Abstract
Life mean is increasing and the elderly are always more numerous. Their way of life is influenced by many factors: individual, social and cultural. What spaces, opportunities and values does western contemporary community provide to the elderly? There are healthy elderly and others who suffer from loneliness, alienation, disability, and lack self autonomy. According to many prejudices, the features of old people in difficulty are often applied to all the elderly. Old people have represented for a long time, since the 1950s, the image of a progressive physical and mental unchangeable decline. Old age was considered as a span of life characterised by loss of learned knowledge acquired in infancy and in adolescence and conserved in adult age. Aging is a natural process and expresses a large individual variability. Every old age is individual. There are ill and declined people and others who live in autonomy, awareness and satisfaction. There are many factors that in old age can promote and facilitate disability, especially retirement and loneliness in men, disability in women. In the aging process, many people, don't suffer from particular problems, others struggle against difficulties, but later they are able to adapt themselves to new situations. Many problems can be limited or avoided if old people, in absence of important pathologies, practice physical activity. In sufferance situations the elderly and their families can take advantage from psychotherapies of different orientations. Physical activity, cognitive and relational stimulation, interests demonstrated towards the family, and the affective social life, aid in to preserving an efficient condition of health and autonomy and prevent troubles linked to passivity, and demotivation. The desire to live to know, to be creative, and to share personal experiences, represent important variables that characterise and define aging, giving it value and significance.

Abstract
Classroom discussions are not only an opportunity for sharing ideas, but can become a moment for cognitive enrichment, when the participants succeed in producing a “collective line of reasoning”, where the individual’s way of thinking is supplanted by socially shared knowledge. Here some problems relating to the inclusion of disadvantaged children in the discussion group are tackled with a group of teachers; moreover, in order to put forward an initial response, some of the research that these teachers have carried out are critically reviewed. It has been deduced that, in group discussions, less able children are helped directly by their more able peers, who act as models for them. On the other hand, the more able children compare their ideas with those currently held by their classmates, ideas they have already realized as being wrong or limited, and they can now become “aware” of their own knowledge. If a number of children work together and have to share the solution with their classmates, it takes them more time and leads them along a more tortuous road, but in the end they achieve higher levels of performance. Discussions can also offer children in difficulty the time and space for reflecting on their ideas, for expressing themselves freely, for comparing their lines of reasoning with others. At times, their observations may cause cognitive conflicts among their classmates, but the proposals and reflections of the group can actively absorb these conflicts in the spiral of the discussion. The experiments carried out have demonstrated how portraying solidarity can foster an improvement in the performance of the children in difficulty, however they have not resolved one important educational issue, which is currently the topic of new reflection and research: how to intervene in order to “encourage” children to portray solidarity towards the weaker members in a small group.

Abstract
The studies carried out on the phenomenon of peer refusal have consisted primarily on research focused on the behavioural traits that predispose a child to become an object of hostility and of refusal by their friends (Coie, Dodge e Kupersmidt, 1990), while only recently it has been studied how this condition in fact is experienced and therefore perceived and faced by the subject involved. Furthermore, recently it has also been observed that the major part of the refused subjects, who manifest behaviours either of internalising of emotional states (shyness, anxiety, depression) or of externalising (aggressiveness hyperactivity), during the elaboration process of the events they frequently commit various cognitive errors (bias, distortions) such as generalisation, (categorising of events and or persons/prejudices) and subjective over-evaluation of social data going beyond the facts of the situation. This erroneous elaboration of the social information can inhibit a correct evaluation of the situation, leading to the use of dysfunctional coping strategies. The aim of the research is to analyse the relationships among native born and foreign born peers as a function of the presence or absence of refusal mechanisms; furthermore, to examine eventual dysfunctional beliefs or ideas involved in the processes of acceptance/refusal; and finally, to evaluate the coping modalities employed to cope with the stress derived from being refused. The participants of this research were 350 native born children attending from 3rd to 8th grade school and 52 foreign born children of the same school grades The study predicted two assessment phases. In the first phase, we examined the quality of the scholastic integration, the modality of judgement regarding the personal characteristics of their friends and the self-evaluation of social relevance concerning the relationship with their friends and their teachers, In the second assessment phase we tested the eventual presence of dysfunctional thought processes and analysed the different coping strategies employed by the children to cope with the consequences of being refused. Regarding the results obtained, it can be concluded that in general the children refused by their peers referred that they employed dysfunctional thought processes and socially inadequate coping strategies significantly more frequently than their peers who had well established positive social relationships, independently of national origin.

