Parents and Toddlers in Groups

This book explores how psychoanalytic principles can be applied when working with parents and toddlers in groups. Illustrated with lively observations, it discusses how these parent-toddler groups can be an effective medium for early intervention during a period which is critical for the negotiation of a child’s central emotional issues.
Parents and Toddlers in Groups demonstrates the particular challenges of the toddler phase and its contribution to an individual’s future development and relationships. Focusing on an approach developed by the Anna Freud Centre and comprising chapters from a range of expert contributors, topics include:



the history, theory and practice of parent-toddler groups at the Anna Freud Centre
how this approach has been adapted and applied across a wide range of settings and cultures
the findings of research projects carried out on parent-toddler groups.

This book will be a valuable resource for practitioners wanting to reach parents and young children in community, educational and a variety of other settings. It will also appeal to child psychotherapists and psychologists working in CAMHS teams.

Marie Zaphiriou Woods, F. Inst. Psychoanal., is a child psychotherapist and psychoanalyst working with children, adolescents and adults. She was the psychoanalytic consultant and then manager of the Anna Freud Centre Parent-Toddler Group Service, London, UK, from 1999-2008. She teaches and supervises for a number of training schools and is a training analyst for the British Association of Psychotherapists.
Inge-Martine Pretorius, PhD, DPsych, trained as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Anna Freud Centre, London, UK. She started working in the Anna Freud Centre archives in 2001 and became manager of the Parent-Toddler Service in 2008. She is a Clinical Tutor for Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology at University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, London, UK, where she organizes and teaches the MSc Child Development course.

Acknowledgements. Foreword. Introduction. Part I: The Anna Freud Centre Parent-Toddler Groups. Inge-Martine Pretorius, A historical background of the Anna Freud Centre parent-toddler groups and the use of observation to study child development. Marie Zaphiriou Woods, Normal toddler development: Excursions and returns. Marie Zaphiriou Woods, The Anna Freud Centre approach to running a parent-toddler group. Jenny Stoker, The Role of Play. Anna Plagerson, Normally Difficult and Difficult Normality. A Toddler Observation Paper. Inge-Martine Pretorius and Julie Wallace, Being seen to be able: the relationship between a partially sighted father and his daughters born with floppy baby syndrome. Part II: Adaptations and Applications of the Anna Freud Centre Model. Jenny Stoker, Difference and Disability: Experiences in a Specialist Toddler Group. Lesley Bennett, Running a toddler group on a council housing estate; invisibility, intrusion, dislocation and the importance of boundaries. Elspeth Pluckrose, Building a toddler group in a hostel for homeless families: an iterative technique. Fátima Martínez del Solar, Reaching out to vulnerable parents and toddlers: Establishing a parent-toddler group in a deprived area of South London. Valentina Ivanova and Nina Vasilyeva, Integrating parents and toddlers with special needs: Parent-toddler groups in St. Petersburg. Evanthia Navridi, Integration, sharing and separation: Introducing the concept of toddlers and toddler groups in Greece. Ana María Barrantes and Elena Piazzon, Finding our own path: Engaging working parents in a toddler group in Peru. Part III: Research and Evaluation. Kay Asquith, Introduction. Annabel Kitson, María Luisa Barros and Nick Midgley, A qualitative study of the experience of parents attending a psychoanalytic parent-toddler group. Carolina Camino Rivera, Kay Asquith and Anna Prützel-Thomas, Thinking about my toddler: Can a psychoanalytic toddler group enhance reflective functioning capacities in parents? Joshua Holmes, Anna Prützel-Thomas and Kay Asquith, Snack time at an Anna Freud Centre parent-toddler group: Microanalysis of social eating in toddlerhood. Mary Target and Elizabeth Allison, Conclusion. Appendix. References