CHAPTER VI

THE NEEDS OF THE DEVELOPING CHILD AND A CROSS-CULTURAL DEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE: the needs of the developing child and the cross-cultural definition of child abuse will be divided into preconception and fetal, infant and child.

Preconception and Fetal: it has been estimated that faulty brain development occurs in 10% of all U.S. births. This is in part due to the nutritional state of the genes in the parents before conception and in part due to the type of diet the mother consumes during pregnancy. Parents, who are in poor health prior to conception from self-abuse of drugs, lack of proper nutrition, and lifestyle produced abnormal children.

The old belief that the unborn infant has priority and that priority and that the mother’s body is sacrificed if necessary when a nutrient is limited is unfounded while the reverse has been shown to be true. A deficiency of any nutrient essential for the production of RNA and DNA during pregnancy can cause brain damage and mental retardation in the infant. Women with an inadequate diet during pregnancy have smaller babies, more difficult labor, and have complications that are far more severe than women who consume an adequate diet.

Severe calorie and protein deficiency during pregnancy cause human fetal or neonatal death. Protein is essential because it form the structural basis for all new cells and tissues. The unavailability of thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin can limit the rate at which energy is produced and thus limit the ability of the body to support the life of the fetus.

Folic acid deficiency can effect mitosis. Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause irreparable damage to the nervous system. Pyrodoxine, vitamin B6 deficiency can increase the incidence of poisonous substances in the blood (toxemia). Iron deficiency can cause a reduction in hemoglobin concentration which forces the mother to do extra work to maintain adequate oxygen consumption by the placental and fetal cells and at the same time fatigues the mother. Inadequate calcium and phosphorus consumption during pregnancy promotes inadequate mineralization of the fetal skeleton and deciduous teeth.

Vitamin C is necessary for the adequate formation of the connective tissue, skin, tendons, and bones. Vitamin E functions to maintain the structure of the cell membranes. Vitamin A is essential to the welfare of the skin and membranes of the gastrointestinal, urinary and respiratory tracts.

Nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy. A pregnant woman should increase her food intake. (David, 1972; Flanagan, 1966; Goodhart et al., 1978; Johnson et al., 1978; Luke, 1979; Millen, 1962; Moghissi, 1977; Worthington, 1977)

In the uterus, the placenta alone performs the diverse functions of lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines and hormone glands. It is also the main source of hormones for the mother’s body and stimulates the production of mild in the mother’s breasts.

Contrary to popular belief, the placenta does not provide a barrier to screen the fetus from undesirable substances in the mother’s blood stream. Alcohol and other drugs pass through the placenta and are immediately absorbed by the fetus. Many fetal abnormalities (cleft pallet, mental retardation, etc.) are caused by disease toxins or drugs that the mothers use during pregnancy. All the immunities that the mother develops during pregnancy are transferred to the fetus.

The human egg is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The egg is covered with a shell, not unlike that of a chicken egg. The human egg shell is translucent, elastic, and a very strong membrane called the zone pellucid.

The human sperm is often likened to miniature tadpoles and have the power of locomotion. The sperm is 1/2500 the size of the egg and uses a digestive enzyme to penetrate zone pellucid. The sperm carries the X and Y genes which determine the sex of the fetus. X is the female gene and Y is the male gene.

Each egg and sperm cell contain at least 15,000 genes which determine the characteristics of the progeny. The instructions of how to build the new human are inscribed in the genes at the molecular level on chains of molecules called nucleic acids (DNA). When the egg and sperm unite a single cell is formed, which in turn begins to divide a process know as Mitosis.

During the first week the egg increases from one cell to over one hundred cells and migrates from the fallopian tube to the uterus and attaches to uterine wall. The developing fetus sends its roots into the uterine wall and will remain implanted there until birth. On the ninth day following conception an embryo takes form. On the 26^th day the buds of the arms and ¼ to ½ inch long. The month old embryo is ten thousand times larger than the fertilized egg.

At seven weeks the embryo bears all the features of the future adult, even though it is less than an inch long and weighs only 1/13 of an ounce. In the 12^th week, the appearance of the first blood cells marks the end of the embryonic stage and the beginning of the fetal stage. The brain is functioning. At the end of the twelfth week the fetus movements become graceful and fluid. The fetus becomes very active, practicing breathing, movement and sucking. At this time the internal reproductive organs form and contain primitive egg and sperm cells.

During the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th months, the fetus gains most of its birth weight and outgrows its home in the womb. The fetus sucks its thumb and often develops a callous on the thumb. Late in the seventh month the fetal organs become mature enough to enable the fetus to live if born. The breast milk coincides in nutritional value to the age of the fetus. Prematurely born infants should be breast-fed. In the sixth month the baby acquires a layer of insulating fat to protect it from the cold world outside the womb.

Prior to conception, the nutritional habits, drug consumption, and general health of the parent to be determines to what degree the genetic material (DNA) is capable of producing a healthy and viable fetus.

Individuals of child bearing age who are in poor health, consume drugs such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, Valium, heroin, etc., and have poor nutritional habits should be practicing birth control. If they conceive a child during a period of shelf abuse they are conceive a child during a period of self-abuse they are in fact abusing the unborn child. If a mother continues self abusive during her pregnancy she is abusing the fetus.

Individual preconception and fetal abuse occurs when the parents do not provide themselves with adequate nutrition, abuse drugs, and are in general poor health.

Abortion is another form of fetal abuse that must be discussed. The practice to abortion has been with our species as long as knowledge to induce abortion has existed. No matter what stage the embryo or fetus is aborted, a child is being destroyed. The purpose of abortion has always been the destruction of unwanted children. The alternative to abortion in cultures without knowledge of abortion has been infanticide, terminal child abuse, or abandonment. Until such time as reliable birth control devices are made available to both male and female of child bearing age or social systems are developed which provide for the care of unwanted children, abortion will continue to be used. Individuals who have knowledge of and accessibility to birth control devices but choose to conceive a child anyway and then abort the child are child abusers. Males are equally responsible with the female for the conception of the child and equally responsible for the death of their progeny.

Abstinence as a method of birth control for our species is irrational. It has never worked and never will, do to the nature of our species. Individuals, who for "religious" or "moral" reasons withhold knowledge of conception and birth control from their male or female child that conceives and aborts are themselves responsible.

Abortion, as an alternative to "back alley butchery" of fetus and mother or child abuse, is preferable method of destroying unwanted children. The author has counseled teenage girls who, prior to legalized abortion, experienced coat hanger" abortions, which were almost fatal to them from a perforated uterus and infection. Additionally, in the severe infection cases, sterility resulted and all of the teenage girls suffered deep psychological trauma. Furthermore, unwanted pregnancies have been one of the factors associated with the extremely high rate of teenage suicide in the United States.

The abortion issue continues to cause social unrest. Those segments of our society who are prolife are focusing upon the wrong issue. Instead of removing the reason for abortion they are attacking abortion. In their hypocritical self-righteous they do not offer to take the mothers and babies into their homes and help support and raise them to adulthood nor do they support birth control education that would prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The example on page 2 of Societal Child Abuse in which a specific group is denied access to proper nutrition and shelter because of their social status is also an example of Societal preconception and fetal abuse. Furthermore, as discussed on page 13, the exploitation by advertisers and manufacturer’s of drugs and toxic non-nutritious "food" products of the child bearing age population is Societal preconception and fetal abuse.

Recently, in several civil cases pharmaceutical companies and physicians have been required to pay for the damage done to infants, who were deformed while in uteri, as a result of prescribed drugs. Additionally, in the case of the drug nicotine, a warning label is attached to the cigarette package that it is hazardous to the health of the user and counter advertising which depicts smoking as dangerous to the infant will help reduce fetal abuse from this source. Furthermore, the effects that alcohol has on the fetus, malformation of the central nervous system, smaller birth weight, malformed organs, deficient immune systems and alcohol addiction, known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome are now being studied and the information is being made known to the Public. In addition, consumer groups have become active in lobbying the legislatures of the State and Federal governments to require food manufactures to include the nutritional content on the labels of their products. Organizations which utilize modern advertising to exploit the ignorance of the population about the effects of the products they sell are guilty of fetal child abuse. Individuals who ignore the information available and continue to use those same products are also guilty of fetal abuse.

The distribution, sale, and use of illegal drugs which cause fetal damage must also be discussed. Infants, who are malformed and/or addicted to the numerous illegal drugs at birth, have been abused by everyone associated with the distribution and use of the drugs. Unfortunately, the Federal and State Government Drug Enforcement agencies have little or no creditability with the population which uses the illegal drugs. This is in part due to a past history of these agencies lying to the population about the effects of certain drugs and in part due to making large segments of the population view themselves as criminals for their recreational drug use.

Criminalization of selective drugs and their use as a method of control for the general masses of our species is irrational. It has never worked and never will, due to the nature of our species. If illegal drugs were decriminalized and placed under the control of the government, the fetal addiction and deformity rate could be reduced, providing proper education and treatment programs were funded by the revenues generated from the taxation of the drugs. Present legal drugs should also have an additional tax to fund education and treatment programs to reduce fetal abuse.

Some cultures, such as Sweden, provide free prenatal care and nutritious food programs for pregnant women. Any culture that wishes to survive for several generations must ensure that children are born healthy. Cultures that do not provide nutrition and prenatal care programs for their pregnant women when they have the food and medical resources available to do so are cultural fetal abusers.

INFANT: the average duration of birth for a woman’s first baby is fourteen hours. For the birth of subsequent children the labor is eight hours. The first stage of labor is the narrowing of the uterus to position the fetus and to dilate the cervix. During the second stage of labor, called transition, the fetus moves through the pelvic inlet. The last stage, called expulsion, the fetus is expelled from the vaginal canal. During expulsion the baby begins to breath. If the mother has been administered any drugs during the birthing process the baby will also be drugged. One of the primary causes of newborn death is respiratory failure due to drugs administered to the mother. The infant only has a few minutes in which to get oxygen through breathing following birth or severe brain damage or death will occur.

