Kids Company in Bristol! Positive change in the air!

Welcome back again.

Yesterday I mentioned Emotional Regulation, today Kids Company shared the news of a new place in Bristol. In this short news clip from the BBC two young lads, share how they have had difficulty with anger and how Kids Company has, and is helping them. This is great news.

link: BBC news Kids Company in Bristol!


Sadly other news was not good.
 Nursery ratios raised to 'improve standards', - sigh who are they kidding!
In an ideal world a mother would be happy to stay at home for a few years to nurture and raise her children. Sadly this is not a choice for many mothers today it seems. No carer can give the attention needed by six two year old's, for half a day let alone five days a week.

You can support the protest via this link below;

change.petitions/department-for-education-drop-plans-to-increase-child-to-adult-ratios#

Still I'm uplifted to see what appears to me to be an increase in the papers and people saying that it is total utter madness!

May be a positive change is in the air!

Climate change, Empathy and emotional regulation

Yesterday whilst enjoying the priviledge of a good meal with my husband and son (now 26!) we discussed the blog, My son gave me some feedback which confirmed some thoughts I'd had over the title post of Camila Batmangelidgh "Its not Climate Change we should be worrying about".  He disagreed, "Clearly, climate change is something that needs addressing!" he said.

I explained that whilst I believe addressing climate change is very important, I believe that what Camila is saying is that if we don't address the problem of lack of childhood care and consequential growing problems of crime and social breakdown, which is happening at a faster rate (it seems to me, but I'm no expert) then we will not address climate change; we may not survive that long! To be able to care for the environment a person from a young age needs to have had enough care in their life to develop empathy and emotional regulation to enable sufficient care for others and our earth.  Maybe that title should have been... "Its not JUST Climate Change we should be worrying about". 

I'd like to introduce another Charity with a similar message ......

 What about the children was founded in the aftershock of the Jamie Bulger murder case. The subsequent enquiry established that the two 10 year old perpetrators of this shocking crime, were themselves victims of severe neglect from birth. As they say: 

"Since 1993 the charity has worked to raise awareness about the importance of the emotional needs of children under three, for better understanding about care in the early years and its impact on future physical, emotional and mental development. When the first three years are right it brings benefits not only to the child but to society as a whole. Our main role is to inform parents and professionals alike about scientific developments, which have an impact on the way in which we bring up and educate our youngest children.
 
We work to bring to the attention of Government, policy makers and advisors and all childcare professionals and parents, the importance of these early years".


I was going to attempt to explain more about how the capacity for empathy is developed in a baby's brain but instead I want to draw attention to this fantastic programme - Roots of Empathy, which has pilot schemes now in a few schools in the uk. Again funded by charity!   Roots of Empathy programs in Newcastle are supported by Action for Children UK, and in Lewisham and Croydon by Pre-school Alliance Lewisham and Croydon Voluntary Action, with funding from Big Lottery Fund.

Apparently by the end of this academic year, more than 11,500 children will have benefited from the program since its introduction in the United Kingdom.  This scheme is in use in several other countries worldwide.

This programme as far as I can see is very exciting, and it gives me some more hope, It seems a great shame to me that it's delivery is so limited when it has a strong evidence base of independent academic research across several countries that has consistently shown the the program dramatically reduces aggression and increases social and emotional understanding among children who receive it.

 Link to roots of empathy website

 I would like to call for this programme to be made available in every primary school along with Infant massage instruction for every parent as I've explained in previous post!

"In Roots of Empathy, the innovative and inspired book based on her ground-breaking and successful classroom program and solid research, Mary Gordon shares her vision of a society of compassionate and caring children who will pass on their legacy of empathy to their own children. She believes that infusing children with empathy constitutes nothing less than a new paradigm in our approach to child-raising. It is an approach that could very well change our world."

Starfish

I've had feedback that leaving any comments is proving too much of a challenge! I'm really sorry. I struggle myself with all this computer jargon and what to do myself. But its so fantastic too! I can see that my blog has and is being read around the world! in less than a week .... How good is that? I do hope it results in some positive change!

