Feral Child.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

How would you deal with a Feral Child within a system. We have
discovered one that is brought out by 2 things - head being hurt
and by the smell of lavender. She is wild. Seriously wild. I like
her but am frightened by her fear.

She does not appear to be fully aware of her body.

--- Miri of Mtribe

Comments

[pengke.livejournal.com]

Wild and frightened are different. Could you make the smell very quick, like scent on a paper, to get her out in a child friendly place? Maybe she would stay long enough without the scary-making things to calm down.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

That is a good point. I still think she is wild or feral but i might be wrong.

Your comment forwarded to system with wild seeming child.

--- Miri of Mtribe

[crystalseraph.livejournal.com]

Well, of the two, the lavender is probably the more positive. I'd say that you'd need to work very slowly, very patiently. Find out what gets her attention or gets her curious, if you can. If you have an otherspace set up, maybe consider making a place for her, and try and draw her to the same comforting things each time.

Not reacting to her fear will probably help. Kids pick up on the emotions of others very easily, even if you're trying to hide it. Trying to communicate empathically (if you're co-concious, that is) with feelings of calmness would probably help.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Forwarding to system having this issue.

---- Miri of Mtribe

[chaostiny.livejournal.com]

We had to "tame" Sam (female) and a few others. We started by offering chocolate... don't ask...it just works to prove we arent going to hurt them. From there we just follow their lead and try to give them what they need while never doing anything to hurt them.
On the side; lavendar makes me want to puke...and I get really panicky... I don't know why but I havent really tried to figure it out.
Michaela

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

I am forwarding this message to the system with the wild child. If things are
calm today maybe we can draw her out.

--- Miri of Mtribe

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

http://www.feralchildren.com/

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Am using concepts learned there to deal with the little.

--- Miri

Feral Children

[seaclans.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine often says "No sudden moves, frequent offers of food." I'd expand on that and say try to keep loud noises to a minimum as well. Many of our most feral kids are hypersensitive in all their sense so a dim room might be good as well. If possible try not to touch her, especially without clear warning, in us the hypersensitivity means that touch, especially light pressure is painful. I also think it might be a good idea to try to tell if the lavender smell trigger is a positive one, even a good smell could connect to a nasty memory. So using it to bring her out might be problematic. With us there seem to be people who are much better at approaching these kids then others, so with your system and in the person whose child this is you might try to put out feelers for those people to be present if you have such specialists. Giving her something to hold onto might be a good idea, such as a pillow or something like that, it can be both a shield and a tie to the present. If I think of any more ideas I'll post again.

Re: Feral Children

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

That is good advice. We learned the hard way about the hypersensitivity to touch,
though luckilly she moved past it. She did not like having her hand touched to
get her attention.

The pillow idea is a very good one. I have passed this post on to the system with
feral little.

--- Miri of Mtribe