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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 20 Oct 2006
Time: 18:37:51 -0500
Remote Name: 152.163.100.69
How can we teach this strategy in young children and how can we measure the effectiveness of this strategy? --- Emily Krick Emily, you know the age of the child is a critical variable and so is their problem-solving ability and willingness to self-reflect. So, without a particular child to consider, I will speak in very general terms. I think the method can be adopted for children. And I think it should be first applied when the child seeks help verbally or non-verbally rather than foisting it on a possibly frustrated and/or embarrassed child who may be turning inward. Other interventions would be more appropriate when a child momentarily prefers to "lick his wounds," so to speak. When it is applied for the first time, it should be a joint adult-child venture. The emotional atmosphere should be kept warm and expansive with no sense of "right/wrong" being played out, just curious questioning about the reason for a stated or apparent concern of the child to understand why he or she experienced what he or she finds puzzling or troublesome and may want to no longer experience. Kindness, warmth, gentleness should envelop the guided problem-solving joint venture. Once an apparent answer/reason/belief has been uncovered, discussion can lead to the adoption of new belief/behavior, the frequency of which can be monitored in whatever way is most meaningful. >>> Although I didn't explicity deal with tha application of this particular strategy to children in the chapter book I authored, Jason's Secret, where 10 year old Jason, who has a stuttering problem, is shown in session with his school speech therapist, the dialogue between them has been found to be helpful in modeling a way of interacting with a child. It's a quick read; you may find it helpful. >>> Emily, I hope I have given you some of the guidance you were seeking. Thank you for letting my try. Ellen-Marie Silverman