Children Who See Too Much: Lessons from the Child Witness to Violence Project - Hardcover

Groves, Betsy McAlister

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807031380 ISBN 13: 9780807031384

Publisher: Beacon Pr, 2001

Synopsis

In Children Who See Too Much, Betsy Groves debunks the myth that young age is a protector against the lasting effects of witnessing violence in the home. She makes the powerful case that traumatic events carried out by family members carry the most severe psychological risks for very young children and uses the newest cognitive research to explore how very young children process violence.

Groves draws upon the Child Witness to Violence Program's award-winning training programs for parents, teachers, police officers, clergy, and pediatric health care providers to lay out ways adults can understand and protect the very young children—all around us—who see too much.

"Groves provides six practical steps that will help parents create a safer world, regardless of neighborhood or race. The model presented in this book is clearly a valuable one for other communities to copy."
—Library Journal

"Betsy Groves offers rare insight for adults who seek to help children cope with trauma and violence."
—James Garbarino, Ph.D., author of Parents Under Siege

"As the events of Sept. 11 drive home, there is no way, these days, to keep images of death and destruction entirely away from the eyes (and out of the nightmares) of our children. . . . Children Who See Too Much will fill the need for a road map felt by parents overwhelmed by all the awfulness around them."
—Judith Warner, The Washington Post

About this title

About the Author:

Betsy McAlister Groves is founder of the nationally recognized Child Witness to Violence Program at Boston City Hospital. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts

From Publishers Weekly:

The need for a book to help parents and caregivers whose children have seen violence has never been more apparent than in the days following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. While Boston Medical Center's 10-year-old Child Witness to Violence Project is specifically designed to do just that, this book by the project's founder, a licensed social worker, disappoints. The project, which works with young children who have witnessed evil firsthand (e.g., a parent's murder) or who are traumatized by news stories (such as the kidnapping of Polly Klass from her home), clearly has done much good in helping children cope. When Groves focuses on specific stories, like four-year-old Daquan, who was at home when his mother was murdered, or Jenna and Ben, who were present when their father attacked their mother, the book comes alive. But too often Groves strays from her subject and offers mini-primers on child development theories or television violence that are not nearly as insightful as her work with kids. Despite a tendency to oversummarize in order to pad out this slim and somewhat uncohesive volume, Groves does make an impassioned case that youth is not a protection against violence and that domestic violence in particular has the most devastating effect on children. She warns that there are no quick fixes to help young children. What matters most is "the adult behind the strategy who says, `I will listen to you' or `I believe you can succeed.' "Her six-step plan for changing the world includes such commonsense notions as offering children steady, loving relationships and reintroducing civility into daily life. (Feb. Forecast: At press time, Beacon did not have plans to accelerate this book's publication schedule, so while many parents and educators could benefit from Groves's advice right now, they may have to wait until February. But by then, the shelves will probably be packed with related titles, thus stunting this one's potential.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0807031380
• ISBN 13: 9780807031384
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 168