The National Institute for Child and Family Development (NICFD), Mahidol University had organized a seminar on the “Treatment for Children Affected by Violence” on 7th October 2020 in an online via ZOOM Cloud Meeting application.

Assoc. Prof. Adisak Plitponkarnpim, M.D., Director of the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University said that violence against children takes many forms such as maltreatment; it involves physical, sexual and psychological or emotional violence; and neglect of infants and children by parents, caregivers, and other authority figures. Moreover, another form of violence is emotional or psychological violence includes restricting a child’s movements, denigration, ridicule, threats and intimidation, discrimination, rejection, and other non-physical forms of hostile treatment. It occurs in various contexts, in a child’s home, at school, and in public. Moreover, violence has lifelong impacts on the health and well-being of children such as delay development, aggressive, having a disability or mental health problems as well as it contributes to a wide range of non-communicable diseases as children grow older such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and other health conditions.

In this regard, schools and early childhood development centers should be a safe place for children treated from affected by domestic violence. By diagnosing and find these children to help, protect, and treated them by using a learning mechanism that uses non-violent children to treat children who have been subjected to family violence, Assoc. Prof. Adisak said.

Whereas, Assist. Prof. Kaewta Nopmaneejumruslers, M.D., Deputy Director of Clinical Services and Early Childhood Development Center and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatricians explain that no matter what form of violence a child is exposed to their experience may lead to serious and lifelong consequences. Violence can result in physical injury, anxiety, depression, stress, physical and mental health problems as well as learning and meditation problems. Moreover, when a child is exposed to violence for a long time, it will enter to child’s memory and have long-term behavioral, mental health, and learning impacts on children. However, parents should keep an eye on child emotions, behavior, and communicate with them every day in order to know what they are facing in everyday life. Besides, love and warmth from parents are methods that can help children getting better from the pain. For teachers, the school has to survey and assess teachers’ readiness before accepting them to perform childcare duties for the safety of the children.