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1 DECEMBER 2008

NO 1380

Child care workers

The field of child care work requires people of many different kinds. We tend to think of the child care worker as a woman, but men do well in this field; and since, for reasons that we do not understand fully, boys outnumber girls in centers for emotionally disturbed children, there is a great need for male workers. There is also need for workers of different ages. Children need different things from different people, and they will turn to a younger worker for the satisfaction of certain needs and to an older one for others. The very young worker may seem to them like an older brother or sister, someone who they can expect will play quite actively with them, whereas the worker who is older than others may be appreciated for parental or grandparental qualities. There is room in child care work for the rather shy and retiring person, so long as he is able to set limits when necessary, and for the ebullient extrovert who has enough sensitivity to recognize a child's feeling. Not all people who feel that they "love children," however, make good child care workers. The person who undertakes to work with emotionally disturbed, delinquent, or even just neglected and dependent children with the idea of giving tender loving care to some unfortunate child and receiving love and gratitude in return is likely to be disappointed. True, the children do often come to love the workers, but often also they are angry and defiant with them. There has usually been too much deprivation or other injury for the children to have normally affectionate feelings toward adults. The worker has to be able to appreciate the child in spite of some behavior that he finds difficult. His reward comes through seeing the child begin to grow and thrive, recover from some of his hurts, and perhaps leave the institution or treatment center to join the world of other children-and through knowing that the child's success has come about partly through his efforts.2

Not all workers are equally successful with all kinds of children. Some find that they relate better to young children or to very withdrawn, deeply disturbed children. Some on the other hand enjoy and can profitably use the interchange with more verbal, more active, perhaps older, perhaps "acting-out" youngsters. No one should be discouraged at the discovery that he is not equally proficient with all kinds of children; the need for child care workers is so great that a given worker can almost always find a position that suits his talents. Further, with experience one's proficiency becomes broader; the understanding of one age range or kind of disturbance sometimes leads gradually to the understanding of others.

The prospective worker need not be an intellectual, but he has to be intelligent. He will need to grasp certain parts of the theory of child development in order to perform his job adequately. His most important qualification is a certain quality of feeling – a warm spontaneous response to the child and an ability to discern what the child's feelings are. A reasonable degree of patience is necessary, as well as a tolerance for other people's behavior and opinions, not only the children's but also those of one's fellow workers.

GENEVIEVE W. FOSTER AND KAREN VANDERVEN

Foster, G.W. and VanderVen, K. (1972). The Child Care Worker. In Foster, G.W.; VanderVen, K.; Kroner, E.R.; Carbonara, N.T. and Cohen, GM. Child Care Work with Emotionally Disturbed Children. University of Pittsburgh Press.

NOTES

1. On this subject see Training for Child Care Staff (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1963); Hyman Grossbard, Cottage Parents: What They Have to Be, Know, and Do (New York, 196o); Van G. Hromodka, "How Child Care Workers Are Trained in Europe," Children (November-December 1964); and Van G. Hromodka, "Toward Improved Competence in Child Care Workers: A look at What They Do," Children (September-October 1966).

2. An unpublished but widely known paper, Having Chosen to Work with Children, by Charlotte Babcock, M.D., of the faculty of the Pittsburgh Psychonanalytic institute, "speaks to the condition" of those who have chosen this profession.

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