Pumpkin’s father arrested and awaiting extradition
February 29, 2008
Remember little Pumpkin, the Chinese girl abandoned by her father at an Australian train station following the alleged murder of her mother by Pumpkin’s father?
The abandonment of his daughter caused an outrage in Australia and New Zealand, and led to the establishment of the Little Pumpkin Trust in both countries.
The trust was created by Qian Xun’s half sister, Grace Xue, who was unaware she had a half-sister until the news broke that her father had abandoned the little girl and fled.
The trust raised $NZ40,000 ($34,000) for the little girl, who was taken back to China to live with her maternal grandmother.
Qian Xun was nicknamed Pumpkin after the Pumpkin Patch-brand clothing she was wearing when she was found in Melbourne.
Pumpkin’s father has been arrested in the U.S: Pumpkin’s fugitive father Nai Yin Xue captured in US.
Congratulations to the Chinese people who made a citizens arrest after seeing Nai Yin Xue in the media. How scared they must have been after opening their homes, their community and generosity to him, only to discover that he had a very long history of child protection crimes, including the alleged murder of little Pumpkin’s mother. When police arrived at a house to arrest Nai Yin Xue, the citizens had already prepared him for capture: he was hogtied and duct taped - Locals ’sat on and hogtied’ fugitive Nai Yin Xue in US.
Every day people, people like you and I, can make a difference to child protection. We can act (within the law) and make a difference. Living a zero tolerance of child abuse principle makes for fast societal change. If you recognise someone who has hurt children, please report them. Child abuse occurs because we too often allow it to go unchallenged. While the perpetrators are responsible for their acts, let us not be responsible for inaction.
Pumpkin, may the rest of your life be pest free.
How to cite a blog in an academic paper or report
February 28, 2008
Are blogs credible? Some are, some aren’t because they were not developed to be credible. Just as we choose seminal authors to compare and contrast upon, so too can you do so with blogs. Some are bogged down in personal opinion and some successfully use Web 2 platforms to convey information and findings.
Imaginif uses our blog as a consciousness raising tool for child protection, particularly protection against child sexual assault. We publish a mix of anecdotal and evidence based practice information and issues. This is to suit our mixed audience - many parents, foster carers, students, workers and academics. You can safely use most of our blogs as reference material because the knowledge that is shared is knowledge based in child protection research and popular culture.
I have recently been asked though, how to reference some of my own posts in professional reports. Initial reactions were to cite according to electronic media (a blog is an interactive website - a web log) but then some blogs (and even some of my posts) are very personal, chatty, day descriptive and would suit citing as personal communication.
Heading to Aussie Forums, I asked the opinion of the wider Australian blogging community. Meg from Dipping into the Blogpond, offered a contemporary and credible site for exact blog style referencing: Citing Medicine - Sample Citation and Introduction to Citing Blogs. Thanks Meg, most useful.
Remember to stay consistent with your referencing style throughout your report. There is nothing worse than reading a document with several different styles of referencing. This certainly damages the credibility of the author and the halo effect of the presented paper is shattered.
Free Business Tips for the Carnival of Australia
February 27, 2008
The Carnival of Australia is up over at the virtual office of Steve and Bren’s
Free Business Tips: February 27, 2008.
If you are looking for a single place to read a cross section of Aussie blog diversity then stop into this fortnight’s Carnival of Australia.
Welcome to our new bloggers and welcome back to the regulars.
Next fortnight (Mar 12) we are visiting Duncan Macleod, our own Pacific Highlander. Get your posts in now so that you do not forget. Submit here.
Upcoming edition reminders: Mar 26, 2008 Lightening Online
If any of you would like to host an edition, send me an email with a ’round about date’, and which of your blogs you want to host on.
For those women bloggers amongst us, don’t forget the weekly All Women Blogging Carnival
(and do not forget International Women’s Day on March 8)
Specific problems in traumatised children with attachment problems
February 27, 2008
The specific problems that you may see will vary depending upon the nature, intensity, duration and timing of the neglect and abuse. They may also differ from child to child. Some children will have profound and obvious problems, while some will have very subtle problems that you may not realize are related to early life neglect.
