The Cook Children's Fostering Health Program serves more than 2,000 children from across North Texas and as far west as Stephenville. In March, the Clinic helped more than 200 children, a record number for the program.

“Our clinic functions as a primary care medical home and offers complete health care for children in foster care through age 21,” said Brittany Schoonover, pediatric nurse practitioner for the Fostering Health Program.

It begins with trauma-informed care.

“We recognize when a child is removed from a home that in itself is trauma,” explained Keirsten Velez, LMSW, a social worker for the Fostering Health Program. “Sometimes we see the child the day after it happens, so our goal is to empower the child.”

That empowerment includes involving children in their own health journey while helping caregivers navigate the foster care system.

“There are a lot of nuances that come with providing medical care for a kiddo in foster care,” said Velez. “For example, most agencies require the foster parent to have a nine-page form completely filled out and signed at the end of every medical visit.”

Even before the first exam, the team works to fill the gaps in a child’s medical history by tracking down records from schools, hospitals and previous pediatricians.

“Often times we find fragmented care where the child had initial medical exams but often not follow up care,” explained Schoonover. “Our clinic is helpful to connect the dots and put the puzzle pieces together to be able to provide the best care for the child.”

Velez noted often placements occur with limited time or funds for foster parents to prepare for the child’s arrival. The team strives to address immediate needs, providing patients with essentials such as clothes, toys, and diapers, while also serving as a bridge to long-term support through Cook Children’s and community support.

“We try to make navigating the system easier for the caregivers,” said Velez, “We're kind of advocating alongside of them for what they may need.”

The support does not end when a child’s case closes. Schoonover and the team ensure continuity of care by providing families with information about new pediatricians and specialists.

“We’ll send over whatever they need to the new doctor, we want to keep the continuity of care that they have had here in their medical home,” said Velez.

Each of the 1,540 pinwheels in Fort Worth represents a visit to the Cook Children's Child Advocacy Resources and Evaluation (CARE) Team where a child was evaluated for concerns of abuse or neglect in 2024. A referral to the CARE team for suspected child abuse does not automatically mean that abuse is confirmed. For example, about half of the children referred to the CARE team for physical abuse are substantiated.

The 1,148 wheels in Prosper represent the number of child abuse cases in Denton County in 2024. 

The purpose of the pinwheels is to show the scale and impact that child abuse and neglect has on our community, while also exemplifying the resources available to victims.

“It is tragically beautiful,” said CARE Team Nurse Manager Stacey Henley.

Henley says the CARE Team uses the time spent planting the pinwheels on each campus “to reflect and pray for each child who they have seen over the past year, which can be very therapeutic for the staff.”

The pinwheels are only one part of Cook Children’s efforts to raise awareness, prevent and care for those affected by child abuse and neglect. Across North Texas, Cook Children’s is part of a vast support network for families to not only help children when abuse happens, but also to step in beforehand and prevent it.

Across eight counties, Cook Children’s Center for Community Health (C4CH) partners with community groups to determine on a grass-roots level what different areas need to prevent child abuse and neglect. 

“During the month of April, we observe National Child Abuse Prevention Month to emphasize the importance of communities and organizations working together to support families and prevent child maltreatment,” said Frances Wampler, program coordinator with C4CH.

“Together, we can make a difference,” Wampler said. “By supporting families, recognizing signs of abuse, and reporting concerns, we help ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive.”

Go to saynotoabuse.org for additional prevention and support resources.

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Cook Children's Center for Community Health Collaborates with Community Partners to Raise Awareness about Child Abuse Prevention

This April, during Child Abuse Prevention Month, the Cook Children’s C.A.R.E (Child Advocacy Resource and Evaluation) Team celebrates its 30-year anniversary. For the last three decades, this department has played an invaluable role in helping child abuse victims and their families heal while providing preventative education to the community at large. 

