THE INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK
CYC-NET REFERENCE LIBRARY
Activities
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These reference pages are divided into the subjects below. Visit the INDEX to see other subject areas. You are welcome to use the INPUT facility to add references, material or other comment.
“Many talented and sensitive workers show as understanding of the dynamics of
children's behaviour and of the various ways in which the children respond
appropriately to many of the children's emotional needs, to resolve "crisis"
situations, to develop close and meaning relationships with the children. All of
these things are, of course, essential in providing fine clinical child care.
In essence, this is practical know-how on "what to do" with children and what to have them do during many hours when the worker is responsible for them. It allows the worker to set the stage and supply props for the important work he does in helping the children deal with their feelings and relationships. A worker cannot discuss the children's anger if they are running helter-skelter; he cannot even get them together. Children's expression of feelings of boredom can be sympathetically acknowledged and accepted, but if there is a real basis to them, the children will not get better just by having their feelings accepted. The withdrawn children cannot be helped to relate to one another just through talking, at least at first; they need to be doing something together. The child care worker's awareness of the crucial function of program in the broad area of therapeutic developmental care and his knowledge and skills in programming will, in any situation, play a key part in determining whether his and even others' time with the children — no matter how long and with how many — will be fraught with boredom, purposeless, and exaggeratedly symptomatic behaviour or whether his sojourn will be productive, if not always tranquil. No matter who is directly responsible for doing it, activity programming is not a simple matter of laying out a few materials and letting children loose. It involves considerable effort on the part of the worker. Execution of a programmed activity involves the following elements:
Readings Activity
Groups with Children and Youth Inclusion
“These kids never had a chance to
be productive” ... and a new take on technology” Never too
young to help
Activity groups Part I Activity
groups Part II Things to do Therapeutic application of play By Don Pazaratz Journals: Journal of
child and youth care Vol. 4 No.2
Journal of Child and Youth Care Vol.6 No.4
Reclaiming Children and
Youth Volume 11 Number 1 Spring 2002 Activity programming Activity programming has become increasingly recognized as a crucial variable in therapeutic child care practice, but literature on the subject is sparse. This section suggests what is available: Alwon, F. (1974) An after school activity club program. Child Care Quarterly, 8 No.4: 136-139 Erikson, J. (1976). Activity, recovery and growth: The communal role of planned activities. New York: W. W. Norton Krueger, M. (1978). Activity selecting and planning. In M. Krueger, Intervention techniques for child care workers. Milwaukee: Franklin Publishers. Llorens, L. & Rubin, E. (1967). Developing ego functions in disturbed children. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Redl, F and Wineman, D. (1957). The aggressive child. Glencoe: The Free Press. Vinter, R. (1969). Program activities: An analysis of their effects on participants behaviour. In R. Vinter, (ed.) Group Work Practice. Ann Arbor: Campus Publishers Wilson, T. (1977). Creating a diversified activity program in a small pyschiatric institution for children. Child Care Quarterly, 6 No.4 pp. 248-258 Sports and games Dearling, Alan, Armstrong, Howie, & Neville, Jerry: The new youth games book, Russell House, Lyme Regis, 1994 Dearling, Alan, & Amstrong, Howie: World youth games, Russell House, Lyme Regis, 1995 Henley, Thom (1989) Rediscovery: Ancient Pathways New Directions Canada and US: Lone Pine Publishing. Both of these books are about creating
cooperative learning environments and are designed for use in
schools: The following books have a comprehensive combination of skill building, cross-cultural respect, and promotion of cooperative interactions through games and cooperative activities: Khalsa, Siri Nam (1996) Group exercises for enhancing social skills & self-esteem. Professional Resource Press Orlick, Terry (1978, republished in 1995) The cooperative sports & games book. New York: Pantheon Books Orlick, Terry (1982, republished in 1995) The second cooperative sports & games book. New York: Pantheon Books Board Games Jessica Kingsley Publishers do a very good series of therapeutic games called "Lifegames". They are a London-based publisher, but they have a USA address as well: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007, USA. If you're concerned about sexual behaviour, you might consider: Eggert, Leona L; Anger management for youth: stemming aggression and violence, National education service, Bloomington, IN, 1994; ISBN 1879639297. This is not exactly a game, but contains many useful exercises and worksheets. Two UK games that have a good reputation are: The grapevine game: the sex education board game, National youth agency, National youth agency, Leicester, 1994 You can order some good social skills and
anger management games and books from Research Press. Their website
address is http://www.researchpress.com/ Input |
