The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, His Excellency Dr. Bandar Al Knawy, has launched the activities of the International Children's Day through the campaign (It is forbidden to hit children) at King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital. The campaign was honored by the active presence of Royal Highness Princess Sarah Bint Bandar Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud who is known for her great community contributions.
The Campaign (It is forbidden to hit children) is an ongoing global awareness campaign at King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital to raise awareness of the damages of physical punishment of children and to give parents alternatives to disciplinary beatings and modern educational means to modify children's behavior. In addition, we are raising awareness of the harms of the disciplinary beating of children.
Physical punishment or disciplinary beating is physical violence against the child. Parents believe it is an effective way to improve their child's behavior. Still, it has been scientifically proven that disciplinary beating does not change the child's behavior, but rather affects physically and psychologically the growth and development of the child and makes the child feel the fear of punishment, he tries to do wrong behavior in secret, and this affects his personality and his dealings when he is old. Still, unfortunately, it is culturally and socially acceptable to society.
The Child Care Division, headed by Dr. Maha Al-Muneef, trained the medical staff at King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital to deal with this problem by appointing official staff in each clinical area to educate parents about the harms of disciplinary beating and give them modern educational alternatives to improve the child's behavior, including listening to the child and motivate good behaviors through several educational methods such as placing a motivational board at home (stars and a check mark for each action) and not encouraging the child by giving him material or recreational things, also, teaching parents how to provide the child with time when he does bad behavior and clarify the bad behavior for him and other educational methods that have proven effective through research in positively modifying children's behavior and protect them from violence and abuse.
On this occasion, King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital was declared a "No Hit Zone" area. The medical and administrative staff are committed to spreading the culture of raising children without hitting and adopting modern educational methods that contribute to changing the unwanted behavior of children.