A study carried out by the academy of Toulouse alert on the games of asphyxiation: the pupils of CE1 and CE2 would be numerous to indulge in it.
In playgrounds, suffocation is a fashionable game. To quantify the popularity and prevalence of this practice among the youngest, researchers conducted a study in 25 schools in the Toulouse academy. Their work has been published in the Archives of Pediatrics.
They reveal that one in four pupils of CE1 and CE2 indulge in this “game” – either by strangling themselves with a scarf, a scarf or a shoelace, or by holding their breath until they choke (” tomato game”). These figures vary from school to school, with differences ranging from 16% to 75%.
From kindergarten
According to the researchers, it is in the playground that this practice takes place in the vast majority of cases. Boys seem to be more concerned, especially when it comes to “playing” alone.
Moreover, the younger the students, the more likely they are to indulge in this dangerous entertainment, which has caused the death of more than 75 children in France since 1999. strangulation than their classmates in CE2; many students say they started playing these games in kindergarten.
According to the authors of the study, these results are linked to the understanding of danger and death, which evolves with age: “The representation of death is gradually acquired during childhood and could still be perceived by young people CE1 children as a reversible and unlikely phenomenon in their eyes”, they write.
Continue to educate your children
To limit this practice, parents have a preponderant role to play, of which they do not seem to be necessarily aware, observe the authors, who note that “although parents are aware of the seriousness of these practices, the majority continue to think that this would not happen to their own child: because he (she) is mature enough, because he (she) is aware of the danger, because he (she) has understood the risks”.
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