Prot
11-04-2008, 10:06 AM
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/11/trans_children_tra.html
The Atlantic magazine has an excellent article (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200811/transgender-children)
about the heated issues raised by children who want to be the opposite sex. It's an excellent piece that captures both the dilemmas of parents and mental health professionals sparked by potentially transgendered children.
I sometimes jokingly suggest that clinical child psychology would be better described as clinical parent psychology, owing to the fact that it almost always involves working as much with the parents' anxieties as the child's.
This is particularly important when it comes to behaviours which are not considered, in themselves, to be physically or mentally damaging, but which are socially unacceptable or stigmatised, because the pressure often takes the form of others wishing the child would conform to social norms.
The Atlantic article gives some vivid examples of some of the pressures, as the child, mother, father, professionals, peers and campaigning groups each have different opinions on how to manage a young child that dresses and acts like a child of the opposite sex.
The Atlantic magazine has an excellent article (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200811/transgender-children)
about the heated issues raised by children who want to be the opposite sex. It's an excellent piece that captures both the dilemmas of parents and mental health professionals sparked by potentially transgendered children.
I sometimes jokingly suggest that clinical child psychology would be better described as clinical parent psychology, owing to the fact that it almost always involves working as much with the parents' anxieties as the child's.
This is particularly important when it comes to behaviours which are not considered, in themselves, to be physically or mentally damaging, but which are socially unacceptable or stigmatised, because the pressure often takes the form of others wishing the child would conform to social norms.
The Atlantic article gives some vivid examples of some of the pressures, as the child, mother, father, professionals, peers and campaigning groups each have different opinions on how to manage a young child that dresses and acts like a child of the opposite sex.