Citation

Roberts JV. Child Abuse Negl. 1979; 3(3-4): 1011-1016.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article is about my experiences of fostering abused children. I have been fostering for ten years and ours is perhaps a unique situation of two single women sharing the work. We have 13 foster children and have used the other children in the family as much as possible to help the two I am going to describe.I feel very strongly that children can give greatly to other children and that they grow in the process. Children can be cruel to each other -- yes, but they have a tremendous capacity to give if we encourage them. We can help them to harness their own bad experiences constructively and achieve something in their giving.I have chosen two very different children to talk about. Mike was perhaps the most easily recognisable "neglected" child, and had all the classic symptoms. Alan is a much older child and I have decided to tell you about him because there is such ignorance about the long term effects of verbal abuse and mental cruelty, and sadly such children are rarely given the opportunity of being fostered.