Response to Case Study Scenario
Physical abuse – is an act of violence against the child, made by a parent or carer as a result of physical punishment or sometimes with intension to get a pleasure from someone’s suffering and pain. (Briggs 2012, p.150)
Sexual abuse – is an act of undesirable sexual conduct by an adult upon a child. (Briggs 2012, p.204)
Emotional abuse – it is any kind of non-physical abuse over a child, which may lead to different psychological traumas. (Briggs 2012, p.89)
Neglect – is any act of dereliction that forms impossibility to provide conditions, which are needed for normal development of a child. (Briggs 2012, p.178)
Family violence – is a form of violence with unequal powers (Briggs 2012, p. 109), any abusive behavior that a child could experience from one of the family members or someone, the child has close relations with.
(DEECD & DHS 2010, p.35)
Causes and family circumstances
Physical abuse. According to Briggs (2012, p.151), 90% of confirmed cases of physical abuse involve carers. In the case of Ethan, David is not his father, he is a boyfriend of Ethan’s mother. There is a high risk of abuse. Taking into account all the facts, David is violent and cruel.
Ethan’s mother said that she doesn’t have any relatives in the city, this only proves that she and Ethan are helpless and defenseless. Some debts and financial dependence on David increase the chances of abuse. David could feel the stress and strike out at Ethan or, if such acts of violence are intentional and bring David pleasure, such a dependence could give him some kind of power over Ethan and his mother.
Sexual abuse. Family circumstances that could increase the risk of sexual abuse are: dependence on adult, lack of love, care and tenderness from native father (Briggs 2012, p.205), lack of mother’s love and attention, children are taught to obey adults. All these reasons could increase the risks, but also Ethan’s mother is so happy that she finally has someone, who is ready to help with the child and payments, that he would not believe Ethan if he would tell her something. David may understand that and it also could increase the risk.
Neglect. The main cause here – David is not his father, and he is not even his mother’s husband. Such a relation, when a mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend has a very high risk of neglect. Mother wants to arrange a personal life. She does not care about her child, because she tries to give all the attention a new partner. She is dependent on David, that’s why Ethan is hungry and his clothes is not clean.
Family violence. Since the family violence could include any abusive behavior, the circumstances could be the same as for other abuses. First of all, these are: new cohabiting partner of Ethan’s mother, financial dependence, lack of love for the child from the side of native parents, predisposition to violence by a parent/partner.
Effects/Trauma of this type of abuse
Short-term effects
There are few short-term effects of child abuse, because every type of abuse brings irreparable harm to health, both mental and physical.
Long-term effects
There are some short-term effects that also could be long-term. It depends on personal perception, and ability to cope. (Briggs 2012, p.122)
Trauma is an effect of some so terrible sudden event that a person cannot cope with that. (Downey 2007, p.3) Trauma has a huge impact on both the development and the study of the child because it affects the whole body and especially the brain activity. A child becomes dispersed, unassembled, memory can worsen.
Trauma can even cause memory lapses, since the brain may try to forget what causes bad memories. All these have a bad effect on the learning process, because for normal brain needs rest, concentration, focusing on certain tasks. A child can be tormented and chased by flashbacks. Health affects a child development, because for normal development every child needs calm and safety. (DEECD & DHS 2007)
Among the others strategies, here could be implemented such: support of parents and carers, understanding the child, assist the child to understand what happened. (Downey 2007, p.19) Support of mother is needed because she may not know what is going on or pay no attention to it. She also may not believe in what her son tells her.
The aim of the teacher here – to talk to the mother, not through child, but in person. Explain what you know and what should be done. Understanding the child is the most important strategy that the teacher can implement. Ethan needs to know that the teacher is on his side, that there is someone, who is ready to listen and help him. When the teacher talks to Ethan, Ethan should be asked about the details and then the teacher should explain what was happening and why, and what they are going to do to change it. To assist the child is very important here, because Ethan has no one to talk to.
How to approach the child and grounds for your belief that the child’s safety is at risk*: The disclosure and what to say/do when responding to the child
The role of the teacher is very important, because sometimes the teacher is the only one who could help the child. There are many recommendations how to make negotiation with a child more useful, these recommendations aim at disclosure and state what should be said and what should not.
Among them there are active listening, open questioning, and I-messages. Active listening is a very important method; the main element of this method is paraphrasing. This element is so important, because the more carefully the teacher uses the paraphrase, the more likely the child feels understood. (Arthur-Kelly et al. 2006, p.75) Open questioning is used to give the child opportunity to answer teacher’s questions more widely and openly. Such questions usually start with when, where, why, what. The ended questions can be answered yes or no. (Arthur-Kelly et al. 2006, p.76)
I-messages create a connection and trust between the child and the teacher. I-messages assert the position of the teacher and help the child to understand that his/her cooperation is very important (Arthur-Kelly et al. 2006, p.77) It also could describe teacher’s emotions and feelings, so that the child feels the atmosphere of understanding and openness.
According to Arthur-Kelly (2006), the examples of such questions could be: “How often David make you plat those games?”, “Did you try to tell your mom about that?”, “How does he explain those actions?” The teacher needs to be careful and gentle to the child. To reassure the child the teacher could use statements like “When I do not know what to do, I always try to talk to someone I trust.”, “When I feel that something is wrong, I may advise someone, who knows the right answer and could help me.”, “You always could talk to adults, there are people, who are able to help you in any situation.”
