Psychologist who helps disadvantaged children
Print Edition
XU Xiu, a child psychologist, has always observed one bedrock principle in dealing with cases dating back two decades: Try to think like the child in front of you.
The director of the Childcare Department at the Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University was recently named a “leading talent” in the Minhang District.
Her caseload has included children with autism or depression. She often tells parents that they, too, have to put themselves in the mindset of their troubled children in order to understand them. Sometimes they ignore the advice.
“When you interact with a child like this, you should never try to educate them,” said Xu. “You need to crouch down level with their eyes and hold contact. That way, you make personal contact.”
In her consulting room, toy cars, a red ball and a book are the tools she uses to test children. If a child comes in screaming and kicking to escape, Xu immediately adopts the character of a playmate.
The choice of the toys, as well as the words and gestures she chooses are carefully selected to explore a child’s thinking. Her methods are so subtle that children and their parents are hardly aware of them.
“Parents get along with their kids most of the time, and they play a crucial role in the prognostic conditions of mental diseases,” she said. “I never tire of telling them how to hold eye contact with their children and provide positive encouragement.”
Sometimes, a diagnosis of mental illness shocks parents into a condition where they become psychologically unstable themselves. Xu is patient in times of crisis. She waits for parents to calm down and stop crying before talking seriously with them about the situation they must deal with.
“Many mental diseases, such as autism, are not curable and we still don’t know what causes them,” said Xu. “But it doesn’t mean that the children can’t change for the better. They will make progress as long as we apply the correct methods.”
Xu sometimes gives home assignments to parents, such as recording their child’s daily behavior for use as a reference point. She recommends books to read, games to improve a child’s social interaction abilities and methods of coping with behavioral problems.
Seventeen years ago, when Xu was a researcher on childcare, she was not familiar with the terms like anxiety, depression or autism. In 2000, China’s public health authorities decided to put childcare services in community health centers. Xu saw her chance to make a difference.
“Clinically, we saw some children with no visible diseases, who were just as adorable as other kids,” she said. “But they just wouldn’t talk. I was intrigued and wanted to know why.”
Back then, there was scant research on children psychology in China. Xu and her team read, translated and edited foreign academic books on the subject, as well as reading materials for parents with mentally troubled children.
Xu said the more she researched, the more she discovered the potential in every child.
“I realize that I hadn’t really fully understood children before,” she said. “They are like a complicated code and you need to decipher it to understand their behavioral patterns.”
Now, as a leading expert in the field in Minhang, Xu is actively involved in treatment, research and teaching. She is always pressed for time.
“I am lucky that I am a fast eater,” she said. “The speed at which I eat a meal often astonishes my assistants. But I have to squeeze every minute possible out of my day.”
Xu said modern life places a lot of strains on parents and children. Working parents often relegate childcare to grandparents and don’t spend much time with their children. The whole social and family life of many children has been upended.
“It was not like when we were children, and we all lived in lanes and played and studied together,” she said.
Xu said a normal child will express itself in gestures at six to nine months of age. If a child one year or older has normal hearing but doesn’t respond when its name is called, that is a warning sign to parents, she said.
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