For many years, Freud’s concept of birth trauma was accepted as a universal experience for all newborns. In contrast to this, scientific evidence indicates that mothers who are anxious, malnourished, unprepared, and are in a hostile environment do have traumatic births. Birth trauma in the infant is a function of individual environmental stimuli and not a species specific event. Couple’s counseled have related horror stories about their childbirth experiences. They were separated from their spouse or close family member, placed into a strange, sterile and often hostile production line environment with little regard for their needs. Often they are drugged without their permission, if not over their strong objections, and then immediately separated from the infant at birth, denying both parents and infant the opportunity to develop maternal and paternal imprint bonding. If the mother desired to breast-fed, her desire was often ignored and she was pumped full of drugs to suppress her biological breast-feeding response. All of this was done under the label of good medical practice. Unfortunately at least 80% of the hospitals and practicing M.D. ‘s in the United States continue to practice childbirth this way. If the mother is in a strange and hostile environment, knows nothing about the birthing process, is unprepared for it and is frightened the probability of fetal stress increases. (Anon., 1970; Anon., 1973; Bradley, 1965; Davis, 1959; Flanagan, 1966; Jackson, 1978; LeMasters, 1974; Sommers, 1962; Wright, 1966). Helfer (1976) commented:

…likewise, hospitals must not only allow but encourage fathers to be in the delivery room and permit both parents to have physical contact with their baby within a few minutes after delivery (p. 185.)

Significant correlations have been found between the emotional state of the mother during late pregnancy and the number of times that pain relieving drugs were used during labor (Jackson & Jackson, 1978).

Even though the new born and mother must learn to nurse together, the most developed motor activity of the newborn is rooting and sucking. Nursing stimulates the hormone prolactin in the mother, which stimulates the uterus to contract and expel the aged placenta. Additionally, prolactin has been found to elicit mothering behavior (Hilgard, 1962; /white, 1969). The skin of the breast-fed infant is found to be much softer that the skin of an artificially fed baby, and this difference tended to make the breast-fed infant more lovable (White, 1969). He also concluded that the breast-fed infant smelled good and the artificially fed infant did not smell as good.

Breast-fed babies reportedly are less colic and have fewer allergies (Pryor, 1963; Sandman, 1971). Formula-fed babies cry more, and infants given solids at too early an age develop allergies and are sickly. This is particularly important, since many infants who have been abused were sickly and cried a lot thus not meeting the expectations and parents had of a healthy baby (Weston, 1968).

Breast-feeding appears to contribute to the well being of both the mother and the child in several ways: (1) by establishing a pleasure bond between mother and child; (2) by promoting good health in the baby and mother; and (3) by reducing the amount of work that mother and father must do. In the United States, "fewer than 25 percent of the babies born in this country are nursed even for the five days of the usual hospital stay" (Pryor,).

The infant, who has experienced a natural birth, will often nurse within five to fifteen minutes of birth. The fist sweet milk called calostrum, passes to the infant digestive enzymes, hormones, endorphines, and anti-bodies. The biological breast-feeding span of our species is from five to ten years. The infant can live solely on breastmilk until about 9 to 12 months of age.

The newborn should be kept warm and in constant physical contact with the mother immediately after birth. Breast-feeding is an emotional activity in which mother and child are united in mutual devotion. Breast-feeding causes contraction of the woman’s womb which encourages its return too normal and the resumption of regular menstruation. Many women also experience sensations similar to orgasm while breast-feeding. Breast-feeding is accompanied by pleasant sexual sensations, which strengthen and deepen the relationship between mother and child. All mothers should breast-fed their children.

Since the child must suck in order to survive, sucking has to be by nature a pleasurable activity. Every baby feels the urgent need to suck. Sucking, licking, biting, and chewing play a significant part of the child’s development during the first three years of a babies life. It is necessary for the father to accept the baby’s need for breast-feeding and close contact with mother. It is father’s responsibility to help look after the child as well. Recent studies show that in families in which the father takes an active role in parenting, the infant shows no preference between mother or father in their attachment. Fathers play much more with infants and the positive responses are more intense with the father (Lynn, 1974).

Infants begin to form attachment bonds by three months of age. Touching and stroking are the only stimuli which elicit an infant love response. Infantile Marasmus, the withering and emaciation of an infant is caused by lack of touching and petting by a significant caretaker. Infants who receive adequate nutrition and minimal care will die from lack of touching and petting. There is considerable evidence to indicate that in the nervous system, structural growth, particularly mylinization, may be preceded by functional stimulation. Early stimulation of the infant with touching and petting provides experiences that help the infant learn faster.

If the infant does not have primary caretaker to bond with, or it deprived of a primary caretaker for more than three months or after bonding occurs is placed with another caretaker, it will develop an inability to form interpersonal relations as an adult. The use of punishment or negative reinforcement produces anxious and irritable babies. The infant can not make the connection between its own behavior and the punishment, due to the immaturity of the nervous system.

The development of personality is a complex process, in which temperament and environment constantly interact. Infants reared in permissive manner typical of preindustrial societies with many caretakers, extended families, breast- feeding on demand, sleeping with parents, and stimulation of adult activities carried on in front of the infants had high developmental skill than those raised by restrictive western methods (Jackson & Jackson, 1978). After weaning, there is a sharp decline of the developmental skill of the infant raised in the preindustrial societies, which appears to a function of a decline in stimulation.

In the newborn three "emotions" have been observed, fear, anger and love. During the first four weeks of life an infant will smile when they hear a high-pitched voice. During the four week infants begin to smile at a face and/or nodding head. It is at this point that mother and father first feel that their attention to the infant is being returned. Infants will do their best to keep their communicative interchanges with the caretaker in working order. The apparent looking and nonlooking behavior of infants is a hemostatic reflex arc, so the infant does not become over stimulated. When a mother continues to interact with the infant and the looks away, if the mother demands the infant respond, interactions become less frequent, briefer, and seem less positive and satisfying.

Jackson and Jackson (1979) stated:

The best way to rear an infant is to be knowledgeable about his rapidly changing abilities and interest and to arrange his environment and schedule so as to provide sequences of experience that are suitably matched to those developing characteristics starting immediately at birth (p.9)

In the infant crying is a fixed action behavior pattern which summons caretakers. Infants can not control their crying any more than they can control urination and defecation. Additionally infants will socially cry. The cultural pattern of punishing an infant for crying, urination, or defecation when it is in pain produces neurotic children. If the only time anyone pays attention to the infant is when it is in distress behavior than the infants distress behavior will increase in frequency. The single most effective factor in stopping a baby from crying is the promptness of the caretaker’s response. Infants who are not responded to immediately are more fussy, irritable, and dependent after one year.

Penile and clitoral erection occur in babies at the rate of one or two per hour in waking and sleeping states, and are most frequent after feeding and twice as frequent during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Infants when stimulating themselves display all the physical signs of orgasm. Male infants who are tightly diapered with the penis being bent will experience pain when they have erections or have to urine. Circumcision does have a impact on the infant and is considered unnecessary and potentially dangerous (Jackson & Jackson, 1978).

As the infant’s visual experiences with the environment increase his REM sleep decreases. Infants are in REM sleep two-thirds of sleep time. At six months, one-third of sleep is REM. All fetal sleep may be REM. The higher the species on the evolution scale of intelligence the more REM. Humans if deprived of REM malfunction. Infants who are aroused to be fed on schedule will malfunction. Adults prepare for sleep by deducting stimulus levels. In infants utilization of a continuous, moderately intense stimulus will induce sleep.

Contrary to popular belief that infants are helpless and unable to utilize their senses, present research has revealed that infants taste, smell and hear as well as adults. Infants will pick a better diet for themselves than adults when they are allowed to choose from a variety of foods. Twelve hour old infants who have not tasted anything have the same facial and lounge gestures as do adults when presented with taste stimuli of bitter, sweet, and sour and can clearly distinguish between odovw that represent "bad food" and those that represent "good food". Major changes in sensitivity to smell occur within the first few days of life. At six weeks infants can discriminate between the odor of their primary caretakers and others.

The human infant facial features are sign stimuli which elicit care giving. Lack of facial features which act as releasing stimuli may account in part of child abuse. Attraction for infants is related to the onset of puberty. Infants do not display the "fear of strangers" behavior pattern to the extent that had been believed before. Wariness is not universal in infants and is dependent upon the environmental conditions.

The acquisition of language begins in utrial with the sonic vibrations of the mother’s heartbeat and her voice and continues with the micromotions of twelve hour old newborn. Infants as young as $one month old are able to make fine discriminations between speech sounds and to perceive them in the same perceptual categories used by adults. The attention of adults is a key factor in the social development of the infants verbal commutative skills. Parents studied, who vocalize with their infants less, expressed the beliefs that it was a waste of time because the infant couldn't understand, and there is nothing that can be done to help the infant.

Two factors are apparent in the stages of speech development; maturation of neurological functions and learned behavior. Communication takes various form-physical contact, gestures, postures, facial expressions, noises, and more complex behavior apparent in emotional expressions and motor acts. It is important to remember that older and more primitive modes of communication always play a critical role in and become part of speech patterns. Often in today world people forget to touch and stroke each other when they talk of love.

The birth cry is often considered the beginning of speech. Shortly after birth, however, reflex crying (birth to 3 months) appears in response to discomfort of fear. Other noises, gurgling, sucking, cooing, laughing, appear as early as the second month and are added to patterns of crying (Johnson et al, 1978).

Babbling Stage (3 to 12 months) includes a variety of new skills and experiences. A basic change in vocal expression is the rapid increase in number and variety of sounds. The next change is a definite effort to imitate himself and others. In many cases, early imitations of another result from the parents repeating sounds the child has produced. Later, the parent initiates imitative responses with familiar and new sound. It is at this point that the basis for learning speech is identifiable. Earlier, all kinds of sound are repeated. Now those $$ which approximate language are selected for most intensive reinforcement. Another step in the development of speech is apparent when the child inter-grates his babbling and imitations into sequential patterns, which sound more and more like true speech as he approaches the first birthday (Johnson et al, 1978).

There is no clear empirical evidence at this time that identifies sex differences in infant behavior. There is a trend that infant females will vocalize more when handling novel objects than males.

Recognition of familiar objects in the evidence requires an inner language (in later years this is the language we use to "talk to ourselves"). The child later become aware that certain sounds spoken by the parent (bottle, for instance) stands for objects (auditory receptive language). Inner language and auditory receptive language precede actual production of meaningful works (auditory expressive language) (Johnson et al, 1978).

Infants are extremely sensitive to the environmental consequences of their behavior. Eye contact is an essential element in the infant's learning process. The two most positive reinforcers of infant behavior are novelty and gentle petting and stroking. When give the choice between familiar stimuli and novel stimuli, year old infants will always choose the novel. Infants have an insatiable thirst for knowledge to stimulate for growth of their brains.

The newborn eyes will have no tears, no functioning tear ducts will be evident for several weeks. The chemical composition of tears varies with the stimulus. Tears from eye irritation and emotional conflict are different in chemical composition. It appears that crying releases from the brain via the sinuses chemicals known as neurotransmitters that are in excess for normal brain function. Stress in the infants, such as touch deprivation, verbal and physical hostility, and restriction of mobility stimulate the overproduction of neurotransmitters.

