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Helping the noncompliant child: A clinician's guide to parent training
BOOK REVIEWS
84
Helping the Noncompliant
Child: A Clinician’s Guide to Parent Training
by REX L. FOREHAND Guilford
Press,
The behavioral literature, especially the operant applied literature, has been replete with all sorts of parent training guides. These guides purport to provide clinicians and, in some cases, parents themselves, with the tools to manage children’s behavior. More often than not, these guides and manuals provide a good general view of the theory behind the practice, but fail to come to grips with the specifics of real problem behavior. In this work, Forehand and McMahon provide “. .a detailed description of a treatment program designed to teach parents to modify their children’s noncompliance and related deviant behavior”. In their foreword, they spell out the greatest shortcoming of the book, that it is primarily intended for clinicians who have a good training in social learning principles and child development. Those clinicians, however, will probably by now also have a good idea as to how to proceed to develop such a program. If they did not, then this book would be an admirable base upon which to build. The book describes a general program developed by the authors primarily, it appears, at a university clinic. Since the subject population was not in a private practice setting, the types of guidelines presented by the authors are not always applicable. The use of formal rating devices and of home observations by trained staff are two examples of ideas which are either impractical or difficult to apply in private practice. Furthermore, the use of step-by-step general procedures gives the appearance of a “canned whereas in reality child noncomprogram” approach, pliance is a clinical problem of much greater complexity, requiring more intense and broad clinical intervention. It appears that the book promises more than it actually delivers. It is a good overview of practical procedures to consider when developing a parent training program. It also
and ROBERT New York,
J. McMAHON 1981
clearly and coherently describes the general problem of noncompliance in children. As such, many junior clinicians (and not only those well grounded in social learning principles) could find this book quite helpful. However, the book in no way succeeds in presenting a totally comprehensive program, although it makes some attempt at this. Throughout the book, points relevant to the general private practitioner are addressed. These include assessment of the general psychological state of the parents and possible clinical intervention with them. Some discussion is also made of possible marital conflict as a corollary of child noncompliance. These issues, however, while frequent in private practice, are given but a cursory glance here. Thus, the book may fall short of some clincians’ expectations that it will enable them to find easy remedies to some of their patients’ longstanding problems. While noncompliance is a general term, the behaviors it includes are often specific and would require a clinical approach more sophisticated than the one presented here. While the authors give an example of one specific noncompliant behavior (mealtime behavior), others are absent. In summary, this book is an adequate overview of the field and can help clinicians unfamiliar with these techniques to develop general guidelines to deal with their patients’ problems. However, some guidelines appear to be better suited for clinic populations and are probably not applicable in private clinical practice. IRWIN Department of Medical Psychology Columbia University School of Physicians New York, New York, U.S.A.
J. MANSDORF
and Surgeons
84
Helping the Noncompliant
Child: A Clinician’s Guide to Parent Training
by REX L. FOREHAND Guilford
Press,
The behavioral literature, especially the operant applied literature, has been replete with all sorts of parent training guides. These guides purport to provide clinicians and, in some cases, parents themselves, with the tools to manage children’s behavior. More often than not, these guides and manuals provide a good general view of the theory behind the practice, but fail to come to grips with the specifics of real problem behavior. In this work, Forehand and McMahon provide “. .a detailed description of a treatment program designed to teach parents to modify their children’s noncompliance and related deviant behavior”. In their foreword, they spell out the greatest shortcoming of the book, that it is primarily intended for clinicians who have a good training in social learning principles and child development. Those clinicians, however, will probably by now also have a good idea as to how to proceed to develop such a program. If they did not, then this book would be an admirable base upon which to build. The book describes a general program developed by the authors primarily, it appears, at a university clinic. Since the subject population was not in a private practice setting, the types of guidelines presented by the authors are not always applicable. The use of formal rating devices and of home observations by trained staff are two examples of ideas which are either impractical or difficult to apply in private practice. Furthermore, the use of step-by-step general procedures gives the appearance of a “canned whereas in reality child noncomprogram” approach, pliance is a clinical problem of much greater complexity, requiring more intense and broad clinical intervention. It appears that the book promises more than it actually delivers. It is a good overview of practical procedures to consider when developing a parent training program. It also
and ROBERT New York,
J. McMAHON 1981
clearly and coherently describes the general problem of noncompliance in children. As such, many junior clinicians (and not only those well grounded in social learning principles) could find this book quite helpful. However, the book in no way succeeds in presenting a totally comprehensive program, although it makes some attempt at this. Throughout the book, points relevant to the general private practitioner are addressed. These include assessment of the general psychological state of the parents and possible clinical intervention with them. Some discussion is also made of possible marital conflict as a corollary of child noncompliance. These issues, however, while frequent in private practice, are given but a cursory glance here. Thus, the book may fall short of some clincians’ expectations that it will enable them to find easy remedies to some of their patients’ longstanding problems. While noncompliance is a general term, the behaviors it includes are often specific and would require a clinical approach more sophisticated than the one presented here. While the authors give an example of one specific noncompliant behavior (mealtime behavior), others are absent. In summary, this book is an adequate overview of the field and can help clinicians unfamiliar with these techniques to develop general guidelines to deal with their patients’ problems. However, some guidelines appear to be better suited for clinic populations and are probably not applicable in private clinical practice. IRWIN Department of Medical Psychology Columbia University School of Physicians New York, New York, U.S.A.
J. MANSDORF
and Surgeons