Objectives
T he most difficult aspect of being a member of the early childhood profession consists of coming face to face with child abuse. Child abuse strikes at the very core of our professional commitment to the well-of children. We believe about how children should be nurtured, respected, and protected. Early childhood educators must decide when it is appropriate to seek and provide families and children with additional support, either form community resources, when child protection is required.
Children who live in a home where there is abuse and violence can feel very frightened, worried and upset. Abuse or violence in the home is always wrong and it's never a child's fault. These tips may help children learn more about how to stay safe, types of violence, what to do, where and how to get help if they or someone they love is being abused.
Violence at home can make child feel bad
The violence at home may be directed at a parent, a brother or sister, you or another family member you care about. You may see or hear the abuse happening or it may happen to you. When the violence used is towards you or a brother or sister, this is called child abuse. Violence at home can make you feel really sad, helpless and confused.
Often children think they have done something to cause the violence in their family. This is not true, but sometimes you might:
Blame yourself for the violence
Feel frightened, sad, ashamed, confused, or unhappy
Feel sick, have stomach pains or headaches
Stop eating or not feel like eating
Cry a lot
Sleep badly, have nightmares or wet the bed
Find school difficult
Lose interest in your school work or your friends
Have trouble concentrating
Feel like running away
Feel angry and want to hurt yourself or somebody else or to smash something
Have trouble talking – for example, you might stutter
Worry about the safety of someone in your family who is being abused
Take drugs or alcohol to cope.
Types of violence
Family violence can mean lots of different things – it’s not just being hit. There are different kinds of violence that can happen in the home. The violence may be directed at one of your parents, at you or your sisters and brothers or at other people who may be living with you.
Some examples of violence that may affect children are in home and child care centre
Physical violence – someone hurting or a loved one by hitting, slapping, pushing, biting, kicking or burning in children. Physical violence also includes threats to hurt your child or another family member in any of these ways.
Verbal violence – someone hurting your child or another family member by yelling mean and nasty things at them, calling your child or other family member’s rude names, or shouting or talking to you or them in a scary or threatening way.
Sexual violence – someone scaring, hurting your child by touching private parts of his/her body when you do not want them to, touching in a sexual way or them making your child touch their private parts, or forcing to have sex or watch sexual acts.
Neglect – someone hurting your child by not giving you adequate care, food, clean cloth
How Are Children Affected By Living in Violent Homes and child care centre
The single strongest way to predict child abuse is to find out if there is domestic violence in a home. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the rate of child abuse is six to fifteen times higher in families where there is adult domestic violence compared the families where there is no domestic violence. Anytime a parent is involved in domestic violence, the children in the home are affected in both obvious and subtle ways because they anticipate, see, hear, fear, and sense the violence. When a parent is abused, the children often: Feel guilty because they assume they caused it
Feel guilty because they did not do enough to protect the abused parent
Feel they were part of the family breakup
Are abused along with the parent