Parenting a Child Who Has Experienced Trauma

Children who have experienced traumatic events need to feel safe and loved. All parents want to provide this kind of nurturing home for their children. However, when parents do not have an understanding of the effects of trauma, they may misinterpret their child’s behavior and end up feeling frustrated or resentful. Their attempts to address troubling behavior may be ineffective or, in some cases, even harmful. This factsheet discusses the nature of trauma, its effects on children and youth, and ways to help your child. By increasing your understanding of trauma, you can help support your child’s healing, your relationship with him or her, and your family as a whole.

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Parenting a Child Who Has Been Sexually Abused: A Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents

You may be a current or prospective foster or adoptive parent of a child with a known or suspected history of child sexual abuse. In some cases, you may not be certain that abuse has occurred, but you may have suspicions based on information you received or because of the child’s behavior. You may feel confused, concerned, and unsure of the impact of prior child maltreatment, including sexual abuse.

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American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Colloquium

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, the nation’s premier interdisciplinary child abuse organization, has announced its 2015 Colloquium to be held in Boston July 22-25. The APSAC Colloquium offers learning and professional development opportunities for professionals who serve children and families affected by child maltreatment and violence. The institutes and workshops offered throughout the Colloquium address all aspects of child maltreatment including prevention, assessment, intervention and treatment with victims, perpetrators, and families affected by physical, sexual, and psychological abuse and neglect.

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Comprehensive Protection Needed for Individuals with Profound Developmental Disabilities at Risk of Abuse and Neglect

Maltreatment of individuals who are profoundly developmentally disabled is a problem that occurs across many settings and is investigated by human service workers and others. The prevalence [the total number of people who have experienced maltreatment in a specified time period] and incidence [the ...

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Psycho-legal Considerations of Placing Children in Foster Care

When a child is placed in a foster home it is the responsibility of the placing agency to evaluate the prospective home by considering its environmental, physical, emotional, medical, and educational benefits and hazards. Finding a compatible foster home is not just a question of finding the right foster parents. If there are other children in the home they are also crucial to the selection process.

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Anonymous versus Identified Reporting of Child Maltreatment

  The child abuse and neglect hotline rings. All other factors being equal, does it matter if the reporter is anonymous or identified? Effective child maltreatment investigation relies to a significant extent upon information supplied by anonymous reporters. Reliance on these reporters presents the child protection, law enforcement, and judicial systems with a challenge: giving proper weight to such reports while safeguarding everyone’s constitutional rights. During FFY 2012, child protective services agencies received 3.4 million referrals involving approxim...

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Revisiting the Presumption of Jointly Placing Siblings in Foster Care

Until fairly recently, it was assumed that when parents divorced and custody was being assigned, it was in the child’s best interest to be placed with the mother. It took time and some tragic and avoidable situations to inform policy makers that this blanket assumption should be rebuttable—if a presumption at all. We have now come to a similar crossroad involving the placement of children in foster care. There is a presumption in law and policy that it is in the best interest of children going into foster care that they be placed together with their siblings. We ...

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