special essay-review

Special Essay-Review

Richard Baron, David Coughlin, Pamela Daly, Dean Fixsen, Mark Kirchhoff, Karen Maloney, Elery Phillips, David Smart, and Dianne Smart

Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, Boys Town, Nebraska

The Basic Training Course for Residential Child Care Workers. By Richard H. Uhlig, Erwin H. Plumer, Julie R. Galosy, Gwen Bullard, and H. Carl Henley, Jr. Chapel Hill: Group Child Care Consultant Services, University of North Carolina School of Social Work, 1977. Complete course (2300 pp.), $65.00. Workshops for potential users are being sponsored in 1978 by the Children's Bureau--contact Development Associates, Inc., 2924 Columbia Pike, Arlington, Virginia 22204.

It is a lways a difficult task to review publ ished books and the task is made even more difficult when one is asked to review a large amoun t of mater ia l designed to t ra in people to take care of children. However, when the editors of Child Care Quarterly asked us to review over 2,000 pages of published t ra in ing materials , we jumped at the opportunity. We did so for two reasons: First, very little has been published in the area of how to t ra in s taff to provide consis tent and h igh quali ty care for children and we were anxious to read the materials . Second, few professions have been given so much responsibil i ty and so little t ra in ing as the child rear ing profession. As a result, there is a great d e m a n d for t ra in ing courses and any mater ia ls tha t are published are likely to be read widely. Therefore, professionals in the field mus t assume considerable

The authors of this review would like to thank Chris Breci, Joan Fixsen, and Suki Stamp for their assistance in preparing the manuscript. Requests for reprints should be sent to Dean Fixsen, Department of Yputh Care, Boys Town, Nebraska 68010.

250 Child Care Quarterly 7(3), Fall 1978

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responsibility for what is published and this includes carrying out editorial review functions.

Ove rv i ew

The Basic Training Course for Residential Child Care Workers was designed to provide child care workers "with the information, skills, and attitudes you need to be effective in working with the children in your care" (p. 3, Student Guide). The reason for developing the course, as stated in the Foreward by Helen Howerton (Chief, National Center for Child Advocacy) and Frank Ferro (Associate Chief, Children's Bureau), was the recognition that "the quality of group homes and residential care rest heavily on the child care workers who spend most of their time interacting with children in their cottages, wards, and other residential units • . . Unfortunately, most of the nation's 150,000 residential child care workers come to their jobs without t r a i n i n g . . . [and] eighty percent of the nation's administrators of group homes and institutions cite the lack of training for child care workers as their major concern" (p. 1, Student Guide).

To meet these training goals, the course authors developed the Basic Training Course around seven topics: Developmental Planning, Developmental Needs, Separation, The Cottage, Dis- cipline, The Group, and The Job. Each topic has an Instructor Manual and a Student Manual. Also, there is an Instructor's Guide and a Student Guide that serve as an overall introduction to the topical manuals• Each Instructor Manual is divided into: an Introduction, a Manual Overview that summarizes the goals and teaching methods, Basic Training Packages that provide detailed instructions for teaching the topic and include self-instruction materials, brief lectures to be given by the instructor, structured exercises, role plays, case studies, short stories, tape cassettes that present discussion topics, and questions to assess the students' learning; Enrichment Options that seek to extend learning beyond the principles learned in the Basic Training Packages, Evaluation which summarizes the various assessment questions built into the materials, and an Appendix that describes additional readings and resources that might be useful to an instructor.

Each Student Manual is divided into: a Manual Overview that introduces the topic and describes the learning goals, the Objectives, sections on Learning that describe the content of the manual and contain Practicing and Learning questions for self- assessment followed by Checking the Learning answers that are

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printed upside down under the question, a Pre Test, Pre Self- Assessment, Post Test, Post Self-Assessment, and Knowledge Assessment; and Classroom Materials that can be used to complete the exercises.

The Manuals

Generally, the Student Manuals and the Instructor's Manuals are well organized. The headings for topics and exercises are designated clearly. The exercises in the Student Manuals are clearly marked and the use of the answer key on the same page is an efficient and clear self-instruction method.

