Child Abuse Prevention Month

Child Abuse Prevention Month

According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, a month dedicated to encouraging communities, individuals, and families to work to strengthen family bonds to prevent child abuse and neglect.

According to the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Tennessee a child is a victim of abuse or neglect every 47 seconds in the United States, with an estimated 700,000 children facing abuse every year.

How You Can Get Involved

As a community, we must all put in the effort to educate, prevent and advocate to end child abuse. We have put together a list of ways you can get involved in this year’s Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Educating Yourself

The more you know about the signs of child abuse or neglect and ways to prevent it, the more significant role you can play as an advocate against it. The signs of child abuse and neglect one can observe in the child include:

  • Sudden changes in behavior
  • Losing interest in things they once loved
  • Changes to school performance
  • Struggles to concentrate
  • Experiencing learning problems
  • Seeming on edge and appears prepared for something bad to happen
  • A lack of adult supervision
  • Appearing withdrawn or excessively compliant
  • Not seeming to want to be at home

The signs of child abuse or neglect one can observe in the parent include:

  • A lack of concern for their child
  • Verbal abuse toward the child
  • Denial of the child’s behavioral concerns
  • Views the child as bothersome or bad
  • Treats the child as though they are worthless
  • Too high of expectations for their child
  • Over-dependence on the child

When viewing the overall parent-child dynamic, some signs of child abuse or neglect include:

  • High tension
  • A lack of affection toward each other
  • Voice their dislike for each other

There are many free resources through which you can learn more about the signs of neglect or abuse and ways to prevent them. You may find them in your library, on the internet, on the television screen, or in your community.

Spread the Word

You have a powerful voice that can contribute to preventing child abuse. If you are looking to participate in child abuse prevention month, using your voice to spread the word about child abuse prevention month is a great way to do it. You can volunteer to speak on the subject, use your social media to share important resources, or use your creativity to think of other great ways you can spread the word. Child Welfare has a great resource for ways you can spread the word that they have named the Outreach Toolkitif you are struggling to think of what to say.

Volunteer Your Time

There are many ways you can volunteer your time to help prevent child abuse. You can volunteer to coach a sport or academic team, work in an after-school program, or even help a neighbor or friend who appears overwhelmed with parenting responsibilities.

Show Your Child Some Love and Affection

Parenting can get overwhelming at times, leading us to forget one of our most important roles as a parent- showing love and affection. Not only is it essential to your child’s self-esteem and overall wellbeing, but it can also show them what healthy parenting looks like, spreading a family line full of love for generations to come.

We Are Here to Help

If you or someone you know has endured child abuse or neglect and are searching for counseling to help work through the traumas, we are here to help Contact Michigan Psychological Care today.

References

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/preventionmonth/
http://www.cactn.org/child-abuse-information/statistics#:~:text=More%20than%203%20million%20children,of%20abuse%20know%20their%20abuser.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/signs.pdf
https://michiganpsychologicalcare.com/

Keywords: child abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, where to find counseling for your child, child therapy

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