Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse - TEXAS Edition- Updated 2018

This course is divided into two sections and covers the following objectives:

Recognizing Child Abuse 

• The realities of child abuse detailing the prevalence of abuse in all communities, who perpetrators are, and how they gain access to children through a process called grooming.
• The legal definitions of child abuse, assuring that those in the community can recognize abusive situations as determined by law.
• Signs and symptoms of sexual, physical, emotional abuse, neglect and domestic violence, as well as their effects on children.

Reporting Child Abuse 

• How to communicate with a child who makes a disclosure.
• The importance of making a report.
• How to make a report and how to overcome one’s fears/barriers around reporting.
• Policies within child-serving organizations that need to exist to minimize the potential for abuse.
• What an advocacy center does and its unique role in the community.