Evolution of practice in child psychotherapy.

Abstract

Perhaps the earliest account of child psychotherapy recorded in the scholarly literature was Jean-Marc Itard's attempts to "civilize" the "wild boy of Aveyron" (1799/1932). The child, found living in the wild, was estimated to be between 10 and 12 years old and to have been on his own since the age of 2 or 3. Itard was only 25 years old at the time, but he disagreed with the diagnosis of congenital idiocy assigned by Pinel, Itard's teacher. The intensive efforts Itard invested in working with the boy he named Victor over the next 5% years laid the foundation for early work with severely disturbed children.Itard used an intensive approach (i.e., bringing the child into his home and devoting many hours to working with him daily) while trying to establish interpersonal contact and teach basic communication skills to the child, whose behavior fit the description of what might today be called autism. Victor made promising progress during his first year with Itard, learning to speak some words and to write some with chalk. Although Victor lived to the age of 40, he showed little progress beyond the gains of his initial year.

Child psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the UK National Health Service: an historical analysis

“…(iv) Further threats to psychotherapy As child psychotherapists fi nally crossed the threshold of the NHS in the UK, psychotherapy in the USA was competing with brief therapies preferred by the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). Cost-effectiveness dominated commissioning strategies (Koocher and D'Angelo, 1992). However, the popularity of brief therapy appears to have been driven by a response to the market, rather than a shift between scientifi c paradigms by practitioners.…”

“…Cost-effectiveness dominated commissioning strategies (Koocher and D'Angelo, 1992). However, the popularity of brief therapy appears to have been driven by a response to the market, rather than a shift between scientifi c paradigms by practitioners.…”

Evaluation of therapeutic play: a challenge for research

“…However, child psychotherapy has only recently accepted the need to look closely at the outcome of interventions. Professional practice has evolved during the 20th century, grounded in psychoanalytic theory and the contributions of Klein and Anna Freud ( Koocher & D’Angelo 1992); their emphasis on unquantifiable unconscious processes makes positivist inquiry inappropriate. However, recently there has been an awareness of the need to justify the investment an individual or organization may make to the psychotherapeutic process ( Boston & Lush 1994), and this has included a search for measurable outcomes.…”

The APS and APS-P: A Methodological Comparison between Italian Preschool and School-Aged Children

“…Play has been utilized in therapy with children from a variety of theoretical traditions. Koocher and D'Angelo (1992) reported that play in some form was used in child therapy by the majority of clinicians. Reviews on play psychotherapy literature evidence two major functions of play in psychotherapy: 1) as a major form of communication between the child and psychotherapist, the main tool for helping the child communicate his/her emotional and cognitive understanding of the intra-and interpersonal world; 2) as a vehicle for change in psychotherapy.…”