Breaking in Children
Two mothers have asked for help. They can't control their very disobedient but otherwise normal children. Jonathan, aged 5. simply does nothing he's told. It's one long fight that made his mother Deirdre desperate. David, aged 8, created so much havoc by running around and continually being cheeky, that his mother. Jennifer, had him taken into care.
Both mothers asked for help from Roger McAuley , Consultant Child Psychiatrist at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. There they get a therapy that's extremely unpopular in the UK - called behavioural therapy it's based on a system of rewards and punishments that has strong similarities to the way animals are trained.
The film follows in day by day detail the emotional, courageous and often very funny efforts that Deirdre and Jennifer make to get control over their children. Narrator PAUL VAUGHAN
Film editor IAN POTTS
Editor SIMON CAMPBELL-JONES
Written and produced by EDWARD GOLDWYN