Assessing child abuse risk factors.

Assessing child abuse risk factors

It seems almost inhuman in this day and age that children are still being abused worldwide, and that many of these cases could have been prevented, had the risk factors of child abuse been clearly publicized to teaching staff and those dealing on a day to day basis with the welfare of children. As a society, we fail if one child slips through the net, although in many instances what is missing in knowing how to assess whether a child is at risk and what signs should be recognized.

The following are classical symptoms that child abuse is a possibility:

*Withdrawn and anti-social behavior
*Lack of cleanliness
*Bruising and signs of injury
*Strange ideas towards the opposite gender
*State of general health and wellbeing
*Soiling and wetting of undergarments at an advanced age

Withdrawn and anti-social behavior.

No one can class every child that behaves in this manner as abused. The withdrawn child syndrome can occur in many circumstances, and drawing the conclusion that this occurs as a result of abuse would be narrow minded. Some children have problems with their peers, growing up anxieties that are unrelated to abuse.

Lack of cleanliness

Most caring parents will send their children to school dressed in clean clothes, although not all can afford this luxury. A child may display difficulties in personal hygiene, and again this cannot always be assumed to be as a result of abuse.

Bruising and signs of injury

Children play rough and often get hurt, and signs that a child is constantly injured or hurt on a regular basis may be signs that they are being abused.

Strange ideas towards the opposite gender.

Here again, many children are shy and show that when confronted with those children or adults of the opposite gender, though not all of these reactions are because of child abuse.

State of health and wellbeing.

It is easy to recognize when a child has a problem with health that is not being attended to, and their wellbeing shows in many ways in their behavior towards others and also in their communication skills. Again, none of these attributes means that a child is abused.

Soiling and wetting of undergarments at an advanced age.

Many children cannot control their bladder or bowel and although this is a classic symptom of psychological child problems that may result from abuse, medical advice should be sought as a primary prevention to these personal issues.

HOW CAN WE RECOGNIZE ABUSE WITH SO MANY CONTRADICTIONS.

Abuse has to be established by rapport with the child, and building up a trust, so that the child is able to talk freely about their problems. If a child has been abused by an adult, this is doubly hard for the teacher to distinguish without first building a foundation of trust with the child, and opening up avenues of communication. Contact with families and meeting the family in the home will also highlight where problems occur, and this is best dealt with when all family members are present, as a teacher would be able to study the interaction of the child with their family members.

People tread lightly when child abuse is concerned, since there are so many gray areas although walking away from the possibility that a child is suffering abuse is no real answer. Children slip through the net because we are all too ready to turn a blind eye and consider that whether a child is being abused or not is beyond the scope of our responsibility.

Every day, children are beaten, psychologically punished, sexually abused, and finding the root cause means examining the criteria above, and communicating with the child in order to establish any element of doubt. If there is doubt, then the authorities are in a position to check out your suspicions based on factual information gathering, rather than obscure reports. If a child shows any of the above criteria, then as a society that claims to be a caring one, every case should be followed up, remembering that the child who slips through spells OUR failure as a society to recognize the needs of a child who, by their actions or manner, health or cleanliness, asked us to notice.