Observing, playing and supporting development: Anna Freud’s toddler groups past and present

Observation: its role in Anna Freud’s developmental approach and therapeutic parent‐toddler groups1

“…Some research questions, like the significance of attachment in the child acquiring toilet mastery, that had started at the Jackson Nursery in Vienna, were later resolved at the HWN (Krivanek 2014). It is important to note, here, that the pioneering work of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham using developmental and psychanalytic theory, instituted with such careful scrutiny, had never before been documented and their work continues to be relevant today as will be demonstrated in the case description to follow (see Zaphiriou Woods & Pretorius 2016).…”

“…Her identification of disturbances that were developmental rather than neurotic led to the broadening of child analytic aims and techniques in order to reach children with a wide range of problems. Interventions aimed at freeing and supporting development rather than giving insight, now known as ‘developmental help’ (Freud 1978b, p. 109) or ‘developmental therapy’ (Edgcumbe 1995, p. 196; Hurry 1998, p. 37), are used today by practitioners working in the Anna Freudian tradition (Malberg & Raphael‐Leff 2012) in individual child psychotherapy and in the parent‐toddler groups (Zaphiriou Woods & Pretorius 2016). Working with the parents of young children is an essential part of this tradition and integral to the work of the parent‐toddler groups, described below.…”

“…The therapeutic parent‐toddler groups developed at the Hampstead Clinic and Anna Freud Centre in Maresfield Gardens embodied Anna Freud’s endeavour to link psychoanalytic theory, observation and practice in the field of child development (Zaphiriou Woods & Pretorius 2016). By intervening early to prevent later disturbance, the groups continued the tradition begun in the Jackson Nursery and Hampstead War Nurseries.…”

“…Her identification of disturbances that were developmental rather than neurotic led to the broadening of child analytic aims and techniques to reach children with a wide range of problems. Interventions aimed at freeing and supporting development that became known as ‘developmental therapy’ are used in the therapeutic parent‐toddler groups established at Anna Freud’s Hampstead Clinic (Zaphiriou Woods & Pretorius 2016). This approach of working with parents and toddlers is described and illustrated by observations of a boy and his mother who attended a group.…”