The Emerging Child

(Paperback)

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The Hudsons Guild is a long established neighborhood house which offers social, educational, psychiatric, and psychological services to the residents of Chelsea, who are often socially, economically, and educationally, deprived. The many activities of the Hudson Guild Neighborhood House included a mental hygiene clinic also called the Counseling Service, and the operation of a day care center for the children of working mothers. Dr. David Wolitzky describes the program: " In 1956 the staffs of these two independent services embarked on a cooperative continuing venture, the establishment and operation of the Therapeutic Nursery Group (TNG). The aim of the TNG is to provide emotionally and behaviorally disturbed pre-school children with a group play therapy experience under the leadership of a special nursery group-teacher-therapist. The basic rationale of this program is that the early detection and treatment of psychological disturbances serves as a constructive influence on the child's current and subsequent personal and social adaptation. The clinical evidence of the personnel involved in this program is that the TNG in providing a corrective emotional experience is an effective mode of intervention." This book presents the background, nature, techniques, and implications of the TNG program.

Reviews

The Emerging Child is a well written, interesting, and informative text about young children in a therapeutic nursery...Through interpretation and sensitivity on the part of the teacher-therapist, the children begin to form interpersonal attachments which, it is hoped, will continue to stimulate them even after they have left the nursery. -- Alice S. Weininger
The focus of this book is the disturbed pre-school child. The authors provide specific guidelines for diagnosis and identification of such children. They also provide a wealth of examples of appropriate therapeutic help for the 4 and 5 year old child who is in need of such skilled intervention. -- Alice S. Honig
Mary Jane Witenberg and Phyllis Brusiloff write about a most important means of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of developmental problems in preschool children. -- David E. Schecter

Author Bio

Phyllis Brusiloff was the principal investigator of a national institute of mental health grant, replicating the program in four New York City day care centers. She also consulted to the Early Childhood Division of North Carolina and lectures across the country for programs in psychology, psychiatry, and early childhood education. Mary Jane Witenberg was the epitome of a sensitive, supportive nursery school teacher who enhanced the lives of all the children in her classrooms. Dr. Clarice Kestenbaum, who wrote the introduction, is currently Professor of Clinical Psychiatry emeritus and Training Director emeritus in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons. The Emerging Child is still an integral part of her curriculum.