Sometimes, these children do not appear affected by their experiences. However, here are some clues to consider when working with traumatised and attachment disordered children:
Developmental delays: Children experiencing emotional neglect in early childhood often have developmental delays. The bond between the young child and caregivers provides the major vehicle for a child’s development. It is in this primary context that children learn language, social behaviors, and many other key behaviors and skills required for healthy maturation. Lack of consistent and enriched experiences in early childhood can result in lags in physical, motor, language, emotional, social, and cognitive development.
Eating: Atypical eating behaviors are common, especially in children with severe neglect and attachment problems. They will hoard food, hide food in their rooms, eat as if there will be no more meals–even if they have had years of consistent available foods. They may have failure to thrive, rumination (throwing up food), swallowing problems and, later in life, unusual eating behaviors that are often misdiagnosed as anorexia nervosa.
Soothing behavior: These children will use very primitive, immature, and seemingly bizarre soothing behaviors. For example, they may scratch or cut themselves, bite themselves, head bang, rock, or chant. These symptoms will increase during times of distress or threat.
Inappropriate modeling: Children model adult behavior, even if it is abusive. They learn abusive behavior is the “right” way to interact with others. As you can see, this potentially causes problems in their social interactions with adults and other children. For children that have been sexually abused, they may become more at-risk for future victimization. Males that have been sexually abused may become sexual offenders.
Emotional functioning: A range of emotional problems is common among these children, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. One common behavior is “indiscriminant” attachment. All children seek safety. Keeping in mind that attachment is important for survival; children may seek attachments– any attachments–for their safety. Non-clinicians may notice abused and neglected children are “loving” and hug virtual strangers. Children do not develop a deep emotional bond with relatively unknown people; rather, these “affectionate” behaviors are actually safety-seeking behaviors. Clinicians become concerned because these behaviors contribute to the abused child’s confusion about intimacy and are not consistent with normal social interactions. Furthermore, although the child seeks safety, these inappropriately affectionate behaviors can, ironically, put the child in very dangerous situations.
Aggression: One of the major problems with neglected, poorly attached children is aggression and cruelty. This is related to two primary problems in neglected children: (1) lack of empathy and (2) poor impulse control. Empathy, or the ability to emotionally “understand” the impact of your behavior on others, is impaired in these children. They really do not understand or feel what it is like for others when they do or say something hurtful. Indeed, these children often feel compelled to lash out and hurt others– most typically something less powerful than they are. They will hurt animals, smaller children, peers, and siblings. One of the most disturbing elements of this aggression is that it is often accompanied by a detached, cold lack of empathy. They may show regret (an intellectual response) but not remorse (an emotional response) when confronted about their aggressive or cruel behaviors.
Handout copyright to The ChildTrauma Academy
Training in protective behaviours, life story work, trauma and attachment
February 25, 2008
Imaginif has two professional trainings coming up:
- BITSS of Protective Play. Thursday March 20th 2008, Imaginif in Cairns. A six hour training in the BITSS model of protective behaviours. The concentration is on sexual abuse, teachable moments and using everyday play as a protective tool. A must for anyone wanting to teach protective behaviours and personal safety to children or adults.
- Scrapathy Life Story Work Training, Monday 31st March 2008, Imaginif in Cairns.This Life Story Work and Scrap Booking workshop will provide you artistic & therapeutic activities around why some children often feel left out, different, and disconnected from who they are; a recipe of what to collect for your child’s life story book; what to write to explain what has happened and how to help the child integrate the reality; different ways to preserve memories where culture/circumstances demand something else; a scrapbook model to put it all together so that your child can keep and cherish their memories forever.
To book into the above two trainings or to enquire about holding any of our other trainings (trauma and attachment or compassion fatigue for child and family workers) in your area, please contact Talk Doctor Megan Bayliss or Rebekah Allen at Imaginif.
Our latest newsletter is out: BITSS and Peaces in February. Newsletter subscribers get a training discount. It pays to opt in to the Imaginif and All for Women newsletter.
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