Narrative Therapy & Social –Emotional Development of Young Children

Dr P.N.Reebye

Clinical Professor

University of British Columbia

Ms.A.Wolverton,Infant Development consultant

Preworkhop Questionnaire

Discuss two random

Responses.

Learning Objectives

1. Learners will be able to appreciate the importance of narratives in therapy

2. Analyze template narratives

3. Use narratives as a source of evaluation

4. Understand the effectiveness of use of narratives in special populations

Key Words

1. Narratives

2. Interactions

3. Social emotional development

4. Dyadic and Family contexts

5. Co-Construction tasks

Narratives DefinitionsSocio-emotional Development Connecting early narratives with

emotional experiencesMultiple perspectives on narratives

Narratives: 2 premises (Emde)

1. Shared forms of understanding experiences

2. Essential for affective well-being and personal growth

3. Therapeutic tool that uses humane approach that is not restrictive( My addition)

Developmental Impact on narratives :Infancy Can grasp order of events

Can manage turn taking with caregiver

Use intersubjectivity to establish narrative attunement

Implicit joint reference with one word sentences

2nd year: Increased symbolic activity Knows how reference works Multiword sentences to convey meaning Can organize experience into fundamental

categories: agent( Johnny),action ( play),instrument (ball)

Understands small units combined produce larger meaning

Understands distinctive narrative voices

3-5 Years:Development of semantic ( mad, happy,

tired)and syntactic(tenses,temporal markers , link events as “ because”, “so”) systems

Sophisticate affective narrative frames

Preschooler’s narratives : 3 levels

3 levels

Representations

Plot

Discourse

Looking for emotional content in narrativesNarrative styleEmotional regulation Emotional themesView of self and otherEmotional Resolution

Affective narrative framesSituation narrativesPersonal experienceFeasible human narrativesDramatic narrativesEmotion state narratives Idealized narratives Metaphoric narratives

Attachment perspective Parental attachment and narratives Parental authority and narrativesLearning from parents::Parent as a

Mentor: Child as an apprentice Gender differences in narrative themesAttachment themes in children

Special Populations Maltreated children Mood disorders Separation anxietySocial anxiety

Mother Child co-construction tasks Maternal influence on child’s narrativesFirst scaffolding then a “narrative

frame”.High elaborative and Low information

mothers

Story StemsLost KeysSeparation Reunion Story Time with mom

Discussion on video clipsVideo Clip 1 ,2,3, Comment on Co-Construction tasks

Video Clip 4: comment on emotional content of the narrative.

Video Clip 5: Family narrative

Clinical Importance of Narratives Exploring of child’s psychodynamic processes

Can uncover information such as abuse, family chaos and confirm diagnosis

Helping mother-child dyads to co-regulate affect

Recognize limitations of the approach

References : Favez ,N.(2006) From Family Play to Family Narratives The Signal

Newsletter of the World Association for Infant Mental Health July –December 2005

Oppenheim ,D (1997).The attachment doll play interview for preschoolers .International journal of Behavioural Development,20,681-697

Warren,S.L., Emde,R.N.,& Sroufe,L.A.(2000).Internal Representations: Predicting anxiety from children's play narratives.Journal of the American academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,39(1),100-107

Warren,S.L.,Oppenheim,D., & Emde ,R.N.(1996).Can Emotions and themes in children’s play predict behavior problems? American academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,34(10),1331-1337.

Emde RN., Wolf D P., Oppenheim D (2003) Revealing the Inner worlds of Young Children.Oxford University Press