About the C.A.R.E. Team

Led by pediatricians who are board-certified in child abuse medicine, the Cook Children's C.A.R.E. Team provides medical and forensic evaluations for victims of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and drug exposure. All C.A.R.E. Team patients are referred from Child Protective Services (CPS), law enforcement agencies, or another medical provider.

“Our job is to make sure the child is okay, and if they’re not, to provide the necessary medical treatment and help them heal,” said Nurse Manager and forensic nurse examiner, Stacey Henley, MSN, RN. 

The C.A.R.E. Team does the critical work of providing a medical diagnosis—whether it’s found to be child abuse, an accident, or another underlying medical condition—and facilitating a treatment plan for the patient.

“Everything we do, we do because we care about these kids,” said C.A.R.E. Team Medical Director, Jamye Coffman, M.D. 

Helping Children Heal

The C.A.R.E. Team helps victims of all types of child abuse and neglect begin to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

The team is trained to recognize the dynamics of trauma and fight-or-flight, which means they have an evidence-based understanding of why children don’t always report abuse.

“A lot of people think abuse looks like what happens in the movies, where someone gets attacked by a stranger in a dark alley,” Henley explains. “They don’t understand that over 95% of the time, a child's abuser is a family member, a close family friend, or someone else the child knows.”

The C.A.R.E. Team provides comprehensive psychosocial assessments of each patient’s physical, mental and emotional health to ensure they receive the care they need. They also work with numerous advocacy centers in the community—listed on their website under Prevention, help and support resources—that are dedicated to helping child abuse victims and their families find hope, healing, and justice. 

“Our job is to protect these kids,” Henley said. “We make sure their body is okay first, and then we help them start their healing journey.”

A Collaborative Approach

The C.A.R.E. Team collaborates with multiple different specialties, including hematology, orthopedics, pediatric radiology and more, to provide multidimensional care for patients. 

“I think it’s our superpower that we have such a great group of specialty services that are willing to work together to make a diagnosis of potential abuse,” Dr. Coffman said. “We need a lot of different perspectives because a medical diagnosis holds great ramifications for the child and the family.”

Beyond Cook Children’s, the C.A.R.E. Team is part of a larger multidisciplinary network involved in child abuse cases—including law enforcement, CPS, advocacy centers, and the District Attorney’s office. The C.A.R.E. Team ensures all other parties involved in a child’s case understand their medical diagnosis and its consequences.

Community Education and Partnerships

“We try to provide education to pretty much anybody who asks us because we want to make sure everyone has the appropriate medical information about abuse,” Henley said. 

Throughout the year, the C.A.R.E. Team hosts workshops and conferences with attendance from hundreds of other medical providers throughout the country. The team also provides community education for its advocacy center partners, school districts, daycares, churches, law enforcement, CPS, and more—ensuring all organizations are familiar with the medical symptoms of abuse and know when and how to report.

Several of the C.A.R.E. Team’s initiatives are also aimed at preventing and thwarting specific types of abuse. They commonly host workshops on The Period of PURPLE Crying, teaching parents how to navigate the frustration that can lead to severe and potentially life-threatening abuse. The team also participates in case reviews during which juvenile offenders or those with problematic sexual behaviors can be referred to counseling programs. 

“If they meet the qualifications, offenders can go into a program that helps them learn about why their behavior is inappropriate,” Henley said. “These are kids in our community and we need to help them, too.”

For more information on the signs of child abuse and prevention, visit saynotoabuse.org. To report abuse, neglect, or exploitation, contact the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services at 1-800-252-5400. If the child is in immediate danger, call 911.

This month, you may see a sudden proliferation of pinwheels at Cook Children’s Fort Worth Medical Center and Prosper campus. They represent an awareness and prevention campaign that Cook Children’s undertakes each April during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Each of the 1,604 pinwheels in Fort Worth  represents a visit to the CARE where a child was evaluated for concerns of abuse or neglect in 2023. Not all of those visits are confirmed cases of child abuse; about half of the children referred to the CARE team for physical abuse, for example, are confirmed as physical abuse cases. The 1,148 wheels at Prosper represent the number of child abuse cases in Denton County in 2023. The purpose of the pinwheels is to show the scale and impact that child abuse and neglect has on our community, while also exemplifying the resources available to victims.