A nice organizational feature of the Instructor's Manuals is the use of heavier paper stock to divide the Manual into the Basic Teaching Packages and Enrichment Option sections. However, it seems equally necessary for the Classroom Materials section of the Student Manuals to be similarly divided so that students can locate easily the material related to the appropriate Basic Teaching Package or Enrichment Option. Also, the Instructor's Manuals could have contained the relevant page numbers from the Student Manuals' Classroom Materials Section for each Package and Option. The inclusion of page numbers would facilitate the Instructor's ability to organize quickly the learning situation for each activity.

Another helpful organizational feature of the Instructor's Manuals is the incorporation of the student handouts into the Instructor's Manual. However, in those cases where role-playing instructions are to be distributed to students from the Instructor's Manuals, it might have been more efficient to have each role- playing instruction on a separate page, rather than having aU instructions for a given exercise on one page. Separate sheets, and several copies of each sheet, would aid organization of the activity and permit reuse of the Instructor's Manuals. In general, the manuals are very well organized and coordinated. This in itself is a very difficult and time consuming task, but certainly one that merits careful attention if training manuals and materials are to be ~Ised easily by a variety of persons.

The text is written clearly and the general avoidance of jargon is commendable. In addition, the Practice and the Learning sections help maintain the student's interest and give a sense of closure to each section. Similarly, the student's interest should be maintained through the use of the Basic Training Packages and Enrichment Options, which provide for the active participation of the students.

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The use of pre- and post-tests for the Student Manuals is a good idea. However, the use of totally identical questions may lead to students learning the answers to the questions rather than learning the concepts presented in the manual.

The Knowledge Assessment items at the end of the Student Manuals are also a fine idea. As noted in the materials, the instructor could use the information to individualize additional learning exercises and when using the Basic Teaching Package and Options. Unfortunately, no hints, instructions, or examples are given for aiding the instructor in using the Knowledge Assessment information. This may decrease the likelihood that the Knowledge Assessment information will be used by the instructor.

Each section of the Student Manuals is preceded by a set of Learning Goals and a set of Objectives. However, the Objectives do not relat e very well to the Learning Goals. For example, in "Section I: Dimensions of Discipline" (Manual 5: Discipline) the Learning Goals are "to respond to p r o b l e m s . . . , to pract ice attitudes and s k i l l s . . . , to use educational/developmental a p p r o a c h . . . " while the objectives are to ident i fy the definition of discipline, to ident i fy reasons for teaching discipline, and to m a t c h discipline approaches with labels. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, the active skill- oriented learning goals are followed by passive and more academic objectives. This mismatch may confuse the student and instructor with respect to the overall course goals.

Generally, the classroom exercises in the Instructor's Manuals are clearly explained to the instructor and the active student participation should result in lively and interesting classroom sessions. However, most of the exercises are related only tangen- tially to skills that are needed when working directly with children. For example, three of the structured communications exercises do not involve practice of communication skills in simulated settings or include exercises that involve communicating with children. Rather, they focus on developing an awareness of communication problems through trying to describe to the instructor how to draw a triangle on the chalkboard, through having a person describe a drawing with and without questions permitted from the audience, and through communicating about the needs of a woman shown in a drawing that can be viewed either as a young girl or an old woman. Although the exercises may be fun and interesting, the authors are hoping for a tremendous degree of skill generalization from such exercises to those skills needed to communicate with troubled children.

Even in those role-playing situations which are more reality

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based, the learning role of the student is a passive one. That is, the students analyze the prescribed behaviors displayed by the role- players. While this contributes to an awareness of the skill of others, it is a far cry from actually being able to demonstrate the skills necessary for working with children. An additional critical t ra ining dimension is tha t the majority of the exercises and text examples describe only inappropriate skills or methods (i.e., describe the "wrong way"). Detailed descriptions, demonstrations, and practice of appropriate skills are critical to knowledge and skill development. The material seems especially weak on this dimen- sion.

