European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 20, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Home alone Case gets the headlines but child neglect comes in Many forms by Beth Sherman new Day Uick. Name three of your youngest child s friends. First and last names. What does your oldest child have fourth period what s your son s favorite cold Cereal does your daughter listen to Hamme or Wilson Phillips and is she Reading Silas Marneros moby Dick in English lit and by the Way did you Call the kids after school yesterday if you can t answer most of these. Kinds of questions there s a Good Chance you re guilty of a form of child neglect not necessarily the kind that would land your kid in an underground Dungeon As happened to Katie Beers but a kind of neglect that experts say includes indifference to children s emotional needs and can affect the Way they will function As adults. Neglect comes in Many forms says or. Vincent Fontana medical director at the new York foundling Hospital in Manhattan and the author of save the family save the child Penguin books. There Are other ways of hurting children besides Locking them up in a Dungeon or going on vacation and leaving them Home alone. Children whose parents Are not nurturing and Are unable to provide the necessary care Are liable to grow up to become deeply troubled at the More serious end of the neglect spectrum is the Beers Case the 10-year-old Long Island ., girl who was abducted for 16 Days. Katie s experience and the recent Home alone Case in Illinois where a 45-year old Engineer vacationed for nine Days in Acapulco with his wife leaving their two Young daughters Home alone help to illustrate the fact that neglect affects children in All socioeconomic backgrounds. We assume that neglect Only happens in poor families or decaying Urban centers but unfortunately that s just not the Case says Naftali Berrill a Brooklyn Based psychologist who specializes in child abuse and neglect neglect is far More widespread than people Are willing to the Legal definition of neglect varies from state to state. In new York a neglected child is a child less than 18 years of age whose physical mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired As a result of the failure of the child s Parent or other person legally responsible for the child s care to exercise a minimum degree of care in supplying Basic needs. These needs Range from giving adequate food clothing shelter education and medical care to providing proper supervision or saturday february 20, 1993 Sharon schoo Here escorted by Chuago police and her husband sparked National outrage when they left their children at Home while they vacationed. According to a 1990 study conducted by the . Department of health and human services 44 states reported 403,430 cases of substantiated physical neglect of children defined As the failure to provide needed age appropriate this figure was a Little less than half of the total number of substantiated child abuse cases which includes incidents of physical and sexual abuse. Parents who neglect their children psychologists say frequently include drug or alcohol abusers people with chronic psychiatric illnesses such As depression and people with severe marital problems. But they also can include parents who Are guilty of benign neglect who Are too caught up in their own lives and their own problems to care adequately for their children. Often parents Are just not Able to spend enough time with their children. The increased number of parents in the work Force has led to an increase in Latchkey children who come Home from school to empty houses. Recent studies indicate that pre adolescent Latchkey kids who Are left unsupervised by their parents Are More susceptible to peer influence As teen agers and Are More Likely to Experiment with drugs and alcohol. The Long Range consequences of neglect Are the premature withdrawal of adult authority standards and values says James Garbarino president of the Erikson Institute for advanced study in child development based in Chicago. However studies also indicate that Latchkey kids Are not adversely affected if they continue to receive support some form of supervision even from a distance and attention from their parents. A study of 800 fifth through eighth graders in Madison wis., found that those children who received parental attention and support did t do any worse than kids whose parents stayed Home with them full time says Lawrence Steinberg a professor of psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia who conducted the study. You want to create the sense that your children Are accountable for their behaviour that you re keeping an Eye on them even if you re at work says Garbarino. Protecting Latchkey kids parents who Are at work when their children Are at Home should follow some simple rules says James Garbarino president of the Erikson Institute for advanced study to Enid development based in Chicago. He suggests that working parents Call Home after school to Check in Kwh their children at various times. Don t just cad at 3 30 . Every Day so your Chad knows he s talked to you and he can disappear for the next two hours until you get in their absence he says parents should discuss what the child will spend time doing whether it be Homework or chores or playing with friends. When parents do return Home they should make an Effort to be available and responsive says Garbarino. And once in a while if possible they should try to have their kids visit them at work so children can visualize where their parents Are when they re not at Home. Experts also say parents should give their children the phone number of a relative Friend or neighbor to Call in Case of emergency so the child knows there is help available if Only by proxy. And they should encourage friends and neighbors to periodically Check on the children if possible. Working parents should strive to find Good after school programs and try to participate in informal group child care arrangements. New Day signs of neglected kids children often can t verbalize neglect. They Don t walk up to their parents and say take care of me. I need you to love me and pay attention to me. It s a very Tricky situation because kids often interpret their parents neglect As something they have caused and something they deserve says Michael Schwartzman a psychologist and the author of the anxious Parent fireside. They Don t know that things can be any different and the re afraid that if they say something they la Only make the situation worse kids usually react to neglect in one of two ways says Schwartzman. Either they act wild and unruly in a frantic attempt to get attention. Or they Retreat inward becoming sad and withdrawn. Experts say the physical signs of neglect include children who Are unde pressed who have poor Hygiene Teeth not brushed hair not combed face and body not washed who frequently complain that they Are hungry or ill and who appear excessively tired or burdened. You also need to look out for children who appear sullen or lonely who always want to be at your House and never want to go Home says Dale Atkins a new York based psychotherapist who specializes in family and child development. These children could be deprived of the basics like adequate food or clothing or they could be lacking proper emotional new Day the stars and stripes 17
