Neglect is the failure to provide for a child's basic needs. Neglect can present itself in a number of different ways. This can include:
- Obvious Malnourishment
- Lack of Personal Cleanliness
- Torn or Dirty Clothing
- Stealing or Begging for Food
- A child left unattended for long periods of time
- A need for glasses, dental care, or other medical attention
- Frequent tardiness or absence from school
Emotional Abuse is mental or emotional injury that results in an observable and material impairment in a child's growth, development, or psychological functioning. It includes extreme forms of punishment such as confining a child to a dark closet, habitual scapegoating, belittling, and rejecting treatment for a child. Symptoms of this type of abuse can include:
- Over compliance
- Low self-esteem
- Severe depression, anxiety, or aggression
- Difficulty making friends or doing things with other children
- Lagging in physical, emotional, or intellectual development
- The caregiver belittles the child, withholds love, and seems unconcerned about the child's problems
Physical Abuse is physical injury (ranging from minor bruises to severe fractures or death) as a result of punching, beating, shaking, kicking, biting, throwing, stabbing,
hitting, burning, choking, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. This can include:
- Frequent injuries such as bruises, cuts, black eyes, or burns without adequate explanations
- Frequent complaints of pain without obvious injury
- Burns or bruises in unusual patterns that may indicate the use of an instrument or human bite; cigarette burns on any part of the body.
- Lack of reaction to pain
- Aggressive, disruptive, and destructive behavior
- Passive, withdrawn, and emotionless behavior
- Fear of going home or seeing parents; injuries that appear after a child has not been seen for several days
- Unreasonable clothing that may hide injuries to arms or legs
Sexual Abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals, penetration, incest, rape, sodomy, indecent exposure, and commercial exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials. Symptoms of this type of abuse can appear as:
- Physical signs of sexually transmitted diseases
- Evidence of injury in the genital area
- Pregnancy in a young girl
- Difficulty in sitting or walking
- Frequent expressions of sexual activity between adult and child
- Extreme fear of being alone with adults of a certain sex
- Sexually suggestive, inappropriate, or promiscuous behavior
- Knowledge of sexual relations beyond what is expected for a child's age
- Sexual victimization of other children
- Learn More about the Signs and Symptoms of Sexual Abuse
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