The materials would have been more useful had they focused on behavior rehearsals rather than role-playing. In behavior rehear- sals the student would not assume a role such as a social worker or a school teacher, but would ra ther be himself or herself and would be asked to practice appropriate skills in simulated settings that exemplify problems encountered frequently by child care workers. However, such exercises would require more detailed instructor materials so tha t appropriate feedback could be given as students practiced appropriate skills. The use of detailed behavior checklists for instructors and students, the use of audio modeling tapes of appropriate skills whi le working with children, and an emphasis on acquiring appropriate skills through behavior rehearsals would have greatly strengthened the t ra ining materials.

The Instructor's Manuals provide clear steps for conducting each section. However, the role of the instructor is a passive one. That is, as the materials are written, anyone could be the course instructor regardless of experience or credentials. This perception of the passive role is heightened by the fact tha t during class discussions and exercises the instructor is told consistently to "Accept responses as given" whenever student participation occurs. This implies tha t there are no preferred student responses, no skills that should be shaped, no corrective or positive feedback that can assist the student in acquiring knowledge, attitudes, and skills. The instructor is not so much an instructor or teacher as a facili tator--someone who organizes activities but who generally accepts any and all student responses. Even in those cases where potential student answers are detailed for the instructor, the additional instructions again say to "Accept other responses as given." In addition, no specifics are given to the instructor as to what should be done if the potential answers are not given by students. Should the instructor give the answers? Is it more critical for some answers to emerge than others? How should the instructor

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deal with answers tha t directly contradict those given in the manua l? More field test ing by experienced and inexperienced t ra iners migh t have remedied some of these problems prior to publication.

In general, the teaching process focused on the s tudents ' learning correct responses to content quest ions and excellent ra t ionales were provided for the views and knowledge presented. The mater ia ls were very weak in providing specific, appropriate child care approaches and skills to replace maladapt ive ap- proaches. The mater ia ls also were weak in providing opportunit ies for s tudents to acquire skills in reality-based s imulat ions tha t would facilitate general izat ion to on-the-job sills.

T h e C o n t e n t o f t h e C o u r s e

The limited space available for this review allows only cursory comments about the course content. However, we will present the course authors ' s u m m a r y of each of the seven topics and a brief critique of each topic.

Developmental Planning

This subject area introduces the concept of developmental planning as a process for helping children who are separated from their families. The following components are included: exploring the request for residential care; developing a plan for service; the process of bringing a child into care; implementation of the plan; observation and record keeping; promoting the child's development; evaluating the services; moving a child out of residential care; and providing after care. The therapeutic role of the child care worker in promoting growth for the children in care is explored at each step of the process, with ,particular emphasis given to developing skills in planning, observation, and log recording.

There were three content i tems tha t were part icularly im- pressive: (a) The s t rong emphas i s on keeping the child's family involved in care whenever possible; (b) the advice to provide a cont inual assessment of the child's progress re levant to his goals; and (c) the three models of "log report ing" which were well described and would seem to be useful tools for the child care worker. The rest of this m a n u a l seems to be a collection of principles tha t apply far more to social workers and policy makers in ins t i tu t ions t h a n they do to the child care worker. The social worker is described as presiding over all conferences with families

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and "chairing" evaluation conferences and other staff meetings. In almost every principle elucidated, the child care worker is described as a kind of second-class helper who should be at meetings but who rarely makes any of the important decisions. If the authors' intention was to enlighten the child care worker on the philosophies and responsibilities o f a social worker, this m a n u a l certainly does accomplish tha t task. However, it does not provide the child care worker with a clear description of a developmental plan or how to write one.

Too often the manual describes feelings tha t the child or child care worker may encounter but then does not give any procedure for how to deal with the feelings. For example, the manual makes the s tatement "Inevitably the child care worker will come into contact with the family of the child." There is no further discussion of this issue nor any description of what the child care worker should do when they come into contact with the family of the child.

The content is puzzling in tha t the child care worker is told she is very important because she spends the most time with the child, but then she is given activities that portray her as little more than a hand-maiden to the social worker. 1 For example, the social worker is given the job of telling the youth when he is to go home and the child care worker is then expected to deal with the feelings of the youth after being told of his departure date. Recording in the daily log appears to be the only task that the child care worker does without the social worker's assistance.

