This podcast tells the story of a little girl whose changing situation illustrates several of the effects of not having basic essential needs met.
If while listening to the podcast you wonder why for example the location is not mentioned, please listen to the first podcast, where these things are explained.
The next podcast will be posted in four weeks.
Please share the podcast to help raise awarenesss.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:17 — 20.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
In any institution I have visited, where children have lived for many years, in different countries across the world, I am told the same thing: ‘These children are badly behaved, rebellious, ungrateful, disrespectful and disobedient’. I am told this as if they are exceptional, particularly bad children. And I am asked to ‘make them behave better’.
It breaks my heart whenever I am told this, because the behaviour seen in these children is the natural and inevitable result of being raised without attention, affection, a chance to form attachments, proper stimulation and positive role models. As mentioned in the previous blog (which you find HERE), when essential basic needs are not met, brain development does not occur as it should and this causes problems. But also, very simply, there is no supervision or guidance for the children.
Continue reading “Survival of the Fittest”Many people consider institutionalisation of children not ideal, but still preferable to the alternatives. This is very unfortunate, and ultimately dangerous. Because it is one of the things that leads to institutionalisation. The reason why many people think institutionalisation is not so bad, is because they think that children’s basic needs are covered when they are put in an institution: they get food, clothes, shelter, they can wash themselves and most of the time they will get education too. The problem is that this covers only half of the basic needs. It covers what I tend to call the child’s practical needs, but not all of their physical and practically none of their psychological needs, which are just as urgent.
Continue reading “What Institutionalisation Does to Children”