Customer Reviews

Troubled Transplants: Unconventional Strategies for Helping Disturbed Foster and Adopted Children

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This book explores the dynamics of both harmful (abusive and neglectful) and therapeutic (specially-trained adoptive and foster) family environments. Disturbed children can be helped to develop more productive and satisfying relationships, the authors suggest, through the efforts of foster and adoptive parents working in the home environment, aided by the support, encouragement, and resources of the professionals on the team.

Most of the book is concerned with therapeutic intervention, based on four goals: Manage acting out behavior; assist the child in becoming conscious of negative expectations of others; help the child develop constructive interpersonal skills; increase positive interactions between the parent and child. Delaney and Kunstal are clear there are no magic or immediate "cures." Their "unconventional" strategies (examples rather than prescriptions) attempt to discourage power struggles, create new opportunities for both the parent and the child, and encourage small successes in order to help motivate foster and adoptive parents to keep trying.

This book, coupled with Fostering Changes (a previous book by the same author), should be required reading for foster and adoptive parents and caseworkers. It is informative and empowering.

This book contains both useful and not-so-useful information. It covers the basics of harmful, abusive and neglectful relationships and why they cause behavioral problems. It also discusses many therapeutic adoptive and foster family environments and techniques to be used with problem kids. The methods suggested are very situation-specific, and all were developed with the advice of therapists working with the families whose situations are (anonymously) described.

The book, as a previous reviewer notes, mostly discusses methods of therapeutic intervention, with the aim of achieving four goals: Reduce and manage acting out; assist the child to become aware and conscious of others negative expectations; help the child develop constructive interpersonal skills; increase positive interactions between the parent and child.

The authors note frequently that when dealing with these kinds of situations, there is no magic bullet. Therapies and therapeutic parental reactions must be developed in response to each child's needs. But very often, these strategies work. For example, the behavior of a screaming child was changed when the parents and other siblings began to scream along with him, until he stared at them silently, in disbelief. The method also worked in a supermarket, when the child started screaming there. And humorously, the store personnel even played into the strategy, announcing over the PA system, "child meltdown in aisle 4." Ever after, this child stopped screaming for attention.

Obviously, not all therapies work in all situations. Also, some of the therapies are controversial and are probably contra-indicated in many if not all cases.

Even so, the creativity of the ideas offered herein is a very useful springboard for other parents and therapists struggling to find ways of modifying a child's behavior, when all the other, traditional behavior modification systems have failed.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

The authors Delaney and Kunstal are noted proponent of Attachment Therapy (aka Holding Therapy) and its brutal parenting methods. This practice was denounced as abusive and inappropriate for all children in 2006 by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and by the American Psychological Association's Division on Child Maltreatment.

The authors themselves admit that their methods not reputable: "These strategies have not been researched by any statistical, controlled study." (page 166) Actually, no human subjects review board would allow children to be subjects in any study involving these methods.

Delaney and Kunstal, as Attachment Therapy proponents (and as therapists), have advocated (and used) "coercive restraint as therapy." This is a vile practice that seeks to disturb children to the extent that they loose control. While held down, the children are yelled at, poked, tickled relentlessly, threatened with abandonment, etc. From pages 141-142 of this book:

"When held in place, [the child] became livid and struggled against the adults -- to no avail. His rage escalated quickly as he screamed louder and louder at those holding him. He commanded them to let him go, he threatened to turn them into the police, and he claimed that they were breaking his arms. The adults kept [the child] in a 'therapeutic restraint,' nonetheless....Many parents and professionals may find this approach quite overwhelming and intense -- even contrary to their beliefs about helping. However for some children in placement, therapeutic holding is imperative..."

There are more bad ideas in this book than you can shake a stick at, such as "infantalizing" older children, "reparenting," forcing eye contact, and advising against reasoning with children. The overall tone of belittling children with terms like "mealy-mouthed" makes it clear that the authors have little respect for children, much less a professional attitude towards child development.

Worse, they would subject the most vulnerable of children to literal torture.

So kids are expected to love their parent if those parents and a therapist rough them up and make their life a living hell? Not likely. This is really about adult dominance and creating gratefully obedience little Stepford Children.

This book has more 'in depth' information which adds more to the other illustrated book by same author. I understand so much better now. Great help thank you.

I am a foster mother who has come across some unusual behaviors with my children. This book has given me some great ideas on how to deal with them. It also showed me that I don't have to use traditional methods to deal with the unusual behaviors that I have come across.