Signs of suspected abuse in preschool children

What are the signs that may raise suspicion that your child is being abused in schools or preschool classes? What should parents do when in doubt, what are the ways to protect their children from safety risks?

4 signs parents suspect their child is being abused

Mr. Nguyen Minh Phung, Director of New Life Center for Psychological Consultation and Skill Development, Da Nang City, said that for preschool children who are used to going to school, they happily go to school on weekdays and then go to school. If there are some abnormalities in the child’s body, physical health, or mental health, parents may raise questions.

• First, when picking up the child from the preschool education facility, the parents see that the child has strange marks on the body such as bruises or injuries somewhere on the child’s body.
• Second, the baby’s psychology has many abnormalities. The child comes home from school and cries a lot, is uncomfortable, startles when sleeping, has nightmares, cries in his sleep, or gets scared, and can panic even when his parents speak loudly.
• Third, suddenly afraid of the teacher, afraid of going to school, afraid of going to school, very afraid, just want to stay at home, take the child to school and the child will cry and not want to go to class.
• Fourth, you may suddenly lose your appetite and become inactive with activities. In cases where it is suspected that a child has been severely abused or has been stressed for a long time, when it comes to going to school, the child suddenly has a high fever, vomiting…

What should parents do when they see abnormalities in their children, in both physical and mental health? Mr. Nguyen Minh Phung said that first, parents should give more attention and comfort to their children, and give more kindness, care, and psychological relief to their children.

Then, parents should find out and verify the causes of their child’s psychological and physical abnormalities, whether they happened at preschool, because the child was abused, or because the child went out with friends. encountering problems… Parents should immediately ask the child’s teacher or class teacher about bruises and wounds on the child’s body, and work directly with the child’s school. If necessary, find the principal/school owner/kindergarten class owner to extract the cameras in the classroom and children’s play area. When seeing serious signs of violence, parents need to contact the authorities who can intervene, support, protect their children and also prevent and protect other children from danger. loss of safety.

“Many people worry that if a child does not know how to speak, cannot speak, cannot describe what happened in the classroom or school, will it be difficult to detect the risk of child abuse? There will be more difficult, but when parents care about their children, they will observe their children’s psychological and behavioral manifestations, and will be able to detect unusual changes in their children’s bodies or activities,” Mr. Nguyen Minh Phung said.

Find out carefully about where to place your child

According to educational experts, parents can completely research and choose a reputable place to send their children to study, especially in the extremely important first years of a child’s life.

Parents should carefully find out whether the center or preschool education facility where their children are about to study, intervene… has complete legal documents or not, by looking up licenses, establishment decisions… on the website. Ho Chi Minh City education industry electronic information portal. At the same time, parents should find out directly at the school at the beginning of the hour, at drop-off time, to see if the place they are sending their children to school really loves and cares for them.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City’s education sector publicly discloses the database of thousands of schools, classes, and preschool groups throughout the city. With just a few taps on an internet-connected device, parents anywhere can view information about the facilities’ licenses, curriculum, etc.

From November 2023, Ho Chi Minh City’s education sector will publicly disclose information such as operating licenses, curriculum, physical conditions, teaching staff, total number of children… of all public and private preschools. non-public, children’s groups, kindergartens, independent preschool classes in all districts, Thu Duc City. The data is published on the education sector’s electronic portal at https://hcm.edu.vn/.

The website will display all necessary information such as: type of public or private school, location, phone number, total number of teachers/employees, total number of children, training program, operating license. dynamic. The displayed information also includes whether the preschool education facility takes care of children from 6-18 months old, how many children it accepts…

With the “keyword” box, parents can enter the name of the school and independent preschool class to find information about their operating license, number of teachers, number of children…