the core thesis
The basic thesis around which this material is organized is the existence of a common condition that underlies a multitude of manifestations and a plethora of presenting problems in children. This core condition is one of stuckness or developmental arrest. The implications for treatment are profound.

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about stuckness
Not everyone grows up as they get older. The construct of psychological immaturity has been with us as an intuitive concept for ages, but only recently has developmental science advanced to point where the idea of developmental arrest can be spelled out and employed as a powerful explanatory tool for problems in learning and behaving.

Stuckness is both the least recognized and most common problem of childhood. Many are stuck in a psychological immaturity that prevents them from growing out of such problems as aggression and counterwill as well as any other dysfunction or disability that exists. This condition underlies a multitude of manifestations and a plethora of presenting problems in children: untempered experience and expression, incessant restlessness, chronic impulsiveness, elevated attachment and dependency needs, as well as egocentric and immature relating. Many children get stuck from time to time in little ways. Some children become deeply and chronically stuck. The earlier this happens, the more serious the developmental consequences.

When children are stuck, they will also fail to grow out of, or come to compensate for, any disabilities and deficiencies that exist. These children are also less likely to recover from any damage they may have incurred or trauma they have experienced. As a result, such children are more likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities or behavioural disorders. The salient issue is not the disorder or the disability however, but rather the stuckness that renders them a victim of this condition. Once this fact is understood, the implications for treatment are profound and doors can be opened for change.

Children who are stuck developmentally will also be stuck emotionally. Stuck kids are not appropriately moved, either in affect or behaviour, by experiences that should evoke vulnerable feelings in a child . Losses do not move them to grief, futility does not move them to sadness, inner conflict does not move them to consciousness, fulfillment does not move them to satiation. In more serious cases of stuckness, that which should alarm does not even move them to caution. Such children are unable to learn from consequences, make good their intentions or stay out of trouble.

To the degree that children remain immature, they also remain creatures of attachment by default. Teaching, parenting and treatment needs therefore to happen within a context of connection. Also, great care needs to be taken to preserve the bonds that empower the adults responsible for such children. This approach, while self-evident when understood, is counter to most prevailing practices with challenging children.

Once kids are stuck, the usual ways of dealing with behaviour - including sanctions, consequences and time-outs - actually make things worse. For reasons discussed in the presentations, what works with kids who aren’t stuck will tend to backfire with kids who are. By not understanding this core condition, parents and teachers and experts alike, are bound to engage in interventions that are counterproductive. Part of the challenge in parenting or working with stuck kids is to learn to work around the problem and its symptoms until it can be resolved.

The good news is that most kids can get unstuck but require our help to do this. Recognizing the signs and symptoms of stuckness and knowing the moves to get a child unstuck is the most important developmental first aid any parent or professional could possess.

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formats and distinctives

The preferred format for this course is three days, although the material can be introduced in one day.

This course is a shorter version of the Week Intensive, Level One. This course is similar in content to The Teachability Factor, but differs from that course in that there is less focus on learning and more on behaviour.

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applicability & suitability

This material is applicable to children of all ages, from toddlers to teens, and is relevant to all settings including home, school, daycare, treatment and residential.

This material is particular suitable for educational specialists and helping professionals but is relevant to anyone who works with challenging children. On the forefront are child therapists, social workers, psychologists, community nurses, teaching assistants, family workers, day-care workers, early education teachers and foster parents.

The course can be tailored to suit the needs of specific groups (e.g. those involved with foster children, adoptive children, troubled youth) or particular professions (e.g. psychologists, pediatricians, social workers, educators, community health nurses, educational specialists).

This course is very appropriate for those involved with children who have failed to outgrow aggression and counterwill by school age, whose personality and behaviour is untempered and characterized by restlessness, and who do not learn from failure or mistakes. This seminar is also appropriate for adults involved with children who are labeled attention deficit, learning disabled, oppositional defiant, obsessive compulsive, conduct disordered, Tourette’s syndrome, developmental delayed, autistic or Asberger’s syndrome. Stuckness will not necessarily account for all the symptoms but is characteristically a major part of the symptom picture. Reversing stuckness will soften some of the symptoms and lift the ceiling on functioning. An understanding of the concept of stuckness opens doors for therapeutic intervention. The only caveat is that the participants are able to digest conceptually presented material and have an interest in reading psychological maps rather then receiving specific directions.

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sample blurb
Not everyone grows up as they get older. The construct of psychological immaturity has been with us as an intuitive concept for ages, but only recently has developmental science advanced to the place where the idea of developmental arrest can be spelled out and employed as a powerful explanatory tool for problems in learning and behaving. In addition to this has come the discovery of attachment as the singular context in which to deal with the immature. Dr. Neufeld presents an integrated developmental approach to reaching troubled kids, using the constructs of attachment, vulnerability and maturation to make sense of these children and their troubles in learning and behaving as well as to open doors for change. His model has been honed from years of application in a wide variety of venues: education, special behaviour programs, therapy, correctional settings, aboriginal communities, adoption, counselling, parenting, and the foster system. In this seminar, he takes the best that developmental science has to offer and delivers it in a usable form to the professionals who work with these children or those responsible for them. This material is applicable to children of all ages, from toddlers to teens, and is relevant to all settings including home, school, daycare, treatment and residential.

course objectives:

• to make sense of stuck kids to those who parent them and work with them
  
  
• to restore the concept of psychological immaturity to its rightful place as a powerful explanatory tool of personality and behaviour
  
  
• to counter the prevailing proliferation of behavioural syndromes and labels and the resulting dependency upon ‘experts’
  
  
• to foster an appreciation of stuck kids as creatures of attachment who are highly prone to getting stuck on each other
  
  
• to enable participants to recognize the signs of stuckness in a child
  
  
• to appreciate and deal with aggression as a primary symptom of stuckness
• to provide an appreciation of why consequences and sanctions do not work with stuck kids
  
  
• to foster an appreciation of the role of emotion in stuckness and behaviour
  
  
• to equip participants with the conceptual tools necessary to make an intuitive assessment of stuckness
  
  
• to enable participants to learn some alternative strategies for dealing with the problems that emanate from stuckness
  
  
• to foster a realistic appreciation of what we are up against when encountering stuckness in a child
  
  
• to provide suggestions for how to get a child unstuck
  
  
• to provide an appreciation of the futility of battling against the symptoms of stuckness
  
  
• to inspire confidence and competence in being able to reach a stuck child
  
  
• to help prevent adults from getting stuck in contrived and coercive methods of behaviour control

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