Caring for children and young people
Pass 4
Describe signs and symptoms of child abuse
‘Child abuse is making a child feel unwanted, ugly, worthless, guilty, unloved: being physically violent to a child; exploiting a child sexually; failing to provide the things needed for a child to grow.’
Kidscape, Good practice in child protection, Christine Hobart and Jill Frankel 2005
Abuse can happen to anyone of any age, sex and race. In this unit we are focusing on children and young people. Abuse can take place in many different places such as in the family home, in school or in day care, etc. Children and young people can be abused by someone they know such as parents, siblings, babysitter, teacher, carer or another familiar adult.
There are many different types of abuse I am going to give a brief definition of each and describe the signs and symptoms of the different types:
Physical abuse – This type of abuse implies physical harm directed towards a child, it is the deliberate physical injury to a child. In some cases it can be hard to distinguish between abuse and accidental injuries. I am now going to explain some types of physical abuse and how it can be identified:
- Poisoning – The signs of this would be the child being sick. They can be poisoned with alcohol, medication, drugs or other dangerous substances.
- Squeezing – The main signs of this would be bruising and the child might be tender to touch in certain areas.
- Burning/scalding – This could be from a number of things such as cigarette burns, hot bath water, throwing hot water round a child, making them walk on fire all these examples are possible.
- Biting – This would leave teeth marks of the abuser on the child’s body, this is a definite indicator of abuse as there should never be bite marks left on a child.
- Shaking a child – This type of abuse is very dangerous and can lead to bleeding of the head which in a serious matter can lead to coma and convulsions. It can also damage nerves and leave a child with a squint in their eye.
- Hitting with hand or object – This type of abuse can be seen through bruises and marks on the body.
- Blood stains – This can show that a child is being abused and the child’s skin has actually been broken and therefore blood has managed to get on their clothes.
- Broken bones – This can be a result of many things such as a child being pushed, hit with a hand or and object or punched.
