Social Work Practice with Children, First Edition: (Clinical Practice with Children, Adolescents, and Families)

Table of Contents:
Foreword. Part I. An Ecological Developmental Framework for Helping Children. Children's Problems and Needs. Necessary Background for Helping Children. Part II. The Process of Helping Children: A Running Case Illustration of a Child in a Single-Parent Homeless Family. Building Relationships with All Relevant Systems. The Biopsychosocial Assessment of the Child. Contracting, Planning Interventions, and Tracking Progress. Part III. Different Methods of Helping Children. Working with the Family. One-to-One Work with the Child. Group Work with Children. School-Based Interventions. Part IV. Helping Children in Special Circumstances. Children in Out-of-Home Placements. Children in Nontraditional Families. Children in Families Affected by Illness and Death. Children in Substance-Disordered Families. Child Victims and Witnesses of Family Violence. A Changing World's Impact on Practice with and for Children. Appendices.

About the Author :
Nancy Boyd Webb, DSW, BCD, RPT-S, is University Distinguished Professor of Social Work at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. Her publications include Helping Bereaved Children and Social Work Practice with Children, as well as an award-winning video, Techniques of Play Therapy. In addition to teaching and writing, she maintains a clinical practice and supervises and consults with schools and agencies. A board-certified diplomate in clinical social work and a registered play therapy supervisor, Dr. Webb presents frequently at play therapy, social work, and mental health conferences in the United States and abroad.

Review :
"Nancy Boyd Webb's comprehensive book applies the ecological perspective to viewing children in their total environment. She skillfully demonstrates the importance of intervening preventively with children while they are young and is highly respectful of the struggles and needs of parents. Most importantly, the book offers practitioners and social work educators an invaluable resource of methods and skills for helping children with challenging life conditions and perilous life situations. Case examples and illustrations further enrich the text. An excellent and much needed contribution to contemporary practice literature." --Alex Gitterman, MSW, Ed.D., Professor of Social Work, Columbia University School of Social Work "Dr. Nancy Boyd Webb has made a distinguished and important contribution to the contemporary practice literature of the profession. She presents us with a highly relevant, readable, and pragmatic text on the treatment of children built on the bases of history, rich practice experience, knowledge of the literature, and a deep commitment to the need for responsible, accountable, flexible, knowledgeable, skilled practitioners. A particularly useful facet of this work is the inclusion of discussion questions and exercises at the end of each section, an addition that will be of use to teachers and supervisors and will also serve to challenge the thinking of practitioners reading it for their own edification. As well her material on play therapy is a long needed and welcome contribution to social work writing. "Throughout, the author stresses the need to build practice on tested knowledge and the concomitant need to draw knowledge from a broad spectrum of sources. The volume clearly represents the outcome of a rich and distinguished history of direct practice and teaching and will stand as a critically important anchor to those beginning and aspiring to practice in this essential area of work with children." --Francis J. Turner, D.S.W., Professor Emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier University, Faculty of Social Work; Waterloo Ontario, Canada "Simply extraordinary! It was pure joy to read this comprehensive and skillfully prepared book on social work practice with children. The subject was addressed with authority, compassion, and a wisdom that flowed out of over twenty years in the classroom, in research, and in direct practice with children and families. To date, no other textbook exists that has been able to accomplish what Nancy Boyd Webb has done: Create, through an ecological/developmental framework, a true multicontextual perspective for understanding and working with children in a changing world. As an educator, practitioner, and researcher, I find this remarkable book about children to be a significant addition to my library." --Sadye L. Logan, DSW, ACSW, Associate Professor, University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare "This book is extraordinarily comprehensive and informative. Chapter after chapter provides highly useful information about working with children and their families. Dr. Webb provides an impressive array of methods for helping children cope with the most difficult of situations. The numerous detailed case studies as well as the discussion questions at the end of each chapter help the reader digest and integrate the myriad of creative interventions described. "Dr. Webb has the rare facility of making clear and manageable a vast quantity of material. She provides the reader with highly useful explanatory charts and illustrations and the reader feels that he/she has learned a great deal. Experienced social workers as well as students will find concrete help with the most difficult of problems in this lucid and beautifully organized text." --Ellen F. Wachtel, Ph.D., author of Treating Troubled Children and Their Families "Nancy Boyd Webb has done an outstanding job of assembling an introductory textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of social work interested in clinical intervention with young children-- especially young children...the volume is very well organized, and the writng is quite accessible for the average undergraduate." --"Science Books & Films"