Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

A Christmas gift to the next generation

By Barbara Biggs - posted Friday, 21 December 2007


As Christmas draws near, police and social workers are readying themselves for a season of the highest levels of family violence and child abuse.

This year former Liberal Minister, Bronwyn Bishop, mooted the idea of permanently removing children born to drug dependant mothers. The argument continues to rage about when to remove children from dysfunctional parents and if removing them will create more harm further down the track.

Still grappling with the question, and in the lead-up to this Christmas, more several thousand child protection workers and therapists from around the country turned out to hear one of the world’s leading neuroscientists outline his ideas about how to stop the cycle of abuse.

Advertisement

Dr Bruce Perry runs the Child Trauma Academy in Texas and has been called to deal with children involved in the Columbine High School shootings, the 9-11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

He says the brains of infants who are abused, neglected or traumatised, are biologically and measurably different and smaller to the brains of children with normal development.

His research shows that children with under-developed brains don’t have a choice about how they behave. They are simply incapable of normal behaviour since parts of their brain which regulate normal responses have not developed capabilities to respond to normal stimuli.

The repercussions of his research should be far-reaching. They should also help bureaucrats figure out how deal with the problem of removal.

Asked at one of several conferences where he presented if children should be removed from abusive or neglectful parents, Dr Perry said it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all approach.

“Many parents simply don’t know how to parent well because they weren’t parented well. Often you’ll find that, given the chance, with a non-punitive approach, they will want to improve their parenting styles,” he said.

Advertisement

To this end, Dr Perry also took his ground-breaking work to groups of politicians and magistrates.

His extensive work has shown that parents, whose needs were not met as infants, will not know how to meet the needs of their own infants. He outlined a plan for all women giving birth to fill in a questionnaire to assess what services they may need to help them parent in the most effective way.

“If we can provide support and assistance to mothers as early as possible, we’re taking a preventive approach rather than waiting until a few years down the track when a mandatory report has been made,” he said.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

First published in the Adelaide Advertiser on December  , 2007.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Barbara Biggs is a former journalist and author of a two-part autobiography, In Moral Danger and The Road Home, launched in May 2004 by Peter Hollingworth and Chat Room in 2006. Her latest book is Sex and Money: How to Get More. Barbara is convenor of the National Council for Children Post-Separation, www.nccps.org.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Barbara Biggs

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Barbara Biggs
Article Tools
Comment Comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy