Child Guidance
- Author:
Al. D. L. Dickson.
Sands & Co. 1938. Price 5/- net.
It is too seldom that the reviewer has the pleasure of opening a new book and feeling that here is just what one has been waiting for. Mr. Dickson has not written a text-book on Child Guidance but rather a broad practical exposition of the working of a Child Guidance Clinic suited to the educated reader, and admirably calculated to break down prejudices. His experience was gained mainly at the Notre Dame Clinic at Glasgow and lie pays a welldeserved tribute to the ” faith, devotion and tireless energy ” of Sister Marie Hilda, who was one of the first in these islands to realise the possibilities of Child Guidance and quite the first to organise a clinic in connection with a training college.
The respective parts played by the three members of the now traditional clinic team, ?the psychiatrist, psychologist and social worker?are well explained and illustrated by pointed and interesting case histories. Though free from ” crankiness ” and jargon, there is nothing superficial about Mr. Dickson’s attitude and he constantly stresses the need for expert training and scientific knowledge in dealing with apparently simple problems. The importance of bearing in mind the effect that physical conditions may have on character and conduct is well brought out in the chapter on ” neuropathologyThe sections on play-therapy and speech-therapy will be of particular interest to teachers and mental health workers. The Notre Dame Clinic provides a delightful series of play-norms and is working out a technique for this most valuable line of approach to the child mind. Some child psychologists will feel little confidence in play therapy which stops short of direct analysis, but there is much to be said for the more detached attitude.
“If John displays in his play an unconscious antagonism to one of his parents, we prefer to discover why this antagonism has arisen rather than to explain this to the child. If we can discover the reason it is often possible by co-operation between clinic, home and school to resolve this antagonism.” Play therapy is still too young to be an occasion for dogmatism and it will be of great interest to see which school of thought best justifies itself by results. The chapter on Speech Therapy is full of valuable information on a form of treatment which is now advancing on scientific lines. It is rightly pointed out that the causes of speech difficulties are of such complexity that the therapist gains immensely by working as one of a team.
A final chapter deals with common objections to Child Guidance ” chiefly from a Catholic viewpoint” but, in fact, the criticisms so fairly stated here emanate from persons professing any religion or none. All child guidance workers will be glad to have the case for the defence so clearly and judicially expressed. For the sake of this chapter alone, the book should have a place in every educational library and should be read by everyone concerned in the upbringing of children?teachers, magistrates and Care-Committee workers alike.
If it is possible to expand the book in future editions, a fuller explanation of the value of child guidance clinics in cases of school retardation might be included. The history of the movement in the introduction also calls for revision in certain particulars. L. F.
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