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Link: Why we are no longer hitting kids
Another great twitter thread from Tori Williams Douglass, @ToriGlass. Open in a private window so Twitter doesn't hassle you about logging in, or read the full thread below.
let’s talk about why we are no longer hitting kids! in a word? research! we now have five decades of peer reviewed reproducible studies looking at kids’ behavior, outcomes, and brain scans. no matter the angle, hitting kids is always bad for them. no exceptions.
behavior: hitting kids does not get them to improve their behavior long term. it puts their nervous system into “fight or flight” meaning the preponderance of their brain’s resources are focused on “just SURVIVE this”. fight or flight actually hinders learning and self-regulation
outcomes: on the whole, how do kids who are hit fare when compared to kids who weren’t hit? in a word: worse. kids who are hit experience anxiety, depression, violent outbursts at a rate higher than their peers who are not hit. they have *less* “self control” than kids who aren’t
brain scans: MRIs show that people who were hit as kids
have less gray matter than people who weren’t. when your brain thinks it needs to devote a lot of resources to staying alive, there are, it turns our, fewer resources left for learning, regulating, and improving behavior
now here’s the good news. this is not proof that people who were hit as kids are all destined to be failures. we can see that is untrue. what it means is that those of us who were hit as children have brains that are wired more toward survival than processing new information.
if you were hit as a kid, you are not predestined to become a violent person incapable of learning new things.
at the end of the day, we just have fewer cognitive funds left in the account because our nervous systems were trained to believe the world requires hyper vigilance.
turns out, facts don’t care that you think you “turned out ok” despite being hit. if you are on the internet arguing that adults should be allowed to physically assault someone 1/3 their size? you did not in fact turn out ok
thankfully for all of us, therapy + medication exist
unfortunately we can’t go back and have those developmental experiences we missed because our brains were focused on surviving. but all of us can resolve to advocate and agitate for protecting kids from violence in the home.
and that counts.
/fin
let’s talk about why we are no longer hitting kids! in a word? research! we now have five decades of peer reviewed reproducible studies looking at kids’ behavior, outcomes, and brain scans. no matter the angle, hitting kids is always bad for them. no exceptions.
behavior: hitting kids does not get them to improve their behavior long term. it puts their nervous system into “fight or flight” meaning the preponderance of their brain’s resources are focused on “just SURVIVE this”. fight or flight actually hinders learning and self-regulation
outcomes: on the whole, how do kids who are hit fare when compared to kids who weren’t hit? in a word: worse. kids who are hit experience anxiety, depression, violent outbursts at a rate higher than their peers who are not hit. they have *less* “self control” than kids who aren’t
brain scans: MRIs show that people who were hit as kids
have less gray matter than people who weren’t. when your brain thinks it needs to devote a lot of resources to staying alive, there are, it turns our, fewer resources left for learning, regulating, and improving behaviornow here’s the good news. this is not proof that people who were hit as kids are all destined to be failures. we can see that is untrue. what it means is that those of us who were hit as children have brains that are wired more toward survival than processing new information.
if you were hit as a kid, you are not predestined to become a violent person incapable of learning new things.
at the end of the day, we just have fewer cognitive funds left in the account because our nervous systems were trained to believe the world requires hyper vigilance.
turns out, facts don’t care that you think you “turned out ok” despite being hit. if you are on the internet arguing that adults should be allowed to physically assault someone 1/3 their size? you did not in fact turn out ok
thankfully for all of us, therapy + medication exist
unfortunately we can’t go back and have those developmental experiences we missed because our brains were focused on surviving. but all of us can resolve to advocate and agitate for protecting kids from violence in the home.
and that counts.
/fin
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Sometimes I wonder how smart I could have been if my parents hadn't kept me more or less terrified for 18 years. I could have done so much else with all that energy.
At least I learned to lie with a straight face, I guess.
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Hey, thank you. :)
hugs you
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And thank you for the postcard!
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