Children must be trained on how to avoid danger: experts

[rooster59]

Children must be trained on how to avoid danger: experts

By The Nation

 

 

TRAGIC FALL OF THREE KIDS IN BALCONY COLLAPSE SEEN AS WAKE-UP CALL FOR PARENTS

 

THE COUNTRY needs to learn a lesson from the recent tragic fall of four unattended children from their rented apartment in Bangkok, experts emphasised yesterday.

 

Associate Professor Adisak Plitapolkarnpim, who heads the Mahidol University’s National Institute for Child and Family Development, said the tragedy could have been avoided had these children received help or proper training.

 

 

On Tuesday, four Thai-Swiss siblings fell from a fourth-floor balcony to the ground outside a five-storey apartment building. The accident killed one five-year-old boy and injured three other siblings, while their mother was out working. The mother had separated from their father.

The children were between five and 11 years old.

 

“The oldest is just 11 and she has to care of three younger siblings. In principle, the children will be able to live alone when they reach the age of 12 if they receive training,” Adisak said.

 

He pointed out that children, for example, should be trained about what to do in the event of an emergency and about how to avoid possible danger.

 

According to their grandfather, it is very likely the youngsters were trying to collect a dish that had fallen into a net next to the balcony when a section of the balcony gave way.

 

“Things would have been different had they not tried to collect the dish by themselves,” Adisak said.

 

 

He said his centre had conducted a project to equip children with safety skills starting from the age of 10 years. “Children should have been taught these skills in the event they have to stay home alone,” he said.

 

Adisak also emphasised that had teachers and neighbours alerted authorities about the children being unattended, they would have received help and the tragedy could have been prevented.

 

“Teachers should go visiting their students at home to see how they are doing. If they are alone at such a young age, give them help,” he said.

 

This expert also pointed out that relevant authorities must provide clear information to parents on how they could seek help when having to leave their children unattended.

 

“If you find children unattended at night, call 1300,” Adisak said.

 

He said parents were by law required to ensure a safe and sound environment for their children, in the event they had to leave their children unattended.

 

“Failure to do so is punishable by a jail term of up to three months and/or a fine of Bt30,000,” he said.

 

He added that parents who brought their young children to a nursery must not be complacent either.

 

“Check if your children have sustained any wound when they come back home. Call 1300 if you find a serious or suspicious wound,” he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30344627

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-05

[YetAnother]

5 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

the children will be able to live alone when they reach the age of 12 if they receive training,” Adisak said.

12 year olds can survive , unsupervised, in a giant city like bangkok, without succumbing to all the negative possibilities there ? in what universe ?

[Get Real]

5 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

He said parents were by law required to ensure a safe and sound environment for their children, in the event they had to leave their children unattended.

That must in this case only regard the mother, and possibly her side of grandparents, due to that she and them pushed away the appearently so much needed help from the childrens father during over 4 years. Even if this is very sad and tragic, stupidity must be set at a limit so it is not allowed to deteriate normal brain function.

 

5 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Things would have been different had they not tried to collect the dish by themselves,” Adisak said

So, here we have a 10 year old and an 11 year old. When we read the news, an expert states that children can be able to live on their own at an age of 12 if they get the prober training and education from parents. In this case the mother and her side of the fimily must have been failing that misarably. They did not even manage to tech the older children to understand to not crawl out after a plate or to tell their younger sister and borther to not do. My 5 year old daugther would have known to take a stick or something else to get the plate safely inside. If she could not manage, she would just have left the plate their and told me later.

[Get Real]

7 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

12 year olds can survive , unsupervised, in a giant city like bangkok, without succumbing to all the negative possibilities there ? in what universe ?

I guess you are stretching it to the limit.  What I understand when I read is that they would be able to live home alone for some hours a day. Not run alone begging for food in the streets.

[happy chappie]

Kids in my village are left to roam around like the soi dogs.no patenting skills from the mothers and the fathers,well say no more on that one.none are taught to swim and we hear every year about drowning as there many lakes around here.weve got a public pool in our village that always empty.all let loose on scooters as soon as they can learn to start one up.they all love to pop out kids but forget when it comes to maintainance.the only ones that are safe are the ones they've got working where they are too busy to get up to any mischief.usually it the eldest daughter who gets promoted to being the mother as in this case.all talk from the government of wind.

[PatOngo]

I would consider myself as fairly well travelled and nowhere, nowhere have I seen or heard of more balcony accidents/mishaps as in Thailand............. Anyone?

