Family Court Australia Children's Drawings

Children communicate differently from adults. This video shows how children express their distress and trauma. Family Courts should tailor themselves to allow for the ways children communication their trauma rather than not giving children a voice or expecting the to tailor the way they communicate to fit with adult expectations.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Family
• Court
• Children
• barbbiggs

[SuperTugg]

@wedontgetsafe What if a mother is emotionally manipulating that child?

Emotional manipulation of a child can be a powerful and controlling ordeal for them, you may as well have a gun to that child's head.

And you reckon that we should act like this child is speaking freely???

I am sick of seeing children used like weapons, and the evil mother sitting back and acting like "well thats what the child wants, so who am I to disagree?"

[SuperTugg]

@SilverRedIndigo Exactly right. Even the child may not mean something as literal as an adult.

Adults might see a drawing of a child shooting a Dad and assume that the child hates the Dad. But the meaning may not be as simple as that.

For example the child may be expressing sentiments that he/she has seen or heard mummy expressing. Children pick up on even the smallest of non-verbal communication, and this can influence how they perceive people and events that are occurring around them.

[jenhow69]

children express their FEELINGS through pictures. Children find it hard to express or voice their inner turmoil and desires. This does not mean they are unable to communicate something as easily projected as 'daddy hurts me' or mummy 'hurts me'. Very good way of getting a child to express their feelings but not necessarily an account of an actual event or an actual act they want to take place, or has taken place. I have seen this happen on many occasions.

[wedontgetsafe]

This is so true, children need to be heard. They are young, but they will know where they want to stay and who they want to be with. This doesn't mean they have to appear in court, but they need to be able to communicate through other means such as drawing, or telling someone they trust, And their opinions MUST be heard, if we are to prevent child abuse.

[jbeking]

Thank you for putting this video together, It's like we have gone backward in time with the "justice" system.

[SilverRedIndigo]

Seems like the monster that the child's Mother got swallowed up in is the system.

[SilverRedIndigo]

You're quite right.

Children do need to communicate about the violence behind closed doors - the closed doors of the Courts.

It is eminently clear that the first child's drawings were perfectly normal *before* she fell into the hands of child "welfare" systems. Only then did she express horrors.

Good job of self-disclosure. This is a classic. Thank you.