Wellington City Libraries Palm Tree Blossoming of Our Children - Kia Puawai Ngā Tamariki - 10th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

"Blossoming" and "The Discipline and Guidance" of children, is there a conflict?


Author

Pat Jewell

Speaker

Pat Jewell

Organisation

NAPCAN, National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

All children have the right to live safe loved and nurtured childhoods as outlined in the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child UNCROC. Supporting parents to this end has been identified as the "cornerstone of child abuse prevention" (Tomison A, 1998). Research has highlighted the importance of families and communities needing to be safe and nurturing to offer children the optimum opportunity to "blossom" and reach their full potential as individuals and connected members of their families and the community.

Over the last 30 years parent education, in Australia, has been a growth industry in universal style parenting programs that boast a "one program suits all parents" model and focuses on educating parents about managing their children's behaviour. It has become increasingly concerning that authors of these programs are more focussed on justifying the validity of the research base that supports their programs than the effects on the families who attend. The ability of these universal programs to support the diverse and complex needs of families of the new millennium and to protect our children is questionable.

The aim of this paper is to outline the importance in the attitude of the professionals, as a community, towards parents and their parenting ability. There are professionals who see themselves as experts on parenting and so tell parents what they should and should not be doing and those who respect that parents are the experts on their own children and support them in this role. This paper will explore the importance of the attitude and behaviour of professionals towards parents, from the physical environment to the language used, as a critical factor in ensuring positive outcomes for the families and children. These attitudes and behaviours will be explored in the context of the relationship between the professional and groups of parents in parenting groups.

This paper is informed by the research literature on resilience and strength based, solution focussed approaches to working with families and by listening to the voices of parents over the last twenty years.

This paper will highlight the "flow down effect" that begins with the attitude and behaviour of the professional towards the parent that flows on to the parent's treatment of the child and discuss the positive and negative outcomes for children and families.

Presentation
Paper

Biography

Pat Jewell has a background in early childhood teaching and has worked for many years with parents whose children are at risk of child abuse and neglect. Pat is the author of three publications, a speech kit for young children, "Getting Good Speech Going" and two group work manuals for professionals "Out of the Mainstream" A manual for professionals working with parents with an intellectual disability and  "From Strength to Strength" A manual for professionals who facilitate diverse parent groups.   Pat is the Victorian President of the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) Victoria, is a lecturer at Swinburne University in the early childhood and parenting field and is working on a project identifying community attitudes towards parents and children.