Introduction

Welcome to Child Abuse: Working with Abused & Neglected Children, an interactive computer-based instruction course, designed to help you identify and effectively teach students affected by child abuse and/or neglect. This course teaches you to recognize the signs of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect in students. It also discusses the specific factors that exist in families who abuse or neglect their children. A major emphasis in this course is on helping the participant understand the special learning needs of the abused or neglected child, and how to meet those needs in the regular classroom. Working with parents and community agencies is also emphasized.

This course meets the child abuse and neglect educational requirement in most states. It is the responsibility of the student to verify the course content with your specific state professional licensing agency to ensure proper credit.

This computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support information can be found, in the Help section of your course.

Course Materials

Title: Child Abuse: Working with Abused & Neglected Children

Author: Joan S. Halverstadt, MS/ED

Instructor: Joan S. Halverstadt MS/ED

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Academic Integrity Statement

The structure and format of most distance-learning courses presume a high level of personal and academic integrity in completion and submission of coursework. Individuals enrolled in a CBI distance-learning course are expected to adhere to the following standards of academic conduct.

Academic Work

Academic work submitted by the individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in whole, to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.

Aiding Honesty in Others

The individual will encourage honesty in others by refraining from providing materials or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly.

Violations of these academic standards will result in the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit for the course.

Level of Application

This course is designed to be an informational course with application to educational settings. The intervention strategies are designed to be used for the remediation of abused or neglected students ranging in age from approximately three years to adolescence. Some alterations may be needed if working with specific populations such as gifted, ESL or special education.

Course Objectives

Students will be able to:

· Understand the educator’s role in protecting and supporting abused or neglected students

· Recognize the symptoms of child abuse and neglect

· Know their state and school district’s child abuse reporting procedures

· Understand the causes of abuse and neglect in families and society

· Understand the special learning needs these students bring to the classroom

· Gain techniques for supporting students and families affected by abuse or neglect

· Learn intervention techniques applicable to the classroom setting

· Gain a wider knowledge of available outside resources and support systems

· Understand the educator’s role in the intervention and prevention of child abuse and neglect

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Course Description

This course is designed to help classroom teachers, school counselors and other educational personnel gain strategies to reach and teach students who have been affected by child abuse or neglect. Participants will learn the signs and symptoms for the three types of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) and the four types of neglect (physical, medical, emotional, and educational). Participants will explore how abuse and neglect affect a student’s learning, cognitive brain development and social-emotional development. The short- and long-term consequences of neglect as well as the social and family causes will be reviewed. The educator’s role in the intervention and prevention of child abuse and neglect will be discussed.

The course is divided into four chapters. Each chapter discusses a particular topic of abuse or neglect. The chapters are sequential and should be completed in the order they are presented. At the completion of each chapter, there will be an examination covering the material. Students must complete the examination before proceeding to the next chapter. In some of the examinations, questions will involve case studies to provide further practice in the application of knowledge. This course is appropriate for educators seeking training in working with children aged three-eighteen years as well as those who work directly with families.

Although this course is a comprehensive presentation of the educational issues surrounding abuse and neglect, there is certainly a wealth of research and topics that are not covered in the scope of this course. The instructor highly recommends that you augment your readings from this course with further research to gain a fuller understanding of the complexities of this subject. However, the material presented in this course will give you a broader understanding of the topic of child abuse and neglect. It will also give you information to apply directly to your work with students in the classroom and community.

Student Expectations

As a student you will be expected to:

· Complete all information chapters covering child abuse, showing a competent understanding of the material presented.

· Complete all examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material presented.

· Complete a review of any chapter on which your examination score was below 70%.

· Retake any chapter examination, after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 70% (maximum of three attempts).

· Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course.

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Chapter Topics

Chapter One: Introduction, History and Characteristics

This chapter will introduce the participant to the course topic by a discussion of the working definitions and the statistical magnitude of the problem of child abuse and neglect. A short history of how child maltreatment has evolved is included as well as a discussion of the educator’s role in the reporting, treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect in society. This chapter will also discuss the family factors involved in the incidence of child abuse and neglect, including personal factors and environmental/societal factors.

Chapter Two: Indications and Types of Abuse

This chapter will present the physical and behavioral signs and symptoms of physical and emotional child abuse. It will discuss the types of emotional abuse, and define and present the physical and behavioral symptoms of sexual abuse. It will also discuss the stages of normal sexual development as well as how to handle disclosures of sexual abuse.

Chapter Three: Neglect: Types, Causes and Interventions

This chapter will discuss the physical and behavioral symptoms of the four types of neglect (physical, medical, emotional, and educational). The role patterns children of neglect often exhibit and the causes of neglect, including poverty, are presented.