The decision to act (applicable legislation and policy)
Mandatory reporting is a requirement for a certain group of people, mandatory reporters, who must report to Child Protection if there are some reasons to believe that a child is in danger and in need of protection. (DEECD & DHS 2010, p.14) The abuse needs to be reported when there is a belief on reasonable ground.
Such a belief should be formed if a child states that he/she was physically or sexually abused, or he/she knows someone, who was; someone who knows a child says that the child was abused; there are some signs that a child was sexually or physically abused; the reporter of staff member knows about cases of violence in that family, or about psychiatric illnesses that could impact on child safety or normal development. (DEECD & DHS 2010, p.15) Teachers also should consult with other teachers and professionals, support the child, and respect confidentiality.
In Ethan’s case, there is a need to make a report to Child Protection, because there are all reasons for that – the parents cannot protect the child, there is a harm that impacts child’s development and safety. The information that should be added to the report is the name of the child, the address, the names of family members, the fact hat family does not know about the report. (DEECD & DHS 2010, p.29)
In this case the mother and her boyfriend should not be informed about the report, because the permission of the parents is not required for such report (DEECD & DHS 2010, p.21) and the abuser could influence the child to deny everything. (Briggs 2012, p.153)
Prevention measures
3 strategies that could be implemented in order to strengthen children’s help seeking behavior are (according to Briggs 2012):
Interaction with such children, according to their age
Here could be used games, or conversations, according to the age. Very often 12 years old child could behave as 5 years old. I this case the teacher should treat him like 5 years old. The teacher should not criticize such a child.
Be repetitive and patient
Maltreated children are very susceptible, the teacher should be patient and repetitive with them.Sometimes they behave as much younger children. The teacher should make them feel safe and protected by the understanding and care.
Maltreated children do not communicate much, but they need to develop their communicative qualities. Firstly the teacher may start with a one-to-one situation, and when such child managed to success in such communication, it would be easier to develop further communication.
Community Resources
In Australia there are many services that could help maltreated children. Apart the well-known Child FIRST and Child Protection, there are many others, like Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS) and Bravehearts Information and Support Line. CAPS is ready to help all maltreated children, they give all the information, support to children affected by abuse. Contact information: Freecall: 1800 688 009; Mon-Fri: 9 am - 5 pm (AEST) (excluding public holidays); http://www.childabuseprevention.com.au/
Bravehearts Information and Support Line is specially for children, affected by sexual abuse. They could give all information, advice,support. Freecall: 1800 272 831; Mon-Fri: 8 am - 8 pm (AEST), http://www.bravehearts.org.au/
Personal reflection
Summing up this unit and this assignment, I would like to emphasize the critical importance of it. During these 11 weeks, I have learned a lot, this knowledge will be useful to me in my work. There is a strong belief that I began to understand better the potential problems that children may be encountered with and more importantly, through the study, I learned what should be done to recognize these problems and find solutions to them. These readings helped me to understand Children Protection Policy better.
Among the readings I would like to highlight the book Child protection: the essential guide for teachers and other professionals whose work involves children by Freda Briggs. I learned many new and useful things from there. The material in the book is written clearly and is interesting, but what I liked most - the author describes many examples and explanations, those are not just theoretical dry facts.
I also liked the task itself, because all knowledge and skills have been applied, and in addition, I learned a lot of new and interesting from the readings. This information will be very helpful in my further work. I would also like to note DEECD & DHS books. Only the most useful and important information is collected there. It was very helpful. With this information my knowledge significantly developed.
I liked the words in Calmer Classrooms that understanding of abused or neglected child help us to develop sympathy, patience and commiseration, and these concepts are key elements in the intervention. These are also key elements in my work, and readings help to use them correctly and develop other professional qualities, aimed primarily at helping children.
I have no doubt that all this will help me and will be enhanced my professional practice, because all this knowledge aims at understanding and helping children.
Reference List
ARTHUR-KELLY, M 2006. Classroom management. South Melbourne, Thomson Learning. retrieved 24 January 2017, <http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17321791>
BRIGGS, F 2012. Child protection: the essential guide for teachers and other professionals whose work involves children. Docklands, Vic, JoJo Pub, retrieved 24 January 2017, <http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy-.b.deakin.edu.au/lib/deakin/reader.action?docID=967961>
DOWNEY, L 2007. Calmer classrooms: a guide to working with traumatised children. Melbourne, Vic, Child Safety Commissioner, retrieved 24 January 2017, <http://www.copmi.net.au/find-resources/resource-library/item/calmer-classrooms-a-guide-to-working-with-traumatised-children>
DEECD & DHS VICTORIA 2007. Child development and trauma guide. [Melbourne, Vic.], Dept. of Human Services, retrieved 24 January 2017, <http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/586167/child-development-and-trauma-guide-1_intro.pdf>
DEECD & DHS VICTORIA 2010. Protecting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, retrieved 24 January 2017, <http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/582571/safety-wellbeing-of-young-people-protocol-2010.pdf>