Developmental Needs

The basis for work with children is knowledge about children. The beginning place for this work is knowledge of the predictable patterns of growth and development common to all children and of the various unique patterns of each individual child. On that foundation, appropriate plans can be built and expectations developed for each child. In this study area, basic human needs are explored as a foundation for a better understanding of all human behavior. Erikson's developmental stages from infancy through adolescence are used to provide a specific framework for understan- ding children's behavior. The development of the child care worker's skill in perceiving and responding sensitively and effectively to the basic and developmental needs of each child at the level appropriate to him is emphasized.

1The authors of the training manuals stated that "Both men and women make good child care workers. For convenience, we have used the word 'she' to refer to the child care worker and 'he' to refer to the child." The authors of this review have followed this example.

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This manua l emphasizes unders tanding children's behavior and contains m a n y suggestions for dealing with each child at a level appropriate to his stage of development. Clearly, the manual provides important background information useful to anyone working with children.

While the need for understanding the "why" of a child's behavior is important, the ability to t ranslate a "why" into a course of action which will allow the child to meet his needs is also critical. The child care worker must go beyond her "unders tanding" and the child's "unders tanding" of the problem and act on tha t "understan- ding" to teach the child the behaviors and attitudes he needs to live a better life. Also, by concentrat ing on developmental levels, the course may be teaching persons who work with children to treat all of the child's behavior at a single "level" ra ther than making behavior to behavior discriminations and discreet t reatment plans.

Separation Separation as a subject area is viewed as a highly emotional time which involves many persons. The impact of separation on the child, his parents, the cottage, the child care worker includes a variety of emotional viewpoints with their accompanying behaviors. The significance of continuing family relationships, the process of

• bringing a child into the institution and into the living unit, and the child care worker's role in helping the child "bridge" the separation experience are explored.

The child care worker is helped to analyze the effects of separation and the interaction between herself, the child, and his family. Working with the feelings of child and family is stressed. Attention is given to the child care worker's own feelings in response to the separation of the child from his family and the cottage group. Special emphasis is given to the development of helping and communication skills for more effective work with children in care.

The content of this manual addresses issues tha t affect people during separation. Abandonment , anger, denial, displacement, mourning t rauma and self-concept are included to increase the awareness of these issues and to aid in understanding the youth and family. Neither the Instructor 's nor the Student's manual provides a set of consistent rationales for the inclusion of these components in the t raining program. Beyond increased familiarity with the terms and some awareness of other points of view, what is present in the manual is not near ly as important as what is missing. There appears to be a focus on the intellectual understan- ding of the process of separation rather than on courses of action to improve the lives of the children. The implicit message is that

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simply by unders tand ing these issues we can ease the pa in of separat ion for others. But the m a n u a l stops short of describing wha t a child care worker can do to ease the pain of separation.

The Cottage This area of study deals with cottage life as one aspect of residential group child care. Children in residential placement are alike, insofar as their basic needs are concerned; they differ in their special needs.

In this subject area emphasis is on the philosophy and purpose of the cottage, the use of the rhythm of life in the living unit to construct a growth-producing climate for children, and on the crucial times or details of the day (getting up, food, clothes, and going to bed) and their significance to children in care.

Another focus is the four major roles of the child care worker in the cottage: manager, leader, problem-solver, and relationship-builder. Practice is provided for increasing child care effectiveness for each of these four roles.

The content of this m a n u a l focuses on two major areas: (a) four critical momen t s in cottage life, and(b) four major roles of the child care worker. The critical moment s in cottage life include waking-up time, mealt ime, bedtime, and providing clothes. The m a n u a l emphasizes why these are critical momen t s and how the child care worker can deal with these momen t s th rough the use of cottage plans. The s tudent will undoubtedly benefit from the mater ial th rough an increased unders tand ing of these critical t imes but m a y not gain the skills necessary to p lan for and deal with them effectively. The child care worker will inevi tably experience problems with part icular youths dur ing each of these critical moments , a n d the s tudent migh t be better prepared if the m a n u a l included discussions of potential problems and specific suggest ions for solving them. The use of cottage p lans to structure these critical t imes is an excellent idea, but the plans provided in the m a n u a l could be improved th rough expansion.

