Social and Emotional Development in Early Intervention

I highly recommend this book for anyone working in the field of early intervention. If you are a professional working with children who have developmental differences, sensory issues, or behavioral challenges, this book should be on your must read list. Dr. Delahooke has synthesized and simplified important research in the field of infant mental health and early intervention and presented it in a way that is very engaging and accessible for all readers. There are great worksheets throughout that I guarantee you will be coming back to long after you have finished the book. As a child psychologist as well as a board certified behavior analyst, I particularly urge my fellow BCBAs to read this book. It will broaden your view of how to conceptualize the difficulties of the children with whom you work and provide you with a completely different perspective than what is offered in the field of Behavior Analysis. It is an altogether different view that is nonetheless essential and not mutually exclusive with the work of behaviorists.

I am a mother of an autistic child. Although this book is perhaps written for professionals I found it incredibly helpful to understand the layered complexities of my sons developmental journey and written in a way that I could easily understand. The things I learned here will help me best support my son emotionally and behaviorally as we are working on furthering his development. Cannot recommend it enough!

I bought this book unsure of whether or not it would be beneficial to me as a special education teacher. However, within seconds of opening it I was reassured. It is full of powerful! information that can completely transform the mindset of any special education teacher. It is simple, easy to read and understand. The resources included in this book are my favorite part!As a mentor teacher to first year special education teachers, I will be recommending this book to them. It is a must read for teachers, like myself, as it can provide insight to some of our most challenging kiddos.

Unbelievable book! I loved every page and could not put it down! Dr. Delahooke's book guides us through social and emotional development in such a clear and beautiful way and is so passionate and robust in its meaning. As a speech therapist who works with children with communication and relationships challenges, Dr. Delahook's masterpiece has affected my work in such a real way.I have recommended it to colleagues, parents and teachers and have received grateful feedback! They especially appreciate her specific techniques and visual supports. A must read for anyone who works with children!

Overall this was a decent book that gave me some things to think about and to incorporate into my practice. I'm a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and have worked with all ages, specializing in working with people with challenging behaviors for the past 20 years. Recently, I have focused primarily on working within early intervention birth to three.My main issue with this book is Chapter 6. Dr. Delahooke refers to "traditional behavioral approaches" in a way that resembles the behavior modification era (from the 70s-80s) and fails to give credit or acknowledge the advancements in this field now referred to Applied Behavior Analysis. Essentially, she describes this approach consisting of ignoring misbehavior and rewarding good behavior which is an antiquated look at behavioral assessment and intervention.She outlines her Personalized Attunement approach as follows:1. Prioritize the child's feeling of safety in a relationship.2. Address the causes and triggers underlying the behaviors.3. Help the child develop new ways to cope.This sounds similar to how behavior analysts assess and intervene on challenging behaviors. We don't necessarily use these words; however, we would look at our rapport with the child and determine if we have a good/reinforcing relationship with the child and ask ourself "When we show up, does the child run TO us or AWAY from us?" If the child runs to us, then yes, we have a good rapport, aka "the child feels safe with us".Addressing the causes and triggers underlying the challenging behavior is the heart of what we do as clinicians. We refer to this as an antecedent analysis which also involves assessing motivating operations (MOs). We always want to rule out pain, psychiatric, and other medical variables that could be contributing to the challenging behavior as well.Finally, helping the child develop new ways to cope is also paramount to the work that we do. We refer to this as teaching a replacement behavior or skill. We want to teach the person another way to "cope" depending on the function (cause) of the challenging behavior taking into account triggers and MOs. The replacement behavior is individualized and may consist of learning a new skill (e.g., going to a cozy corner when feeling stressed, asking to take a break/walk if the environment is too loud/stimulating, or wearing noise cancelling headphones, etc) or learning to communicate a specific need or desire, and on and on. Sometimes, especially for younger children, this would involve "co-regulation" which consists of the child calming down with the assistance of a caregiver.And yes, we love reinforcement because that is how behavior is learned and maintained. Reinforcement can be intrinsic or extrinsic.....think about your own behavior (anything you do or say) isn't it reinforced, even every once in a while, either intrinsically or extrinsically? There's nothing wrong with reinforcement unless it's only provided "artificially" (skittle anyone?) and not more naturally (a smile, a head nod, etc).Anyway, I'm noticing a pattern in early intervention. "ABA" is the enemy and is often misunderstood and misrepresented and unfortunately the chapter in this book only perpetuates this.

This book is completely off-printed: from the cover to the inside pages. I am so disappointed.

Dr. Delahooke's innovative book is a refreshing and necessary reminder that we have to look under the surface to appreciate the complexities of child behavior. Understanding the child's unique way of relating can be a key in driving the treatment and unleashing potential - once never thought possible. In a step by step process, Dr Delahooke walks us through the mainstay of child development: relationships. She then addresses both sides of the relationship equation, the child and the parents - while keeping the practioner's role in mind. This practical guide is a must read for interventionists of all persuasions, but especially for those working in Early Intervention.Dr. Delahooke, in essence, offers new and hopeful ways of reflecting and thinking about how we connect and relate to each other: child, parent and practioner.

Good

Excellent book with useful practical suggestions to incorporate into practice straight away. I'll recommend to my colleagues including psychs, SLPs, OTs etc.

A

Completly useless content.