Child Abuse Prevention

WHAT IS CHILD ABUSE?

There are four different types of abuse:

• Physical abuse is an intentional physical injury to a child.
• Sexual abuse involves a child in a sexual act or situation. The purpose may be to provide sexual gratification or to benefit the abuser financially. Any sexual activity between a caregiver and a child is sexual abuse.
• Emotional abuse occurs when a child is made to feel bad about himself or when a caregiver says things that hurt the child. Emotional abuse also occurs when an adult ignores a child's emotional needs.
• Neglect is failure to provide a child's basic needs when you are able to do so. These needs include food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, and supervision.
  

As you can see, child abuse can include a wide range of unacceptable behaviors. It may include striking a child, whether it leaves bruises or not. Abuse may involve fondling a child sexually or ridiculing a child for mistakes. It can also occur if a child is never hugged or treated with affection, and abuse includes failing to provide enough food or supervision.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF CHILD ABUSE?

Child abuse happens for many reasons. Sometimes persons who abuse children have been abused themselves. We learned how to raise children from our parents just as they learned this from their parents. Our children will learn how to parent from us. Adults who were abused when they were children often treat their own children - or the children in their care - the way they were treated.

Lack of knowledge can also cause child abuse. Some adults have unrealistic expectations for children. They may lose control and strike out at a child, either physically or verbally, if the child does not live up to these expectations. They may overreact when a two-year-old says "no" or a three-year-old has a toileting accident. Suppose a caregiver only knows one way to discipline, physical punishment. If he or she will not learn other ways to guide childrens' behavior, the potential for abuse is high.

Stress can also cause child abuse. Stress can bring out behaviors that people usually keep under control. Abusive caregivers often have trouble handling stress. They may always seem to be "in crisis." They may have trouble handling criticism and learning from their experiences. A caregiver's low self-esteem can also lead to abuse. Sexual abusers, for example, often have deep, unmet emotional needs. These needs cause them to seek approval and love through a sexual relationship with a child.

Young children are at special risk for abuse. They are too young to understand that these behaviors are wrong. Young children are also smaller than their abusers. They lack the emotional, cognitive, and physical skills to resist the abuse. Many factors lead to an increased risk of child abuse. Child care jobs are often stressful. Providers may experience little support, low pay, and long hours. The potential for child abuse also increases if a caregiver has experienced abuse in the past, is under personal stress, has trouble managing stress, and/or has low self-esteem. The presence of vulnerable children also may contribute to abuse in the child care setting.

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AS A QUALITY CARE ISSUE

High quality child care programs put policies and procedures in place to keep children safe. Here are some ways to reduce the risk of child abuse in your program.

• Establish written policies and procedures to protect children. Be sure all staff members, substitutes, and volunteers know about and follow the policies and procedures established. Listed below are some areas where written policies are especially important:
  - attendance and parental notification
  - procedures to be followed when parents drop off and pick up children
  - observation of and daily health checks for children
  - supervision
  - guidance and discipline practices, including acceptable forms of touch
  - procedures to follow for suspected child abuse/neglect
  

• Carefully hire and supervise staff. Check all applicants for employment by talking with past employers. As part of your hiring/screening process, observe prospective caregivers, substitutes, and volunteers working with the children. Develop interview questions that help you assess the applicants' philosophy, beliefs, and approach to discipline, to touch, and to working with parents.
  
• Help staff manage stress. Recognize that stress is an occupational hazard for all staff members. Provide regular staff rest periods away from the children. Be sure staff members recognize the need for breaks and take them without feeling guilty.
• Always follow staff-to-child ratios and group size guidelines. Never leave children unattended. Be sure that unknown adults do not have access to the children.
• Maintain a healthy, safe environment. Be sure the program is clean. Carefully follow safety procedures. Keep rooms as open and visible as possible. Make sure toileting and diapering areas are observable and not far away from the classroom area.
• Talk often with parents. Be open and responsive to parents' questions and concerns. Encourage parents to visit and observe your program. Make sure written policies for attendance, transfer of responsibility from parents to caregivers, child observation, supervision, discipline, and touch are explained to parents. Encourage parents to use community resources for personal and family problems.
  

Provide staff training, especially related to:

• Positive guidance techniques. Tell children what to do rather than what not to do. Be sure staff never uses threats, shame, ridicule, or physical punishment when correcting children's behavior.
• Realistic expectations of children. Children need to know what is expected of them. Rules should be clearly stated and consistently enforced. And be sure that rules are designed to meet children's needs, not the needs of adults.
• Promoting positive self-esteem in children. Promoting a positive self-concept among children has long been a goal of early childhood programs. Since we know children with low self-esteem are more vulnerable to abuse, building self-esteem will help children protect themselves.

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE SIGNS OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Include a scan for indications of possible abuse in the daily health check. Be sure staff and volunteers have training on physical and behavioral signs of abuse. Young children tend to be accident-prone. Cuts and bruises are therefore quite common. However, certain patterns of bruises, burns, and cuts are more likely to indicate abuse.

• human bites
• handprint bruises
• belt marks
• hand or rope prints around the child's neck
• injury to ears
• symmetrical bruises on the body
• cigarette burns

Certain behaviors by children may also signal abuse. Abused children often seem watchful, anxious, or wary of being touched. They may be afraid to go into certain parts of the home or center. Children who abuse themselves or other children also deserve attention, as do children who seem unnaturally well-behaved or very compliant to adults.

Abusive caregivers often display certain behaviors as well. Pay special attention to caregivers who:

• single out one or two children for repeated criticism or punishment
• use guilt, fear, and threats to control children's behavior
• roughly grab or jerk children
• ignore children

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION: OUR PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Child abuse may still occur even if you follow these recommendations. However, it is less likely to happen if you give careful attention to these details. As a child care professional, you need to protect the children in your care from unsafe practices that put them at risk. You must also protect them from people who are at risk of abusing them. You also have a responsibility to protect yourself and your staff from false accusations.