“It really kind of highlights that childlike, whimsical view, and it also represents for us a child that was seen in our care team due to child abuse and neglect reasons,” said Frances Wampler, MA, LSSGB, Program Coordinator with the Cook Children’s Center for Community Health. “But it's also our hope for the future for children to be able to live a safe and happy life free of child abuse and neglect.”

The pinwheels are only one part of Cook Children’s 24/7 efforts to raise awareness about, prevent and care for those impacted by child abuse and neglect. Across North Texas, Cook Children’s is part of a vast support network for families to not only help children when abuse happens, but also to step in beforehand and prevent it.

Across eight counties, Cook Children’s Center for Community Health partners with community groups to determine on a grass-roots level what different areas need to prevent child abuse and neglect. Child abuse and neglect is often associated with different risk factors, like mental health issues, domestic violence and addiction.

“I think when you think about child abuse and neglect, sometimes it sounds really scary. There are those instances that are really intense and severe,” said Frances. “But then there are also cases like neglect that you might not see or think of as child abuse.”

This year for Child Abuse Awareness month, the network is focusing on two specific elements of child abuse: neglect and protective factors.

Protective factors are conditions that can help prevent a problem or negative outcomes; community support for families, proper health care and mental health care all are tools that can help prevent child abuse and neglect. For example, the Center for Community Health gives parents and caregivers support while encouraging positive parenting skills, and teaching child development and behavior management.

Neglect is another focus of this year’s Child Abuse Prevention Month. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse, Wampler said, but it can at times be less apparent than other forms of abuse. Neglect of a child may look like malnourishment, dirty clothing and living quarters, child left alone for long periods of time and/or frequent absences and tardiness at school. 

This year’s campaign ties those two focus areas together, Wampler said, to not only raise awareness about what neglect looks like, but also provide resources to struggling families in order to prevent neglect from happening. 

“So not just the awareness piece, but also what to do,” Wampler said. “So as a mom, for example, if you're not too sure what to do with a crying baby, we can educate on how to soothe your baby and put out some tips related to that. 

Working with community partners

Cook Children’s and its partners work to raise awareness about what abuse and neglect looks like and create support systems for families. That support includes education and awareness of what abuse and neglect is and providing opportunities for families to interact in a positive way. For example, Cook Children'sCenter for Community Health coordinates with the Children’s Advocacy Center of North Texas to host Family Fun Nights, where families have access to community resources while attending a fun event.

Kristin Howell, CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center of North Texas, said that activity night is one example of the ways in which Cook Children’s and its partners engage the community. Awareness of those resources is important, she said, because child abuse and neglect is not as rare or distant as some people might want to believe. At least eight times a day, she said, a crime happens against a child.

“This is not something that a parent prepares for, but it does happen frequently,” she said. “And the amazing thing is that once it happens, there is a remarkable team in place in your community who jumps into action. And we know exactly how to solve this problem and help you navigate it. Cook Children’s has been a huge partner with us in that effort.”

About eight times a day, Kristen said, a child comes into the Advocacy Center due to possible neglect or abuse. When that happens, the “team envelopes them.”

“One of the most important partnerships we have is that with our medical providers,” Howell said. “And Cook Children’s steps up to the plate for kids every day in that way.”

The C.A.R.E. Team

When a child might be abused or neglected, they need a wellness exam and possibly other medical care; Cook Children’s has a team of experts who can help provide or coordinate those healing services.

The C.A.R.E. Team, or Child Advocacy Resource and Evaluation Team, is a team of experts, led by pediatricians who are board certified in child abuse medicine, who can provide medical and forensic evaluations, sexual abuse screening and preventative education.

