When Should You Tell? Dealing With Abuse

Product Description

Getting young victims of sexual abuse to tell someone can be a key step in preventing further abuse. Using one child’s experience to demonstrate that no girl or boy ever needs to keep scary secrets, this program helps abused children recognize that what they are experiencing is not the norm, and that they can be helped by telling an adult they can trust. When her older cousin Tommy starts touching her in inappropriate places whenever she’s alone with him, Karen is scared and confused and thinks maybe she’s to blame. Warned not to tell what’s happening, Karen feels sick and is unable to concentrate in school. Why can’t her mother just figure out the secret, she wonders, and make Tommy stop? After Mrs. Valdez, a health clinician, talks to Karen’s class about other kids who had the same scary things happen to them, Karen decides to trust Mrs. Valdez with her secret. Praising Karen’s courage, Mrs. Valdez helps Karen talk to her parents, and assures them that Tommy will get help. In a group counseling session, Karen discovers that she’s not the only child with a secret, and feels better.