Every day children are struggling with the effects of childhood sexual abuse. While the abuser can be anyone, typically the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts such as a teacher. News reporters tell stories about teachers who molest or rape students. These news reports regarding childhood sexual abuse between teacher and student are more common than a news report on a family member molesting a child within their family.
However, despite the growing prevalence of news reports on childhood sexual abuse within the school systems, one topic is not often discussed within the news media: the impact of childhood sexual abuse within special education. Each year children within special education are sexually abused by school faculty and staff working closely with them. The abuse is not likely to be addressed or discussed, so, like many other children who have been sexually abused, the children with special needs stay silent; though unlike other children who physically have a voice, some children with special needs cannot physically speak, so staying silent about the abuse is not only a psychological choice, but a physical one. Because of struggles such as this one, those working with children with special needs must understand the impact of childhood sexual abuse on special education, as the students who are in special education struggle to learn not only because of their special needs, but also because of the damage of childhood sexual abuse. The two struggles are connected. Because of the link between the two struggles, education personnel should seek to understand the impact of childhood sexual abuse within special education in order to fully meet the needs of the whole child so that students with special needs can learn appropriate academics and life skills effectively.
In seeking to understand the impact of childhood sexual abuse within special education, educators must acknowledge and recognize that “. . . child abuse and neglect are inextricably interwoven with disability” (Cohen & Warren, 1990, p. 254). Research shows “. . . evidence that children who are abused or neglected are at greater risk of becoming emotionally disturbed, language-impaired, [intellectually disabled], and/or physically disabled” (Diamond & Jaudes as cited in Cohen & Warren, 1990, p. 254). When schools start to consider why children with disabilities are frequently abused, faculty and staff need to understand that even though “. . . the field of child abuse and prevention and treatment has undergone enormous development . . . the subject of abuse and neglect of children with disabilities has not received substantial attention” (Cohen & Warren, 1990, p. 253). This lack of attention needs to be addressed by education professionals working with children in special education, as “. . . a child must feel safe and secure in an environment to be able to learn” (Hart as cited in Evanshen & Faulk, 2011, p. 67).
If a child does not feel safe at school, then he or she cannot receive the benefits from a positive environment. Positive environments help children to learn. “Children in positive environments are likely to experience enhanced memory, learning, and feelings of self-esteem” (Sylwester as cited in Evanshen & Faulk, 2011, p. 67). A negative environment, however, such as an environment filled with past memories and present acts of childhood sexual abuse, causes a child to “. . . experience . . . high levels of affective and physiological arousal and a tendency to interpret even the smallest demands as dangerous and anxiety producing” (Blaustein & Kinniburgh as cited in Lawson & Quinn, 2013, p. 499).
For instance, children who have undergone complex trauma typically “. . . spend an inordinate amount of time in a hypervigilant state, focused externally, and often eventually disconnect emotionally as a means to cope” (Blaustein & Kinniburgh as cited in Lawson & Quinn, 2013, p. 499). As these children grow, “continuation of these coping strategies . . . often leads to the development of rigid and circumscribed means of managing stress” (Blaustein & Kinniburgh as cited in Lawson & Quinn, 2013, p. 499). Those in the field of education, working with children with special needs, should understand that for healthy child development, “. . . co-regulation of emotions is often critical. . .” (Blaustein & Kinniburgh as cited in Lawson & Quinn, 2013, p. 499). Teachers should know that the most ideal way to obtain co-regulation is through “. . . attachment with a caregiver. . .” (Blaustein & Kinniburgh as cited in Lawson & Quinn, 2013, p. 499). Teachers can foster attachment through “. . . providing an environment that fosters love, encouragement, warmth, and caring . . .” (Diamond as cited in Evanshen & Faulk, 2011, p. 62). Teachers who foster these attributes within their classrooms understand that these attributes are “. . . a crucial component in determining academic success” (Diamond as cited in Evanshen & Faulk, 2011, p. 62).
Even though research has documented that a welcoming classroom environment is essential to learning, children with special needs are not always welcomed at school. Stephen J. Caldas and Mary Lou Bensey (2014), in their article “The Sexual Maltreatment of Students with Disabilities in American School Settings,” “. . . [present] results from the first nationwide survey of students with disabilities who were sexually maltreated in American schools” (p. 345). This survey was conducted online. The “. . . survey results . . . were mostly provided by caregivers, parents/guardians, and professional advocates. . .” (Caldas & Bensey, 2014, p. 345). Furthermore, the results of this survey “. . . document for the first time the prevalence and patterns of sexual maltreatment of this vulnerable and often invisible population within educational settings” (Caldas & Bensey, 2014, p. 346).
In order to understand the impact of childhood sexual abuse on special education, teachers must not only examine all the struggles of students with special needs, they must also examine the prevalence and patterns of childhood sexual abuse happening on school grounds. In Caldas and Bensey’s (2014) article, they simplify the patterns of childhood sexual abuse happening on school grounds into contact and no contact. Contact refers to all types of inappropriate physical touch and no contact refers to any inappropriate non-physical types of childhood sexual abuse such as what Dan B. Allender (2010) defines as interaction in his book THE WOUNDED HEART: HOPE FOR ADULT VICTIMS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE. Childhood sexual abuse deemed interaction is essentially when children are sexually abused verbally, visually, and psychologically.
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