Motor behavior of the newborn is largely under control of the spinal cord and medulla, while motor control in the adult is resident at different levels of the nervous system (Johnson et al., 1978). The average infant begins smiling at one month, vocalizing at two months, obtains some head control at three months, hand control at four months, is able to roll over at five months, can sit up at five and one half months, begins crawling at six months, stands alone at ten months, and walks alone at eleven months.

Infants have short-term and long-term memory, with cognitive activity becoming apparent around the end of the first year. Brain wave activity is form 3 to 7 cps for the newborn and reaches 5 to 8 cps by 12 months of age.

Laughter develops at about four months of age. Tactile and auditory actions produce laughter in four to six months old and social and visual stimuli produce laughter in nine to twelve month old.

Median birth weight is 7 1/4 lbs. for males and 7 lbs. for female infants. After an initial small loss of weight, most full-term infants regain their birth weight within 10 days. The infant gains approximately 2/3 oz a day during the middle and later part of the first year. Doubling of birth weight usually occurs by age 5 months and sometimes as early as 4 months. Birth weight is usually tripled by age 12 months to 22 1/4 lbs. for males and 21 lbs. for females.

Median length at birth is 20 inches for male and 19 1/2 inches for females. By six months median length is 26 1/2 inches for males and 26 inches for females. Median length at 12 month is 30 inches for males and 29 1/2 inches for females.

Vision: attention will be given to 4 inch objects brought into visual line and little attention is paid to stimuli beyond 2 feet in the 2 to 4 week infant. At 8 weeks the infant is alert to moving objects. By 12 weeks there is a fascination for light objects and bright colors. Pellets as small as 7 mm will be inspected. Tear glands begin to display response to emotion. Head and eye following is elicited through 180 degrees. At 16 to 20 weeks the infant inspects hands. One-inch test cubes stimulate immediate fixation within 2 feet of the eyes. Interest is shown in stimuli more than 3 feet away, and recognition of strangers evokes a response. At 20 to 28 weeks color preference for bright reds and yellows develops. Coordination between hand and eye is developing. Voluntary fixation of stationary objects can be maintained even in the presence of competing stimuli. True blinking appears. Discrimination to simple geometric forms can be shown with targets 1 1/2 to 3 inches in size. At 36 weeks, depth perception is dawning. Visual acuity exceeds 20/200 and the infant will approach small pellet accurately with an oblique approach. His head readily extends to gazes intently at facial expressions. Infants are able to discriminate between colors of 7.3 million colors and 150 hues. Color classification must be a natural ability that does not have to be acquired through language. Visual acuity exceeds 20/200 (Johnson et al, 1978).

The forms of abuse discussed earlier on pages 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 18, & 19 are all applicable to infants. Individuals, who have the opportunity, but do not obtain education and training about natural childbirth and as a consequence experience traumatic childbirth are infant abusers. Additionally, individuals who refuse to breast-fed when they are physically capable are infant abusers. Recently the World Health Organization banned the selling of formula foods through out the world. The only country that voted against the prohibition was the United States, which is the major producer of formula foods.

Public and private schools, hospitals and medial professionals who are aware of the alternatives to traumatic childbirth procedures and formula feeding, that do not provide education, facilities, and training about natural childbirth and breast-feeding are infant abuse. The practice of giving the infant a shot of alcohol when it is crying instead of breast-feeding, holding, petting, and sleeping with the infant is infant abuse. Alcoholics counseled all had the experience as verified by their parents when available of being given the shot of alcohol in their infancy.

Parenting of infants is a full time job. In Sweden when a couple have a child they are given two years off with pay from their job to be full time parents. Cultures which have the economic resources to subsidize new parents but don't are infant abusers. The nuclear family (mother, father, and children) is a recent outgrowth of the industrial age and does not meet the needs of the infant or the parents. Parenting small children in the nuclear family setting stresses the parents beyond their capabilities often with the result of child abuse. The extended family (five to eight adults responsible for the small child0 is the resultant child rearing pattern of several million years of social biological evolution in our species (Howell, 1968, Satir, 1972). Reinforcement by industry and government to encourage extended families will help in reducing infant abuse.

A universal complaint about infants of young parents counseled is the persistent behavior of their six or seven month old crawling over to the stereo or T.V and playing with it. Even though they slap the crawler's hand hard, the infant still plays with the stereo or T.V when they are not in the room. They just can not understand why the infant can not learn. They are totally oblivious to the infants nervous system maturation and response to novel stimuli. The simple solution, which is not at all obvious to them, is to place the stereo or T.V out of the reach of the infant. Many young parents are unable to consider that they have to adapt some to the infant. They know little if anything about infant development and will punish and belittle their infant for being an infant.

Unfortunately, not only young parents are unaware of the need to adapt to the infant, most housing and neighborhood construction fails to take into account the behavior of infants and small children. A typical North American suburb is automobile orientated, not child orientated. Observation of such a neighborhood on a sunny Saturday morning often includes the sound of a car screeching to a half, quickly followed by a number of parents running out into the front yard to see if their child has been injured. If their child is uninjured, they are more likely to scold and spank their child for playing in the street than the driver for going to fast in an area congested with children.

North American parents have a peculiar custom of placing their infants alone in a room at night by themselves. They seem to be astonished over the child constant crying at night, frequent nightmares, and prolonged bedwetting. North American social scientist, exemplified by Harlow's work on maternal deprivation, have published numerous articles in both the scientific journals and the popular literature about the disastrous effects of placing infants in isolation. Unfortunately, these comparative studies of primate infant isolation are ignored by the majority North American parents. A visit to the children's ward of a mental hospital will reveal that human infants respond the same way to isolation in infancy as do other primate infants. Isolating infants in rooms at night is infant abuse.

As the United States moves from an industrial society to a technological society the need for emotionally stable and creative citizens is required and we will fall behind other technological societies if we do not provide the proper milieu. Today present child rearing patterns, as evidenced by the extremely high rate of child abuse, child and teenage suicide, drug abuse, prostitution, and runaways, will not provide the stable environment to produce citizens capable of meeting the almost immediate needs of an evolving technological society.

A culture which has the technological resources available to disseminate information and training on natural childbirth, breast-feeding, and positive infant care free of destructive cultural rituals, but does not is not only reinforcing infant abuse but is self destructive.

THE CHILD: myelinization continues in the peripheral nervous system with motor behavior shifting from spinal control to different levels of the nervous system. Control of the anal and urinary sphincter at the neocortical level varies with sex and age. Generally females are capable of control of bladder and bowl control during awake time from the age of two to five. Males reach continence from the age of 2 1/2 to five while awake. During sleep both male and female seldom contain themselves until between the ages of 3 to 6 years of age. Additionally during sleep Nordic Caucasian males do not reach urinary control until 9 to 13 years of age. Any emotional trauma will precipitate loss of continence in both male and females.

Toilet training should not begin before the child is able to exercise conscious control over their anal and urinary sphincters. Young parents are rarely aware that parenting is the removal of several tons of human waste and are very devastated with the enormity of the task. At no time during the formal training should punishment be used when the child has accidents, but the child should be aware that he had an accident.

Vision: from 12 to 18 months-central acuity approaches 20/100. During this period the child will display a keen interest in pictures, will identify forms and associate simple visual experiences. He will learn to brush crayons to paper and produce linear marks. By 18 months convergence is fairly well established, though localization at a distance is immature, causing the child to run into objects that he sees. The interpretation of spatial intervals improves slowly during the ensuring 6 months.

At 2 years central acuity approaches 20/40. Fascination with minute objects demands refinement of the convergence-accommodation mechanism. The accomodative mechanism which may lead to esotipia comes into play. At three years, central acuity may reach 20/30. Convergence is now smoother and voluntary elements, through frontal lobe control, are developing for both accommodation and convergence. Attention span is fair, and fixation with small pictures or toys should approach 50 seconds. Afterimages can generally be described by the child.

At 4 years visual acuity is nearly 20/20. Disuse may cause deterioration, but not irreparable extinction of acuity. Othoptic examination demonstrates usefully interpretative responses, and tracing exercised can be performed. The child is now ready for reading. At 5 years true steropis is present. Color recognition is well established. At 6 years central acuity is present and in voltage over the occipital area is prominent, varying from 25 to 70 micro volts. The dominant rate in this region is fairly rhythmic 6 to 8-cps activity. Rate 4 to 6 cps waves are interspersed. However, in the central and temporal regions, these slower waves are common.

In the 4 year old basic frequency is 7 to 8 1/2 cps in the posterior areas. Less regular 4 to 6 cps waves are dominant in the central regions. Low voltage fast activity interspersed with irregular 4 to 6-cps waves prevails in the temporal lobes. At 8 years of age regular 8 to 10 cps activity which continues to fluctuate in amplitude at times predominates in the central and occipital areas; 4 to 6 cps waves appear randomly, only in the central regions. The 12 year old has low-voltage, fast activity predominating in the frontal-temporal lobes. Stead, well developed, 10 to 12 cps activity prevails in the central and occipital areas with the latter displaying more rhythmic and higher voltage activity.

EEG findings in the 16 years old display patterns similar to that seen in the adult. Steady 10 to 12-cps activities is dominant throughout. Slow waves are no longer apparent. Fast activity is frequent in the frontal and temporal areas. REM sleep steadily decreases from childhood to adulthood (Johnson et al, 1978).

Speech: the first true words spoken from 11 to 24 months are usually name of concrete objects and may be incompletely articulated. Some verbs may appear quite early, even though they represent a kind of abstraction. Age and rate of acquisition of words may vary considerably and still be within normal range. Some two or three word combinations may be learned and used essentially as a single word, which has several meanings. Ball-may signify, see the pretty ball or I want a variety of representations for objects, people and actions in the environment, the child discovers that more complex meanings (and increased rewards) can be elicited by combining words. If words are learned early and vocabulary continues to develop, delay in sentence formation may be significant before the upper age limit indicated above.

It would be a mistake to view speech development as an isolated process; it is closely linked with total physical, psychological and sociological progress. Disruption or distortion in any of these areas may have serious repercussions, and it is particularly important that speech be developed during early childhood. There is considerable evidence that lack of developmental opportunity or existence of severe inhibitory factors may have serious and permanent deleterious effects on linguistic-symbolic-intellectual development, and the child never become a completely functional human being (Johnson et al, 1978).

There are many specific ways parents can stimulate development and reduce the possibility of delay during the pre-speech period. Rocking, holding, mothering, singing and talking to the child during the reflexive vocalization period are all helpful in establishing a basic communicative relationship on a fundamental level.

