Ken Resnick's Profile

I am a registered Educational psychologist since 1987 and I have just completed a doctoral thesis evaluating the Smartchoiceparenting programme that I have developed. I have had 20 years’ experience as a counsellor/psychologist at a private co-ed school in Johannesburg. I have done many presentations and run numerous workshops on my Smartchoiceparenting (SCPP) programme here in South Africa and the UK. I also run a full-time private practice.

I am a qualified teacher and when I realised that teaching was not my calling I then decided to study further and eventually obtained a Master of Commerce degree majoring in Industrial Psychology. Roundabout the time I qualified, educational psychology was acknowledged by the Professional Board of Psychology as a separate entity alongside clinical, industrial and counselling psychology.

I was the offered a post at a schools as the counsellor psychologist which I accepted. I became more interested in educational psychology and on enquiring was told that in order to qualify and register as an educational psychologist I would need to further my studies by enrolling for a B.Ed (psig) degree at the University of Pretoria. I found that their approach focused on a phenomenological approach focusing on the essential structures necessary in educating and guiding a child to adulthood.

I had always had an interest in parenting and virtually all of my thoughts regarding this were contained in the structures presented during my year of study at the University of Pretoria. On completing my degree I was convinced that this approach offered many answers regarding the adult’s role in guiding the child to adulthood.

On retiring I met someone, recently divorced with twin girls who were 3 years old at the time. She allowed me to implement structures that I had developed from my studies at the University of Pretoria. The children were very insecure and demanding. Within a very short time after implementing the structures of what would eventually develop into Smartchoiceparenting there was a dramatic improvement in their behaviour. No sibling rivarly, no backchatting, temper tantrums or sulking. Ten years down the line they are excelling in everything that they choose to do, both on the sports field and in the classroom. I am recently divorced and the children adjusted very well to this upheavel in their lives.

I had also helped a friend of my wife with her children and she had seen quite dramatic changes in her children. She then helped me put together a workshop for parents. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and I then began believing that my programme could fill a void in the training of all professionals qualified to work with children. This included teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists.

I decided to evaluate my programme by means of a doctoral thesis which has just been completed. The evaluation has shown Smartchoiceparenting to be a recognised evidence-based positive parenting programme. In addition, the programme seems to be the only parenting programme based on the educative adult-child relationship in guiding the child to adulthood. The SCPP transcends all cultures and religions.

The parent-child educative relationship at the core of SCPP can also be re-created in schools as a more formal and planned teacher-pupil educative relationship. At the moment I have been presenting workshops to teachers and feedback has been very positive.