| Question for people working with children from a harsh past? There is a teaching model used in residential treatment facility where I was a counselor. It is called the family teaching model. You can read about it at this website www.teaching-family.org/tfamodel.html. The practical work is a particular dialog that is used to de-escalate a kid who is going out of control. If he is cursing/threatening, etc. he is losing points (if he's in a facility), but if that doesn't work, the counselor does not continue, but begins to use other methods of verbal rationale with him, regarding the logic of consequences. If that doesn't work and he becomes physically aggressive and dangerous to himself or others, then sometimes TCI Theraputic Crisis Intervention with indicators (see also search engine) is implemented (a type of physical restraint until the client calms). It is accomplished by two counselors and once the restraint begins, the counselors begin positive reinforcements such as "you're doing a good job of calming down.""A really good job." and after a few minutes of calming, the counselor begins to verbally move toward releasing the restraint. It is only the counselor's bodies that are restraining the kid, and his vitals are monitored by one counselor during the ordeal. I'd rather not go into incidents of what I did when I had two kids at odds with eachother, as it's something we dread, and as a last resort of negotiations, we sometimes have to use our friendly relationship as a tool to stop the fight. Incidents are really too confidential for open forum, but hope this helps. I'm sure you can do research at these websites and get your information. |