Le présent article présente une analyse du rôle assigné à l’image dans la méthodologie d’enseignement de l’espagnol en France entre 1970 et aujourd’hui. En renonçant à pratiquer les méthodes audio – visuelles à la fin des années 1960, la didactique de l’espagnol renonce du même coup à l’utilisation des images situationnelles associées à cette méthodologie. En contrepartie, elle développe une utilisation originale de l’image dans le cadre de la méthodologie active. L’image acquiert alors un statut de support de travail à part entière, aux côtés du texte littéraire. Ce statut particulier n’a pas disparu aujourd’hui, car les hispanistes n’ont pas renoncé à la méthodologie active en adoptant la perspective actionnelle du CECRL.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may display atypical behaviors in reaction to unattended changes that occur in all sensory modalities. Atypical automatic auditory change processing has been highlighted in ASD via the analysis of mismatch negativity (MMN). The present study investigated visual deviancy detection in children with ASD in order to determine whether unusual reactions to change operate in other sensory modalities. Twelve children with ASD were presented with a passive visual oddball paradigm using dynamic stimuli. Compared to controls, children with ASD showed an earlier visual mismatch response, suggesting a hypersensitivity to visual deviancy. This study is thus consistent with the hypothesis of the existence of "general" atypical change detection processing in children with ASD that might contribute to their intolerance of change.

Relationships are of great importance during adolescence. Because of their social, communication and behavioral impairments, adolescents with Asperger’s syndrome (AS) or high functioning autism (HFA) probably suffer from considerable impairment of their quality of life when facing their peers in school. Nevertheless, only one recent study has been published on this subject, indicating a lower health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than in healthy controls. The goals of our study were to clarify the consequences of autistic disorder without mental retardation on such adolescents’ daily lives, and to consider them in comparison with the impact of a chronic somatic disease (diabetes) and with the period of adolescence itself, using the VSP-A questionnaire. Adolescents with diabetes were chosen as a comparison group because of the encumbrance of having a constant need for insulin supplementation, to be assimilated to the constant need for communicative adjustments in teenagers with ASD, and the consequences in daily life. The effects of social skill training and social support on quality of life and the appropriateness of using the VSP-A in this population were also studied. Twenty-six adolescents with AS and HFA, 44 diabetic adolescents, and 250 controls completed a self-administered and validated questionnaire on quality of life, the VSP-A. Scores for adolescents with ASD were significantly lower than those of the control and the diabetic adolescents, especially for friendships, leisure time, and affective and sexual relationships. On the other hand, better scores were obtained for the relationships with parents and teachers and for self-image. Social parameters affected the quality of life of subjects with ASD, such as having friends, regularly participating in a sport, and having the support of a school carer. For subjects with autistic spectrum disorders and without mental retardation, impairment of quality of life is significant in adolescence and young adulthood. Such adolescents are dissatisfied with their relationships, although they often have real motivation to succeed with them. Relevance of VSP-A questionnaire in these special individuals is discussed.

Une activité de psychiatrie de liaison a été débutée à l’hôpital pédiatrique de Tours il y a 35 ans. Après avoir donné des rapports cliniques de cet exercice, nous proposons une description actualisée du fonctionnement et de l’organisation du travail qui résultent de la collaboration entre deux disciplines aux registres professionnels et références médico-administratives complémentaires mais en partie différents. Sont abordés le mode d’accueil et la priorisation des demandes, l’organisation des réponses, le partage de l’information et la confidentialité, les actes et avis par téléphone, avec l’exemple de situations concrètes. La discussion porte sur le sens des demandes, la façon d’y répondre et le rôle d’un psychologue en pédiatrie. Concernant l’accueil urgence de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, s’il a été considéré distinct de la psychiatrie de liaison intrahospitalière, les deux activités sont de fait étroitement intriquées au cœur d’un hôpital pédiatrique important qui reçoit tous les patients mineurs de 16 ans. La collaboration avec la pédiatrie et son plateau technique est facteur de progrès pour la psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, sous condition d’une reconnaissance et maîtrise de particularités médicales, techniques et administratives, avec des réseaux de partenaires en parties autres, parfois pour les mêmes parents, dont résultent des nécessités quotidiennes d’ajustement et de concertation.

