EMOTIONAL ABUSE
​​Emotional abuse is ongoing conduct that seriously harms a child’s psychological well-being.
It can take the form of constant belittling, shaming, and humiliating a child, calling the child names and comparing her unfavorably to others, telling the child he is “no good,” “worthless,” “bad,” or “a mistake,” frequent yelling, threatening, or bullying, ignoring or rejecting a child as punishment, withholding signs of affection, and exposing the child to violence towards others, whether it be the abuse of a parent, a sibling, or even a pet.
NEGLECT
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​Neglect is failure to provide for the basic age-appropriate needs of a child, resulting in serious impairment of the child’s health or development.It may involve a parent or caretaker failing to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter, to protect a child from physical and emotional harm, to ensure adequate supervision and access to appropriate medical care or treatment. Neglect may be “benign”, in which a parent or caretaker chooses to ignore the child’s needs instead of taking responsibility for them.
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SIGN OF ABUSE
PHYSICAL ABUSE
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The Centers for Disease Control define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. There are different kinds of child abuse: physical, sexual, or emotional. Neglect, which can be benign or deliberate, is also child abuse.
If you believe a child is the victim of abuse, check your suspicions against these compiled lists of common indicators. One or more of these indicators should prompt a closer look at the child and the child’s environment. It is important to remember that many of the indicators may be observed in children where abuse is not occurring. However, a history of suspicious injuries, patterns of behavior, and verbal reports of abuse are all key elements in recognizing possible abuse or neglect.
Discipline is administered by a parent in order to teach a child right from wrong, or to prevent the child from injuring himself. It is consistent and not carried out to satisfy the parent’s anger. Abuse, on the other hand, is unpredictable and stems from the parent’s own need to lash out in anger or frustration.
SEXUAL ABUSE
Most commonly involves exploitation of a child for sexual gratification.The abuser may be an adult or an older child or adolescent, and the abuse may include forcing a child to engage in sexual activities, asking or pressuring the child to do so (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, rubbing the genitals against the child, physical contact with the child’s genitals, viewing of the child’s genitalia without physical contact, or using a child to produce child pornography. Selling the sexual services of a child is also sexual abuse.
