Book Reviews : Children in Care Disturbed Children R. J. N. Tod Longmans Children at Risk Edited by A. H. Denny C.I.O
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056901500213 |
| Author | Clare Morris |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
67
Children
in
Care
Disturbed
Children
R.
J.
N.
Tod
Longmans
Children
at
Risk
Edited
by
A. H.
Denny
C.I.O.
In
spite
of
the
changing
responsibility
of the
service,
the
probation
officer
will,
because
of
his
concern
for
humanity,
as
well
as
his
professional
duties,
remain
intensely
interested
in
the
problems
of
children.
His
clients
will
not
only
be
adult
social
deviants
who
must
be
under-
stood
in
terms
of
their
own
childhoods,
but
they
will
frequently
also
be
parents.
Separation
from
families
and
imprison-
ment
will
be
very
often
the
cause
of
stress
in
his
clients.
The
first
two
of
these
small
books
therefore
have
much
to
offer
the
probation
officer,
not
only
in
interest
but
also
in
information.
Some
articles
have
direct
reference
to
the
pro-
bation
officer’s
daily
practice,
in
partic-
ular
those
which
highlight
the
grief
and
bewilderment
of
the
institutionalised
child - there
is
much
here
which
per-
tains
to
the
adult,
however
defended
and
apparently
unemotional.
The
papers
(in
Disturbed
Children)
which
consider
the
skill
of
communica-
ting
with
children
are
fascinating.
They
illuminate
the
question
of
communica-
tion
between
the
professional
care
giver
and
the
child;
a
task
made
difficult
be-
cause
of
the
lack of
common
language
and
also
a
lack
of
shared
experience.
Perhaps
this
is
the
hardest
skill
to
de-
velop
in
casework
practice
and
in
spite
of
its
reference
to
children
these
books
go
a
long
way
toward
helping
the
wor-
ker
to
develop
imaginative
and
compas-
sionate
methods
when
faced
with
an
adult
who
is
unable
to
express
himself
or
his
feelings.
Dr.
Laycock’s
paper
on
adolescents
is
directly
relevant
to
the
probation
offi-
cer’s
dilemma
in
trying
to
control
the
teenager
while
caring
for
him
and
sup-
porting
him.
As
editor,
Mr.
Tod
has
provided
most
attractive
biographical
notes
about
the
authors
and
informed
comments
about
each
paper.
The
third
of
these
booklets
was
com-
missioned
by
the
Church
Information
Office.
It
is
a
clear
and
sensitive
account
of
the
services
available
to
help
children
in
trouble.
It
will
be
of
particular
inter-
est
to
the
socially
aware
layman
or
any-
one
considering
social
work
as
a
career.
CLARE
MORRIS
Marriage
Guidance
John
Wallis
Routledge
&
Kegan
Paul
32s.
John
Wallis
was
formerly
the
Training
Officer
of
the
National
Marriage
Guid-
ance
Council
and
is
consequently
the
ideal
person
to
write
about
its
aims,
ideals,
organisation
and
methods.
The
title
may
be
somewhat
mislead-
ing,
since
this
is
in
no
way
a
textbook
or
manual
of
marriage
counselling,
al-
though
Mr.
Wallis
discusses
this
and
differentiates
between
marriage
counsel-
lors
and
social
caseworkers,
finding
however
much
common
ground
between
them.
The
first
part
of
the
book
is
in
fact
concerned
with
methods
and
techniques
in
counselling,
with
many
examples
and
discussions
of
ways
of
approach.
But
can
counselling
really
be
simply
&dquo;a
means
of
helping
people
rather
than
solving
problems&dquo;?
One
surely
involves
the
other.
The
chapter
on
&dquo;Fear
of
the
Personal&dquo;
could
be
read
with
advantage
by
the
most
experienced
among
us.
The
second
part
of
the
book
is
concerned
with
the
sponsoring
and
selection
of
candidates
for
counselling
work,
training
and
assess-
ment,
tutor
and
in-service
training,
and
group
work.
A
system
has
been
built
up,
partly
by
Mr.
Wallis,
which
is
well
worthy
of
study.
Education
for
marriage
is
dealt
with
in
an
interesting
discussion,
particularly
on
group
counselling
with
unmarried
people.
This
book
is
interesting
and
inform-
ative,
written
with
clarity
and
sincerity.
It
glosses
over
many
deeper
issues
and
is
often
over-optimistic
about
results,
but
the
probation
officers
could
read
it
and
gain
considerable
profit
from
it.
W.L.H.
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