Le questionnaire BRIEF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (Gioia et al., 2000) qui explore les fonctions executives chez les enfants a ete propose a des parents d’enfants avec autisme (n=12) et des parents d’enfants ordinaires au developpement typique (n=12). Les resultats obtenus montrent que les enfants avec autisme sont decrits par les parents comme plus dysexecutifs que les enfants ordinaires, avec une elevation particulierement forte (score T>70) de l’echelle « Flexibilite Cognitive ». Les relations entre les fonctions executives explorees au BRIEF (ex ; Inhibition, Organisation…), les signes autistiques et les habiletes sociales ont ete egalement etudiees pour discuter des eventuels liens entre fonctionnement executif et adaptation sociale.

Introduction.-Estimates of the prevalence of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are discordant and are moving towards an apparent increase in rates.Literature review. - The studies carried out since 1966 illustrate the variability of the protocols used and explanatory hypotheses put forward. These investigations are difficult, sparse, but still growing at the same time that a debate develops on the possible increase in actual prevalence. Indeed, the rate initially admitted for classic autism was 5/10,000, then 1/1000 with an expanded definition to the forms, but the current figures are very different (almost 0.7% for all PDD), and this increase raises questions. The arguments in favour of an apparent increase are primarily methodological. Several biases are encountered when one compares the recent publications with those of previous years. First, autism is better known and recognized than 30 or 40 years ago. Then, the diagnostic criteria used over time are changing variables, and comparisons difficult. Recent studies using the criteria of a broader definition of autism, polyhandicap with severe retardation and autism signs of lighter forms. The fact that children with autism are diagnosed more frequently in the younger age could also occasionally lead to an artificial increase in the number of cases identified in new surveys in populations of young children. Other factors are cited to explain the current increase. There could be higher rates of autism (and mental retardation) among children of migrants from distant countries, with the aetiological hypothesis of maternal infections, more frequent due to immune deficiency against infectious agents depending on the environment, metabolic decompensations also related to changes in surroundings, or more births from unions among migrant mothers and men with Asperger syndrome (with increased risk of paternity of a child with autism). Other theories relate to pollution, vaccinations, a growing number of premature babies; all assumptions that appear, for the time being, insufficiently explored and documented.The issue is also one of the motivations underlying these steps, and setting a parallel prevalence actually increased with this or that factor has presently been scientifically validated.Finally, if a careful reading of recent publications indicates that autism has become more frequent; assumptions that describe an increase in "artificial", based on methodological arguments, seem to be more consistent.Effects of extension of diagnostic criteria and nosography for PDD. - Today, the recruitment of individuals with autism in a population far exceeds the initial criteria of Kanner in the 1970's. It includes clinical forms with associated pathologies, or lighter and probably more frequent clinical forms. Other assumptions arouse interest, but also controversy regarding their relevance. The enumeration of cases of PDD in a population is actually at its beginning. In the 1970's, "childhood psychoses" (the term then used) seemed rare. The identification of cases was probably the main reason. Long available figures remain scarce, and their rate increases gradually from the 1990s, but is, in fact, a problem of inflation. What is the part played in this flight of changing diagnostic criteria and substitutions, or other methodological effects? Or even opportunistic effects, if we speak of an epidemic to undermine a variety of factors. The evidence provided so far is the improved identification of cases, enlargement of the concept, and better shared diagnostic criteria. However, the validity and limitations of clinical forms are still vague and unresolved.Discussion. - How to study epidemiology in the future - to move forward, studies should be designed with partners' medical history and medicosocial studies, based on a better consensual methodology, epidemiology, statistics and diagnosis, with a definition of the thresholds for inclusion, and arbitration procedures. On this basis, a study must also be coordinated with those concerning mental retardation, learning disorders, etc, otherwise the same topics will be counted twice or even three times. As for the addition of syndromic forms of PDD (those with known aetiology), their number is still below a proportion sufficient to be an appeal. Moreover, another problem exists: the degree of membership of each of these syndromes, or individual cases, or autistic spectrum disorders (internal variability phenotypes). For the moment, we could design two studies included better: developmental disorders and associated pathologies. Regarding the "ethic" dimension, a more regular diagnosis of PDD (preferred to that of mental retardation or learning disorder) will lead to shared practices and set limits for greater recognition. (C) L'Encephale, Paris, 2008.