News

Alex Chodkowski looks at research highlighting the difficulties faced by disabled children when communicating about sexual abuse.

In this research, published in the report No Sign of Harm (see below for details), disabled children and young people with communication difficulties are identified as a high-risk group for sexual abuse and it is suggested that the child protection system needs to be made more accessible to them.

Three issues are highlighted that increase the vulnerability of disabled children: their dependency on an often wide number of carers and adults; the potential of institutional care to increase the likelihood of abuse; and the potential of communication difficulties to undermine protection.

It is difficult for any child to talk about abuse and if a child cannot use verbal methods of communication this will intensify the problem. Several methods of communication are used by disabled children, but often these do not contain the words or signs that relate to sex or body parts, or those that relate to abuse.

In the report People Like Us¹ communication is said to be a major issue for disabled children, and the report recommended that ways to communicate need to be developed. Working Together to Safeguard Children ² states that disabled children with communication difficulties should have available to them a means of being heard.

The study examined the views of professionals who work with disabled children with communication difficulties, about issues relating to the communication of abuse. Interviews were carried out with staff from eight establishments in Scotland: seven schools - four of which are residential units for children with learning difficulties - and one residential respite unit. The study focused on those children who used alternative methods of communication and the issues that were raised for staff regarding the disclosure of abuse and, in turn, the implications for policy and practice.

Staff working with disabled children with alternative communication methods saw them as a particularly vulnerable group and identified a number of issues that create barriers to communication of abuse. Frequently raised was the effect of the children's level of understanding and how this would affect their ability to communicate.

Often children had a combination of disabilities, usually with some level of learning difficulty. Staff described the difficulty of teaching abstract concepts using alternative communication methods, including those around sexuality, and how this had implications for teaching disabled children about abusive rather than acceptable behaviour.

Similarly, these children may not understand that they had been abused: "Some of the children wouldn't know whether or not they were in an abusive situation, especially if it was with a trusted person and there was no pain involved."

To overcome barriers to communication, most staff interviewed felt that children needed to understand about sexuality and personal development, and that language systems needed to include signs allowing communication of abuse. This sex and personal development education should be geared to the level of understanding of the child.

It was felt by staff interviewed for this study that discovery of abuse would be more likely to come about through noticing signs or mood changes than from a child communicating explicitly about abuse. Those working closely with children with communication problems needed to be fully aware of all possible behavioural signs and symptoms.

Protecting disabled children from abuse and reducing the vulnerability of these children is an issue for all services involved - social services, health and education. The study suggests that continued improvement in service and practice co-ordination is the way forward in order that this group of children are effectively protected from abuse in the future.

- The report No Sign of Harm: Issues for Disabled Children Communicating About Abuse by Rebecca Oosterhoorn and Andrew Kendrick appeared in Child Abuse Review, July-August 2001, Volume 10, Issue 4

Alex Chodkowski is a child care information system researcher at the Social Services Research and Development Unit, Oxford Brookes University.

References

¹W Utting, People Like Us: The Report on the Review of Safeguards for Children Living Away from Home, Stationery Office, 1997

²Department of Health, Working Together to Safeguard Children, Stationery Office, 1999