Al though these four areas are indeed critical times, the reader m a y be disappointed tha t the other fifteen hours of the day in cottage life are not addressed. In the cottage, there are endless opportunit ies for creating a supportive, family-style l iving environ- men t tha t will be growth-producing for a child. The m a n u a l should contain discussions on how to create this type of environment . Some potential topics could include how to spend recreational t ime with the youths, p lann ing group activities and discussions, organizing a s tudy hour, counseling individual youths, and implement ing a youth self-government system.

The four child care worker roles pinpointed in the m a n u a l are

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extremely important ones. Concerning the problem-solver role, the authors define an excellent model for problem-solving and give a clear, detailed example for usino the model. However, many times the most difficult step of problem-solving is defining the problem. Students may need additional information and practice in asking youths specific questions to "get at" the problem and in recogniz- ing cues which may indicate that a child has a problem.

The role of relationship-building is crucial for the child care worker to create a supportive, concerned atmosphere in the cottage. The Student Manual devotes only two pages to relationship- building and broadly defines seven components. Although these seven components are important ones, many others should be included such as showing affection and concern; being pleasant, flexible and fair; spending time with individual youths; engaging in fun activities; and allowing youths to participate in decision- making. For clarification purposes, all of these components should include specific examples of how to express and engage in these behaviors.

The role of manager focuses on managing the living unit. The manager role is well-defined but could benefit from discussion of how to create and manage a family-style living environment as noted above.

Concerning the role of leader, the Student manual includes excellent explanations of the complex variables affecting three leadership styles. The Instructor's manual provides a nice parallel between the leadership styles and the development of internal control by youths. The Leadership Style Questionnaire should be helpful for students in recognizing their own particular leadership style, but a helpful addition would be suggestions concerning how to change one's style to meet the needs of a situation most effectively.

The child care worker must fill many roles, and it would be virtually impossible to address each role in detail in this manual. The four roles chosen for emphasis are very important ones, but one role which was not addressed and shares equal importance is that of teacher. Youths in placement often lack numerous social, academic and independent-living skills, and it becomes the child care worker's responsibility to teach these youths the skills necessary for future success. An added section in this manual concerning when, what, and how to teach would add much to the child care worker's effectiveness and would help attain the goal of providing a growth-producing environment for the youths in their care.

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Discipline

Discipline is an educational process of establishing an orderly way of life which will protect and maintain the growth of the individual and the development of the group within the living unit and within the institution, and which will be acceptable to society outside the institution.

As the child care worker studies this subject area, she is referred to various philosophies of behavioral change so that she can enrich her repertoire of knowledge and techniques for dealing with problem behavior.

To teach discipline, the child care worker must know herself, know the needs of the children, and know the nature of a relationship. Emphasis is placed on the child care worker's developing skills which encourage children to become self-disciplined. Various ways of teaching discipline and techniques for improving communication are explored.

The m a n u a l includes definit ions of and rat ionales for discipline, rules for and al ternatives to corrective measures, contracts, ident i fying children's needs, the self-awareness of the child care worker, and models and skills for communicat ion. The most complete and most useful section in terms of content completeness, specifying appropriate skills, and describing teaching processes tha t best facilitate s tudent skill and knowledge acquisit ion is the section deal ing with skills for communicat ing .

In general, however, there is a lack of the specificity needed to learn and apply a concept or skill and over-reliance on rat ionales and global instructions. For example, the concept and skill of preventive p l a n n i n g is certainly a crucial one. However, the one page of instruct ions could benefit enormously from a specific example of how preventive p lann ing can be used. Instead, the child care worker is left wi th a set of global questions and rat ionales to assess the s i tuat ion but no skills to deal with the si tuat ion once the questions have been answered. The solutions are left to the " judgement" of the child care worker.

