It is rare for ministries to have such clear words as for the therapeutic method of play, which is currently causing considerable furore. "We reject 'Original Play' strictly", it is said from the Berlin Education Senate, "especially for reasons of child protection". The method has no place in day care centers because it "opens the door to abuse," said Bavaria's Ministry of Family Affairs.
The occasion is a report of the ARD show "Contrasts", which was broadcast on Thursday and in which parents from Hamburg and Berlin report that their children had experienced sexual violence in connection with "original play".
Not only government officials but also therapists criticized the method developed by the American playwright Fred Donaldson over the past four decades, which aims to teach children a form of respectful and attentive play.
On their homepage adults are seen wrestling with children on gym mats or hug them tight. Some may like to remind them of judo. Others see a lot of potential for inappropriate body contact.
"Danger of crossing the border"
Through "original play" in the worst case, "pedophile" men and women access to day care allows, said child psychiatrist Karl-Heinz Brisch. The inventor states that the method would improve or prevent aggressive behavioral problems in children. "There is not a single serious research study that would support this statement."
The Berlin Kita supervision also found a "danger of crossing the border," said the spokesman for the local Education Senate, Thorsten Metter. "We are currently examining whether a ban is possible." In the coming week they wanted to inform all Berlin day-care centers again that the method should be offered nowhere.
A similar information had sent the authority a few months ago, after parents at a Protestant Kita in the district Kreuzberg had expressed allegations of abuse.
Also at a Protestant day care center in Hamburg, a mother filed a complaint last summer, after her then three-year-old daughter had accused an educator to have sexually abused her in the exercise room. He practiced "original play" with some children.
case closed
In both cities, the public prosecutor's offices have been investigated and the proceedings have been discontinued. "The statements of the very young Anzeigenden could not confirm in any way," said a spokeswoman for the Hamburg prosecutor's office on request.
Proponents of "Original Play" feel and the method is now unfairly condemned. No child is forced to physical contact, said Sonja Mille, who has been offering "Original Play" in Austria for ten years, the SPIEGEL. "Every child can and should decide for themselves what it is allowed to do, which is very important for them to know their own limits."
Typically, in "original play" the so-called "apprentices" and "mentors", who had been trained in the method for several years, would initially sit with the children on mats in a circle. Slowly, the children would be led to a physical play with each other, which was free of pressure and aggression and should hurt anyone.
Eight European countries
There are always several adults in the room, including the permanent supervisor of the children, so Mille. The parents would be informed in detail in advance and also included on request. For the past ten years, she has heard no complaints about inappropriate body contact.
"If Sexual Abuse should have happened at 'Original Play', we strongly condemn it," Mille said. "But then it is not the method that is responsible, but the person who perpetrated it."
According to information on the homepage "Original Play" is used in at least eight European countries. How many Kitas have tried it is not known.