In this time of economic struggling we can all learn so much, sadly charities are finding it hard to get the funding they need and children are suffering significantly, we can all make a difference hence today I thought I'd post the story of the Starfish, which I was surprised to hear most recently in Church at Midnight mass on Christmas eve!(I don't often go to church).  I have given this story to others since it was given to me some time ago now, I still love to read it to remind me in times of need.

If you want to leave a comment then you need to be signed into one of the account types listed (in the dropdown when you click on add a comment key) - a google account is probably the most likely. I hope that helps as its so good to get feedback and know others views. I've been really encouraged and spurred on by a lot of wonderful feed back. Thank you everyone.

The Starfish

Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"
The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean."
"I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
"The sun is up, and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But, young man, don't you realise that there are miles and miles of beach, and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one."

 

*                 *                     *               *                  *             *              *
 

There is something very special in each and every one of us. We have all been gifted with the ability to make a difference. And if we can become aware of that gift, we gain through the strength of our visions the power to shape the future. We must each find our starfish. And if we throw our stars wisely and well, the world will be blessed.

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Aims of blog and what you can do

I’ve already had some positive feedback thank you!

I do understand that everyone has busy lives, that the information on this blog may be unpleasant, easy to put off reading, or listening to the radio interview to "when you may have more time" and easy to forget. To some, from feedback I've had, it's "Shocking".  If you haven't yet listened to Camila's radio interview on the second post ("Its not climate change we should be worrying about") please please do.

In my view of our world we are one big family and need to take care of all children, not see them as someone elses responsibility

I'd like to clarify my aims in creating this blog;

1. To help publicise and hopefully make more common knowledge what is happening for many children – especially (but not only) in many cities in the UK, (e.g. lack of care from parents & services letting them down).  Many people are under the illusion that social services will take care of children when needed and are surprised to learn that this is not always the case.
2. To get support for calls for more (not less!) funding for early years and child support.
3. To suggest the simple low cost preventative measure of infant massage classes as part of health care that every parent (ideally if possible both parents, not just one of them!) would get, along with a return of more antenatal care. Currently a lot of funding for this has been, or is being cut.
4. To encourage people to take action write to your MP, support calls for better funding for early years and childcare support along with health care. - To show members of parliament that adults of voting age do care!  It seems so very wrong to me that so much childcare and support is provided by and relies on charity!
   Child line was set up 25 years ago to give children a voice! It is currently run by the NSPCC.  The following shocking facts are from the NSPCC website from 2011!
   On average, every week in England and Wales at least one child is killed at the hands of another person.
   Children under one are the age group most at-risk of being killed at the hands of another person.
   Source: London Home Office (2011) Smith, Kevin (ed.) et al (2011) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2009/10: supplementary volume 2 to crime in England and Wales 2009/2010.
5. To promote learning and understanding of brain development in the hope that it will support ending discrimination against people with mental health difficulties. To show the general public that mental health difficulties mostly (if not totally, we don't know everything) comes from how a person was nurtured (or not) as a young baby or child. To encourage the understanding that someone with what is labelled ‘mental illness’ is not ‘at fault’ and what will most likely aid recovery and why this can take time (very simply put; we generally learn quickly as a child because the brain grows quickly when we are young , for adults relearning is slow because the brain develops much more slowly when we are older).
6. To support and aid my own personal growth, to inspire others that they too can make a difference, replacing apathy with hope.

 

Fostering and adoption crisis

In the news today - Education secretary , Micheal Gove has announced that money ear marked for Sure Start and early years support is to be taken from local councils and used for a national scheme to be used for adoption!

Link to Guardian Article

Whilst addressing the short fall of people needed for adoption (and fostering) is important, emptying money from the pot of early years to partially fill another is complete folly. Especially if it's from the "prevention pot"!


Cllr Ralph Berry, lead member for children's services on Bradford council said:
"If you pull the money out of early intervention you will end up with more children who will need to be adopted... because you will have lost the services that prevent children and families getting into that situation."

 Last night after some time spent on writting up the next post, I lost everything, I hope that I will be able to rewrite it tomorrow as I want to clarify the goals of this blog. I've learnt to save everything in a different document now!