In one section of the manua l the use of s logans or cliches when communica t ing with children is deplored. Yet the m a n u a l is replete with stock phrases for child care workers such as "when in doubt give h im the benefit of the doubt," "be disciplined yourself, .... be an example to him," "help h im to live and work in a group." This is not to say tha t such concepts are not impor tan t but the global and unqualif ied na ture of such advice oversimplifies the skills and the role of the child care worker. Many child care workers have been frustrated by such global advice in the past. Without specific

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answers and skills for putting such concepts into practice, such global advice may be viewed as words to be learned in class but of limited applicability on the job.

Some specific techniques are mentioned such as take-out time, behavior management , contracts, and rules for corrective measures. However, once again the presentations are sketchy and oversimplified and omit some basic skills and concepts. For example, with respect to take-out time, the procedures are clearly specified. However, stronger cautions on the ethical and legal issues surrounding its use are missing and the concepts of preventive p lanning and preventive teaching are omitted from the discussion.

The behavior management section does not seem to fit with the theoretical or philosophical biases of the authors of the course. As a result, it suffers from serious omissions in terms of appropriate and specific behavior management skills. There is no discussion or mention of critical areas such as social reinforcement via frequent descriptive praise; how to move children from structured token economies to more natural reward systems; the differences between rewards and reinforcers; the critical dimensions of token economies such as flexibility, positive sign and negative sign; the differences between privileges and rights when incorporating rewards into a motivation system; practical record keeping systems; assessment procedures for determining the use of token economies with individual children; and using active skill teaching to help children achieve.

Also, the lack of examples and specificity would make it difficult for a child care worker to use contracting successfully. There is no discussion of the appropriate use of sanctions, bonuses, procedures to help the youth succeed, setting achievable goals, procedures for renegotiating contracts, etc. Again, this section might best have been omitted if time and space did not allow for a more thorough treatment.

The authors include an extensive list of rules for corrective behavior. The brevity of discussion of each rule might make them difficult to implement and omits some important caveats. In most cases an example of the inappropriate child care behavior is given with no description of wha t the child care worker could do instead. For example, Rule 2 is, "make consequences be psychologically correct for the child." The explanation then states tha t if a wi thdrawn child joins a group and gets into trouble, ban ishment would not be psychologically correct, but "some other kind of consequence is required." What the appropriate consequence could

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be or wha t the appropriate t rea tment procedure migh t involve are not discussed.

The section on discovering the needs behind behavior also suffers from the lack of specificity and a lack of appropriate examples of how to discover needs behind each behavior and how you know when you have discovered the "true" need. The child care worker is left wi th vague exhortat ions to t rust her inst incts, to play detective, etc. I t seems unfair to stress the critical na ture of this concept and then to provide so few skills and examples of implement ing the concept of actively teaching children the appropriate skills needed to acquire self-discipline. Furthermore, the mater ia l does not include specific teaching strategies tha t child care workers need to teach social, academic, and independent l iving skills effectively. Ins tead the acquisit ion of skills is viewed passively. Tha t is, the child care worker can discuss the problem with children, can be a good model for children, and can help chi ldren change their self-concept wi thout active intervention.

The child care worker 's active teaching skills are critical to each child's success. Such skills including knowing how to select a skill to be taught , knowing when and where to teach, and knowing how to teach by behavioral ly describing appropriate and inappropr ia te behaviors, by request ing acknowledgements of under s t and ing from children dur ing teaching episodes, by helping the children to practice the appropriate behavior, by providing positive and cor rec t ive feedback dur ing practice sessions, by schedul ing subsequent cued and uncued practice sessions, etc. Certainly such skills are critical communica t ion skills t ha t can help children develop al ternat ive and productive ways of coping with their personal problems and tha t can help them acquire a repertoire of rewarding behaviors t ha t will enrich their lives.

The Group

This subject area focuses on another of the essential aspects of residential child care, working with children in groups.

The change from a collection of individuals into a group is a developmental process which the child care worker can encourage, facilitate, and manage. Through an understanding of the distinct differences in the purpose of primary and secondary groups, the child care worker can learn to use the cottage group as a primary group in meeting common human needs.

The child care worker can also develop skills in diagnosing what is happening in groups so that she can encourage, facilitate, and manage the developmental process of changing a collection of individuals into a healthy cohesive group. Major attention is given to

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developing group dynamic skills and techniques for helping the residential group develop into an effective unit for enhancing the growth for the individual child toward his full potential.

The course authors note t ha t the child care worker must , at various t imes, play the role of custodian, nurturer, guide, and mediator. The nature of these roles is described, but the behaviors tha t the child care worker is to engage in to fulfill t hem are not discussed. I t also seems impor tan t to note the course authors describe the characterist ics of the various roles tha t individuals play in groups, but do not emphasize teaching group members how to perform part icular tasks. Rather, the emphas is is on ana lyz ing who is doing which tasks. For example, wha t behaviors would an "encourager" need to engage in in order to become an "analyzer"?

The course authors do give a nice procedure to use in order to make sure tha t the needs of an individual youth are met by the group. They suggest developing an agenda for the meet ing so tha t all topics m a y be considered in order of priority, and they emphasize tha t if a part icular e lement is miss ing from the group process, then it is impor tan t to br ing an addi t ional member into the group. They also state tha t it m igh t be necessary to break-up a "destructive clique" by t ransfer r ing one of i~ts members to a different cottage. This par t icu la r approach of moving youths in and out of a group has the effect of relying on the skills t ha t members already have to develop an effective group, ra ther t h a n developing skills where they are lacking.

The m a n u a l presents three steps toward developing pr imary groupness: part icipation, involvement , and belonging. The reader m a y not know wha t to do in order to encourage part icipation, to make sure tha t the children in care are "emotional ly invested with each other," or to help them develop a sense of "belonging." These terms need fur ther clarification and the process for mov ing from part ic ipat ion to involvement to belonging need to be described more clearly.

Five purposes for group meet ings are described, those being fun, life-space m a n a g e m e n t tasks, group-life events, group cl imate norms and values, and individual goals. The authors do no t describe how frequently a group should meet in a cottage, how the group meet ings should begin, how the child care worker should conduct a group meeting, or how to end a group meeting. I f the under s t and ing of group dynamics is to be t rans la ted into effective action by child care workers, these areas would need to be developed further.

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While we all recognize that there is a difference between family living and cottage group living, in presenting these differences the course authors emphasized some points which deserve further consideration. For example, the concept of a " team of adults" which is available to help a child is emphasized as a pr imary benefit of group care. The authors state tha t one of the strengths of group care is tha t "the child can survive and be accepted without establishing a relationship with any particular adult." Do we really want to encourage this? How will the youth learn to develop relationships with adults if this is not encouraged during residential placement? Also, family living is contrasted with group living by stressing tha t family living emphasizes adult /child relationships and then moves on to peer group relationships, and tha t group living emphasizes relationships first with peers and then with adults. It is difficult to imagine a youth gaining full benefit of his placement without learning from the experience of the adults who are providing service for tha t youth. Perhaps the authors have over emphasized the importance of the peer group by diminishing the importance of the adult service deliverer.

The authors should be commended for considering the feelings and needs of a particular youth in placement. In discussing the categories of children in placement, they mention tha t "an institution and to some extent a group home, can tolerate more acting out than a family-type placement." Does this not foster a tolerance level which is higher than societal norms and therefore maladaptive for a youth following placement? Perhaps the point here is tha t institutions cannot afford to be any more tolerant of acting out behavior than a family can, and tha t an institution needs to be assured that the individuals working with the children develop the skills to correct problem behaviors.

The Job

Since the child care worker herself is her most important tool for effective work with children the subject of the child care worker as a person and as a professional is of particular importance for study. The child care worker is a person apart from her role as Child care worker. As a person she has needs which must be met. Those needs have to be perceived by her. Ways for meeting those needs must be determined in a manner meaningful to her. The pressures on the child care worker as a person, on her social relationships, and on her own children are explored. To handle these pressures, the child care worker must have substantial insight into herself as a person. The importance of self-awareness for child care workers is emphasized

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through learning experiences involving feeling awareness, self- concept development, values clarification, and professional role awareness.

