The Warning Signs of Potential Sexual Abuse in Children
With summer comes new risks for children to be abused. Have you checked out your children’s new babysitters, camp counselors, and coaches. Even doing a simple Google search on coach or teacher can reveal a lot.
Ask what sort of background checks your camp, YMCA, church, temple, or rec center has done on their counselors. Make sure you can drop by any time to observe class. And talk to your kids. If they think something funny is going on, take them seriously.
Following are some of the warning signs of potential sexual abuse in children:
– Withdrawal from friends
– Spending too much time with one teacher
– Acting in a provocative or adult manner
– Signs of depressed behavior
– Expressing a strong desire to stop an activity without a specific reason
– New attention and gifts from someone
– Reluctance to be in the company of certain people
SOURCES: Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation; National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Enjoyed reading this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed by clicking here.
sexual abuse, child abuse, abuse prevention
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:10 pm
http://www.protectkids.com/abuse/abusesigns.htm
More signs can be found at the above site.
I think sexual assault signs/symptoms should be added (at least on a basic level) to health and sex ed. cirriculum. The more people can be made aware, the more people can help stop predators.