Dr. Jamye Coffman, MD, MPH, has been a member of the C.A.R.E. team for 24 years. The clinic is on call 24/7 for concerns of neglect and abuse. If a child comes into the ER who may have been neglected or abused, the ER staff can call the C.A.R.E. team to assist in their care. The team evaluates a plethora of factors in each case such as if the child has a medical condition that can mimic child abuse or neglect symptoms. They can also review medical records and referrals to CPS and law enforcement.

However, their services extend beyond Cook Children’s walls. Often, they go to advocacy centers across a dozen counties to discuss cases through the lens of their medical expertise with case workers and advocates. They also help coordinate care for families in need through the network Cook Children’s has helped create, connecting families with women’s centers, early childhood intervention services, physical therapy and other resources.

The multifaceted network of child abuse and prevention is a collaborative effort that “connects the dots,” Wampler said, across various Cook Children’s departments, community organizations and partners across North Texas.

“I think it's important for our children to (create this network) because we are a big voice in our community,” Wampler said. “And our promise talks about how every child's life is sacred. We're helping bring other partners together to help meet that need as well and to be aware of what's happening in our community and protective of those that are the most vulnerable.”

Cook Children’s has brought in visiting dogs for decades as a way to help patients and their families cope with their situations, but it was one of the first hospitals nationwide to realize the value in having dogs as badge-yielding staff members.

“People wouldn’t have pets the way they do and treat them like family members if there wasn’t something to that,” said Facility Dog Program Coordinator Kizzy Marco.

Just over three years ago, Ralph and Chanel became the first dogs to join Sit...Stay....PLAY, the facility dog program at Cook Children's.

“We are pioneering something really new,” said Marco. “The majority of hospitals in the country have animal-assisted therapy or dogs that visit routinely and that’s wonderful, but having them here as residents and as employees makes such a difference.”

As facility dog program coordinator, a large portion of Marco’s job involves handling Ralph, answering referrals and working one-on-one with patients and their families.

“I feel like people moved mountains to make these dogs available for our patients and families,” said Marco. “I’ve always loved working at Cook Children’s, but that was the moment I realized how much this place cares, probably beyond words, about the emotional well-being of its patients. Of course health care exists to take care of people physically, but we also have a responsibility to take care of people emotionally and these dogs are doing that.”

When Ralph comes in contact with a patient, the atmosphere changes immediately.

“I’ve seen kids at their very sickest,” said Marco. “I’ve seen kids at the end of their lives light up to see Ralph.”

Stephanie Myers witnessed the power of dog therapy first-hand when her 4-year-old daughter Baylee was introduced to Ralph after being diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma.

“She hadn’t walked or gotten out of bed in about a week,” said Myers. “Kizzy brought Ralph in and I saw a light in Baylee’s eyes I hadn’t seen in a while. She instantly wanted to sit up and then stand so she could pet him.”

Ralph brought normalcy and softness to the situation with Baylee, as he does with so many others.

“Anytime Baylee has needed a little push, Ralph has been there to guide her through it,” said Myers. “He is such an amazing therapy dog and has given our daughter strength and a smile when we thought she might be out.”

“What our dogs do for patients is deep. A patient once vulnerably told me that he loved Ralph because he knew Ralph would never judge him. That says it all right there,” said Marco.

Because of the large number of both inpatient and outpatient cases, therapy dogs are not able to sit on every child’s bed or walk the halls with them or get ready for surgery with them.

However, many patients, families and staff members get the experience of seeing one of the dogs in passing walking down the hallway or in the cafeteria, which Marco considers a therapeutic encounter.

“You don’t know what people are carrying emotionally when they’re walking through the hallways,” said Marco, “so adding this goofy, smiling, prancing, fluffy, handsome Golden Retriever to the environment is so important. If you never knew a single patient story, if you never knew how much of an impact these dogs make, just knowing that is huge.”

