| Abstract: | Reprint requests: Student Unit, 73 Aylestone Road, Leicester, LE2 7LL. Summary Part II of this study is concerned with a multicomponent behaviouralsocial work intervention with 17 failure-to-thrive childrenand their families. An investigation, described in Part I, showedthat the route to this worrying problem differed from familyto family. Patterns of contributory causes did emerge—thusdetermining the main thrust of the interventions. Many of thechild victims were difficult (not least in biological and psychologicaladaptability) from birth. Parents were disadvantaged in variousways. Feeding difficulties and parent-child relationships provedto be the major focus of the interventions. Behavioural Socialwork interventions directed toward the feeding performance andrelationships resulted in a high success rate; these improvementswere maintained over considerable periods of time (one yearor more). The results and temporal generalization in the caseof more general parent-child interactions, and child behaviourproblems, were more modest, but encouraging. The programme isdescribed fully and the results are given in detail. |
