 years inclusive. The goal of rehabilitation is to contribute to the successful adaptation of the child in a foster family (prevention of interruption in the upbringing of the child). One of the factors influencing the quality of adaptation is the features of the child's cognitive self-regulation, the main parameters of which are determined: the ability to navigate in the flow of sensory signals and the quality of existing inhibitory processes, the amount of working memory and the nature of interference in it, cognitive flexibility and visual-figurative thinking, lateral preferences and the formation of the mental model. The indicators of measurement of the accepted parameters within the framework of the corresponding diagnostic methods are singled out. Secondary diagnostics will take place 6 months after the primary one.