Throughout the babbling period, the role of the parent becomes increasingly important. Soon after the child begins to enjoy playing with wounds and other speech variations, parents often attempt to get him to imitate their sounds or noises and the child reacts with silence or random noises. The parents will have more success, initially, by imitating sounds the child makes-allowing the child to evoke a sound he recognizes from them. This helps to bridge the gap between his self-imitation and imitation of others. Possibly the most helpful stimulation derives from the repeated enjoyment of both parent and child in these interchanges, regardless of content or nature of the responses by each. The warm, pleasurable affect created reinforces oral communication, the rewards of which are carried over into work and sentence development.

A basic principle or attitude at all stages should be to stimulate, encourage and provide opportunities for speech, but not demand or penalize for failure to produce what the parents have demanded. This is a difficult principle to put into practice consistently, for parents' needs for reward and reassurance from the child's behavior push them to apply pressures injudiciously, and demands or penalties unconsciously creep into their behavior. If speech is rewarding rather than punishing the child will talk when he is able to do so. The parent who decides it is time for the child to talk and begins to pressure the child often retards the child speech development. The best approach for all children delayed or normal, is to provide appropriate stimulation in several ways.

Johnson et al. (1978) state:

The child should hear talking and be talked to, especially in tone that indicates genuine warmth and affection. He should be provided with a wide range of continuous experiences, repeated as often as possible, as a basis for developing inner language. Then, these experiences should be talked about as a way of enlarging the auditory receptive language. Finally, he should be given opportunities to produce speech - using interrogatory tones rather than imperative with essentially a neutral emotional response by the parents most of the time. Some pleasure in his attempt to talk should be expressed, but exaggerated pleasure for rewarding purposes is too much of a contrast for the time he does not respond, and thus a penalty is present even though not intended (p. 60)

One of the most difficult stages of language development the parent encounters emotionally is when their child imitates the parent's use of "dirty" words on a setting that is embarrassing to the parent. The parent should never punish the child (washing the mouth out with soap, slapping, and spanking seem to be favorite methods) for repeating what the child hears in the environment. The parent should both stop suing the "dirty" words and should explain to the child what the words mean and caution the child not to use the words in settings that frighten the parent or others. Research indicates that often the first words children hear and learn to say are the words their parents say when they have to get up in the middle of the night to change a dirty diaper, or feed a hungry baby. I wonder how many children thought their name was 'God damns little shit." Unfortunately "dirty" words are most often associated with sex or excrement and the child is negatively condition from infancy about its normal activities.

Language is a controlling factor in the child perception of the world and their perception of themselves. An American child will first learn words that are object orientated, such as ball, car, Mom, apple, etc., whereas a Hopi child will first learn words which are movement orientated such as fun, jump, walk, etc. One language is object orientated and the other is movement orientated. Additionally the language used by mothers is socializing their children determines how the child views itself. For example if a child is misbehaving, a French mother would tell the child that it is being unwise; a Swedish mother would say that the child is being unfriendly; a German mother would tell the child to get in line; a Hopi mother would way that the child was not following the Hopi way; an American mother would tell the child that it is bad; a Trobianian would say, how childlike. Additionally, the milieu often determines the child perception of the world. For example, an Eskimo child will learn a hundred or more words to describe the various conditions of snow; a Trobianian child will learn how to describe yams in 70 or 80 different conditions, an American child will know the names of 30 or 40 characters in a film such as start Wars.

The acquisition of verbal and written language is the most important skill the child will develop in today's world. Communication skills will determine the child's ability to function as an adult. Any behavior on the part of the child's caretakers, which either deprives them of the needed stimulation or punishes them for learning verbal and written behavior, thus impeding or retarding language development is child abuse.

Any society that fails to provide caretakers with the time necessary to provide verbal stimulation to infants or does not provide childcare programs from infancy to six years of age which develops the child's communication skills fully or does not provide parents with the information on language development that will enable them to provide the necessary training is abusing those children.

Cultures, which continue to reinforce myths that the infant or young child is incapable of language development, are both abusive and doomed to extinction.

Sexuality: embraces and caresses are fund and pleasurable for both children and adults. It is normal development for a child to play with his or her genitals. Children are not able to control their excretion until the ages of three to seven. It is perfectly natural for children to play with their urine and feces. Children in Europe and America are forbidden to play with their excretory and sex organs. This creates unnecessary inhibitions in the child's curiosity and play. When children disobey they experience feelings of anxiety and guilt. Young children are not able to distinguish exactly between sex organs and excretory organs.

During the time of development when the child is learning cleanliness they actively seek contact with playfellows and form their first, often very intense, friendships with children of the same age. Numerous sex games such as "doctor" are played. Children of all ages, but especially those in middle childhood and prepuberty, express their sexual interest and knowledge in songs, chants, games, jokes, and rhymes. Most children conceal their repertory of rhymes and songs from their parents because they are forbidden to use "dirty" words in adult company. Children's sex games are a normal part of sexual development. Western countries practice sexual repression with their children, but sex games are carried on in secret, despite their suppression. And because of the repression anxiety and guilt form. Male and female must engage in childhood sexual play in order to have mature sexual behavior in adulthood. Parental tolerances toward sexual games preserve and strengthen the child's positive attitude to his own sexuality. Early sexual games encourage confident sexual adjustment.

Western parents will often attempt to "cure" their male children of playing with their penis with the threat of cutting off their penis if they don't stop. Additionally they tell both male and females that the child will go crazy, blind, etc. if they continue masturbating. Furthermore, when they catch children in sexual play they will often whip each child and tell them in seclusion that the other child is evil, bad, etc. and they should never play with that child again.

Sexual development can be impaired in the child if the family treats everything connected with bodily excretions as dirty and repulsive. Children should be encouraged to a acquire a positive attitude to their own bodies and sex from an early age. Sex education, like all education, should begin in infancy, within the family. By the time the child reaches school he is already encumbered with the prejudices and misconceptions as a result of a repressive attitude to sex in their home and environment. All parents should answer their children's questions about sex honestly and openly. If the child has sufficient opportunity for seeing parents, brothers, sisters, and friends naked, he will not find it difficult to establish his own sexual affiliation. One of the most important tasks of modern sex education will be to communicate to young girls a naturally positive attitude to the whole sphere of female sexuality, including motherhood. Parents can only learn to be parents by the way they are parented.

One of the difficulties faced by parents in the United States is the prevailing sexual repression of the dominate culture. Parents in the United States risk imprisonment and loss of their children for behavior that is considered necessary for adequate sexual adjustment in other cultures and by the biological and social scientist of their own culture.

Until such time as cultural sexual abuse is discontinued in the United States parents will have to rely upon books such as A Child is Born, Show Me, and They Joy of Sex to assist their children in developing a healthy attitude about sex.

One form of Societal Abuse that needlessly effects at least 30% of the children in the United States is adversary divorce is a method in which parents enlist the services of separate attorneys to present their position in court as to why they should have custody of the children and their ex-spouse should not. Often a mental health professional is employed by one parent or both to provide expert testimony as to the fitness of one parent over the other to parent the children.

Unfortunately, the very nature of the adversary process exacerbates the emotional trauma to the child as both parents exhibit internecine behavior towards each other during the custody trial and the following years. The child is torn between the two parents, when most often the child loves both parents. Sometimes one or both parents struggle over the child in an attempt to keep in contact with each other. On other occasions one or both parents are attempting to prove that they are more powerful or that their new life style is better.

In the battle, it is the child who suffers most. Most of that suffering is caused by the parents who use the court system and the child to get back to each other. Often the child is made to believe if they love both parents they have betrayed one of them. Additionally they are often told that members of the spouse's extended family are bad or that member of the new spouse's extended family should be shunned.

Most often the genesis of the denial, anger, depression and vindictive wrath displayed by the separating partners is the death of their marriage. The death of their marriage may in part have been caused by the stress and strain of a nuclear family and may in fact when the custody battle is over be an unconscious attempt to establish an extended family. Nevertheless, the parents will heap gifts and favors upon the child in an effort to prove to the child that they are better parents. The end result is generally a confused, angry, materialistic, and emotionally traumatized child.

The majority of custody disputes are not in the best interest of the child. The State of California, through Senate Bill 961, the family reconciliation court act enacted in Jan. 1981, has taken steps to reduce this form of Societal abuse. Counties and states which do no have conciliation courts in which custody disputes can first be discussed between the parents free of the adversary process with the goal of reaching a compromise that is in the best interest of the child are reinforcing Societal Abuse.

Another aspect of alcoholism as a form of Cultural Child Abuse is the carnage on the highways of the world cause by dunk drivers. In the United States alone 2,000 to 5,000 children are killed, 10,000 to 20,000 are maimed and 10,000 to 20,000 are emotionally traumatize by the loss of their immediate family members each year. In the United States drunk drivers, who are involved in maiming and fatal accidents, have traditionally not been punished nor has one ever been prosecuted under the child abuse laws. Only recently, at the insistence of grass root organizations like Mother's Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), has there been any legislative or judicial effort brought to bear against the drunk driver.

The cultural tolerance of alcoholism is a function, in part of sophisticated mass advertising, which portrays the use of alcohol as one of the accouterments of high status and a good sex life. Attempts at halting the production, distribution and use of alcohol will no in anyway deter its recreational use. Mass advertising of alcohol is societal abuse.

Advertising, as a form of societal abuse is not limited to drugs. As discussed on page 29, it can be extended to food products. A review of the Saturday morning children's T.V programming will reveal sophisticated advertising seducing young children into believing they are capable of feats of giant slaying by the ingestion of food products that are non-nutritious and very expensive. Use of such advertising on small children societal abuse.

In addition to the civil cases brought against pharmaceutical companies as discussed on page 28, a number of civil suits have been filed against companies that pollute the air, water and soil for the damage that has been done to fetuses, infants, and children. Pollution is Societal Child Abuse.

War is Cultural Child Abuse.

The pubic education system in the United States generally is very repressive and abusive with the majority of its students. This is in part due to the prevailing cultural belief in spare the rod spoil the child and a misperception of the developing skill and abilities of children. Educational systems, which utilize corporal punishment and are overcrowded, are Societal Child Abusers (Leonard, 1986; Neill, 1960; 1966; 1974).

This concludes the discussion of cross-cultural definitions of child abuse based upon the developmental needs of the child. The author hopes that the reader has a broader understanding of Cultural, Societal, and Individual Child Abuse and their manifestations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse/neglect. And that the cross-cultural definitions of Child Abuse based upon the needs of the developing child are understandable and useful. A review of treatment of child abuse follows.

