Tell Tale Signs of Sexual Abuse In Children

With the Penn State sex scandal in the news, it’s wise to re-examine what parents can take note of to know if their child has been abused. The first thing is to watch and know your child as a person. Learn and know his or her temperament, behaviors because what abuse does is snatches away who that child is by altering the child’s normal behaviors and temperament.

For example, a happy go lucky child will become withdrawn, a talkative child, will become speechless. This occurs because after abuse the person feels shameful, dirty, that they've done something wrong, depressed, stressed at school and will often not want to go to school anymore. Another thing is if your child becomes overly or more sexually progressive than a child of that age should be, that may be a sign of sexual abuse.

Some children try to re-enact the violence and trauma of the abuse they endured by starting to fires, breaking and throwing things, having uncontrollable temper tantrums and many other abnormal behaviors to signify that  something is not right with him or her. A child can also begin eating differently, have insomnia and refuse to hang out with their peers.

 

If you suspect abuse, the best thing to do is to ask the child upfront if they have been touched inappropriately. If the child says yes or even if they say no and your instinct tells you not to believe your child, take the child to a therapist and pediatrician to have them checked out immediately.

As your child grows up, he or she should be taught what is appropriate and inappropriate touching or interaction with adults. For example, things like showering and horsing around with adults while both are naked is not acceptable. They should be taught that no one regardless of their level of authority should touch them and they should know that sexual abuse is not done by strangers, it’s often done by someone they know including their very own parents, sibblings, uncles, aunts, teachers and family friends.

Also, for the sake of the children, unmarried, separated or divorced parents should put their differences aside and co-parent their children together as effectively as possible, so that predators will not see your child as a vulnerable child of a single parent that they can take advantage of and get away with it, because pedophiles often target vulnerable kids from low income single parent households who are looking for a father figure, because ultimately, predators are con men who seduce in a slow and progressive manner by getting the child to like them by giving gifts first and then they preying on them.

This conflicting message for a child is confusing and a child that has been starved of parental affection would love to have so much to have adult attention and to be showered with gifts. Then the person preys on them, and does things that are so harmful and exploitative to them. However as a parent always be on your guard and know that it’s not entirely normal for grown men to pay so much time and effort on young boys.  

For more information on sexual abuse, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse