In 2013, I attended the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Conference in San Francisco. At that time, I was a doctoral student eager to present my dissertation literature review on young children with disabilities (and their families) who have experienced, abuse, neglect and trauma. At the poster session I had the opportunity to speak with many people about the importance of this topic however, one interaction made a lasting impression. One mid-career practitioner approached my poster and asked me to explain what our field can learn from the literature about young children with disabilities who have experienced abuse and neglect. I explained in detail the strong, and admittedly disturbing relationship between young children with disabilities and the likelihood of experiencing abuse as well as the likelihood of young children who experience abuse to develop a disability. After my explanation, the practitioner looked at me and said: “Oh, I don’t think I want to think about this. It’s just too sad. I need to walk away” as she proceeded to walk on to another poster. At that moment, I knew our DEC community had both a responsibility and an obligation to (1) address the needs of young children with disabilities and their families who have experienced abuse, neglect and trauma and (2) support the professionals who work with these children and families.
Below I detail two important reasons why supporting young children with disabilities who have experienced abuse and
P5 Explain the strategies and methods that can be used to support children/ young people and their families where abuse is suspected or confirmed.
Assumptions are sometimes be made about disabled children e.g. their mood, injury or behaviour. This can result in indicators of possible abuse being mistakenly attributed to the child's impairment. However; their behaviour may be the only way for them to express how they actually feel. In my poster I minimized this by highlighting types of abuse and indicators that staff an look out for if they suspect abuse. For example an indicator for physical abuse is unbelievable excuses i.e. I walked into a lamp post. However, not all the signs mentioned mean that the student is being abused, but it’s about using your sense to know if it feels right or not.
If we protect children from harm they are more likely to grow up into confident members of society. Children with a disability are three times more likely to experience abuse and neglect and it’s up to us as practitioners to recognise the signs and symptoms to protect all children.
It might be difficult to accept but every child can be hurt, put at risk or harm or abused, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity.
Safeguarding is a key role for social workers working with people with learning disabilities. This assignment will consider models of human development and critically analyse factors that impact upon the vulnerability of adults. It will further explore how adults with learning disabilities are oppressed and discriminated against at various levels. Using a practical example I demonstrate how I use theory to critically reflect on the consequences and dilemmas for practice with vulnerable adults and investigate issues that may affect safeguarding in the present day.
The intended consequence of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is to provide federal financial assistance to all states. The funding is for the establishment of effective programs that support the prevention, assessment, investigation, prosecution and treatment proceedings (Jeff, 2012). In other words, it is for the well-being and safeguarding of all children. However, there are unintended consequence too. For example, some children who suffer the effects of child abuse and neglect will still fall within the cracks of the system. According to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, (2014, p. 351) policy-affiliated research continues to be severely underdeveloped such as, mandatory reporting, child abuse record keeping, issues relating to constitutional rights and the use of family foster care as an alternative to traditional foster care. Due to these cracks thousands of children are affected annually.
Experiencing severe neglect in the early years of life can be traumatizing for a child. In fact, Osofsky and Lieberman (2011) state that “children in the first five years of life are the most vulnerable to traumatic death and injury as the result of interpersonal violence, neglect, and accidents” (p. 120). This is the premise of the chapter “The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog”, from Dr. Perry’s novel of the same title. Dr. Bruce Perry is an American author and psychiatrist with extensive experience working with young individuals. In this chapter, the psychiatrist retells his encounter with a 6 year old boy who had been neglected during the first few years of his life. He narrates his first encounter with
As an undergraduate at SUNY Potsdam, I took various sociology and human services classes. However, I was mostly fascinated by the family violence theme discussing different forms of abuse within the household and how children can become victims of such acts. Eager to expand my horizons, I first decided to become a volunteer in a program called “Adopt-A-Bear Cub, which is an after-school program at Saint-Lawrence Elementary School for children who are at risk. I mentored a second-grade boy from a disadvantaged background and
Many children around the world have been neglected and abused. Abuse and neglect can be damaging not only throughout childhood but also throughout adolescence, adulthood, and even the next generation as well. Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory helps better understand the internal thoughts throughout the lifetime of those who have been abused and neglected during childhood. Erikson’s psychosocial theory has many stages that focus on different parts of a person’s lifetime such as Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Industry vs. Inferiority, Intimacy vs. Isolation, and Generativity vs. Stagnation. Children that have been neglected or abused can have developmental and psychological issues beginning at a young age and following them
Every year, child abuse and neglect affect more than one million children nation-wide (Currie and Tekin 1). Along with this, child abuse is the source of severe injury to more than 500,000 children and the death of over 1,500 children (Currie and Tekin 1). These outrageously large numbers reveal the extent to which child abuse and neglect impact society; however, they do not acknowledge the effect abuse can have on a child’s life and the repercussions that may occur in both the individual’s childhood and adulthood. While the effects most certainly include physical pain and possibly future disabilities, child abuse and neglect can also affects the child’s psychological welfare. Psychological effects are often more difficult to recognize,
I feel that perhaps the most troubling issue in child welfare is child death due to maltreatment. In 2012, 1,640 children in the United States died due to maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). This represents an average of 2.20 children per 100,000 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). This issue is compounded when faced with the facts that; of those children that have died due to
It is estimated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services that one million children are victims of child abuse and neglect in the U.S every year. This number may be an underrepresentation however, as many cases are unreported. Children who experience trauma in early childhood years or adolescence have impacts that follow them throughout adulthood. The common effects include relationship attachment issues, mental disorders, substance abuse, increased
They do not deserve to have their lives threatened or to see their mother abused the way she was. However, there were people in my family who felt as though they didn’t need any help or that they were fine and it was all blown out of proportion. While this distortion is damaging to the children who were traumatized, it also shows how trauma affects the person holding the distortion. It shows that their perspective of trauma was handled in a different way than other people and it creates a challenge. It challenged me to understand how different people perceive the trauma of others and how it affects everyone’s lives
The two articles that have been chosen to review for the case studies review are looking at individuals that do not have a voice necessarily. The first article by Jill Lepore discusses the evolution of policies to serve those children who have suffered from physical abuse and the second article by Rich Lord & Joe Smydo discusses the mental health issues in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
According to Baer & Masachi (2003), there is an explanatory model which explains trauma leads to serious delinquency. Utilizing the information processing, social learning and self-regulation theories, they approached this from a Schematic Processing approach, which is the way the adolescent views the world and themselves (p. 88). In this approach, a child may deem the world to be unsafe due to abuse either towards themselves or those within the household. This will cause the child to view social cues differently than those that may not be