THE NEEDS OF THE DEVELOPING CHILD AND A CROSS-CULTURAL DEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE: the needs of the developing child and the cross-cultural definition of child abuse will be divided into preconception and fetal, infant and child.

Preconception and Fetal: it has been estimated that faulty brain development occurs in 10% of all U.S. births. This is in part due to the nutritional state of the genes in the parents before conception and in part due to the type of diet the mother consumes during pregnancy. Parents, who are in poor health prior to conception from self-abuse of drugs, lack of proper nutrition, and lifestyle produced abnormal children.

The old belief that the unborn infant has priority and that priority and that the mother’s body is sacrificed if necessary when a nutrient is limited is unfounded while the reverse has been shown to be true. A deficiency of any nutrient essential for the production of RNA and DNA during pregnancy can cause brain damage and mental retardation in the infant. Women with an inadequate diet during pregnancy have smaller babies, more difficult labor, and have complications that are far more severe than women who consume an adequate diet.

Severe calorie and protein deficiency during pregnancy cause human fetal or neonatal death. Protein is essential because it form the structural basis for all new cells and tissues. The unavailability of thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin can limit the rate at which energy is produced and thus limit the ability of the body to support the life of the fetus.

Folic acid deficiency can effect mitosis. Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause irreparable damage to the nervous system. Pyrodoxine, vitamin B6 deficiency can increase the incidence of poisonous substances in the blood (toxemia). Iron deficiency can cause a reduction in hemoglobin concentration which forces the mother to do extra work to maintain adequate oxygen consumption by the placental and fetal cells and at the same time fatigues the mother. Inadequate calcium and phosphorus consumption during pregnancy promotes inadequate mineralization of the fetal skeleton and deciduous teeth.

Vitamin C is necessary for the adequate formation of the connective tissue, skin, tendons, and bones. Vitamin E functions to maintain the structure of the cell membranes. Vitamin A is essential to the welfare of the skin and membranes of the gastrointestinal, urinary and respiratory tracts.

Nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy. A pregnant woman should increase her food intake. (David, 1972; Flanagan, 1966; Goodhart et al., 1978; Johnson et al., 1978; Luke, 1979; Millen, 1962; Moghissi, 1977; Worthington, 1977)

In the uterus, the placenta alone performs the diverse functions of lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines and hormone glands. It is also the main source of hormones for the mother’s body and stimulates the production of mild in the mother’s breasts.

Contrary to popular belief, the placenta does not provide a barrier to screen the fetus from undesirable substances in the mother’s blood stream. Alcohol and other drugs pass through the placenta and are immediately absorbed by the fetus. Many fetal abnormalities (cleft pallet, mental retardation, etc.) are caused by disease toxins or drugs that the mothers use during pregnancy. All the immunities that the mother develops during pregnancy are transferred to the fetus.

The human egg is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The egg is covered with a shell, not unlike that of a chicken egg. The human egg shell is translucent, elastic, and a very strong membrane called the zone pellucid.

The human sperm is often likened to miniature tadpoles and have the power of locomotion. The sperm is 1/2500 the size of the egg and uses a digestive enzyme to penetrate zone pellucid. The sperm carries the X and Y genes which determine the sex of the fetus. X is the female gene and Y is the male gene.

Each egg and sperm cell contain at least 15,000 genes which determine the characteristics of the progeny. The instructions of how to build the new human are inscribed in the genes at the molecular level on chains of molecules called nucleic acids (DNA). When the egg and sperm unite a single cell is formed, which in turn begins to divide a process know as Mitosis.

During the first week the egg increases from one cell to over one hundred cells and migrates from the fallopian tube to the uterus and attaches to uterine wall. The developing fetus sends its roots into the uterine wall and will remain implanted there until birth. On the ninth day following conception an embryo takes form. On the 26^th day the buds of the arms and ¼ to ½ inch long. The month old embryo is ten thousand times larger than the fertilized egg.

At seven weeks the embryo bears all the features of the future adult, even though it is less than an inch long and weighs only 1/13 of an ounce. In the 12^th week, the appearance of the first blood cells marks the end of the embryonic stage and the beginning of the fetal stage. The brain is functioning. At the end of the twelfth week the fetus movements become graceful and fluid. The fetus becomes very active, practicing breathing, movement and sucking. At this time the internal reproductive organs form and contain primitive egg and sperm cells.

During the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th months, the fetus gains most of its birth weight and outgrows its home in the womb. The fetus sucks its thumb and often develops a callous on the thumb. Late in the seventh month the fetal organs become mature enough to enable the fetus to live if born. The breast milk coincides in nutritional value to the age of the fetus. Prematurely born infants should be breast-fed. In the sixth month the baby acquires a layer of insulating fat to protect it from the cold world outside the womb.

Prior to conception, the nutritional habits, drug consumption, and general health of the parent to be determines to what degree the genetic material (DNA) is capable of producing a healthy and viable fetus.

Individuals of child bearing age who are in poor health, consume drugs such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, Valium, heroin, etc., and have poor nutritional habits should be practicing birth control. If they conceive a child during a period of shelf abuse they are conceive a child during a period of self-abuse they are in fact abusing the unborn child. If a mother continues self abusive during her pregnancy she is abusing the fetus.

Individual preconception and fetal abuse occurs when the parents do not provide themselves with adequate nutrition, abuse drugs, and are in general poor health.

Abortion is another form of fetal abuse that must be discussed. The practice to abortion has been with our species as long as knowledge to induce abortion has existed. No matter what stage the embryo or fetus is aborted, a child is being destroyed. The purpose of abortion has always been the destruction of unwanted children. The alternative to abortion in cultures without knowledge of abortion has been infanticide, terminal child abuse, or abandonment. Until such time as reliable birth control devices are made available to both male and female of child bearing age or social systems are developed which provide for the care of unwanted children, abortion will continue to be used. Individuals who have knowledge of and accessibility to birth control devices but choose to conceive a child anyway and then abort the child are child abusers. Males are equally responsible with the female for the conception of the child and equally responsible for the death of their progeny.

Abstinence as a method of birth control for our species is irrational. It has never worked and never will, do to the nature of our species. Individuals, who for "religious" or "moral" reasons withhold knowledge of conception and birth control from their male or female child that conceives and aborts are themselves responsible.

Abortion, as an alternative to "back alley butchery" of fetus and mother or child abuse, is preferable method of destroying unwanted children. The author has counseled teenage girls who, prior to legalized abortion, experienced coat hanger" abortions, which were almost fatal to them from a perforated uterus and infection. Additionally, in the severe infection cases, sterility resulted and all of the teenage girls suffered deep psychological trauma. Furthermore, unwanted pregnancies have been one of the factors associated with the extremely high rate of teenage suicide in the United States.

The abortion issue continues to cause social unrest. Those segments of our society who are prolife are focusing upon the wrong issue. Instead of removing the reason for abortion they are attacking abortion. In their hypocritical self-righteous they do not offer to take the mothers and babies into their homes and help support and raise them to adulthood nor do they support birth control education that would prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The example on page 2 of Societal Child Abuse in which a specific group is denied access to proper nutrition and shelter because of their social status is also an example of Societal preconception and fetal abuse. Furthermore, as discussed on page 13, the exploitation by advertisers and manufacturer’s of drugs and toxic non-nutritious "food" products of the child bearing age population is Societal preconception and fetal abuse.

Recently, in several civil cases pharmaceutical companies and physicians have been required to pay for the damage done to infants, who were deformed while in uteri, as a result of prescribed drugs. Additionally, in the case of the drug nicotine, a warning label is attached to the cigarette package that it is hazardous to the health of the user and counter advertising which depicts smoking as dangerous to the infant will help reduce fetal abuse from this source. Furthermore, the effects that alcohol has on the fetus, malformation of the central nervous system, smaller birth weight, malformed organs, deficient immune systems and alcohol addiction, known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome are now being studied and the information is being made known to the Public. In addition, consumer groups have become active in lobbying the legislatures of the State and Federal governments to require food manufactures to include the nutritional content on the labels of their products. Organizations which utilize modern advertising to exploit the ignorance of the population about the effects of the products they sell are guilty of fetal child abuse. Individuals who ignore the information available and continue to use those same products are also guilty of fetal abuse.

The distribution, sale, and use of illegal drugs which cause fetal damage must also be discussed. Infants, who are malformed and/or addicted to the numerous illegal drugs at birth, have been abused by everyone associated with the distribution and use of the drugs. Unfortunately, the Federal and State Government Drug Enforcement agencies have little or no creditability with the population which uses the illegal drugs. This is in part due to a past history of these agencies lying to the population about the effects of certain drugs and in part due to making large segments of the population view themselves as criminals for their recreational drug use.

Criminalization of selective drugs and their use as a method of control for the general masses of our species is irrational. It has never worked and never will, due to the nature of our species. If illegal drugs were decriminalized and placed under the control of the government, the fetal addiction and deformity rate could be reduced, providing proper education and treatment programs were funded by the revenues generated from the taxation of the drugs. Present legal drugs should also have an additional tax to fund education and treatment programs to reduce fetal abuse.

Some cultures, such as Sweden, provide free prenatal care and nutritious food programs for pregnant women. Any culture that wishes to survive for several generations must ensure that children are born healthy. Cultures that do not provide nutrition and prenatal care programs for their pregnant women when they have the food and medical resources available to do so are cultural fetal abusers.

INFANT: the average duration of birth for a woman’s first baby is fourteen hours. For the birth of subsequent children the labor is eight hours. The first stage of labor is the narrowing of the uterus to position the fetus and to dilate the cervix. During the second stage of labor, called transition, the fetus moves through the pelvic inlet. The last stage, called expulsion, the fetus is expelled from the vaginal canal. During expulsion the baby begins to breath. If the mother has been administered any drugs during the birthing process the baby will also be drugged. One of the primary causes of newborn death is respiratory failure due to drugs administered to the mother. The infant only has a few minutes in which to get oxygen through breathing following birth or severe brain damage or death will occur.