The goal of this manual is to increase the child care worker's self- awareness in order to make her more knowledgeable and responsi- ble to her work environment. There is unquestionable value in teaching a child care worker to understand how her feelings and behaviors can facilitate or interfere with her interactions with children. To fulfill this goal, the manual teaches Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Erickson's stages of psychosocial development, Mead's stages of social development, and Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Because these theories offer the child care worker logical, positive and humanistic approaches for understan- ding the needs of an individual, she would benefit from learning them. However, there is more that could have been offered to the child care worker than is covered in this manual.

First, child care specialists are beginning to question how these theories based on broadly defined concepts such as awareness, values, trust and attachments can help them to understand complex and critical laws of human development. For example, the manual teaches that "Stage I [of Erickson's stages of development] concerns itself with the infant's developing a sense of trust. This means the baby will begin to trust in her mother to meet her physical needs." A reasonable conclusion would be that the degree of trust and attachment between the infant and his mother will be stronger if the mother is more physically gratifying to the infant. However, recent evidence from developmental psychology based on careful observations of interactions between mothers and their infants reveal that an important indicator of attachment is the mother's ability to time her stimulation to the infant's sign of receptivity to that stimulation--a kind of communication pattern. Knowledge gained from these types of studies could offer the child care worker greater appreciation of the,complexities of the needs of children.

Second, many rehabilitation specialists studying the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency have found that positive and effective interactions between child care workers and children can be broken down into components that are definable and teachable. Some examples are social skills training techniques, teaching interactions, self-control training techniques, and specific counsel- ing techniques. Exposure to these techniques might increase the child care worker's ability to put her knowledge to use in a systematic and effective way of interacting with children.

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Final Comments

In conclusion, the Basic Training Course provides a nice introduct ion to impor tan t d imensions of the child care profession. The manua l s are well-organized and contain m a n y instruct ional features tha t will serve as excellent models for the field. This contr ibution should not be understated. Developing an effective way to present informat ion is a lmost as impor tan t as the informat ion itself and both are needed for a good t ra in ing program. Thus, if the s tated goals of this t ra in ing course did not include teaching effective new ways of working with children, then it would be very easy to provide h igh praise for its contents. However, as pointed out th roughout the review, the man ua l s contain very few examples of specific child care skills and, therefore, provide few opportunit ies for s tudents to learn effective ways of working with children.

As noted in the Foreward, the lack of t ra in ing for child care personnel is a na t iona l problem. Too often, people are hired for child care posit ions wi thout the systematic preparat ion they wan t and need for the demand ing and impor tan t roles they mus t fulfill when working with children. To solve this problem we mus t develop t ra in ing programs tha t teach appropriate methods for working with children, those methods must be practical so they can be implemented in typical child care sett ings, and those methods must be effective in deal ing with the problems of chi ldren and in teaching children the prosocial skills they need to develop into reasonable and productive adults. This is a m o n u m e n t a l task but we mus t a t tend to each dimension.

Assuming tha t we have a program tha t is easily implemented and effective with each child, the p rogram would be worthless if we could not teach our program methods to others. Or, a s suming tha t we have an effective program tha t easily can be t augh t to others, the program would be useless if it were so expensive or t ime consuming tha t it could not be implemented in typical child care settings. Finally, a s suming tha t our p rogram is easily t augh t and implemented, it would be a waste of t ime and effort if it was not effective in helping children. These criteria place a heavy burden on anyone who develops a t ra in ing course but we mus t meet these criteria if we are "to improve the lives of a lmost 400~000 children and youth who reside in the nat ion ' s group homes and inst i tu t ions annual ly (p. 2, S tudent Guide Foreward)." To accomplish this task, we mus t begin to evolve t rea tment programs tha t are effective and s taff t ra in ing programs tha t teach those practical and effective

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methods. The important thing about the Basic Training Course is that it is a beginning, a first step in the evolutionary process. By carefully examining its strengths and weaknesses and (most importantly) building on its foundations, we can hope to achieve training programs that can prepare good people to do a better job of working with our children.