Maltreatment: Early Child Development

Maltreatment/abuse- Maltreatment and abuse are an act of cruel or inhumane treatment, within the family, outside of family, in a care setting or by a stranger. It is when a person puts someone in harms way or inflicts pain on someone: physically, emotionally, intellectually or sexually.

In 2013 an estimated 679,000 children were victims of maltreatment and approximately 3.1 million children received help from Childhood Protective Services in the United States alone. Abuse or neglect can be categorized as maltreatment, which takes many different forms from physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, and parental neglect. It is accepted that childhood maltreatment has lasting effects as the victims grow into adults. One example of these effects is behavioral

Child maltreatment, also referred to as child maltreatment and neglect, includes all the various forms of abuse ranging from physical, emotional and sexual abuse to neglect and exploitation. This type of abuse can result in the potential or actual harm to a child's health, there development and dignity.

Child Maltreatment is the general term used to describe all forms of child abuse and neglect. There is no one commonly accepted definition of child abuse and neglect. Maltreatment is frequently linked with poverty and its associated burdens such as single parenthood, social isolation, unemployment and poor education. (Wulczyn, 2009).

401). An analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008) revealed that in 2008 the rate of reported infant maltreatment was 51.81 per 1000 children with children below the age of one having the greatest likelihood of being the subject of maltreatment with frequencies lessening with age (Fallon, et al., 2013, p. 2). Child neglect has come to be described as the “neglect of neglect,” as it has been minimized by physical and sexual abuse and exploitation; therefore, neglect is often overlooked and under identified. Furthermore, child neglect is often difficult to identify due to cultural and spiritual differences. What is often negligent for one family may be considered usual to another (Cowen, 1999, pp. 401-403). Consequently, infant neglect often results in social, mental and physical delays, adult traumatization (Harper, Stalker, Palmer, & Gadbois, 2008), and failure to thrive (FTT); the result of inadequate nutrition resulting in poor physical development and, in extreme cases, psychosocial short stature; a disorder of the pituitary and hypothalamus which causes the child to not only be underdeveloped in weight but also in height due to major emotional and psychological trauma (Block & Krebs, 2005, pp. 1234-1235).

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the failure to provide for a child’s basic physical, emotional, and educational needs or to protect a child (ages 0-12) from harm or potential harm is defined as maltreatment (2015). Any words or action by a caregiver or parent that causes harm, potential harm, or threatens harm whether deliberate or intentional against a child takes the definition a step further (2015).

The World Health Organization defines child maltreatment as “abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age.” ("Child Maltreatment," 2016)

Every year, within Australia, the number of children who are removed from the care of their parents and placed into government regulated care continues to grow significantly. For these children, maltreatment (or the risk of maltreatment), in the form of abuse or neglect within the family home result in the need for them to be relocated to alternative care arrangements, more commonly referred to as out-of-home care (OOHC). The research which investigates the effects of maltreatment on children, conclusively shows that experiencing trauma and/or neglect during childhood can result in considerable physiological and psychological effects on development across multiple key domains, such as cognitive, social-emotional, academic, and language

Child maltreatment: “Federal law defines child abuse and neglect as any recent act, or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child” (“Child Abuse and Maltreatment,”

The oppressed in our society also include individuals who have suffered abuse and neglect. Hundreds of thousands of children have been placed in the foster care system due to an array of maltreatment (Child Welfare). Children who are neglected do not experience the same developmental advantages as children raised in a nurturing environment. Research has shown that neglect in the early years of life affects a child’s brain development (Hamilton). Studies have also shown that the impact of neglect may become more severe as a child grows older and eventually have lasting effects on intellectual, behavioral, social, and cognitive development (DePanfilis). Acknowledging the significance of

In many cases of neglect, there has been an association with the brain failing to form appropriately. This causes impaired physical, mental, and emotional development (DePanfilis, 2006). A child's brain learns to adapt to a less than positive environment and this stunts the process of normal development. The brains of neglected children are not integrated and this causes difficulties in emotional, social, and cognitive development. The sensitive period, during the first two years of life, is a critical time in which brain activity faces severe psychosocial deprivation if faced with neglect and is unlikely to be recovered (Vanderwert, Marshall, Nelson III, Zeanah & Fox, 2010).

Maltreatment is defined as “volitional acts that result or have the potential to result in physical injuries and/ or psychological harm” (Crooks & Wolfe, 2007, cited in Stirling, 2009). There are 2 main types of maltreatment: Relational (happens within a critical relationship) and Non-Relational (happens within a non-critical relationship).

In terms of feral children the focus of maltreatment is on the physical and emotional harm done to a child. The generalized interpretation of neglect is “a caregiver’s failure to meet a child’s basic needs, leading to risk of harm” (Fong, 1). Abuse varies, no case is the same, but the results are all devastating especially when the abuse is during the critical developmental stages of a child’s life. As Perry state 's “Deprivation of critical experiences during development may be the most destructive yet the least understood area of child maltreatment” (Perry, 88). He explains that it is the least understood because the type of attention and care needed at one age may not be needed at another age, making it confusing. If a child’s basic

Working in education, specifically in the disciplinary area, I have had many meetings with single mothers about behavior issues related to their child. This does not mean that meetings with single fathers never occur, but not as frequently as with single mothers. Now of course there have been several published works that have identified negative behavioral characteristics to be associated with being raised with an absentee father. Those effects include engaging in drug abuse, experiencing educational, emotional, and behavioral problems, becoming victims of child abuse, and engaging in criminal behavior. This data implies that these unfortunate social problems are associated with the absence of a father from a child’s life. However, “differences in children’s well-being remain contentious because research on parenting has developed contrasting theoretical accounts of the effects that fathers may have on children’s development (Debell, 2008 p. 428). As a result, I began to wonder about the children who are in fact being raised by their father and if the same risk factors related to behavior exist.

For this article review, I chose to talk about Child Abuse and Neglect and the signs symptoms that go along with it. The article I chose is called “What is Child Abuse and Neglect? Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms” by Child Welfare Information Gateway. This article talks about the legal definition of child abuse and neglect. It also includes the different types of abuses and neglect and the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect. In this review, I will be looking at a summary of the article, how it relates to class, a developmental theory that relates to it, and my opinion on the article and the findings.