For many years, Freud’s concept of birth trauma was accepted as a universal experience for all newborns. In contrast to this, scientific evidence indicates that mothers who are anxious, malnourished, unprepared, and are in a hostile environment do have traumatic births. Birth trauma in the infant is a function of individual environmental stimuli and not a species specific event. Couple’s counseled have related horror stories about their childbirth experiences. They were separated from their spouse or close family member, placed into a strange, sterile and often hostile production line environment with little regard for their needs. Often they are drugged without their permission, if not over their strong objections, and then immediately separated from the infant at birth, denying both parents and infant the opportunity to develop maternal and paternal imprint bonding. If the mother desired to breast-fed, her desire was often ignored and she was pumped full of drugs to suppress her biological breast-feeding response. All of this was done under the label of good medical practice. Unfortunately at least 80% of the hospitals and practicing M.D. ‘s in the United States continue to practice childbirth this way. If the mother is in a strange and hostile environment, knows nothing about the birthing process, is unprepared for it and is frightened the probability of fetal stress increases. (Anon., 1970; Anon., 1973; Bradley, 1965; Davis, 1959; Flanagan, 1966; Jackson, 1978; LeMasters, 1974; Sommers, 1962; Wright, 1966). Helfer (1976) commented:

…likewise, hospitals must not only allow but encourage fathers to be in the delivery room and permit both parents to have physical contact with their baby within a few minutes after delivery (p. 185.)

Significant correlations have been found between the emotional state of the mother during late pregnancy and the number of times that pain relieving drugs were used during labor (Jackson & Jackson, 1978).

Even though the new born and mother must learn to nurse together, the most developed motor activity of the newborn is rooting and sucking. Nursing stimulates the hormone prolactin in the mother, which stimulates the uterus to contract and expel the aged placenta. Additionally, prolactin has been found to elicit mothering behavior (Hilgard, 1962; /white, 1969). The skin of the breast-fed infant is found to be much softer that the skin of an artificially fed baby, and this difference tended to make the breast-fed infant more lovable (White, 1969). He also concluded that the breast-fed infant smelled good and the artificially fed infant did not smell as good.

Breast-fed babies reportedly are less colic and have fewer allergies (Pryor, 1963; Sandman, 1971). Formula-fed babies cry more, and infants given solids at too early an age develop allergies and are sickly. This is particularly important, since many infants who have been abused were sickly and cried a lot thus not meeting the expectations and parents had of a healthy baby (Weston, 1968).

Breast-feeding appears to contribute to the well being of both the mother and the child in several ways: (1) by establishing a pleasure bond between mother and child; (2) by promoting good health in the baby and mother; and (3) by reducing the amount of work that mother and father must do. In the United States, "fewer than 25 percent of the babies born in this country are nursed even for the five days of the usual hospital stay" (Pryor,).

The infant, who has experienced a natural birth, will often nurse within five to fifteen minutes of birth. The fist sweet milk called calostrum, passes to the infant digestive enzymes, hormones, endorphines, and anti-bodies. The biological breast-feeding span of our species is from five to ten years. The infant can live solely on breastmilk until about 9 to 12 months of age.

The newborn should be kept warm and in constant physical contact with the mother immediately after birth. Breast-feeding is an emotional activity in which mother and child are united in mutual devotion. Breast-feeding causes contraction of the woman’s womb which encourages its return too normal and the resumption of regular menstruation. Many women also experience sensations similar to orgasm while breast-feeding. Breast-feeding is accompanied by pleasant sexual sensations, which strengthen and deepen the relationship between mother and child. All mothers should breast-fed their children.

Since the child must suck in order to survive, sucking has to be by nature a pleasurable activity. Every baby feels the urgent need to suck. Sucking, licking, biting, and chewing play a significant part of the child’s development during the first three years of a babies life. It is necessary for the father to accept the baby’s need for breast-feeding and close contact with mother. It is father’s responsibility to help look after the child as well. Recent studies show that in families in which the father takes an active role in parenting, the infant shows no preference between mother or father in their attachment. Fathers play much more with infants and the positive responses are more intense with the father (Lynn, 1974).

Infants begin to form attachment bonds by three months of age. Touching and stroking are the only stimuli which elicit an infant love response. Infantile Marasmus, the withering and emaciation of an infant is caused by lack of touching and petting by a significant caretaker. Infants who receive adequate nutrition and minimal care will die from lack of touching and petting. There is considerable evidence to indicate that in the nervous system, structural growth, particularly mylinization, may be preceded by functional stimulation. Early stimulation of the infant with touching and petting provides experiences that help the infant learn faster.

If the infant does not have primary caretaker to bond with, or it deprived of a primary caretaker for more than three months or after bonding occurs is placed with another caretaker, it will develop an inability to form interpersonal relations as an adult. The use of punishment or negative reinforcement produces anxious and irritable babies. The infant can not make the connection between its own behavior and the punishment, due to the immaturity of the nervous system.

The development of personality is a complex process, in which temperament and environment constantly interact. Infants reared in permissive manner typical of preindustrial societies with many caretakers, extended families, breast- feeding on demand, sleeping with parents, and stimulation of adult activities carried on in front of the infants had high developmental skill than those raised by restrictive western methods (Jackson & Jackson, 1978). After weaning, there is a sharp decline of the developmental skill of the infant raised in the preindustrial societies, which appears to a function of a decline in stimulation.

In the newborn three "emotions" have been observed, fear, anger and love. During the first four weeks of life an infant will smile when they hear a high-pitched voice. During the four week infants begin to smile at a face and/or nodding head. It is at this point that mother and father first feel that their attention to the infant is being returned. Infants will do their best to keep their communicative interchanges with the caretaker in working order. The apparent looking and nonlooking behavior of infants is a hemostatic reflex arc, so the infant does not become over stimulated. When a mother continues to interact with the infant and the looks away, if the mother demands the infant respond, interactions become less frequent, briefer, and seem less positive and satisfying.

Jackson and Jackson (1979) stated:

The best way to rear an infant is to be knowledgeable about his rapidly changing abilities and interest and to arrange his environment and schedule so as to provide sequences of experience that are suitably matched to those developing characteristics starting immediately at birth (p.9)

In the infant crying is a fixed action behavior pattern which summons caretakers. Infants can not control their crying any more than they can control urination and defecation. Additionally infants will socially cry. The cultural pattern of punishing an infant for crying, urination, or defecation when it is in pain produces neurotic children. If the only time anyone pays attention to the infant is when it is in distress behavior than the infants distress behavior will increase in frequency. The single most effective factor in stopping a baby from crying is the promptness of the caretaker’s response. Infants who are not responded to immediately are more fussy, irritable, and dependent after one year.

Penile and clitoral erection occur in babies at the rate of one or two per hour in waking and sleeping states, and are most frequent after feeding and twice as frequent during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Infants when stimulating themselves display all the physical signs of orgasm. Male infants who are tightly diapered with the penis being bent will experience pain when they have erections or have to urine. Circumcision does have a impact on the infant and is considered unnecessary and potentially dangerous (Jackson & Jackson, 1978).

As the infant’s visual experiences with the environment increase his REM sleep decreases. Infants are in REM sleep two-thirds of sleep time. At six months, one-third of sleep is REM. All fetal sleep may be REM. The higher the species on the evolution scale of intelligence the more REM. Humans if deprived of REM malfunction. Infants who are aroused to be fed on schedule will malfunction. Adults prepare for sleep by deducting stimulus levels. In infants utilization of a continuous, moderately intense stimulus will induce sleep.

Contrary to popular belief that infants are helpless and unable to utilize their senses, present research has revealed that infants taste, smell and hear as well as adults. Infants will pick a better diet for themselves than adults when they are allowed to choose from a variety of foods. Twelve hour old infants who have not tasted anything have the same facial and lounge gestures as do adults when presented with taste stimuli of bitter, sweet, and sour and can clearly distinguish between odovw that represent "bad food" and those that represent "good food". Major changes in sensitivity to smell occur within the first few days of life. At six weeks infants can discriminate between the odor of their primary caretakers and others.

The human infant facial features are sign stimuli which elicit care giving. Lack of facial features which act as releasing stimuli may account in part of child abuse. Attraction for infants is related to the onset of puberty. Infants do not display the "fear of strangers" behavior pattern to the extent that had been believed before. Wariness is not universal in infants and is dependent upon the environmental conditions.

The acquisition of language begins in utrial with the sonic vibrations of the mother’s heartbeat and her voice and continues with the micromotions of twelve hour old newborn. Infants as young as $one month old are able to make fine discriminations between speech sounds and to perceive them in the same perceptual categories used by adults. The attention of adults is a key factor in the social development of the infants verbal commutative skills. Parents studied, who vocalize with their infants less, expressed the beliefs that it was a waste of time because the infant couldn't understand, and there is nothing that can be done to help the infant.

Two factors are apparent in the stages of speech development; maturation of neurological functions and learned behavior. Communication takes various form-physical contact, gestures, postures, facial expressions, noises, and more complex behavior apparent in emotional expressions and motor acts. It is important to remember that older and more primitive modes of communication always play a critical role in and become part of speech patterns. Often in today world people forget to touch and stroke each other when they talk of love.

The birth cry is often considered the beginning of speech. Shortly after birth, however, reflex crying (birth to 3 months) appears in response to discomfort of fear. Other noises, gurgling, sucking, cooing, laughing, appear as early as the second month and are added to patterns of crying (Johnson et al, 1978).

Babbling Stage (3 to 12 months) includes a variety of new skills and experiences. A basic change in vocal expression is the rapid increase in number and variety of sounds. The next change is a definite effort to imitate himself and others. In many cases, early imitations of another result from the parents repeating sounds the child has produced. Later, the parent initiates imitative responses with familiar and new sound. It is at this point that the basis for learning speech is identifiable. Earlier, all kinds of sound are repeated. Now those $$ which approximate language are selected for most intensive reinforcement. Another step in the development of speech is apparent when the child inter-grates his babbling and imitations into sequential patterns, which sound more and more like true speech as he approaches the first birthday (Johnson et al, 1978).

There is no clear empirical evidence at this time that identifies sex differences in infant behavior. There is a trend that infant females will vocalize more when handling novel objects than males.

Recognition of familiar objects in the evidence requires an inner language (in later years this is the language we use to "talk to ourselves"). The child later become aware that certain sounds spoken by the parent (bottle, for instance) stands for objects (auditory receptive language). Inner language and auditory receptive language precede actual production of meaningful works (auditory expressive language) (Johnson et al, 1978).

Infants are extremely sensitive to the environmental consequences of their behavior. Eye contact is an essential element in the infant's learning process. The two most positive reinforcers of infant behavior are novelty and gentle petting and stroking. When give the choice between familiar stimuli and novel stimuli, year old infants will always choose the novel. Infants have an insatiable thirst for knowledge to stimulate for growth of their brains.

The newborn eyes will have no tears, no functioning tear ducts will be evident for several weeks. The chemical composition of tears varies with the stimulus. Tears from eye irritation and emotional conflict are different in chemical composition. It appears that crying releases from the brain via the sinuses chemicals known as neurotransmitters that are in excess for normal brain function. Stress in the infants, such as touch deprivation, verbal and physical hostility, and restriction of mobility stimulate the overproduction of neurotransmitters.

