Imaginif...the spirit of Christmas lasted.

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.

Photo from AP

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) 

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