SCREAM

anger frustration rejection distress guilt disappointment anxiety

Yelling that comes with verbal putdowns and insults can be qualified as emotional abuse. It’s been shown to have long-term effects, like anxiety, low self-
esteem, and increased aggression.

Children are often their own harshest critics and negative self-talk is very destructive. Unfortunately, they often learn
this negative talk from the adults in their lives.

You’ll often see kids blame others and point the finger at someone else when you hold them accountable for their behavior. They often see themselves as the victim, no matter how
aggressive or abusive their behavior is. Thinking of themselves as the victim gives them the ability, in their mind, to not take any responsibility. And if they don’t take responsibility, then
they don’t have to change.

Many parents rely on criticism and negative language believing that it will make their children responsible. Or they may think
that they own their children and have the right to do whatever they want with them. Parents also
use frequent comparisons with siblings, sarcasm and threats in their conversations.

Studies on children in a variety of settings show that severe deprivation or neglect disrupts the ways in which children’s brains develop and
process information, increasing the risk for attentional, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral disorders. Also alters the development of
biological stress-response systems, leading to greater risk for anxiety, depression, cardiovascular problems, and other chronic health
impairments later in life.

Toxic people can come in the form of teachers, coaches, relatives, parents (their own and the parents of others) and friends. The only thing anyone needs to be toxic is a mouth. The
potential is in all of us.

Even teachers can hurt children perhaps by threatening, shouting at a child or calling them names, making the child the subject
of jokes, or using sarcasm to hurt a child.
Anna Gillespie - 'Peta'
Christopher David - Christopher
'Within Arm's
David
reach'
. . . experimenting

Developing . . .
I'm trying to
experiment with
making a tree
trunk maquettes
from jute
and plaster or
modroc covered
with plaster on
top of it and form
the texture of the
tree bark . . .
At this point I'm
still not sure which
material I'll use
and if the tree
trunk will be made
out of the clay
covered with a
plaster and jute or
modroc or I'll use
wired construction
covered with
above mentioned
materials.
 What will I do next?
• Make sure I'm happy with the hands and that
they won't crack massively (although I would be happy with
crack here and there as it all would suit the fact that children are
fragile souls).

• Decide on what material I use for tree in general. If I go

perhaps with different materials for parts which I will put
together like roots, trunk and crown, I need to decide if I
want to cover all of it in the end with perhaps mod roc . . . not
sure at this stage?!
• Do I need to use clay at all?!

• I need to think what size I want the whole tree to be.

• I would like to come up with an idea of how to make roots

to appear rotten.

• Develop a cage idea where it would be formed out of the

roots, so it would be wires coming up forming a cage/box
around the whole tree, representing how children create a
barrier between them and outer world to protect themselves.