Baby play, is it very important?

   Future criminals are “made” at eight months old by unaware parents who don’t know how to play with their children.

   Research conducted over three years by Dr George Hosking, clinical criminologist, shows that couples who watch television or listen to the radio while they play with or to their babies can produce violent, anti-social and aggressive children who later turn to crime and behavior. He says mothers who do not spend at least 30 minutes a day, without background noise, focusing solely    on their children when they are between eight months and a year old are more likely to produce offspring with criminal tendencies. In other, these children grow up with anti-social personalities.

   "It is possible to predict who will turn to criminal behavior 18 years in advance," says Dr Hosking, who works for Worldwide Alternatives to Violence. "There is a critical window for children’s emotional development between eight and eighteen months. By twelve months if the parents have not responded to their child’s moods in a positive and interactive way, the child shows signs of distress and is considered as a difficult baby. It is a downward spiral from then on. Mothers or fathers need to get emotionally "in tune" with their babies, by responding directly and completely to their needs. They should not attempt to force a type of behavior on them at this young age.

   Dr Hosking, who has three children, added: "the ‘mistuned’ babies are more likely to display aggression and fits of bad temper, more likely to start fights with other children, kill and become cruel creatures, and have behavior problems. As they get older they are more likely to face arrest, and face a life of crime and violence. There is unlocked violence in many people which comes out as domestic violence in later life".