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Family life - what the children think
Julia Brannen and Ellen Heptinstall
This article is based on a study, which focused on how children view care, parental responsibility and family life. The study was London based and covered a multi-ethnic sample of nearly 1 thousand 10-12 year olds. The authors discuss their findings, which includes the fact that children have quite strong views on what constitutes a family, issues around divorce, what they expect of their parents, and what their contribution to family life is.
Child's Play - it was fun in the middle ages too
Nicolas Orme
This article looks at the historical evidence for concepts of childhood in the Middle Ages. His findings suggest that the modern notion of childhood was not dissimilar to that of the Middle Ages.
Ritual abuse - listening to survivors
Sara Scott
The author discusses factors that have raised awareness of, or prevented the understanding of ritual abuse. She states that the media’s focus on the more sensational aspects of ritual abuse has led to people not believing survivors of abuse. Her research involved interviewing adult survivors of ritual abuse. The aim of presenting these interviews was to make their accounts more accessible to a wider audience, and challenge their understanding of child abuse.
Service innovation - learning from the 24 projects
Dr Zarrina Kurtz
This is the first article in a series of articles about the CAMHS Innovation Projects. The author gives background information regarding the setting-up of these projects and the services they will offer. She also discusses how the projects will be evaluated locally, plus how the over-arching evaluation will identify crosscutting themes and allow a more comprehensive interpretation of the findings.
Understanding Hate
Oliver James
The author discusses the response by certain sections of the population to the release of the two young men who killed James Bulger. He states that it is his belief that a significant proportion of the population had the kind of childhood that predisposes them to authoritarian impulses with regard to law and order. He goes on to describe what this means, and how it is acquired. Plus, he also says that there is a need to shift away from this kind of behaviour if we are to have a healthy response to incidences such as the murder of James Bulger.
Opinion: Learning the lessons?
Michael Howlett
The author, who is the Director of the Zito Trust, discusses the events that led to the tragic death of Andrew Kernan, who was shot dead by police in Liverpool. He states that since the inquiry report in Christopher Clunis, there have been 120 inquiries set up to look at the care of mentally ill people, and he asks whether we are in danger of learning more lessons.
Review: A time for drunken horses, and Solas
Steve Flood
This is a review of two films: A Time for Drunken Horses aims to reflect the everyday lives of a family of Kurdish people. They survive by the father smuggling contraband across the mine infested border. He is blown up by a mine and the children are cared for by their uncle. The children live in a world where almost no-one can be trusted. The film is in Kurdish. Solas is a fim set in Seville looking at the relationship between a mother and her grown-up daughter. It is a tender and compassionate portrayal of the legacy left by a family life dominated by a bullying and violent father, who is seriously ill in hospital.
Review: Children's homes and school exclusion
Dr Carol Hayden
This book looks at children living in residential care who have also been excluded from school. It looks at the cases of 17 children in depth, through interviews of the children themselves, social workers, teachers and other professionals. The book is theoretically strong rather than a guide to what should be done. Child care workers, social workers and educational support workers will be particularly interested in this book.
Review: Early intelligence
Robin Balbernie
This book brings together all the major advances in neurological research that has occurred in the past 10 years. The evidence presented details how physical and chemical structures in the brain are largely formed by 3 years of age, and that what happens in the head is a reflection of what happens in the home.
Review: Everything you ever wanted to ask about... periods
Rachel Hindley
This book addresses not only the physical but emotional aspects of menstruation. It includes a problem page sections, quotations from young people, and confronts the myths surrounding periods. It is aimed at young people aged 8+, but will also be useful for parents wondering what to say to children on the subject.
Review: Frestschrift for Professor Sir Michael Rutter
Alan Carr
This book contains 10 papers, two of which are written by Prof. Rutter. Each paper addresses a field which has been of Prof. Rutter’s central concern over the past 4 decades e.g. genetics, longitudinal research, neuropsychiatry, autism, conduct disorder and classification of psychological problems. It is recommended for those training child and adolescent mental health professionals, academic developmental psychologists and all those involved in specialist education.
Review: Haunted
Richard Hanks
This is a review of Poe Eastwest's debut album. It is inspired by the complicated relationship she had with her now dead father. The overall mood of the music is bleak and disconcerting.
Review: Helping children to build self esteem
Eva Wickham
A book written by a speech and language therapist with suggestions of guided imagery to help children approximately between the ages of 6 and 10 to build self-esteem. The book includes worksheets and suggestions for group work activities such as role play, writing and drawing.
Review: Lady - my life as a bitch
Geraldine Brennan
This is the story of 17-year-old Sandra’s who is addicted to sex, partly for the thrills and partly as an act of rebellion. Terry, a homeless alcoholic turns her into a mongrel dog, and the book explores her world and relationship with her family through a dog’s senses.
Review: Pocket colorcards
Georgina Bond
These sets of colour cards will be useful for various professional groups. Each of the four packs contain 36 picture cards and four instruction cards, which offer a broad range of vocabulary to promote language development and social skills.
Review: The amber spyglass
Tom Whyte
This is the last book in a trilogy from ‘His Dark Materials’. The plot revolves around two children; Lyra and Will, who must battle against the odds to save both themselves and their worlds. They do so with the assistance of armoured bears, witches, dragonfly spies and others. The action of the novel moves between Oxford and a number of parallel worlds which share a natural moral order.
Webwatch: Unscrambling the giants
Paula Lavis
This column looks at how to find information on the Department for Health and Department for Education and Skills websites.
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