Signs and Symptoms of Child Sexual Abuse- Sally Horan, MS, LPC

The opinions and statements made in this chat session belong to the individuals posting them and appear in unedited form to promote the free exchange of information. However, they may not represent the views and/or policies of the Georgia Center for Resources and Support.

Gigi: Sally will be answering questions about Sexually Abused Children and the Roll the Georgia Center for Children plays in the healing process

Gigi: Sally, can you tell us a bit about the services provided by the Georgia Center for Children?

sallyann: Sure, The Georgia Center is a Child advocacy Center which is part of a network of centers throughout the state and the country. Our mission is to provide a child friendly, safe environment for children who have either disclosed sexual abuse or who may have been sexually abused. The children are brought to us either by law enforcement or DFACS to have a forensic interview or evaluation and therapy. I do forensic evaluations and therapy. All of our services are free as we are a private non-profit.

sallyann: It is an investigative interview in which we are gathering information for possible prosecution of a crime. The interview is a one time interview on video tape. The forensic evaluation can be several appointments, up to 5 or 6. It is also investigative in nature. All of our cases are criminal and often end up in court.

sallyann: I would like to add that we not only see sexually abuse children but severely physically abused and those who have witnessed homicides. We are very respected in the court system because they now know us and know that we follow a very strict interviewing protocol.

Gigi: Can you still make a case and get information from a child years after abuse has taken place?

sallyann: The statute of limitations varies depending upon when the disclosure is made but I believe it is about 8 years.

sallyann: There are a whole list but the ones that clearly indicate that sexual abuse has occurred are sexually acting out behaviors and sexual knowledge well beyond the child's years.

sallyann: The children always have to be available to be called into court but when the child is young, say 3 to 10, the video tape often will suffice and the child won't have to testify. However, I have had clients as young as 8 be made to take the stand.

Shannon H: I would imagine the hardest part is getting the children to be able to articulate things in court., right?

sallyann: Yes, that is very difficult. But we work closely with the victim witness folks in the District Attny's office and the child is well prepped.

Shannon H: Do you liason with other agencies to get the children counseling as well?

sallyann: Our focus is called a multi-disciplinary team focus and that team consists of the advocacy center (us), law enforcement, DFACS, the DA's office and the medical folks. My office covers only DeKalb County but our other office covers Fulton County. All the children who are interaviewed and have made a disclosure are referred to therapy.

Gigi: Can you tell us about how many of these children end up in foster care?

sallyann: Good question. Lots of the children we see are already in foster care and have felt safe enough to make a disclosure. Many more will make a disclosure at school or to a friend about someone in their family and if that child is not believed or supported by their caregivers, the child will have to be removed from home in order to protect him or her.

sallyann: But, by and large, most of the children remain in their own homes and have supportive parents.

collins: Do you have cases where the child says it happen to the sister and not them. But when they answer they seem to be afraid to talk about the sexual abuse

Shannon H: How are your staff trained for these monumental tasks? It sounds like you all have an incredible amount of knowledge in many areas.

sallyann: Usually the child will tell someone they trust if they have been molested. They will also tell if they know of someone who has been molested. I think you are asking if they will say that what happened to them really happened to someone else. I haven't had any cases like that in my ten years of doing this. In my experience, children will just not tell at all rather than say it happened to someone else.

Gigi: What precent would you say that the abuser is the childs bio. parent?

sallyann: We go to lots of trainings on how to interview children and workshops and trainings specific to child development and therapy. We do have to be specifically trained in interviewing children. This field has become very specialized since I have been a therapist.

sallyann: The statistics on who the perpetrators are have the largest percentage of molesters are step-dads, mom's boyfirend and then Dads. Teenaged boys are next in line and seem to be offendingmore often. We believe that is because of their access to pornography on the internet.

sallyann: I always tell Moms never to let teen aged boys baby sit their children no matter who they are.

sallyann: No, because the larges percentage of victims are women and they aren't the perpetrators. The research says that only about 25 to 30% of those who perpetrate were victims themselves. So, it is definitely not an excuse.

