Evaluating for Abuse in a Child with a Disability
Potential Reasons for Increased Risk of Abuse in Children With Disabilities
- Parents may have unrealistic expectations of their child’s capabilities – for example children with poor language may not respond and parents may punish them*
- Presence of multiple caregivers (can increase or decrease the rate of abuse)**
- Children may be unintentionally conditioned to comply with authority**
REFERENCES:
- * Zand et al 2015
- ** Legano et al 2021
Accessible Version
In addition, Parents may have unrealistic expectations of their child’s capability. For example, children with poor language may not respond and parents may punish them.
The presence of multiple caregivers can increase or decrease the rate of abuse, because while having more caregivers can increase the likelihood that one of the caregivers will abuse the child, having more eyes on the child may reduce the rate of abuse.
Children with disabilities be unintentionally conditioned to comply with authority which places them at risk for abuse