Motor behavior of the newborn is largely under control of the spinal cord and medulla, while motor control in the adult is resident at different levels of the nervous system (Johnson et al., 1978). The average infant begins smiling at one month, vocalizing at two months, obtains some head control at three months, hand control at four months, is able to roll over at five months, can sit up at five and one half months, begins crawling at six months, stands alone at ten months, and walks alone at eleven months.

Infants have short-term and long-term memory, with cognitive activity becoming apparent around the end of the first year. Brain wave activity is form 3 to 7 cps for the newborn and reaches 5 to 8 cps by 12 months of age.

Laughter develops at about four months of age. Tactile and auditory actions produce laughter in four to six months old and social and visual stimuli produce laughter in nine to twelve month old.

Median birth weight is 7 1/4 lbs. for males and 7 lbs. for female infants. After an initial small loss of weight, most full-term infants regain their birth weight within 10 days. The infant gains approximately 2/3 oz a day during the middle and later part of the first year. Doubling of birth weight usually occurs by age 5 months and sometimes as early as 4 months. Birth weight is usually tripled by age 12 months to 22 1/4 lbs. for males and 21 lbs. for females.

Median length at birth is 20 inches for male and 19 1/2 inches for females. By six months median length is 26 1/2 inches for males and 26 inches for females. Median length at 12 month is 30 inches for males and 29 1/2 inches for females.

Vision: attention will be given to 4 inch objects brought into visual line and little attention is paid to stimuli beyond 2 feet in the 2 to 4 week infant. At 8 weeks the infant is alert to moving objects. By 12 weeks there is a fascination for light objects and bright colors. Pellets as small as 7 mm will be inspected. Tear glands begin to display response to emotion. Head and eye following is elicited through 180 degrees. At 16 to 20 weeks the infant inspects hands. One-inch test cubes stimulate immediate fixation within 2 feet of the eyes. Interest is shown in stimuli more than 3 feet away, and recognition of strangers evokes a response. At 20 to 28 weeks color preference for bright reds and yellows develops. Coordination between hand and eye is developing. Voluntary fixation of stationary objects can be maintained even in the presence of competing stimuli. True blinking appears. Discrimination to simple geometric forms can be shown with targets 1 1/2 to 3 inches in size. At 36 weeks, depth perception is dawning. Visual acuity exceeds 20/200 and the infant will approach small pellet accurately with an oblique approach. His head readily extends to gazes intently at facial expressions. Infants are able to discriminate between colors of 7.3 million colors and 150 hues. Color classification must be a natural ability that does not have to be acquired through language. Visual acuity exceeds 20/200 (Johnson et al, 1978).

The forms of abuse discussed earlier on pages 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 18, & 19 are all applicable to infants. Individuals, who have the opportunity, but do not obtain education and training about natural childbirth and as a consequence experience traumatic childbirth are infant abusers. Additionally, individuals who refuse to breast-fed when they are physically capable are infant abusers. Recently the World Health Organization banned the selling of formula foods through out the world. The only country that voted against the prohibition was the United States, which is the major producer of formula foods.

Public and private schools, hospitals and medial professionals who are aware of the alternatives to traumatic childbirth procedures and formula feeding, that do not provide education, facilities, and training about natural childbirth and breast-feeding are infant abuse. The practice of giving the infant a shot of alcohol when it is crying instead of breast-feeding, holding, petting, and sleeping with the infant is infant abuse. Alcoholics counseled all had the experience as verified by their parents when available of being given the shot of alcohol in their infancy.

Parenting of infants is a full time job. In Sweden when a couple have a child they are given two years off with pay from their job to be full time parents. Cultures which have the economic resources to subsidize new parents but don't are infant abusers. The nuclear family (mother, father, and children) is a recent outgrowth of the industrial age and does not meet the needs of the infant or the parents. Parenting small children in the nuclear family setting stresses the parents beyond their capabilities often with the result of child abuse. The extended family (five to eight adults responsible for the small child0 is the resultant child rearing pattern of several million years of social biological evolution in our species (Howell, 1968, Satir, 1972). Reinforcement by industry and government to encourage extended families will help in reducing infant abuse.

A universal complaint about infants of young parents counseled is the persistent behavior of their six or seven month old crawling over to the stereo or T.V and playing with it. Even though they slap the crawler's hand hard, the infant still plays with the stereo or T.V when they are not in the room. They just can not understand why the infant can not learn. They are totally oblivious to the infants nervous system maturation and response to novel stimuli. The simple solution, which is not at all obvious to them, is to place the stereo or T.V out of the reach of the infant. Many young parents are unable to consider that they have to adapt some to the infant. They know little if anything about infant development and will punish and belittle their infant for being an infant.

Unfortunately, not only young parents are unaware of the need to adapt to the infant, most housing and neighborhood construction fails to take into account the behavior of infants and small children. A typical North American suburb is automobile orientated, not child orientated. Observation of such a neighborhood on a sunny Saturday morning often includes the sound of a car screeching to a half, quickly followed by a number of parents running out into the front yard to see if their child has been injured. If their child is uninjured, they are more likely to scold and spank their child for playing in the street than the driver for going to fast in an area congested with children.

North American parents have a peculiar custom of placing their infants alone in a room at night by themselves. They seem to be astonished over the child constant crying at night, frequent nightmares, and prolonged bedwetting. North American social scientist, exemplified by Harlow's work on maternal deprivation, have published numerous articles in both the scientific journals and the popular literature about the disastrous effects of placing infants in isolation. Unfortunately, these comparative studies of primate infant isolation are ignored by the majority North American parents. A visit to the children's ward of a mental hospital will reveal that human infants respond the same way to isolation in infancy as do other primate infants. Isolating infants in rooms at night is infant abuse.

As the United States moves from an industrial society to a technological society the need for emotionally stable and creative citizens is required and we will fall behind other technological societies if we do not provide the proper milieu. Today present child rearing patterns, as evidenced by the extremely high rate of child abuse, child and teenage suicide, drug abuse, prostitution, and runaways, will not provide the stable environment to produce citizens capable of meeting the almost immediate needs of an evolving technological society.

A culture which has the technological resources available to disseminate information and training on natural childbirth, breast-feeding, and positive infant care free of destructive cultural rituals, but does not is not only reinforcing infant abuse but is self destructive.

THE CHILD: myelinization continues in the peripheral nervous system with motor behavior shifting from spinal control to different levels of the nervous system. Control of the anal and urinary sphincter at the neocortical level varies with sex and age. Generally females are capable of control of bladder and bowl control during awake time from the age of two to five. Males reach continence from the age of 2 1/2 to five while awake. During sleep both male and female seldom contain themselves until between the ages of 3 to 6 years of age. Additionally during sleep Nordic Caucasian males do not reach urinary control until 9 to 13 years of age. Any emotional trauma will precipitate loss of continence in both male and females.

Toilet training should not begin before the child is able to exercise conscious control over their anal and urinary sphincters. Young parents are rarely aware that parenting is the removal of several tons of human waste and are very devastated with the enormity of the task. At no time during the formal training should punishment be used when the child has accidents, but the child should be aware that he had an accident.

Vision: from 12 to 18 months-central acuity approaches 20/100. During this period the child will display a keen interest in pictures, will identify forms and associate simple visual experiences. He will learn to brush crayons to paper and produce linear marks. By 18 months convergence is fairly well established, though localization at a distance is immature, causing the child to run into objects that he sees. The interpretation of spatial intervals improves slowly during the ensuring 6 months.

At 2 years central acuity approaches 20/40. Fascination with minute objects demands refinement of the convergence-accommodation mechanism. The accomodative mechanism which may lead to esotipia comes into play. At three years, central acuity may reach 20/30. Convergence is now smoother and voluntary elements, through frontal lobe control, are developing for both accommodation and convergence. Attention span is fair, and fixation with small pictures or toys should approach 50 seconds. Afterimages can generally be described by the child.

At 4 years visual acuity is nearly 20/20. Disuse may cause deterioration, but not irreparable extinction of acuity. Othoptic examination demonstrates usefully interpretative responses, and tracing exercised can be performed. The child is now ready for reading. At 5 years true steropis is present. Color recognition is well established. At 6 years central acuity is present and in voltage over the occipital area is prominent, varying from 25 to 70 micro volts. The dominant rate in this region is fairly rhythmic 6 to 8-cps activity. Rate 4 to 6 cps waves are interspersed. However, in the central and temporal regions, these slower waves are common.

In the 4 year old basic frequency is 7 to 8 1/2 cps in the posterior areas. Less regular 4 to 6 cps waves are dominant in the central regions. Low voltage fast activity interspersed with irregular 4 to 6-cps waves prevails in the temporal lobes. At 8 years of age regular 8 to 10 cps activity which continues to fluctuate in amplitude at times predominates in the central and occipital areas; 4 to 6 cps waves appear randomly, only in the central regions. The 12 year old has low-voltage, fast activity predominating in the frontal-temporal lobes. Stead, well developed, 10 to 12 cps activity prevails in the central and occipital areas with the latter displaying more rhythmic and higher voltage activity.

EEG findings in the 16 years old display patterns similar to that seen in the adult. Steady 10 to 12-cps activities is dominant throughout. Slow waves are no longer apparent. Fast activity is frequent in the frontal and temporal areas. REM sleep steadily decreases from childhood to adulthood (Johnson et al, 1978).

Speech: the first true words spoken from 11 to 24 months are usually name of concrete objects and may be incompletely articulated. Some verbs may appear quite early, even though they represent a kind of abstraction. Age and rate of acquisition of words may vary considerably and still be within normal range. Some two or three word combinations may be learned and used essentially as a single word, which has several meanings. Ball-may signify, see the pretty ball or I want a variety of representations for objects, people and actions in the environment, the child discovers that more complex meanings (and increased rewards) can be elicited by combining words. If words are learned early and vocabulary continues to develop, delay in sentence formation may be significant before the upper age limit indicated above.

It would be a mistake to view speech development as an isolated process; it is closely linked with total physical, psychological and sociological progress. Disruption or distortion in any of these areas may have serious repercussions, and it is particularly important that speech be developed during early childhood. There is considerable evidence that lack of developmental opportunity or existence of severe inhibitory factors may have serious and permanent deleterious effects on linguistic-symbolic-intellectual development, and the child never become a completely functional human being (Johnson et al, 1978).

There are many specific ways parents can stimulate development and reduce the possibility of delay during the pre-speech period. Rocking, holding, mothering, singing and talking to the child during the reflexive vocalization period are all helpful in establishing a basic communicative relationship on a fundamental level.

