Symptoms Of Sexual Abuse

You cannot prevent your child from being a potential target, but will hopefully prevent any abuse from occurring by recognizing the grooming process and kicking the predator out of your child's life before sexual abuse occurred.

If you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of evaluating the possibility that your child is being abused, you may think you are clueless about the signs. You are not. They are quite obvious. You already know about the signs the pedophile may give off, but the child's symptoms may include:

• A change in behavior, like being withdrawn, depressed, or sad.
• A change in the way your child wants to dress herself or himself, like baggy clothes that cover the body.
• A change in behavior toward the abuser, like not wanting to be around him any more.
• Not doing very well in school.
• Talking about sex or displaying sexual behavior.
• Pain, bleeding, sexually transmitted infections, or pregnancy.
• One more very important sign is your child (or another child you know, of course) telling you about sexual abuse.

Let one thing be clear — there is a much, much higher chance of a child who is being sexually abused not telling, than a child making up sexual abuse that did not happen. Children almost never invent sexual abuse, and would not know the details anyway.

If any child tells you about sexual abuse, staying calm and listening is the best response. Do not panic. Make sure to tell the child that it was not their fault, and that you are proud of them for taking the brave step of telling. Tell her or him you will help them be safe.

Report the abuse to the police, and make sure that the abuser has no further access to the child at all. Seek out therapy. All of this should happen after you first give the child as much time as they need to tell their story.