Abstract

FolaUM (Report of a project carried out by the Department of Social Work and Institute of Child Health, Sydney University). By MAlaY McLELLAND. THIS PROJECT WAS SET UP in the first place to study the methodology and function of a social caseworker in a proposed longitudinal socio-medical study of child development. It was hoped to explore specifically and examine criti- cally the skills the caseworker traditionally employs in interviewing, social diagnosis and recording as they are marshalled to the research purpose. For various reasons this is not yet done, but in the meantime we have become interested in the data of the study for its own sake. Since a methodo- logical study cannot be carried out in a vacuum, we had to give ourselves an hypothesis to work on. We proposed that there is a direct relationship between the satisfactory physical health of a baby and the ability of his mother to observe and meet his needs in evolving her routines of care in feeding, sleeping, crying and elimina- tion. Theoretically, this hypothesis is based on two major assumptions :-- 1. That the care of a baby involves for the mother integrated ego activity:- perception, selection and interpretation of