Shannon H: What do they say is the most often reason they commit the offense, or do they answer that question often?

collins: Do you think most children that has been molested turn out to be guy if the are boys.

sallyann: Children don't lie about being sexually abused unless they have been told to do so by an adult. I have seen a few kids who have lied about it but that was because they had been told to do so. In one case the mom was trying to bring a case against MARTA but the child wouldn't say what Mom had told her to say. The only time that we get kids who lie about it are teens who have been out allnight and know they are going to get in trouble so they say they were raped. They are pretty transparent however, and the police usually cull them out before they get to us.

Kim: Being falsly accused is a constant worry for foster parents are there any info. that you could share with them to protect themselves from accusations.

sallyann: Shannon, are you asking what excuse the perpetrators use? Usually, they say they didn't do it.

sallyann: Shannon, are you asking if it makes a boy gay if he is molested? I've worked with lots of boys and they know that they have been forced to do something they didn't want to. Interestingly, most of the perpetrators are heterosexual.

sallyann: I can imagine that foster parents do worry about that. In my experience, I've never seen or heard of a child who made up a sexual abuse disclosure against a foster parent. I do know that it happens however. I guess maintaining good boundaries is very important and if you have a child in your care who has been molested that child should be in therapy.

Shannon H: Oftentimes, they are prompted to say that by the birth family, in a desperate bid to disrupt from that home. I have heard numerous children say that they were told by birth family that if they accuse the foster parents, they will be returned home. It is frightening for the foster parents, but they are always vindicated.

Gigi: How do you do a forensic interview with a child under 3 or who is mentealy challanged with a low mentality?

sallyann: Shannon, one good thing to know is that if a child is interviewed by a trained interviewer, we can always sense if a child is lying and that would be in our report.

collins: What do you think when a 12 year old boy always plays with boys younger than 7 years old .

sallyann: Gigi, we don't interview childre under 3 and we do interview mentally challenged children and adults if they have a cognitive age of 3 or above.

sallyann: Collins, I would be concerned about that. If he is uncomfortable with his peers then someone ought to work with him to find out why.

sallyann: Collins, I don't want to alarm you, but around age 12 is when boys start perpetrating.

Gigi: Where would a parent waite to get counceling for a child under the cognitive age of 3?

collins: This child has been sexualy abused by the mother boyfriend when he was 5 years old

sallyann: I don't think anyone can really do therapy with a child under 3. However, I do work with parents of toddlers to help them work with their own child.

Gigi: Would a parent wait untill the child was older than 3 or the cognitive age of 3?

sallyann: Collins, that boy needs counseling because he could be acting out on those little children. Has he had any?

sallyann: My specialty is play therapy with young children. However, if the child is not verbal it is better to just work with the parents and coach them around doing their own play therapy with their child. It is just our policy not to work with children under 3 but that doesn't mean someone else might not. I just don't find it to be beneficial to the child.

Shannon H: What is the best contact information to reach you and your fellow counselors? Does a family need a referral from somewhere to talk to you?

sallyann: Gigi, there are advocacy centers all over Georgia. I don't have the list at hand, but if you call my office I can tell you. Even better, there is a Child Advocacy Center website that has a list of all the centers in the country.

sallyann: Shannon, I'll talk with anyone who calls wanting advice or referrals. Just call me at the Georgia Center for Children, 404-378-6100. The children taht we interview are all referred by DeKalb County police or DFACS and in order to receive therapy at our center the crime had to have been committed in DeKalb or the victim resides in DeKalb.

Gigi: Sally, thank you so much for time, you did great with all the many questions we had!

sallyann: It was my pleasure. You can reach my e-mail at work which is sallyh@georgiacenterforchildren.org

Signs and Symptoms of Child Sexual Abuse- Sally Horan, MS, LPC

Monday, the 28th of March 2005