Facts about Sexual Abuse
- Most sexual abuse occurs quietly with no phisical injury or life threatening acts between the child and perpertrator. This means that your child can be suffering without you being able to tell from his/her physical appearance.
- When a child is sexually abused they feel a loss of control, they feel victimized and become uncertian about who they can and can't trust.
- Children need to be taught the difference between respect and blind obediance.
- Abuse that occurs between children is often a reenactment of whats been done to them. That means that the child that is abusing another child was probably abused him/herself by an adult.
- Tools of the abuser are friendship, trust and bribery.
- The primary reasons children don't tell are guilt, relationships, fear and disruption.
- Any time a child talks about being sexually abused you must believe them even if they get scared and tell you later that they lied.
- Children who are taught the proper names for their genitalia are more comfortable with their own bodies and less vulnerable to abuse. A child who feels there is something different or secret about their genetalia are extremely vulnerable.
- Playing doctor is a mutual and healthy method of exploration. However this game does not include one child victimizing another, oral-genital contact or attempts to penetrate the vagina or anus.
- If you notice your child playing in one of the previously mentioned ways -- ask questions. Examples: "What game are you playing?" "Who else plays this game with you?" "How do you play?"
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