It's on the tip of our tongues, or rather the shrill end of our (child's) voice box.

You might wonder what this is all about - but there's a whole controversy/movement about using a method of extinguishing an undesirable behaviour (i.e., crying) by ignoring on the part of the caregiver. "Cry It Out", also known as "controlled crying", is an "extinction method" of ending - "extinguishing" - the cuing for attention, help, nourishment, hydration, support, and loving, physical comfort that is programmed into the biology of young mammals. Yes, that includes us humans.

I've written it many times, and I'm happy to say it again - We're all hardwired for human connection, and that means how we grow to relate to our caregivers, directly relate to how others symbolise our patterns of interaction with ourselves and future relationships in life.

Imagine leaving an infant in the cot and hearing him/her scream their lungs out in total distress until their cries begin to sound weaker and weaker and they give up in sheer knowledge that it is futile to try - they eventually shutdown their pleas for care and assistance, and drift away to sleep from sheer exhaustion. I think this says it all. I don't know about you lot, but it's given me a disturbing emotional response.

I'll leave it to the good hands of an excellent article that writes to this issue posted in 26 Jan 2015 on Philly Voice:

Screaming to sleep, Part One: The moral imperative to end 'cry it out'

Part one of a two part series on CIO

Source: http://www.phillyvoice.com/screaming-sleep/

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