What is the Meaning of the Child

Chapter 1 introduces the Meaning of the Child Interview (MotC) – its origins, purposes, and utility. The MotC is a tool for understanding family relationships and planning appropriate interventions. It was developed in practice and based on attachment theory. It seeks to understand caregiving in terms of the compromises parents make to manage themselves and their child, in challenging environments. Evaluating parental caregiving involves exploring both the risks and potential benefits such compromises bring, teasing out the consequences for child and parent. The MotC makes this process visible, drawing on an established method of analysing adult speech for its self- and child-protective function. This book is a guide to understanding parental discourse, showing how the method works, and how it can be used to plan intervention. Whilst formal use of the assessment procedure requires training, the book outlines an innovative approach, of relevance to all in child welfare and family mental health professions. By attending closely to how parents story their experience, and their child’s, in the context of ongoing challenges, this book offers a pathway for practice based on understanding struggling parenting as a relationship situated in adversity, rather than an individual failing, worthy of blame.