No. 1971
Developmental Work: Building on Small Increments of
Change
Development occurs by small steps through the minutiae of ordinary human interactions, and within the context of events [Elkind and Weiner 1978]. An understanding of development in this way can mobilize residential care personnel to utilize activities that — however insignificant they may appear — have powerful potential for change. Such interactions as the wink of an eye, a clear and honest expression of disagreement, or a hand on the shoulder can represent most significant work with a child. It is important to keep in mind that concrete care involves flexibility, adapting personal care and management to the situation at hand. Consequently, care work interactions should be situational rather than behaviorally specific. A momentary backrub, for example, may at one time create instantaneous closeness, but at another time result in an explosive, "Bug off" The reaction will depend upon the situational timing.
In many ways, the care worker is like a street worker with a roof overhead.
The worker is there. Workers are present not only for order or personal emergencies; they are there as agents of growth and change. They enter situations directly, as requested by the youngsters or as the workers deem advisable, just as street workers do. While life proceeds smoothly, resident workers may join the children's or youths' activities to share in their lives, their fun, and their joint opportunities to widen their experience. At rough spots, in anticipation of difficulties or in an actual crisis, workers also become directly involved in order to assist the youngsters in "reaching the shores safely through troubled waters." Most important is the fact that residential group care workers, like street workers, must be where the youngsters are and do their work where the action is.
The understanding of human development and its progression by minute but discernible steps has important implications for intervention (treatment) planning. The work emphasis is on operational steps (process work) for fostering change rather than outcome objectives or treatment goals per se. The focus is on what to do right now, in the next minute or hour, rather than what is to be accomplished eventually. The latter is an important consideration for overall planning, of course, but it falls short of operationalizing the actual task. For example, the important intervention for a distressed 13-year-old is what she and the worker can do immediately to ease her situation, such as discussing her worries and working together to identify and initiate a first step that will begin a change in her problematic situation. The long-range goal of assisting her to become a "more spontaneous" teenager, while not negated, is in the background at this time.
HENRY MAIER
Maier, H. Developmental Foundations of Child and
Youth Care Work. In Beker, J. and Eisikovits, Z. (eds.).
(1991). Knowledge Utilization in Residential Child and Youth Care
Practice. Washington: CWLA. pp.25-48
