Summative Assignment

EY1003

Lynne Percival

In this assignment I will be looking at the case study of Amy and Sophie. Their mother has neglected Amy and Sophie. Their stepfather has also sexually abused Amy. I will start by identifying and describing the type of child abuse that relate to Amy and Sophie’s story. I will examine the social issues that may increase the risk of child abuse. I will also discuss the role and responsibility of those who work in school to support Amy and Sophie holistic development. I will look at the multi-agency working within the school and children’s centre, and look at the balance between protection and prevention. Finally, I will discuss the effect of child abuse on children and their families.

In Amy and Sophie case there were many signs and symptoms that the teachers noticed, that could relate to possible abuse at home. The signs that Amy and Sophie are not being looked after, is that both Amy and Sophie clothes are hardly ever wash. They have poor hygiene and are grubby. They do not have enough food in their lunchbox. This results in the teacher believing they are being neglected at home. At school both Amy and Sophie are quite and do not engage in with other children, they have low self-esteem. This is another reason to believe something is wrong. The school decides to call the mother to come in, after this there is only a small improvement. This may be due to their stepfather, who is aggressive and encourages the mother to ignore the school. When Amy draws inappropriate things, it is discovered that the stepfather has been sexually abusing her. Both Amy and Sophie are fostered after this.

Amy suffered sexual abuse by her stepfather. Corby (2002) defines sexual abuse as where a child or young person is forced to take part in sexual activities, weather or not the child is aware of what is happening. This can involve the child looking at pornographic material or watching sexual activities or encouraging the child to behave inappropriate ways. Howe (2005) argues there are many signs and indicators that a teacher can look for that may lead them to believe they are being sexually abused. They are bites, bruising to top of thighs and hips. These are physical indicators but are harder to detect if the child wears clothes that don’t show much skin. There are behavioral indicators, such as changes in schoolwork, drawing inappropriate things, etc. In Amy case she draws inappropriate things that lead the teacher to believe something is wrong.    

Neglect is defined by Working Together (Home Office 1992) in Wilson and James (2002), as the persistent failure to protect a child from any kind of danger including starvation, care for a child’s health and development and this may also include emotional needs. Their mother and stepfather neglect both Amy and Sophie. From the video we can see many sign and indicators that they are not being looked after properly. Howe (2005) says that some of the physical indicators that a child is neglected are poor hygiene, inappropriate clothing etc. In Amy and Sophie case we can see that these indicator are there. The behavioral indicators can be low self-esteem, social isolation, resist joining in etc. These behavior indicators can be seen from the video where the teacher says that both Amy and Sophie do not get involved in many activities.

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It could be argued that both Amy and Sophie have suffered physical and emotional abuse in some way. Corby (2000) defines physical abuse as hitting, shaking, burning etc as physical harm to the child. Physical harm could also cause ill health to a child. From this definition we can argue that Amy and Sophie have suffered physical abuse, as they were not given enough food to eat, that can result to ill health. Also, Amy being sexually abuse could result in physical abuse, as the stepfather is forcing Amy to do stuff.

According to Corby (2000), emotional abuse ...

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