Lou Aymard

The importance of thinking globally about the welfare of children was etched into our consciousness by tragic Tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004.  The fundamental needs of children on our planet are not complex.  If we can split the atom, put a man on the moon and unravel the secrets of the human genome, we can care for all of our children.  Two prominent child advocates, Harvard pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton and Washington, DC child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, offer parents, professionals, and policymakers lucid guidelines for doing so.  Their recent book entitled The Irreducible Needs of Children6 is a must read for futurists. Our genuine care for the youngest among us, or our callous insouciance about them bear grave consequences for the fabric of American society.  The late Dr. Karl Meninger left us with a sobering admonition – what is done to children, they will do to society.

1 Children's Defense Fund,

2 KIDS COUNT 2004 Data Book Online, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland.     

3 The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America .  The National Marriage  Project: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2003 (p.5).  http://marriage.rutgers.edu/.

4 Hewlett, S. A. (1991).  When the bough breaks: The cost of neglecting our children.  New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

5 Amen, Daniel G. (1998). Change your brain: Change your life.  New York: Three Rivers Press.  

6. Brazelton, T.B. & Greenspan, S. I.  (2000).  The irreducible needs of children: What every child  must have to grow, learn, and flourish.  Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

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Lou Aymard, Ph.D. is a licensed child psychologist with over 33 years of clinical, research and teaching experience.  He presented the The Future of Children at Anne Arundel Community College’s Institute for the Future and The Future of Children’s Play at the 2004 World Future Society’s annual conference.  Aymard is the founding director of The Parening Center, a parent education center, at Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, Maryland. 

Dr. Aymard may be reached directly on llaymard@aacc.edu. Check out The Parenting Center Web pages.