Child neglect and behavioural parent education: Research and practice - Softcover

Child neglect poses physical and emotional risks and can cause complicated attachments and cognitive delay. If prolonged, it can lead to long-term mental health problems and relationship difficulties in adult life. However, even though evidence-based practice is now in demand for all areas of education, health, and social care, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence on interventions that specifically address the management and prevention of child neglect. This book explains how behavior-analytic parent education can be used to develop individualized programs to help parents to care for their babies or young children, particularly those who are vulnerable due to having grown up in state care, who have intellectual disabilities, or are young first-time parents. The book outlines the well-established knowledge base and methods of behavior-analytic interventions, and it guides workers on how to develop programs that can be evaluated by practitioners, using single-system research designs. The book shows how to link the programs with various commonly used techniques in ways that: * are transparent, accountable, and culturally-sensitive * promote service user involvement * allow expectations of parents to be clearly outlined and what progress should be expected * reinforce parents' strengths and help create positive collaborative relationships * can quickly be adapted to ensure that they are effective in achieving agreed goals * enable and empower workers and parents in any context. Child care social workers, parent educators, and other professionals committed to safeguarding children from neglect will find help for their work with all parents. Academics and policy makers will see how a behavior-analytic knowledge base can inform both practice and research.

Dr Benny McDaniel spent many years managing a residential family assessment unit for Barnardo's in Northern Ireland, and educated many family and child care teams throughout the UK, using methods described in this book. She is now Quality Specialist at Colin Early Intervention Community in Belfast. Professor Karola Dillenburger is an internationally respected educator and researcher and has used the methods described here to educate parents in international contexts, including Europe, Australia and India. She is Professor of Behaviour Analysis and Education, and Director of the Centre for Behaviour Analysis, at the School of Education at Queen's University Belfast.