The Silent Child: Communication without Words

The Silent Child: Communication without Words describes a way of understanding and communicating with children who are not speaking, but rather using their bodies and somatic symptoms to express states of mind. Jeanne Magagna has worked for 45 years trying to find ways of helping these children, varying in age and symptoms. Using infant observation methods of understanding primitive states of mind expressed through gestures of eyes, hands, body posture, she has worked in in-patient or out-patient settings with contributors: a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, family and child psycho.

COVER; CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS; INTRODUCTION; PART I INTRODUCTION; CHAPTER ONE "The sound of silence"; CHAPTER TWO "Milo was a normal boy"; CHAPTER THREE Communicating without words; PART II YOUNG CHILDREN; CHAPTER FOUR The musings of babies: reflective thinking, emotion, and the re-integration of the good object; CHAPTER FIVE A baby's "broken bridge" to the parents; CHAPTER SIX Evolving patterns of parental containment of a young child communicating through not eating or speaking; CHAPTER SEVEN The child who has not yet found words.

PART III YOUNG PEOPLECHAPTER EIGHT Extended family explorations using dreams, drawings, and play when the referred child does not speak; CHAPTER NINE Inpatient care of a child who does not walk, talk, or eat; CHAPTER TEN Collaborating, containing, and inspiring confidence: physiotherapy with a child who does not talk, walk, or eat; CHAPTER ELEVEN The silent child in school: teaching a child who does not talk, walk, or eat; CHAPTER TWELVE "Compelled to die": psychotherapy with a girl who does not talk, walk, or eat.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN Countertransference in the psychoanalysis of a silent adolescent boyCHAPTER FOUR…