they must be cu ri ous and non-judgemental
about dif fer ences. Po ten tial is an elu sive
qual ity to as sess, but there are some help -
ful in di ca tors, such as a cre ative and
per sis tent at ti tude when frus trated, and
the abil ity to look at self when con fronted
with un pleas ant in ter ac tions with oth ers.
Ac a demic abil ity can ap pear to be the
abil ity to come up with the right an swer,
but ac tu ally what is needed is the abil ity to
see many pos si ble an swers. The chal lenge
for fac ulty is to cre ate mea sure ment strat -
e gies that re ward cre ative lat eral think ing
and ac a demic rigor si mul ta neously.
Fac ulty and pro gram man ag ers both
want to grad u ate and hire peo ple that can
be ef fec tive with peo ple who have suf -
fered from and often in flicted abuse
and/or ne glect on chil dren, some times in
fam i lies that have this pat tern for gen er a -
tions. Or di nary logic and so cial iz ing
tech niques do not help, and we need CYC
staff who can cre ate trans for ma tions
where ev ery one else has failed. This level
of prac ti tio ner skill does not exist in the
new hire or the school-based stu dent. So
fac ulty and em ploy ers are see ing de vel op -
men tal po ten tial, not ac tual abil ity as they
be stow de grees or offer em ploy ment.
We ex pect stu dents to work in small
groups on some as sign ments, which is
frus trat ing for many of them. Yet the abil -
ity to un der stand how to see strengths in
oth ers and to avoid blame when things go
awry are major learn ing ob jec tives. Case
study as sign ments and sem i nar dis cus sions
sup port stu dents to work through the
con fus ing and chal leng ing be liefs of the
peo ple they are help ing. Be liev ing in their
own po ten tial to grow often is sup ported
by a learn ing re la tion ship with a fac ulty
mem ber who does n’t give up on them.
We also have to chal lenge stu dents
who are de vel op ing in ef fec tive be liefs and
ap proaches and eval u ate all stu dents fairly,
but with an eye to the pro fes sional tasks
ahead of them. Per haps a use ful idea
would be to get pro gram man ag ers and
fac ulty to gether to dis cuss de vel op men tal
and re la tional strat e gies. There would be
great learning all around.
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CYC-Online July 2011 / Issue 149
O
nly a few years ago the word
‘unsustainability’ did n’t even
exist. Now it’s used to de scribe
al most ev ery thing we do on this planet.
The rea son is sim ple. In order to be sus -
tain able the en vi ron ment needs con stant
self-re plen ish ment to sup port human life;
the econ omy needs pro tected free dom to
op er ate in the best in ter ests of all; na tions
need se cu rity to
re spect other na -
tions; re li gions
need hu mil ity to
main tain their
spir i tual con nec -
tions; and, at the
core, human be -
ings need to
ex press their car -
ing and
com pas sion in
order to live in
har mony on this planet. The mes sage is
clear. When we fail to at tend to the es -
sen tial needs in any liv ing sys tem it
be comes in creas ingly un sus tain able and
our des per ate ef forts to ‘fix’ the ac cu mu -
lat ing prob lems only serve to dig the
trenches deeper. Well, the same prin ci ple
ap plies to the sustainability of human re la -
tion ships in gen eral and the de vel op ment
of our chil dren in par tic u lar.
For the most part med i cal sci ence has
con firmed what we have al ways known
about the phys i cal and nu tri tional needs of
kids, al though fads and fash ions might
change. Mean -
while, obe sity is
ram pant across
na tions that still
have op tions. In
the psy cho log i cal
realm, child de vel -
op ment the o rists
have given us a
broad list of spe -
cific needs in line
with their spe cific
areas of in ter est.
So we can ap pre ci ate what Piaget had to
say about in tel lec tual de vel op ment, un der -
stand Mowrer’s the o ries of
com mu ni ca tion and agree with Kohlberg’s
no tions about mo ral ity, even though we
16
CYC-Online July 2011 / Issue 149
No Need to Fix Anything –
Just Add the Missing Parts:
A Needs-Based Approach
to Child & Youth Care
Gerry Fewster
might never ac tu ally in cor po rate these
ideas into our ef forts to re spond to the
strug gles of a par tic u lar child. But, in my
ex pe ri ence, very few of the prob lems pre -
sented to pro fes sion als are as so ci ated
with the needs iden ti fied by these
anointed ex perts. In the vast ma jor ity of
cases, the de pri va tions occur in re la tion -
ships and ap pear as self-de feat ing pat terns
of be hav ior that can be traced back to
what happened, or didn’t happen, during
the child’s earliest formative years.
From this per spec tive, our pri mary re -
la tion ships, from con cep tion through the
first three or four years of life be come the
blue print that lays the foun da tion and sets
the di rec tion for the jour ney from the de -
pend ency of in fancy to the au ton omy of
adult hood. If the es sen tial needs are ac -
knowl edged and ad dressed, the core of
this de vel op men tal tra jec tory is the emer -
gence of the Self – an ex pand ing
ex pres sion of who we are through our re -
la tion ships with oth ers. If not, we are left
with the pro fes sional ‘fix-it’ rem e dies we
eu phe mis ti cally refer to as “in ter ven -
tions.” Back to square one.
But if we can iden tify the foun da tional
needs that nour ish the de vel op ment of the
Self, per haps we can cre ate a re la tional
con text that of fers what was miss ing from
the out set. Again, if we re view the rel e -
vant the ory and re search we will find a
mul ti tude of pos si bil i ties clus tered around
the ori en ta tion of par tic u lar the o rists.
Blend ing these no tions with a lit tle in tu -
ition, a dash of in sight and the ground-
break ing re search of Dan iel Stern, three
fun da men tal re la tional needs emerge from
the mix. They are as follows:
1. The Need for Bond
If the ex perts agree about any thing it’s
that the bond be tween in fant and mother
(or pri mary care giver) es tab lishes the
foun da tions for the life-long de vel op men -
tal jour ney. Ide ally, this pro vides the
an chor point — a con stant, lov ing and re li -
able pres ence that en sures sur vival and
pro tects against the in her ent fears of
aban don ment and an ni hi la tion. When this
pri mary bond is weak or in ter rupted, chil -
dren be come anx ious and in se cure.
Feel ing pow er less and fear ful of the un -
known, they des per ately try to con trol the
world, using what ever means are avail able
to them along the way. If some one moves
close, they will dis tance them selves. If
oth ers move away, they will do what ever
it takes to get them back. Their only trust
is in their own de fenses. Is there a child
and youth care worker any where who has
not tried to fix this re la tional dance? At
the ex treme end of the con tin uum, in fants
who live with the ter ror of aban don ment
and an ni hi la tion have no op tion but to cut
them selves off from both Self and Other.
With no emo tional con tact on the in side
and no con cern for the feel ings of oth ers,
all that counts is their own sur vival. These
are the kids who will tor ture a kit ten to
af firm their power over life or kill a class -
mate with no sense of re morse. The label
may be “psy cho path” but no fix is avail able
at this point.
2. The Need for Breath ing Room
The pri mary bond that pro vides safety and
se cu rity must also be the home-base from
which the in fant is free to ex plore the ex -
ter nal world. Chil dren who are
en cour aged to have their own thoughts
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CYC-Online July 2011 / Issue 149