VIDEOFEEDBACK INTERACTIONAL FAMILY’S ASSESSMENT: FROM THE FAMILY OBSERVATION TO THE ASSESSMENT SHARING WITH PARENTS OF ASD CHILDREN

Disturbances in parent-infant interactive behavior underlie much of infant psychopathology. Interventions on parent-infant interactions were developed using video feedback analysis in different therapeutic contexts. Our study has focused the family level. The Lausanne Trilogue Play has been proposed as an observational tool within the context of autistic spectrum disorder and family triangular interactions studies (Mazzoni, Veronesi, Vismara, 2013). The LTP (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Philipp, 2015) was administered to families of children who received an ASD diagnosis to capture a measure of family’s ability to cooperate towards a shared task. With respect to Family Coordination, many negative correlations were found: the more severe the symptoms observed in the children (ADOS), the more family coordination was dysfunctional. Correlation was particularly high (< 0.01) when parents played together with the child, regulating their interaction and alternating their attention. In the parts in which only one of the parents played actively with the child, while the other was simply present, some families were able to be functional, despite the child’s symptoms severity. Moreover, some cases showed a counterintuitive trend: e.g. child high functionality/low family functionality. Our study was aimed to promote a psychological support to parents and their children. Through the presentation of a brief single case, we will illustrate the standardized procedure of videofeedback by means of the LTP. Implications for intervention will be considered. We may conclude that family structure and dynamics are a crucial component of resilience in the context of developmental risk, and specifically within ASD families.