David Howe is a retired Professor and Dean for the School of Social Work and Psychosocial Sciences at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.

He is the author of many books in the field of child abuse and neglect, including Attachment Theory for Social Work Practice and Child Abuse and Neglect.

Questions:

1. I would love for you to share some of your journey. How did you get into the work you now do?
2. Could you please speak about neglect. What is it?
3. Could you please talk a little about attachment. What is attachment and how important is good enough attachment for children?
4. Could you please talk about why researchers are saying “child neglect has a more severe and adverse impact on children’s development than abuse.” (P.111)
5. What are some of the symptoms that might show up to signify a child is being neglected?
6. And might some of the symptoms be for an adult who was neglected as a child?
7. Below is a quote from your book combined with a quote from a biography. I would love for you to speak to this and about physical neglect: “The broad characteristics of physical neglect are familiar to most childcare practitioners. Nutrition can be poor. Clothes are old or dirty or too big. Bedrooms are sparsely furnished and cold. Children are left unsupervised and under stimulated.” David Howe Child Abuse and Neglect, P.111 “The food was spartan. I lost a stone in weight during a single term (7-8 years old). There was one meal that consisted of curry, rice – and maggots. In the school grounds were woods and a lake where we could play unsupervised in green boiler suits - it is something of a miracle that no one drowned.” DC P.21
8. I would love you to talk about this from your book: “Our evidence supports the hypothesis that the most severe psychological conflicts arise from neglect.” Ney, Fung and Wicket 1994) P.111
9. Another quote from your book and a biography: “Take away our affective links with others and we feel vulnerable, alone and distressed.” P.112 “I missed mum and dad terribly, and on the occasional night where I felt this the worst, I remember trying to muffle my tears in my pillow whilst the rest of the dormitory slept.“In fact I was not alone in doing this. Almost everyone cried, but we all learnt to hide it, and those who didn’t were the ones who got bullied.” BG P.58
10. Could you please talk about emotional neglect. What does emotional neglect look like?
11. Another quote from your book about feeling safe: “...the most basic of these (needs) is children’s need to feel safe; that at times of danger, the caregiver is able and willing to provide protection. Feeling unprotected is frightening, and fear is the most primitive, powerful and dysregulating of the emotions.” P.113 “When I hit (boarding) school, suddenly all I felt was fear. Fear forces you to look tough on the outside, but makes you weak on the inside.” BG P.58 “But what made me most scared wasn’t just being away from home - it was the bullying.” BG P.60

#neglect #childabuse #childhoodneglect #trauma

To buy David's books please visit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=david+howe&crid=3F9I74L1F8SFC&sprefix=david+howe%2Caps%2C263&ref=nb_sb_noss_1