Laboratory analogues of classroom activities on which children with low working memory skills have been observed to perform very poorly were developed and employed in two studies. In Study 1, 5-and 6-year-old completed one task involving recalling spoken sentences and counting the numbers of words, and another task involving the identification of rhyming words in spoken poems. Poorer performance of low than average working memory children was obtained on the recall measure of both tasks. In Study 2, 5-and 6-year-old children heard spoken instructions involving the manipulation of a sequence of objects, and were asked either to perform the instructions or repeat them, in different conditions. The accuracy of performing but not repeating instructions was strongly associated with working memory skills. These results indicate that working memory plays a significant role in typical classroom activities that involve both the storage and mental manipulation of information.

Bangladeshi family carers face dilemmas balancing the benefits and risks of promoting parenting for sons and daughters with intellectual disabilities, particularly in the context of service principles of autonomy and informed consent.

Once children are placed with adoptive families, their new parent(s) must learn to understand their unique communications and respond sensitively to them. This is essential for building the bond between parent and child and laying down successful foundations for lasting placements. The Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP–SD) is a parental sensitivity-focused intervention offered to all adoptive families in the Netherlands. This small-scale study considers the experience of adoptive families offered a version of VIPP–SD adapted for adoptive families in the UK and explores the difference that this type of post-placement support can make to them. It outlines the policy framework around this area and provides a summary of existing research, showing the impact of video intervention on parental sensitivity and attunement. The experience of the intervention, as described by the participating adoptive parents, suggests that there are clear benefits in offering it to adoptive families in the UK.