FOR GOODNESS SAKE 2 SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

It's still in essence, related to thinking around assault in the workplace.

REMINDER ONE.....  the question at the end of last week's blog.... In our  practice with children and young people, what do we DO to grow young persons from extrinsic toward intrinsic reward motivated thinking and behaviour?  Doing good for goodness sake.

REMINDER TWO...In South Africa, some systems, approaches and so called methods/techniques are not allowed. Let me re-quote from the South African Norms and Standards.
"15. Behaviour Modification (such as punishment/reward systems or privilege systems) - other than as a treatment/development techique within a documented individual treatment programme which is developed by a team (including the the young person) and monitored by an appropriately trained multi-disciplinary team."

Very soon, in my first appointment, and VERY fresh, an articulate young boy, clearly an elected one man delegation, came to my office. "Please", he said, " will you make rules with the punishments we will get if we break them".  Today I hear words like "sanctions, even "consequences" used incorrectly as "punishments". hurt , pain, revenge. Together we drew up a schedule of rules and punishments. The system worked to the children's advantage. It was just a neat way for the young people to calculate the "Trade Off !" "I bunk school for a day when the fishing is good  - one week  gardening.......worth it!" "Late night with boyfriend  - one week gated.....worth it!"....and so on, and so on.... Trade offs do not work toward moral development.

Nor do Peer Courts; which for me proved to be even less useful in moral thinking. Again the pay-off when peers are asked to allocate sanctions against friends, enemies and power groups was just another exercise in the avoidance of pain.

There are then systems/approaches techniques worth contemplation and interrogation. Do they, or don't they support children's learning of more appropriate moral thinking and pro-social behaviour ? 

FIRST THE NO, NO's!
Already mentioned, the set rules and punishments and peer court systems.

First on the list of NO, NO's in the South African norms and standards is Behaviour Modification. (BM). Because Behaviour Modification is so very different in concept from Behaviour Management, it is worth interrogation.   BM is summarised as "a set procedures that can be used to change behavior (sic)"  This sounds good in itself. It was designed however for persons (and children) labelled with some psychiatric disorder or fairly debilitating behavioural challenges. Then is added, "even people who are normal or average can have behaviour deficiencies, excesses or inappropriateness's". It is said to be a very broad field. So it's not that suprising that the term is used to name almost any system of procedures/techniques used to change behaviour. Which it is not.

I recall in "those days" Psychology 101 used laboratory rats to give credibility to certain theories about human learning Rats ram mazes, avoided the shocks of electrified  cage bars , pushed coloured knobs to release food. It all had to do with Skinner-based stimulus -  response reward and the avoidance of pain......"conditioning" . 

If you get a book on classic  Behaviour Modification check the index to see how frequently those words appear.....stimulus, response, conditioning. Then check for "systematic desensitisation", extinction", "escape and avoidance", stimulus control", "punishment", "token economy". I can sense Brian Gannon turning in his grave! We use a totally different language in child and youth care in our programmes, which, I hope, is different also in concept. 

In the South African child and youth care system, another NO, NO. ...not allowed:    Levels and Points systems. It requires that staff allocate demerit points against a young person for certain behaviours. At the end of the day or week, these are added up and are used to place the young person into a group level or grade. Each of these levels or grades then are allowed or disallowed certain privileges. Sometimes they are given colour grading like gold, silver, bronze. brown. At its worse we saw brown group children  made to wear a distinctive brown uniform and perform the domestic duties of the facility. Distinctive identifying insignia and clothing is disallowed in the UN convention on the rights of children.

The international expert on Points and Levels systems is Karen Vanden Ven who over many years has researched the effectiveness of this system and its ilk, as a moral thinking developmental tool.
I quote ...."it became apparent that the point and level systems were destructive, actually denying ingredients youngsters needed for effective treatment. Karen vanden Ven has advice for child and youth care workers.
"Place greater emphasis on activities and relationships which are the essence of the child and youth care approach"
www.cyc-net.org>VandenVen Point Pack 

From the NO, No's to the useful.

Let's start where Karen vanden Ven left off.... Activities and Relationships. I found The Circle of Courage a really very useful tool when planning activities. It helps to plan experiences of doing good for others and receiving good from others without return         ( Generosity),... the experience of giving in itself, reward enough . I found an activity calendar useful. Planned as an annual monthly weekly and INDIVIDUAL sets  Spring flowers to an old-age home, Blankets to a Hospice, Surprise for a member of staff or a another young person.  ..... I love the notion that child and youth care workers are creative and design activities, experiences and environments for moral learning.... for goodness sake.

And so comes Encouragement rather than Praise.  better than "I really think you did well", the use of, "How do you feel about what you did?" 

Positive Peer Culture (PPC).    Not to be confused with Peer Management, but can be associated with Peer Mentoring. Its my day for quotes !!!! Rev A Carr refers to "peer assistance". ...."a way for ( young persons) to learn how to care about others and put their caring into practice. It relies strongly on communication skills, self exploration and decision making". "
"(Young persons .....provide supervised assistance to other (young persons) to help think through and reflect on concerns they may be experiencing."........."It can be a bridge between professional counselling and young people who won't use professional counselling" https:www.researchgate.net/publication/234566298_Theory_and_Practice_of_Peer_Counselling

Rev Carr cites Verrath H and Brendtro L. 1974 Positive Peer Culture. NY Aldine Publishing Company. Our Larry Brendtro of Circle of Courage. PPC has been around in child and youth care practice for 44 years !!!! It would be good to see it at work more frequently in South African child and youth care practice. 

Now just to mention some of the foundational approaches that we are trained and educated to use in child and youth care practice in South Africa.  Again, and again... Relational child and youth care.  Then,  Life space Counselling, problem solving approach, Natural and Logical Consequence. All these approaches and techniques I believe,  if carefully, intelligently and professionally practiced ,assist young persons along the developmental continuum of thinking from extrinsic personal reward to intrinsic societal value- based behaviour. There is a key question that we ask ourselves reflectively in practice. What is really happening here? and "what are these young persons really learning about doing good for the sake of doing good. ... good for goodness sake.