New research reveals the 'ludicrous ways' in which childcare professionals now avoid touching the young children they look after.
...we are in a 'crazy situation - many people are behaving in completely ludicrous ways'. What is now cast into doubt is the process of 'normal nurturing and caring; the way adults are with children'. Comforting a child when they're upset, putting a plaster on them, wiping their bottom - all these everyday ways in which adults care for young children are now seen as suspect. To be a responsible adult, it seems, is to see yourself as a potential abuser, and to avoid touches that might get out of hand or be taken the wrong way.
This isn't a rational strategy for combating child abuse. Instead, it reinforces a generalised sense of mistrust, with adults looking suspiciously at other adults' - and their own - interactions with children...
An apparent paradox is that this 'no touch' policy has gone along with an explosion in 'touch professionals'. The academics (in Europe)report an increase in massage in schools and nurseries - with some schools sending 'difficult' children for massage in an attempt to calm them down, and other schools bringing in massage for whole classes...
article by Josie Appleton via gus
Posted by Cieciel at December 31, 2004 05:10 AM