NCJ Number
150833
Date Published
Unknown
Length
134 pages
Annotation
This manual is intended to cover issues surrounding the treatment of sexually abused, physically abused, and neglected children and is targeted toward beginning therapists with little experience in child maltreatment, other individuals who require a greater understanding of therapeutic issues in their work, and therapists providing services to maltreated children who wish to improve their skills and knowledge.
Abstract
Providing therapeutic interventions for maltreated children requires an understanding of normal child development and the processes of abnormal development and the ability to assess the severity and types of behavioral, emotional, developmental, and psychological problems that abused children present; familiarity with the major issues common to abused children; and the skills necessary to manage such cases. The manual describes the new field of developmental psychopathology, which is founded on recognizing the value of normal development and acknowledging that many childhood life events and experiences can distort this development. The therapist is responsible for understanding the contexts in which the abused child-client exists, assessing clients within their environments and identifying dysfunctional behaviors and emotions, and providing interventions that address identified problems and assist a return to healthy functioning. The general framework for this manual consists of classifying child development into intrapersonal development, interpersonal development, physical development, sexual development, and behavioral conduct development. 1 table, 1 figure, and 27 references