Observing Children and Families

Beyond the Surface

By (author) Gill Butler

Publication date:

18 November 2015

Publisher

Critical Publishing

Dimensions:

246x174mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781910391624

This book explains the unique insights that child observation can bring to practice with children and families and helps the reader develop their own skills in this approach.

The ability to observe and to process what is seen is crucial in social work with children and families. Yet successive inquiries into child deaths have demonstrated the problems faced by professionals in doing what is superficially a very straightforward task, highlighting the difficulties in seeing, thinking about and developing an understanding of the child’s experience.

 

This book helps readers to develop an understanding of what is entailed in observation, explaining the unique insights that child observation can bring to practice with children and families. By drawing out relevant theoretical concepts it aids their understanding of what they are observing and so helps them to develop their own skills. Key theoretical concepts are brought together from developmental psychology and psychoanalytic thinking in a way that enables practitioners to draw on these to inform and enrich their thinking. Useful case studies are presented which practitioners can relate to their own practice when they are struggling to make sense of difficult situations.

This really is an excellent text that it is easy to read - the use of child death reviews early on really hits home the importance of child observation - thought provoking tasks and a really good overview of different methods of child observation.