Care & Therapeutics

All children have the same basic requirements for growth and development, and need support to grow and develop. Children also learn and perform best when skills are within their Zone of Proximal Development. Therefore, we adjust children’s activities for their success.

Planning for community support is essential for a successful return to the community. A child’s personal and cultural sense of identity is tied to their family, so family involvement is essential for successful treatment and recovery.“Difficulties are not only experienced by the child but also by the family system.”

The ability to form relationships is associated with healthy development and life success. Children respond to people they trust, so relationships are central to helping children build competencies. “Every child needs at least one person who is really mad about them”.

Problem-solving skills, flexibility, critical thinking and insight are necessary life skills. All interactions and activities should be processfocused to teach life skills. A care worker’s task is to increase children’s motivation to learn new skills and to scaffolf and suport them. Children do well if they can. If they can’t, we need to figure out why so we can help.

Trauma has a debilitating effect on children’s growth and development. Challenging behaviour can often be understood as a response to a long history of traumatic experiences. Establishing and maintaining an environment of safety and non-violence is essential for children to learn new responses to stressful situations. “When we plant a lettuce and it doesn’t grow, we don’t blame the lettuce.”

Children learn through interacting with their environment, which is influenced by interactions between the children and staff. Children need opportunities to participate in and interact with all of their environments – physical, emotional, psychological, relational, social and cultural - to grow and develop.