How One Judge is Changing Infants’ Lives Baby Families.com

How One Judge is Changing Infants’ Lives

It is pretty much widely known among the scientific community that babies who interact regularly with their parents are, well. . .smarter. Early development specialists have long suggested that a lack of interaction can lead to a life time of learning problems and a lack of trust. When infants cannot connect with an adult it leaves them unable to trust anyone and often leads to a cyclical life of abuse and neglect. The neglected becomes the mother who neglects. . .and the cycle never ends.

Enter Judge Cindy Lederman. As a family court judge in Florida, she sees cases like this all the time. She see plenty of bad parents, bad care takers, and abused children. Only she has done something about it that may revolutionize the way family courts deal with the slate of problems they see on a daily basis.

Understanding this early bonding period to be crucial, Judge Lederman put together a team of experts and started a therapeutic center for parents. The team includes mental health workers and case workers. Whenever a mother with an infant goes through her courts, they get a little extra help in learning how to deal with their babies.

With a belief that the best possible situation for baby is to re-establish bonding with its mother, mothers in trouble get the help they need to hopefully begin to build that connection. At the parenting center it all starts with observation. A team of family experts observe how the mother interacts with her baby.

Then, over the course of several sessions, therapists help moms reconnect with their babies. They learn how to play and interact with their children. They learn effective discipline techniques rather than hitting or yelling. They essentially learn to break the cycle of violence that had once consumed them.

As someone who has worked with abused children, I have to say that I think this program is fantastic. At its very worst, it gives the infant some bonding and interacting time with his mother and that will go a long way regardless of what happens. At its best, it has the potential to break the cycle of violence and change the lives of the mothers and babies that get to use it.