11/7 THE IMPACT OF NEGLECT AND ABUSE ON CHILDREN'S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
When do children most often experience child abuse?
between birth and 3 years of age
Research
What does Sheehan, 2011-Stanford Child Neurology, say about baby abuse and survival rate?
- When babies are abused about 25% die
- Up to 50% survive with significant neurological deficits
What is Neglect?
- The failure to provide for a child’s basic needs.
- It can be emotional, educational, or physical
Why do children often experience physical neglect, and where may they be inappropriately left?
- because their parents are unable to provide what they need-they are poor.
- May be inappropriately left at home alone
What are some characteristics of these physically neglected children?
- Often they have trouble doing well in school–basic needs are not met
- hungry, cold, lice
- difficulty concentrating
Research
What do Recent National Statistics indicate in terms of perpetrators by relationship to the victim?
total of 85% are relatives
What are some characteristics of children who have experienced severe emotional neglect?
- may be lethargic and apathetic
- may demonstrate learned helplessness
- may have cognitive problems, including difficulty with impulse control and problem-solving skills
Research
According to (http://www.irvingstudies.com/child abuse survivor monument disabled.htm-2007) what do they say about physical and sexual abuse of individuals with disabilities?
- runs 3-4 times higher than abuse in the general population
- Disabled girls are especially vulnerable targets; often, family members abuse them
If a disabled child reports abuse, why is she often not considered credible? and what is our job in this situation?
- can’t describe details clearly
- SLPs sometimes called to assist-especially if a case goes to court
- SLPs can ensure that interviews are conducted at child’s appropriate cognitive and linguistic levels
Research
What does some research suggest about mothers attachment toward babies with craniofacial problems?
- may be less attached to and nurturing of their infants
- Decreased attachment increases the risk of abuse and neglect
- vulnerable to abuse
Because of parents lack of attachment toward children with craniofacial anomalies, what should we do?
we need to provide medical care for these babies as early as possible
What are the results on parents when they have children who have disabilities, and in turn how do they react?
- Children with disabilities put a lot more stress on their caregivers
- when caregivers are stressed and have no respite, they are more likely to neglect and abuse their children
Special needs caregivers may…
- not see the light at the end of the tunnel like parents of typically developing children
- be stressed
- typical child experiences are not available
- parents of typically developing children are uncomfortable
- no invitations
- special needs parents & children are isolated
What are behavioral and language characteristics of children who are abused and/or neglected?
- they are often very quiet
- Difficulties with expressive language
- they have lesser conversational skills than their peers
- They may be less likely than peers to discuss information or volunteer
- shorter, less complex utterances
- fewer decontextualized utterances; more talk about the here and now
- auditory and reading comprehension problem
Why do neglected and/or abused children often do more poorly in school?
- they underperform academically
- They have more behavior problems
What are some of the specific difficulties with pragmatics that children who are abused/neglected?
- Decreased descriptive utterances
- language used to get things done with little social affect
- poor conversational skills overall
- inability to discuss feelings
- shorter conversations
Research
What does Nelson 2010 state about children who are abused/neglected?
- they lack ability to take perspective of a conversational partner
- Demonstrate alexithymia-absence of words for emotions
What may mothers who neglect or abuse their babies do?
- may punish normal risk taking “adventurous” behavior
- may not interact
- may be unresponsive when babies initiate, so babies learn to be passive
What must we stress to caregivers that they should NEVER do? and what can this cause?
- we must stress to caregivers that they should NEVER shake a baby
- this causes lifetime cognitive and linguistic damage
Research
What does Sheehan, 2011 (stanford neurology) state about traumatic brain injury with shaken babies?
one problem: when the caregiver is done shaking, s/he usually slams the baby hard against a surface-wall, table..–>traumatic brain injury
What are some implications for assessment and intervention for abused/neglected children?
- we need to work as part of a multidisciplinary team
- this team often includes a social worker and a psychologist
- we are mandated to document and report what we see and hear
- in the schools, we would tell the principal
In assessment, what do we especially need to focus on evaluating with kids who are abused/neglected?
- overall expressive language skills
- pragmatic skills
- narrative skills
- vocabulary
What should intervention include, for children who have been abused and neglected?
- Encourage verbal expression, especially description
- providing a warm, nurturing environment with clear rules and boundaries
- increase children’s ability to accurately describe emotions
- increase ability to appropriately express emotions (e.g., use your words, not hitting or kicking)
What may intervention especially need to involve b/c abused/neglected kids don’t get to do this at home?
- Playing!
- we can provide appropriate dolls/action figures, art supplies, etc.
- As the child is playing or drawing, describe his actions or drawings
