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1989 NOVA Newsl. 1 (1989)

handle is hein.journals/novan1989 and id is 1 raw text is: NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR VICT/M ASSISTANCE sm Ne wslett Volume 13, Number 1, 1989 er Working With Victims Who Are Children Or Adolescents Using The Lessons Of Child Development With Young Trauma Victims by Marlene A. Young Executive Director Editor's note: a number ofparticipants in Marlene Young's workshops on child vic- tims have asked NOVA to publish her presentation as an article. We are pleased to do so here. Over the last thirty years there has been a great deal of research, discussion, and program development in the field of child abuse. Concern over the physical abuse of children in the 1960s evolved to a growing awareness of child sexual abuse as a critical problem as well. However, despite the publicity and the public awareness of the victimization of children, there has been little written for general victim advocates about the way children respond to traumatic events and the types of interventions that may be useful to individuals working with child victims of trauma. This article will examine the devel- opmental stages that children go through and describe the reactions of children at various stages of development in the af- termath of trauma. Then some practical recommendations for intervention will be presented. The observations in this paper are based on the author's experience in working with child victims who have been physically or sexually abused, chil- dren who have survived manmade acci- dents and natural disasters, children who have survived or witnessed criminal as- saults or murder. In addition, it will incor- porate current research findings where appropriate. There are three general tenets that should be remembered when childhood development and trauma are discussed. First, it is important to understand that Marlene A. Young developmental stages are not precise or rigid. Each child develops individually. Some may move through some stages more quickly than others. Some children mature faster and others slower. Hence, the age ranges discussed below are simply approximations. Second, when children survive a major traumatic event, they often suffer two kinds of victimization. They may be victimized by the initiating event - the criminal attack, the flood, the plane crash, and so forth - and they often are victim- ized by the temporary or permanent loss of their parents. The loss of parents is precipitated by the fact that parents often get so involved in the disaster that has befallen their home or community that they ignore their chil- dren, sometimes consciously, out of a protective desire to keep their children in the dark, and sometimes because the chil- dren are forgotten in all of the distress over the catastrophe. And sometimes it is because one or both parents die or are not allowed to be with their children because they were per- petrators or accomplices in an abusive relationship. Whatever the reason or the duration, the loss of parents can be more traumatic than the catastrophe for many children. Third, there is some evidence sug- gesting that if a child suffers a trauma at any particular developmental stage, it is natural for him or her to have further reactions to the trauma as the child goes through the succeeding stages. This seems to be due to the fact that there is a need to understand the trauma in the con- text of each developmental stage until adulthood. Infants The infancy stage is from birth until about two years old. It is characterized by extraordinary physical and sensorial growth. Infants learn to focus their eyes, distinguish noises, distinguish tastes, and to distinguish themselves from others. While it is often called a pre-verbal stage of life, in fact, most parents recognize that it is a very verbal stage. Infants commu- nicate through noise and physical action, they simply do not have a known lan- guage. Little is known about their thought (See Children, page 3) In This Issue: * New Victimization Survey Results ........ 2 *Law Enforcement Training on Domestic Violence . , . 6 * Adopt a Bookshelf at the NOVA Library..... 8 The NOVA Newsletter is published as a service to the NOVA membership and to the general public. Views expressed here are those of their authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Board ofDirectors ofNOVA. 0 1988 by the National Organization for Victim Assistance. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce copyrighted materials in the Newsletter provided the source and copyright are appropriately noted in the reproduction.

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