The Emerging Child

The Hudsons Guild is a long established neighborhood house which offers social, educational, psychiatric, and psychological services to the residents of Chelsea, who are often socially, economically, and educationally, deprived. The many activities of the Hudson Guild Neighborhood House included a mental hygiene clinic also called the Counseling Service, and the operation of a day care center for the children of working mothers. Dr. David Wolitzky describes the program: In 1956 the staffs of these two independent services embarked on a cooperative continuing venture, the establishment and operation of the Therapeutic Nursery Group (TNG). The aim of the TNG is to provide emotionally and behaviorally disturbed pre-school children with a group play therapy experience under the leadership of a special nursery group-teacher-therapist. The basic rationale of this program is that the early detection and treatment of psychological disturbances serves as a constructive influence on the child's current and subsequent personal and social adaptation. The clinical evidence of the personnel involved in this program is that the TNG in providing a corrective emotional experience is an effective mode of intervention. This book presents the background, nature, techniques, and implications of the TNG program.