Throughout the babbling period, the role of the parent becomes increasingly important. Soon after the child begins to enjoy playing with wounds and other speech variations, parents often attempt to get him to imitate their sounds or noises and the child reacts with silence or random noises. The parents will have more success, initially, by imitating sounds the child makes-allowing the child to evoke a sound he recognizes from them. This helps to bridge the gap between his self-imitation and imitation of others. Possibly the most helpful stimulation derives from the repeated enjoyment of both parent and child in these interchanges, regardless of content or nature of the responses by each. The warm, pleasurable affect created reinforces oral communication, the rewards of which are carried over into work and sentence development.

A basic principle or attitude at all stages should be to stimulate, encourage and provide opportunities for speech, but not demand or penalize for failure to produce what the parents have demanded. This is a difficult principle to put into practice consistently, for parents' needs for reward and reassurance from the child's behavior push them to apply pressures injudiciously, and demands or penalties unconsciously creep into their behavior. If speech is rewarding rather than punishing the child will talk when he is able to do so. The parent who decides it is time for the child to talk and begins to pressure the child often retards the child speech development. The best approach for all children delayed or normal, is to provide appropriate stimulation in several ways.

Johnson et al. (1978) state:

The child should hear talking and be talked to, especially in tone that indicates genuine warmth and affection. He should be provided with a wide range of continuous experiences, repeated as often as possible, as a basis for developing inner language. Then, these experiences should be talked about as a way of enlarging the auditory receptive language. Finally, he should be given opportunities to produce speech - using interrogatory tones rather than imperative with essentially a neutral emotional response by the parents most of the time. Some pleasure in his attempt to talk should be expressed, but exaggerated pleasure for rewarding purposes is too much of a contrast for the time he does not respond, and thus a penalty is present even though not intended (p. 60)

One of the most difficult stages of language development the parent encounters emotionally is when their child imitates the parent's use of "dirty" words on a setting that is embarrassing to the parent. The parent should never punish the child (washing the mouth out with soap, slapping, and spanking seem to be favorite methods) for repeating what the child hears in the environment. The parent should both stop suing the "dirty" words and should explain to the child what the words mean and caution the child not to use the words in settings that frighten the parent or others. Research indicates that often the first words children hear and learn to say are the words their parents say when they have to get up in the middle of the night to change a dirty diaper, or feed a hungry baby. I wonder how many children thought their name was 'God damns little shit." Unfortunately "dirty" words are most often associated with sex or excrement and the child is negatively condition from infancy about its normal activities.

Language is a controlling factor in the child perception of the world and their perception of themselves. An American child will first learn words that are object orientated, such as ball, car, Mom, apple, etc., whereas a Hopi child will first learn words which are movement orientated such as fun, jump, walk, etc. One language is object orientated and the other is movement orientated. Additionally the language used by mothers is socializing their children determines how the child views itself. For example if a child is misbehaving, a French mother would tell the child that it is being unwise; a Swedish mother would say that the child is being unfriendly; a German mother would tell the child to get in line; a Hopi mother would way that the child was not following the Hopi way; an American mother would tell the child that it is bad; a Trobianian would say, how childlike. Additionally, the milieu often determines the child perception of the world. For example, an Eskimo child will learn a hundred or more words to describe the various conditions of snow; a Trobianian child will learn how to describe yams in 70 or 80 different conditions, an American child will know the names of 30 or 40 characters in a film such as start Wars.

The acquisition of verbal and written language is the most important skill the child will develop in today's world. Communication skills will determine the child's ability to function as an adult. Any behavior on the part of the child's caretakers, which either deprives them of the needed stimulation or punishes them for learning verbal and written behavior, thus impeding or retarding language development is child abuse.

Any society that fails to provide caretakers with the time necessary to provide verbal stimulation to infants or does not provide childcare programs from infancy to six years of age which develops the child's communication skills fully or does not provide parents with the information on language development that will enable them to provide the necessary training is abusing those children.

Cultures, which continue to reinforce myths that the infant or young child is incapable of language development, are both abusive and doomed to extinction.

Sexuality: embraces and caresses are fund and pleasurable for both children and adults. It is normal development for a child to play with his or her genitals. Children are not able to control their excretion until the ages of three to seven. It is perfectly natural for children to play with their urine and feces. Children in Europe and America are forbidden to play with their excretory and sex organs. This creates unnecessary inhibitions in the child's curiosity and play. When children disobey they experience feelings of anxiety and guilt. Young children are not able to distinguish exactly between sex organs and excretory organs.

During the time of development when the child is learning cleanliness they actively seek contact with playfellows and form their first, often very intense, friendships with children of the same age. Numerous sex games such as "doctor" are played. Children of all ages, but especially those in middle childhood and prepuberty, express their sexual interest and knowledge in songs, chants, games, jokes, and rhymes. Most children conceal their repertory of rhymes and songs from their parents because they are forbidden to use "dirty" words in adult company. Children's sex games are a normal part of sexual development. Western countries practice sexual repression with their children, but sex games are carried on in secret, despite their suppression. And because of the repression anxiety and guilt form. Male and female must engage in childhood sexual play in order to have mature sexual behavior in adulthood. Parental tolerances toward sexual games preserve and strengthen the child's positive attitude to his own sexuality. Early sexual games encourage confident sexual adjustment.

Western parents will often attempt to "cure" their male children of playing with their penis with the threat of cutting off their penis if they don't stop. Additionally they tell both male and females that the child will go crazy, blind, etc. if they continue masturbating. Furthermore, when they catch children in sexual play they will often whip each child and tell them in seclusion that the other child is evil, bad, etc. and they should never play with that child again.

Sexual development can be impaired in the child if the family treats everything connected with bodily excretions as dirty and repulsive. Children should be encouraged to a acquire a positive attitude to their own bodies and sex from an early age. Sex education, like all education, should begin in infancy, within the family. By the time the child reaches school he is already encumbered with the prejudices and misconceptions as a result of a repressive attitude to sex in their home and environment. All parents should answer their children's questions about sex honestly and openly. If the child has sufficient opportunity for seeing parents, brothers, sisters, and friends naked, he will not find it difficult to establish his own sexual affiliation. One of the most important tasks of modern sex education will be to communicate to young girls a naturally positive attitude to the whole sphere of female sexuality, including motherhood. Parents can only learn to be parents by the way they are parented.

One of the difficulties faced by parents in the United States is the prevailing sexual repression of the dominate culture. Parents in the United States risk imprisonment and loss of their children for behavior that is considered necessary for adequate sexual adjustment in other cultures and by the biological and social scientist of their own culture.

Until such time as cultural sexual abuse is discontinued in the United States parents will have to rely upon books such as A Child is Born, Show Me, and They Joy of Sex to assist their children in developing a healthy attitude about sex.

One form of Societal Abuse that needlessly effects at least 30% of the children in the United States is adversary divorce is a method in which parents enlist the services of separate attorneys to present their position in court as to why they should have custody of the children and their ex-spouse should not. Often a mental health professional is employed by one parent or both to provide expert testimony as to the fitness of one parent over the other to parent the children.

Unfortunately, the very nature of the adversary process exacerbates the emotional trauma to the child as both parents exhibit internecine behavior towards each other during the custody trial and the following years. The child is torn between the two parents, when most often the child loves both parents. Sometimes one or both parents struggle over the child in an attempt to keep in contact with each other. On other occasions one or both parents are attempting to prove that they are more powerful or that their new life style is better.

In the battle, it is the child who suffers most. Most of that suffering is caused by the parents who use the court system and the child to get back to each other. Often the child is made to believe if they love both parents they have betrayed one of them. Additionally they are often told that members of the spouse's extended family are bad or that member of the new spouse's extended family should be shunned.

Most often the genesis of the denial, anger, depression and vindictive wrath displayed by the separating partners is the death of their marriage. The death of their marriage may in part have been caused by the stress and strain of a nuclear family and may in fact when the custody battle is over be an unconscious attempt to establish an extended family. Nevertheless, the parents will heap gifts and favors upon the child in an effort to prove to the child that they are better parents. The end result is generally a confused, angry, materialistic, and emotionally traumatized child.

The majority of custody disputes are not in the best interest of the child. The State of California, through Senate Bill 961, the family reconciliation court act enacted in Jan. 1981, has taken steps to reduce this form of Societal abuse. Counties and states which do no have conciliation courts in which custody disputes can first be discussed between the parents free of the adversary process with the goal of reaching a compromise that is in the best interest of the child are reinforcing Societal Abuse.

Another aspect of alcoholism as a form of Cultural Child Abuse is the carnage on the highways of the world cause by dunk drivers. In the United States alone 2,000 to 5,000 children are killed, 10,000 to 20,000 are maimed and 10,000 to 20,000 are emotionally traumatize by the loss of their immediate family members each year. In the United States drunk drivers, who are involved in maiming and fatal accidents, have traditionally not been punished nor has one ever been prosecuted under the child abuse laws. Only recently, at the insistence of grass root organizations like Mother's Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), has there been any legislative or judicial effort brought to bear against the drunk driver.

The cultural tolerance of alcoholism is a function, in part of sophisticated mass advertising, which portrays the use of alcohol as one of the accouterments of high status and a good sex life. Attempts at halting the production, distribution and use of alcohol will no in anyway deter its recreational use. Mass advertising of alcohol is societal abuse.

Advertising, as a form of societal abuse is not limited to drugs. As discussed on page 29, it can be extended to food products. A review of the Saturday morning children's T.V programming will reveal sophisticated advertising seducing young children into believing they are capable of feats of giant slaying by the ingestion of food products that are non-nutritious and very expensive. Use of such advertising on small children societal abuse.

In addition to the civil cases brought against pharmaceutical companies as discussed on page 28, a number of civil suits have been filed against companies that pollute the air, water and soil for the damage that has been done to fetuses, infants, and children. Pollution is Societal Child Abuse.

War is Cultural Child Abuse.

The pubic education system in the United States generally is very repressive and abusive with the majority of its students. This is in part due to the prevailing cultural belief in spare the rod spoil the child and a misperception of the developing skill and abilities of children. Educational systems, which utilize corporal punishment and are overcrowded, are Societal Child Abusers (Leonard, 1986; Neill, 1960; 1966; 1974).

This concludes the discussion of cross-cultural definitions of child abuse based upon the developmental needs of the child. The author hopes that the reader has a broader understanding of Cultural, Societal, and Individual Child Abuse and their manifestations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse/neglect. And that the cross-cultural definitions of Child Abuse based upon the needs of the developing child are understandable and useful. A review of treatment of child abuse follows.