Edith, a retired Capitol Hill staffer from Northeast, was at the end of her rope last year over the mayhem her 5-year-old great-grandson Wayne was causing at preschool. “I was on speed dial” at the school, says Edith, who is raising two of her great-grandchildren. “He was hitting kids, destroying the classroom, tearing the ABCs off the wall, just terrorizing the building.”
The principal begged her to seek help, and Edith soon enrolled Wayne — and herself — in an emerging psychological treatment for out-of-control preschoolers called Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). The program has been slowly making its way into clinics across the country after years of randomized trials that have won it recognition as one of the most effective treatments for young children prone to frequent and destructive meltdowns. To read more from Ariel Sabar, click here.