Wise funding

Welcolme back!
 If this is your first look at this blog, welcolme too, I suggest you take a look at the previous first three posts, and watch the links, to help get a sense of what Brain child is all about.

In the UK, there is a growing number of children with mental health difficulties.  This is at a time when funding for a great many child support networks have or are being cut.

 Facts taken from Mind website;

  "10 per cent of children aged five to 15 experience mental distress including:

• emotional disorders (depression, anxiety and obsessions)
• hyperactivity (inattention and over-activity)
• conduct disorders (awkward, troublesome, aggressive and antisocial behaviour)."

"The cost of mental ill health in the UK is approaching £100 billion a year with estimates predicting that by 2020 depression will be second only to heart disease as an international health problem".

It has been suggested that this increase in mental disorders is also due to the increasingly stressful lives that we all lead ...  stressed parents = stressed children 
click on link for short video of the effect of stress on brain development (only takes 2 mins)

When we have limited resources we survive if we choose wisely. There is not enough money (it appears) for all the health care needs of the world. Prevention is the best medicine! The earlier any problem is addressed the better.

There is a low cost option that is really worth funding, along with support for parents, for some parents a lot of support will also be needed, but far better to spend a little money here than a lot more later down the line. Support for expectant parents is far too low in my opinion.

Click here for short video that is a really simple low cost suggestion that helps both new parents and child bond and reduce stress  (only takes 3 mins)

I have had the great privilege and joy in the past to personally witness two parents diagnosed with post natal depression begin to really enjoy being with their baby after just three sessions of a group baby massage class, and it gave them a chance to talk to one another and not feel the terrible isolation that can be felt by many new parents struggling to do what I consider is the hardest yet most important job in the world!

Nurture and nature ongoing debate!

I can't understand why there's so much ongoing debate and even ignorance about the effect of genetic inheritance and upbringing (what drives the personality). There is a large and growing amount of science research that shows just how important the early years are for a child's development, in particular the first year of life, to a babies brain, as shown by scans of all kinds, measurement of hormones and other neuro chemicals.

The research actually backs up a lot of studies from years ago, done by observing attachment of children and even monkeys, it is also for many many people just COMMON SENSE!- Give a child love, they respond with love, ignore a child they try to get attention, ignore a child for long enough, they give up, become withdrawn and problems go on and on in their life. I could write in far more detail, but I'd be here all night (not good for me!) and you'd probably get fed up reading, so I've attached a link to a short video (by Harvard university) that just starts to explain it.

developing child brain

I believe that this supports why early years funding to support potential new parents and new parents  is vital.

"it's not climate change we should be worrying about"

I found this interveiw really worth listening too, it takes just under 29 mins. Camila mentions here, research into brain development that Kids Company are doing with UCL and cambridge university amongst others. She has previously mentioned her interest in neuroscience. I want to write more about this in the future.

Exclusive interview with Camila Batmanghelidjh

	18.01.2013, 14:21
The founder of Kids Company, a charity operating drop-in and therapy centres for abused and vulnerable children in London talks exclusively to VoR. Camila Batmanghelidjh says, "it's not climate change we should be worrying about, it's the time bomb of children suffering from emotional rot". click here to hear the broadcast Source: Voice of Russia

Why Brain Child?

Because my passion is driving me to attempt to do something positive, something that may sound overly dramatic but I believe could save our world!

I've known for over eight years (since training in infant massage and reading 'Why love matters, how affection shapes a babies brain' by Sue Gerhardt a psychoanalytic psychotherapist ) about the scientific studies that show what is needed to help prevent suffering from relationship breakdowns, mental difficulties and distress and what could foster a more caring human race with all the good for the earth that could come from that. Its really quite simple and won't cost the earth! Why haven't  people listened, to this information!

I have a heroine her name is Camila Batmanghelidjh (she apparently is dyslexic too - according to Wikipedia) she is the founder of two charities; 'Kids Company' in London and 'The Place2be'.

She is a colourful amazing women, I'd love to meet her.  Find out about her at: Camila Batmanghelidjh | Ashoka United Kingdom