Chapter Four: The Effects of Neglect

In this chapter the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect on a child’s social, emotional and personality development will be discussed. Participants will read a research article on the effects of maltreatment on bonding and attachment. The social and emotional traits of specific age groups of maltreated children will be discussed, as well as the effects of foster placement on the child and family. Also included in the final chapter, the information learned in the previous three chapters is applied specifically to methods for reaching and teaching students who have been abused or neglected. Barriers schools create for families are discussed as well as interventions for meeting the student’s physical, cognitive and social-emotional needs at school. The course ends with a discussion of the educator’s role in the intervention, treatment, and prevention of child abuse and neglect.

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Examinations

At the end of each course chapter, you will be expected to complete an examination designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a total of three times. Your last score will save, not the highest score. After your third attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further access. The average from your exam scores will be printed on your certificate. However, this is not your final grade since your required writing assignments have not been reviewed. Exceptionally written or poorly written required writing assignments, or violation of the academic integrity policy in the course syllabus, will affect your grade. As this is a self-paced computerized instruction program, you may review course information as often as necessary. You will not be able to exit any examinations until you have answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You are expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting.

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Instructor Description

Joan Halverstadt has been a school counselor since 1994 working with at-risk preschool and elementary aged students. Ms. Halverstadt has over thirty years of experience working in early childhood education with children and families, including working with children affected by family issues, abuse or trauma. She also teaches graduate education counseling and special education courses for teachers and counselors. She received her School Counseling Educational Staff Associate Degree from City University, her Masters in Education Degree from George Mason University, and her BA in Psychology and Elementary Education from Whitman College.

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Contacting the Instructor

You may contact the instructor by emailing Joan at joanh@virtualeduc.com or calling her at (509) 891-7219 Monday through Friday. Phone messages left during business hours will be answered within 48 hours. Phone conferences will be limited to ten minutes per student, per day, given that this is a self-paced instructional program. Please do not contact the instructor about technical problems, course glitches or other issues that involve the operation of the course.

Technical Questions

If you have questions or problems related to the operation of this course, please try everything twice. If the problem persists please check our support pages for FAQs and known issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section of your course.

If you need personal assistance then email support@virtualeduc.com or call (509) 891-7219. When contacting technical support, please know your course version number (it is located at the bottom left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating system, and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.

Minimum Computer Requirements

Please refer to VESi’s website: www.virtualeduc.com or contact VESi if you have further questions about the compatibility of your operating system.

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Refer to the addendum regarding Grading Criteria, Course Completion Information, Items to be Submitted, and how to submit your completed information.

Bibliography

Center for Child Abuse Prevention Services. Characteristics of abusive families. (handout)

949 Market St. #411, Tacoma, WA 98402.

Dominguez, Renee S., Nelke, Connie F., & Perry, Bruce. Sexual abuse of children. Encyclopedia of crime & punishment. Great Barrington, MA. Berkshire Publishing Group.

Halverstadt, Joan. (2000). Strategies for teaching abused or traumatized students. Seattle Pacific University course.

Jensen, Tine K., Gulbransen, Wenke, Mossige, Svein, Reichelt, Sissel, & Tjersland, Odd Arne. (2005, Dec.). Reporting possible sexual abuse: A qualitative study on children’s perspectives and the context for disclosure. Child Abuse and Neglect, 29(12), 1395-1413.

Mann, David, Palker-Corell, Ann, Ludy-Dobson, Christine, and Perry, Bruce. (2002). The physical abuse of children. Encyclopedia of crime & punishment. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. (2001). In focus: The risk and prevention of maltreatment of children with disabilities. www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/prevenres/focus

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. (2001). In focus: Understanding the effects of maltreatment on early brain development. www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/focus/earlybrain/earlybraina.cfm

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. (2006). National child abuse and neglect data system, summary of key findings from calendar year 2004.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/canstats.cfm

National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2005). The long term consequences of child abuse and neglect. http://childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/long_term_consequences.cfm

National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (2003) The User Manual Series: A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: the Foundation of Practice. Wash. D.C. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanual.cfm

National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2003). The role of educators in preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. http://childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/educator/educatora.cfm

Perry, B.D. (2006). Bonding and attachment in maltreated children: Consequences of neglect in childhood. Child Trauma Academy: Parent and caregiver education series vol. 1, number 4. www.childtrauma.org

Perry, B.D. (2000). The neuroarcheology of childhood maltreatment. The neurodevelopmental costs of adverse childhood events. Child Trauma Academy. www.childtrauma.org/ctamaterials/Neuroarcheology.asp

Washington Department of Social and Health Services, Office of Quality Assurance and Training. (2006). Child protective team handbook. Olympia,WA.

Washington Department of Social and Health Services, Children, Youth, & Family Services. (2006). Educator’s guide to child protective services. Olympia, WA.

Updated 1/22/10 JN