Alison and Cathy are pseudonyms. I am grateful to Sutton Social Services and to The Children's Society for their encouragement and permission to publish this account.
2.
An introductory text on Video Home Training will be published in Dutch in 1994. It is hoped that an English translation will be available in 1995. English language films which demonstrate the approach are available from Body Language Foundation, Scheyvenhofweg 12, 6093 PR Heythuysen, Netherlands Tel: 954–1735.
3.
For further reading on early social and emotional development see: Trevarthen C, Murray L and Hubley P, ‘Psychology of infants’, in DavisJDobbingJ (eds), Scientific foundations of clinical paediatrics, London, Heinemann Medical (2nd edition), 1981. Another excellent and simpler source is Stern D, Diary of a baby: what your child sees, feels and experiences, London, Fontana, 1991.)
4.
For Bowlby's views, see Bowlby J, A secure base: clinical applications of attachment theory, Routledge, 1989. See also Sluckin A, ‘My baby doesn't need me: understanding failure to bond’, Health Visitor, 66, 409–14, 1993.
5.
For a review on remediating severe early deprivation see Clarke A M and Clarke A D B, Early experience: myth and evidence, Open Books, 1976. Of particular interest are the chapters by Koluchova who has recently published in Czech an update of her work with sixty severely deprived children — ‘Diagnosis and reparability of psychic deprivation’, 1989 (as yet not translated).