[ChrisY1]

10 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

I would consider myself as fairly well travelled and nowhere, nowhere have I seen or heard of more balcony accidents/mishaps as in Thailand............. Anyone?

Never heard of so many balcony incidents either.....jumping, falling, pushed....almost everyday!

[Darcula]

47 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Children must be trained on how to avoid danger: experts

 

Experts must be trained on how to avoid stating the bleedin' obvious.

[PatOngo]

46 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

“Teachers should go visiting their students at home to see how they are doing. If they are alone at such a young age, give them help,” he said.

 

OMG! They really have no idea do they?

[cmsally]

At the very least there should have been a child safety lock on the door to the balcony , so that no child could get access to the balcony. If the grandparents were in the building why could one of them not sleep with the children until the mother returns?

No amount of training can prevent a balcony disaster, there should have been a lock, simple as that.

[Get Real]

51 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Kids in my village are left to roam around like the soi dogs.no patenting skills from the mothers and the fathers,well say no more on that one.none are taught to swim and we hear every year about drowning as there many lakes around here.weve got a public pool in our village that always empty.all let loose on scooters as soon as they can learn to start one up.they all love to pop out kids but forget when it comes to maintainance.the only ones that are safe are the ones they've got working where they are too busy to get up to any mischief.usually it the eldest daughter who gets promoted to being the mother as in this case.all talk from the government of wind.

Looks to me like you found the worst village in Thailand. While it´s very fun to exaggerate ti the most hillarious limits, you must try to keep youself to a little bit of truth.
I am quite sure that most of the parents or grandparents looking after children in the village are fairly good to even good at doing that. You, on the other hand, have choosen two possible options:

 

1. Only to be irritated and only see everything bad, so that you can complain all the time and make your own and other peoples life miserable.

 

2. Just do like so many other that comes here. You see yourself as a superior, and everyone around you is upholding a lower quality regarding everything in life.

 

Surely, if you sit down and think it over, you can find out that at least 50% of the families do take care. You just missed it in your hunt to find something to complain on.

[Anak Nakal]

If want safe children, teach to think.

If only repeat at school, learn nothing.

[happy chappie]

45 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Looks to me like you found the worst village in Thailand. While it´s very fun to exaggerate ti the most hillarious limits, you must try to keep youself to a little bit of truth.
I am quite sure that most of the parents or grandparents looking after children in the village are fairly good to even good at doing that. You, on the other hand, have choosen two possible options:

 

1. Only to be irritated and only see everything bad, so that you can complain all the time and make your own and other peoples life miserable.

 

2. Just do like so many other that comes here. You see yourself as a superior, and everyone around you is upholding a lower quality regarding everything in life.

 

Surely, if you sit down and think it over, you can find out that at least 50% of the families do take care. You just missed it in your hunt to find something to complain on.

Only being realistic at what I see and it isn't only my village.im not complaining,it's their children and not my problem.i don't see myself as superior but thankyou for trying to label me with that old chestnut.as for exaggerating and truth.well I must be mistaken on what I see and experience here.

[jvs]

How many swimming pools do you see here with a childproof fence around it?

 

[cornishcarlos]

Just now, jvs said:

How many swimming pools do you see here with a childproof fence around it?

 

 

How many rivers have child proof fencing ? How many lakes have child proof fencing ??

When was the last time you saw child proof fencing at the beach ??

 

It's nanny states that insist on child proofing everything, when they should be concentrating on making sure stupid people don't have kids !!

[essox essox]

1 hour ago, Darcula said:

 

Experts must be trained on how to avoid stating the bleedin' obvious.

yeah herein lies the problem.......

[tukkytuktuk]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Adisak also emphasised that had teachers and neighbours alerted authorities about the children being unattended, they would have received help and the tragedy could have been prevented.

 

“Teachers should go visiting their students at home to see how they are doing. If they are alone at such a young age, give them help,” he said.

 

Doesn't Thailand have a social service? If a teacher has suspicions of a child being mis-treated or left home alone then usual in the U.K they contact the social services department. They will then send a social worker to the childs address and find out the details. It is not the job of a teacher to sort out the childs welfare.

[Denim]

Best to start off with the adults. With a bit of luck it might eventually filter down to the next generation of children.

[pookiki]

From the looks of the sleeping 'quarters' for the children on the balcony, it was a disaster waiting to happen. There must be adult supervision in such circumstances. One of the grandparents should have been in the room with the children.  It is beyond me why four children should have been left alone overnight. This is clear and outright parental negligence.

