CHILD EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Rocking, sucking thumbs or self harming
Including
- banging head
- holding breath
- punching or hitting themselves
Be concerned if the child is new to your service.
Some more severe indicators of emotional abuse include compulsive or regular rocking, sucking and self harming.
All children self harm right from when they are babies – just think about babies scratching themselves when crying, or toddlers banging their heads on the floor during tantrums - but at some point they learn it’s ineffective and grow out of it. In emotionally abused children they can remain in this earlier stage of development.
It can be quite confronting to see a child exhibit this kind of behaviour – and this should definitely be addressed by reporting at least to your senior supervisor/team leader/coordinator.
You should also be concerned if a child has just arrived at your service exhibiting these behaviours as it’s possible they’ve been moved from another service due to indicators of abuse being observed there.