Abstract
The variability of cognitive functions is very different in specific abilities and in different subjects, according to age and task difficulty. This variability prevents the formulation of a generalised trend. As far as attention is concerned, if a reduction in the latter’s efficiency occurs, the performance level ought to be related with the complexity of the task and with the memory load that it requires. Moreover, a consideration of the role of automatic and controlled processes and their efficiency is essential. Of course, contextual and situational variables are involved in the cognitive and emotional modifications of the elderly, but as far as their role is concerned there is no full agreement and in particular, there is widespread debate regarding the influence of institutionalisation. The present research compares the efficiency of attentional performance in institutionalised and non-institutionalised elderly. To this end, the battery ‘Attention and Concentration’ was administered. The latter is composed of 7 test trails measuring the following: 1) simple reaction times; 2) reaction times based on multiple choice stimuli; 3) recognition of auditory, visual and spatial targets; 4) digit span; 5) divided attention (double task test); 6) word colour interference (Stroop test); 7) attention shifting with both verbal and visual targets. The research sample is composed of 120 elderly, 60 males and 60 females, free of significant physical or psychological pathologies, with age ranging from 65 to 96 years. Half of the subjects (30 females and 30 males) are institutionalised. To analyse the data, an analysis of covariance was conducted, considering for each variable of the attention battery the institutionalisation condition as the main independent variable, while sex and age were considered as covariants (by splitting up the sample according to median level below or above the age limit of 75). The results confirm the hypothesis that attentional performance is less efficient in institutionalised elderly, even if this reduction cannot be fully attributed to institutionalisation in itself. However, a relationship is in fact established between institutionalisation and reduced attentional efficiency. The factorial structure verified allows the differentiation of attentional abilities more or less complex and of attentional inefficiency related to errors rather than to omission, characterising two different attitudes displayed towards the attentional stimuli: active or passive.

Abstract
Gait disorders in the autistic syndrome have already been acknowledged and widely discussed in many studies (Hallett e al., 1993; Rinehart e al., 2001; Mari e al., 2003). Teitelbaum e al. (1998) have shown that movement analysis is a useful indicator to consider in order to obtain an early diagnosis of autism. The anomalies in walking seem to be the most clear and permanent of all gait alterations that can be found in autistic subjects. Many researchers indeed refer to the autistic way of walking as “parkinsonian mode” and ascribe it to a dysfunction of the dopaminergic system (Damasio e Maurer, 1978; Vilensky e al., 1981). Starting from Teitelbaum’s studies by home-video of autistic subjects, the aim of this research has been to verify through observational tools the difference between autistic and non-autistic children. According to this purpose we have built an observational scale to study the way of walking (WOS: walking Observational Scale). This scale analyses movements through three axis: fluidity, symmetry and activity-passivity. Normal performances in these three levels are reached within 15-18 months. WOS has been applied to the home-videos of a 40 subjects sample by two observers (agreement by Cohen’s K=0.815). The sample was made up of a group (A) of 20 autistic subjects (with a DSM IV diagnosis, and sorted out in two subgroups: A1, subjects of 18-48 months; A2, subjects of 48-84 months) and a matched group (B) made up of non pathological subjects. Inferential data analysis and cluster analysis indicate differences between the A and B groups. The data derived from subgroups A1 and A2 show that performance improves with ages. Considered data reveal from the analysis of the sample that there are differences between group A (autistic subject) and B (matched group). These results are in agreement with the recent evidence in the diagnostic field, which acknowledged the importance of movement as an early indicator for the diagnosis of autism. These results demonstrate that the WOS can be useful for the movement analysis and if they are included in a wider diagnostic protocol, they may represent a useful tool for early diagnosis of autism.

Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the short-term effects of cognitive stimulation interventions in a sample of elderly persons characterised by normal cerebral aging and without any of the typical symptoms of pathological cognitive impairment. The interventions were focused on the activation of skills, providing techniques and strategies for daily living tasks as support for the maintenance of good cognitive functioning. The study conducted indicated satisfactory training intervention efficacy in terms of improved comprehensive cognitive functioning. As regards particular functions considered individually, there was significant improvement in memory functions, especially in verbal, topographic and prospective memory, in language and reasoning. The results obtained were consistent with the types of activities proposed during the training courses, as the exercises were strongly focused on language fluency, on the utilisation of deductive logic strategies for the organisation of narrative material, and on attention training.