[300sd]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Children must be trained on how to avoid danger: experts

Brilliant! I guess we know what the non-experts don't do.

 

 

[marko kok prong]

The main problem and this is not Thai bashing,but in my six years living here,is that Thai's seem to have little grasp on what could potentially cause a hazard,for instance the iron girders that nearly speared that driver the other day,they don't seem to look at things and think now what if this happened[ the lift mechanic crushed,surely if chocks had been in place he would have survived].  

  I also agree on lack of supervision, kids of ten on motorbikes is crazy,as is the construction of a rickety wooden platform on a fourth floor balcony.

[smedly]

I was wondering when some so called educated adult would step up and somehow try to blame the children for this tragedy and sure enough along come the claimed "experts" and make this stupid statement.

 

I think it is time for the press to either not print (deleted) like this or print it and call it out for what it is, there are too many "supposed" educated idiots in this country so full of their own importance and want to be heard, someone needs to call them out and shut them up.

 

Now every parent in the country thinks it's ok to leave young children locked up on their own.

 

disgraceful  

Edited May 5, 2018 by smedly

[essox essox]

2 hours ago, tukkytuktuk said:

Doesn't Thailand have a social service? If a teacher has suspicions of a child being mis-treated or left home alone then usual in the U.K they contact the social services department. They will then send a social worker to the childs address and find out the details. It is not the job of a teacher to sort out the childs welfare.

teachers SHOULD NOT have to go to homes of pupils, it is the parents job to teach safety aspects of life IN THE HOME

[cmsally]

1 hour ago, marko kok prong said:

The main problem and this is not Thai bashing,but in my six years living here,is that Thai's seem to have little grasp on what could potentially cause a hazard,for instance the iron girders that nearly speared that driver the other day,they don't seem to look at things and think now what if this happened[ the lift mechanic crushed,surely if chocks had been in place he would have survived].  

  I also agree on lack of supervision, kids of ten on motorbikes is crazy,as is the construction of a rickety wooden platform on a fourth floor balcony.

It's called forward thinking as well as the law of cause and effect, not very evident in these parts!

[SABloke]

It seems people are missing the point: the kids didn't fall because they were not "trained" - they fell because the balcony collapsed! I would've fallen if I  happened to be there and I'm very well trained, thank you  

[holy cow cm]

Yeah but who is going to train the adults? This upstanding hard working uncorrupt government? 

[Oziex1]

The balcony gave way, it may have been hard for anyone to predict that.

[johncat1]

It is the parents that need more training not the children. In most family's  in rural areas it is the grandparents who raise the children while the parents travel away to work. Thai parents do not actually raise their own children the grandparents do. 

In the West parents never leave their children no matter how poor they are. Although sometimes the father goes away to work but a mother would never neglect her family and this means children come first. Sadly in Thailand money comes first and children often have to fend for themselves or they are left with elderly grandparents who cannot cope with energetic youngsters

All this about Thai families being close and taking care of each other is a load of bullshit. Thais take care of their elders but that is all  

 

Edited May 5, 2018 by johncat1

[billd766]

4 hours ago, jvs said:

How many swimming pools do you see here with a childproof fence around it?

 

 

The nearest swimming pool to where we live is 15km away.

[billd766]

40 minutes ago, johncat1 said:

It is the parents that need more training not the children. In most family's  in rural areas it is the grandparents who raise the children while the parents travel away to work. Thai parents do not actually raise their own children the grandparents do. 

In the West parents never leave their children no matter how poor they are. Although sometimes the father goes away to work but a mother would never neglect her family and this means children come first. Sadly in Thailand money comes first and children often have to fend for themselves or they are left with elderly grandparents who cannot cope with energetic youngsters

All this about Thai families being close and taking care of each other is a load of bullshit. Thais take care of their elders but that is all  

 

 

Not quite correct.

 

In the west many parents, married single or living together DO leave their children alone. If you don't believe me read most local newspapers or the BBC News websites and it happens somewhere on a daily or weekly basis.

 

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/nspcc-warning-coventry-parents-over-13343281

 

https://www.burtonmail.co.uk/news/burton-news/shock-figures-show-more-more-275988

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11498123/Arrests-for-leaving-kids-home-alone-made-every-day.html

 

https://www.churchill.com/press-office/releases/2016/a-generation-of-children-alone-in-the-home

 

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/families/parent-support/children-out-alone.htm

 

There are many more pages of them. All I did was Google children left alone in the UK and got to Page 3 of about 24,200,000 results (0.50 seconds) and found those.