Working with Children

Assessment, Representation and Intervention

Tom Billington

?Here is a much neede, academically reasoned and contextualised statement of ideology for professional practice. For professionals who strive to understand, represent and respond to the ?voice of the child? with pragma and respect, this is an important text? - Debate

`This is a book that poses questions, asks the reader to contain the experience of anxiety and ambivalence, and purports a healthy criticality with respect to the ways we represent children and adolescents. Chock full of compassionately portrayed case material, Working With Children left me wondering...what the various systems of child mental health would actually look like if all the professionals who work with youths put the ideas in this book into action? - Michael Axelman, American Psychological Association

`[Tom Billington] makes clear his commitment to finding solutions for troubled children other than excluding them from school...[He] certainly succeeds in achieving his aims and has written a book which deserves to be read by the practitioners and students of the children?s workforce it is designed for? - British Journal of Social Work

`The voice of the child is championed throughout and made all the more relevant by an honest and refreshing examination of the author?s part in the process of selection and editorial control...The text is a glowing example of the use of criticality in relation to both theoretical paradigms and personal and professional experience? - Pastoral Care

?[Tom Billington?s] expertise and his commitment to working with excluded and marginalised children shines through this thoroughly engaging book... The vignettes of children from his own professional caseload are insightful, moving and thought-provoking, and I believe anyone working with children would gain much from these alone, never mind the rest of the book? - Therapy Today

?The chapter on "Working with autistic children" shows, thoughtfully and precisely, how continuing reflection on the experience of autistic children, and our response as professionals, to them, provides as opportunity not only to think about the child in question, but also about ourselves as experimental beings... Billington?s book serves as an excellent guide for students pursuing professional training, as well as operating as a resource for more experienced child health specialists? - YoungMinds Magazine

Written for professionals working with children and young people who require support, assessment or intervention at home or in school, this interdisciplinary book explores everything from the legislative background and foundations of ideas in the social sciences, to dealing with children?s distress, fear or special needs in professional practice.

The book is an excellent resource for those who either work with children in CAMHS settings, social work, youth work, counselling, psychology, general education and special educational needs or who are undertaking professional training in any of the above fields.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Thinking about young people and childhood
• Chapter 3 - Young people and the children's workforce
• Chapter 4 - Assessing children and young people in social contexts
• Chapter 5 - Representing children and young people in assessments
• Chapter 6 - Children feeling, thinking and learning
• Chapter 7 - Voices of children and young people in assessment
• Chapter 8 - Working with autistic children
• Chapter 9 - Narrative science
• Chapter 10 - Ethics, commitment and the limits of advocacy: Public and private lives
• References
• Index