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While there is an extensive literature on the tendency to mimic emotional expressions in adults, it is unclear how this skill emerges and develops over time. Specifically, it is unclear whether infants mimic discrete emotion-related facial actions, whether their facial displays are moderated by contextual cues and whether infants' emotional mimicry is constrained by developmental changes in the ability to discriminate emotions. We therefore investigate these questions using Baby-FACS to code infants' facial displays and eye-movement tracking to examine infants' looking times at facial expressions. Three-, 7-, and 12-month-old participants were exposed to dynamic facial expressions (joy, anger, fear, disgust, sadness) of a virtual model which either looked at the infant or had an averted gaze. Infants did not match emotion-specific facial actions shown by the model, but they produced valence-congruent facial responses to the distinct expressions. Furthermore, only the 7- and 12-month-olds displayed negative responses to the model's negative expressions and they looked more at areas of the face recruiting facial actions involved in specific expressions. Our results suggest that valence-congruent expressions emerge in infancy during a period where the decoding of facial expressions becomes increasingly sensitive to the social signal value of emotions.

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Reports reveal various benefits of animals -especially dogs -for children with Autism Spectrum disorders (ASD). However, not all children with ASD display the same interest in animals. Dogs are the most common species within family households and the only species to be used as service animals. They are also the most commonly used species in animal assisted interventions. Despite the key role that both the interest and the behaviours displayed towards dogs might play in their benefits to children with ASD, no studies have yet investigated this aspect using direct observation. Applying an ethological approach, this study aimed to explore and characterize how children with ASD interact with a service dog during a first encounter. Video recordings of 20 children with ASD in free interactions during their first encounter with a service dog were analyzed. Our results indicate that children with ASD are attracted to service dogs, but we found important interindividual variations. We distinguished two main behavioural interaction profiles (one more distal with the service dog, and the other more proximal and attracted to the service dog). Our results show that the children with ASD's interaction strategies vary according to their age and ASD severity: younger children made fewer physical contacts with the service dog, gazed less at it and displayed less care behaviours, while children with severer ASD seemed to rely on a smaller behavioural repertoire when interacting with a service dog. This study is the first to characterise how children with ASD interact with a service dog during their first encounter. These findings open onto future research concerning the importance of a child with ASD's attraction to and behaviour in the presence of an animal, as well as of the impacts of a child's characteristics (i.e., age, ASD severity, and sensory processing disorder) to be able to improve programmes for animal-assisted interventions.

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Restrictions of preterm newborns' movements could have consequences ranging from stress enhancement to impairment of their motor development. Therefore, ability to freely express motor activities appears crucial for their behavioural and physiological development. Our aim was to evaluate behavioural issues of two types of clothing used in NICU. We observed 18 healthy 34–37 post-conception week-old preterm newborns, during resting periods, when they were undisturbed by any interventions. Newborns wore either light clothing (bodysuit and a light wrapping) or heavy clothing (pyjamas, cardigan and sleep-sack). The percentages of time each subject spent in different postures were compared between clothing situations. Arm and hand postures differed in relation to clothing: babies bent their arms more and held their hands nearer their heads when in bodysuits than when in sleepwear. Consequently, babies in bodysuits spent more time touching their body or their environment whereas the others generally were touching nothing. Self-touch is an important way to comfort one's self. Heavy clothing may impair self-soothing behaviours of preterm newborn babies that already lack other forms of contact. Results suggest that more attention should be paid to apparently routine and marginal decisions such as choice of clothes.

L’environnement social des enfants et adolescents revêt une importance majeure dans leur développement. Négligé pendant longtemps, il est désormais de plus en plus reconnu que l’animal de compagnie joue lui aussi un rôle essentiel. C’est au travers d’une revue de littérature des bienfaits des animaux dans la vie des enfants et adolescents au développement typique, mais aussi atypique (ici illustré avec les troubles du spectre autistique) que nous aborderons les dernières connaissances relatives à cette question. En nous intéressant également aux effets plus larges de l’animal sur l’ensemble de la sphère familiale, nous relèverons aussi certains points de vigilance associés aux défis de la vie d’un groupe familial avec un ou des animaux.