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[9 June 2008] - Hitting is not the answer to child discipline, said Dr Hala Hammad, a child and teenagers psychiatrist addressing a Bepanthen Women Only seminar for mothers held at the Cultural Palace (Qasr Al-Thaqafah ) in Sharjah. The seminar, sponsored by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and General Administration of Children and Girls Center and Bayer HealthCare, aimed to educate mothers on understanding their child’s behaviour and cognitive development, particularly during the crucial first five years of life. Dr Hammad, who specialises in early childhood development and hosts the television programme Beit Sgheer (Little Home) stressed that understanding a child’s behaviour was the key to moulding all aspects of their development and socialisation. She said: “Families frequently hurt and abuse their children in the misguided belief that they are guiding and disciplining them.” Dr Hammad said that the lack of information and education on proper child-rearing practices was found to be a major inducer of child abuse and neglect. To overcome this ignorance it was important to raise awareness about the ineffectiveness of corporal punishment, since many parents justify using violence by saying it is the only effective way, and teaching parents positive non-violent discipline techniques instead. She said it was also important to provide parenting education on children's sexual, cognitive and emotional development before becoming parents, and in some cases to provide anger management counselling. Over the coming weeks Dr Hammad will be giving similar lectures to mothers across the Middle East in the Bepanthen Women Only road-show, which has been organised and sponsored by Bayer Healthcare, manufacturers of the Bepanthen range of skin healing and protection products. According to a World Health Organisation study about violence against children, 80 to 90 per cent of all children suffer varying degrees of physical punishment in their homes, of which a third or more is inflicted with instruments. The worldwide study said that over 50,000 child a year die from such abuse. The latest scientific research confirms that 90 per cent of the growth of the human brain occurs in the first five years of life. Newborn babies have approximately 200 billion brain cells but have very few connections between these cells in their forebrain. How these connections are formed will determine the emotional and social intelligence of the child, and it is over these connections that mothers and other carers have a great deal of influence. Further information
pdf: http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/228976