People with intellectual disabilities have long been associated with having a poor recognition of emotion from facial and other cues. It has been suggested that intervention by social skills training may improve their abilities (McAlpine et al., 1991). This proposition is investigated here. Participants were shownvideo clips depicting five common emotional states and their ability to label each was recorded. A comparison task of a similar nature but not involving emotion recognition was also used. Participants were matched on their British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BWS) scores and randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. The experimental group received two training sessions using similar video clips. Finally both groups were re-tested on the original clips. Using a two-way, between-subjects analysis of covariance, a significant improvement with training was found for the emotion-recognition task (F (23) = 0.79, p < 0.01). A non-significant increase was recorded for the comparison task (F (13) = 1.57, p > 0.05). A significant correlation (r = 0.755) was noted between the B W S scores and subjects' pre-intervention scores on the emotion-recognition task

This article explores the feasibility of running "PremieStart," a nine-individual-session maternal-premature infant interaction program, within a neonatal unit (NNU) in England. Four mothers of premature infants completed seven sessions on the NNU and two at home. Mothers and NNU staff provided feedback on PremieStart. Measures of maternal-infant relationship, maternal well-being, and maternal reflective functioning were completed before and after intervention. Thematic analysis of mothers' feedback highlighted the emotional, but cathartic, experience of engaging with PremieStart. NNU staff feedback indicated the need to include them more in PremieStart. Both mothers and staff were supportive of future implementation of PremieStart and highlighted the ongoing need for psychological support on the NNU. PremieStart was implemented with positive feedback from mothers and staff, with support shown for the continued use of PremieStart in the NNU. However, for future implementation, the self-report outcome measures need reviewing, and more involvement of fathers and NNU staff is needed. In addition, a larger sample with a control group should be utilized.

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