Whether to spank a child is a question many new parents ask. It is also a quandary for child development experts around the world.

Penelope Leach—child expert and Lifetime Television host of the CableAce Award and Emmy-nominated program, "Your Baby and Child with Penelope Leach"—will give a free lecture at noon March 26 in Ford Auditorium.

Leach's visit is part of an ongoing dialogue on childhood, sponsored by CWRU's Schubert Center for Child Development and the Childhood Studies Program. In her talk, Leach will discuss "Physical Punishment at Home: A Question of Children's Rights."

Since the 1970s, parents have turned to Leach, a British psychologist and mother of two children, as a source of information about raising their children.

She is the best-selling author of Your Baby and Child, which offers advice on children and families. The book, first written in 1977, answered "help" calls from parents. In 1985, Leach wrote the sequel, Your Growing Child: A Children's Health, Growth and Happiness, which explores youth through their adolescent years.

Her books include The First Six Months: Coming to Terms with Your Baby in 1986 and in 1990 The Babykit, a pop-up information book illustrated by Shirley Hughes. The British Medical Association recently honored Leach with the Popular Medicine Book Award for an updated version of Your Child.

In the 1990s, Leach addressed the issue of physical punishment while research and writing her book, Children First: What Society Must Do—And Is Not Doing—For Children Today. Her work takes an international perspective guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Leach has collaborated with a theater group to write the play, "Snap," which offers non-violent conflict resolution for 3- through 7-year-olds and also produced an educator's guide for peaceful means to end negative behaviors called Young Children Under Stress.

Exploring childhood and its issues began early in Leach's career. While earning her doctorate from the University of London, she conducted a four-year study on how babies affect their parents. Her interest in children continues today as she works as a consultant with the Anna Freud Center in London. She is a contributing editor for Child magazine. For information, call 368-2414.