Caring for Children (and Comfort for Court Kids®, Inc.) has taken upon itself the serious and desperately needed task of easing the suffering and deprivation experienced by children living under debilitating circumstances with the use of the Teddy Bear as a vehicle for developing a more effective community mental health strategy.
 
A time-honored friend familiar to most of us in the western world - the Teddy Bear, a symbol of love, comfort and connection - is the vehicle through which the organization carries out a large and important outreach. Thousands of Teddy Bears are being made available to abused, homeless and abandoned children, foster children and overtly neglected children, ranging in age from infancy to adolescence.
 
The general hypothesis, to be tested by follow-up interviews, is that many of the deprived and abused youngsters will bond strongly to a warm, furry, cuddly Teddy Bear during a period of heightened emotional crisis, and that the Teddy Bears can and will become "more than a toy."
 
"More than a toy", because the Teddy Bear, which has may external human features, can be a special "friend" to the child, assisting the youngster in playing out some of his /her greatest immediate dramas. Just as the school playground, where a child develops motor skills over time, constitutes "serious play," (unlike play that is simply recreational or frivolous), this play with a Teddy Bear is also serious business. Although not a permanent or real substitute for a loving human being, the Teddy Bear helps to preserve, and even to stimulate, healthy mental activity that otherwise might be significantly and permanently lost to the child.
 
In the child's mind, the Teddy Bear can become either a make-believe companion or a temporary substitute for a real person. The child then can provide himself/herself, via fantasy, with opportunities for loving and nurturing that are missing in reality.
 
It is known that, through their serious play, children who are able to form strong and stable bonds can preserve - even embellish - their capacity for fantasy, imagination, and problem - solving using language. Sadly for all of society, children deprived of real loving persons and key inanimate objects available for such bonding often become predisposed in later life to depressions, other major mental illnesses, severe social problems and an overall marginal lifestyle.
 
Caring For Children (and Comfort for Court Kids,® Inc.) hopes to contribute substantially to the emotional and psychological well-being of vulnerable children in crisis; the organization is committed to pursuing bona fide and meritorious projects toward this end.
 

Caring For Children, Inc.
has given CCK permission
to republish this article written by
Richard Lieberman, M.D.

Caring For Children, Inc.
375 Euclid #317
San Francisco, CA 94118
H. Samantha Grier, President

The Ultimate Teddy Bear Book, by Pauline Cockrill
New York, Dorling Kindersly, Inc., 1990

20th Century Toys, Consultant Editor: James Opie
with Duncan Chilcott and Julie Harris
Secaucus, New Jersey: Wellfleet Books, 1990



The depiction of any children on this website does not constitute a violation of WIC 827, California Rule of Court 1423 of Los Angeles Superior Court Dependency Court Rules Chapter 17.2, Sections (e) and (f).
The Teddy Bear ... a universal symbol of love and affection...®
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