|
Infants
and Toddlers
| Pre-schoolers
| School-age
| Adolescence
Infants
and Toddlers (0 - 2 and a half years)
|
Development Delay; Failure
to Thrive; Emotional Withdrawal/Low Frustration Tolerance; Physical
Problems: frequent colds, ear infections, diarrhea.
|
Pre-schoolers
(3 - 6 years old)
|
Developmental Delay:
especially in language development. The child may be afraid to
speak, afraid of becoming the target of anger. This is due in
part to not being spoken to by adults or experiencing meaningful
discussions with adults.
|
Low Frustration Tolerance:
child cries easily and often. Her world is so chaotic she cannot
handle ordinary stress. Usually has not witnessed appropriate
ways of dealing with stress.
|
Acting Out Aggressively Toward Peers and
Adults: modeling the aggressive behaviors observed in the
home.
|
Emotional Withdrawal:
excessive thumb sucking, rocking, infant-like behaviors. The
child is seeking safety and security by reverting to behaviors
characteristic of a time when he felt secure.
|
Inability to Play Constructively:
lots of throwing or kicking, possibly even destruction of
playthings. Many children have not been show HOW to play.
Children are working out their frustration and worry in play.
|
Inconsistent or Inappropriate Display of
Emotions: the result of the child not learning appropriate
emotional responses, as well as not being in touch with their true
feelings.
|
School-age Child
(7 - 11 years)
|
Scholastically delayed/poor school
performance: child finds studying and learning difficult
when he can't keep from worrying about what happened at home last
night, or who is going to get hurt, maybe killed, later tonight.
|
Behavior Problems with Peer and Adults:
because of a lack of observable appropriate interpersonal
relationships, child has not learned appropriate ways to interact with
others. Child may be crying out for help in the only way they can
and still keep the "family secret."
|
Aggressive Acting Out Becomes More Severe
and Purposeful: modeling the violent behavior witnessed in
the home.
|
Severe Behavioral Difficulties:
culmination of low frustration tolerance.
|
Fearful/Nightmares/Night Terrors:
child reliving fears in her sleep. May be afraid of sleep because
incidents of physical and/or sexual abuse occur at night. May
have a history of being wakened by mother's screams, father's yelling.
|
Withdrawn/Depressed/Hopeless/Despondent:
life offers little other than physical and/or emotional pain. Joy
is lost.
|
Chronic Physical Complaints:
headaches, stomach aches. Child knows no other way to realize or
describe emotional distress Stress level too high for child to
cope.
|
Beginning to Mimic Adult Roles:
girls adopting role of victim; boys becoming aggressive, abusive.
|
Chronic Low Self-Esteem: child
blames himself/herself for situation at home. Child's good
feelings about himself have not been nurtured.
|
Adolescence (12 -
17 years)
|
Depression: loss of hope,
joy. Child full of sadness.
|
Emotional Neglect: by this
time the child has learned there is no one to listen or care,
especially parents. Many child have abandoned effort to reach
parents.
|
Signs of Physical Injuries, Maiming,
Crippling, Scarring
|
Aggression/Delinquency/Running Away:
realizing no one will take care of their needs except themselves,
adolescents will use the only coping skills they have learned --
violence and self-destruction.
|
Poor School Adjustment:
academically and socially unable to perform.
|
| Proficient at Mimicking Adult Roles:
teenager carries role of victim or aggressor into interpersonal
relationships outside of the family. |
Early Sexual Activity/Marriage:
provides means of escape or acting out.
|
Alcohol/Drug Experimentation or Use:
another form of escapism; self-medicating for the pain; modeling
behavior of adults.
|
Death by Suicide or Murder:
taking of one's own life to end the pain, or intervening to protect
mother results in harm or death to child, or child killing abuser.
|
Expansion of Violence into the Community:
criminal activity sometimes through gang involvement where teenager
finds a surrogate family. Anger and frustration spills over into
the community.
|
Infants
and Toddlers
| Pre-schoolers
| School-age
| Adolescence
|