When Ralph does have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a patient, they form a bond so strong that every child thinks Ralph is their best friend. When they see him and start calling his name, his tail starts to wag, he squints his eyes and starts shaking around with excitement.

“It’s almost like he remembers every kid he’s ever met,” said Marco.

While the dogs are a friendly face for children at the medical center, they really do serve an important role in the physical and emotional well-being of these patients.

Whether giving a dog a syringe of water mixed with juice to get a child to take medicine or taking him for a walk to get kids up and moving, these animals are trained to relate to the patients and their difficult experiences in a way that normalizes their environment and gives them something else to focus on.

Using dogs as a means of reducing anxiety in patients is especially true for Child Advocacy Resources and Evaluation (CARE) Team, which assesses cases of child abuse.

“When you’re talking about abuse and really difficult subjects with these kids, having a dog there can really ease their anxiety and help them voice what happened to them,” said Jamye Coffman, M.D., a child abuse pediatrician at Cook Children’s. “When you reduce the anxiety in a child, it reduces all the stress hormones so you don’t have any of the effects of stress on the child that can contribute to illness.”

Dr. Coffman has handled Kitty since she came to Cook Children’s nearly a year and a-half ago. Kitty stays with the CARE Team and is trained to jump up on the couch with patients when they are being interviewed to help relax them and their parents, making the environment feel less like a doctor’s office and more like a home.

But there is also an art to the things that dogs can do innately, the things that cannot be taught.

Not long after Marco and Ralph began working as a team, they were asked to visit a patient with a severe developmental delay. Marco was admittedly nervous because this patient was unpredictable in her movements and she was not sure how Ralph would react.

Without hesitation, Ralph walked up to the patient, looked her in the eyes and put his head on her lap while he sat there and let her do whatever she wanted.

“That’s the true gift of our dogs is that they don’t see any differences,” said Marco. “We know patients whose illness or treatments make them look or behave in a certain way. We know the ones that have especially great challenges, and hopefully it doesn’t alter how we interact with them, but Ralph doesn’t even know those things.”

For that child and her family, interacting with Ralph was a completely normal experience and there was nothing atypical about the situation.

“That’s an innate art that is something that we as a health system found a way to provide. It had never been provided to our patients and their families before,” said Marco. “It is very humbling to know that our dogs can make moments like that happen for families.”

It's important to remember that Ralph is only one dog out of five at Cook Children’s, making up only one-fifth of the program. Our most recent addition is a 2 year old Golden named Lulu who started working in inpatient psychiatry and partial hospitalization program just about a month ago.

Every day these dogs have encounters like this one, and every day they are doing something to make the hospital a better place for patients and their families.

The impact that these dogs have made and the moments they have shared with people in the time they have been at Cook Children’s is remarkable.

“It is profound that they know and have the ability to mourn with people who are mourning, to celebrate with people who are celebrating and to play with people who are playing,” said Marco. “I think there is a bond or intuition that connects them to people exactly where they are, and to watch that is amazing."

How to Help

The generosity of donors helps make it possible for Cook Children's to bring programs like Sit ... Stay ... PLAY to our patients. To support our dog therapy program and other programs like it, please call 682-885-4105 or donate online by clicking here. Learn more about Sit ... Stay ... PLAY by clicking here.

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The problem is these apps simply aren’t for children under any circumstance and can lead to tragic consequences.

On Feb. 11, a 44-year-old Arlington man was arrested of sexually assaulting four students in the Keller ISD.

Reports say the man met the girls through a website called Seeking/Arrangement.com. Other sites parents should be concerned about include Grindr, Tinder and KIK.

“The problem with these message apps is that it’s really hard to find the perpetrators after they use them,” said Jamye Coffman, M.D., pediatrician and medical director for Cook Children’s Advocacy Resource and Evaluation. “That information is difficult to find. So it can be very anonymous. It’s very dangerous for teenagers because they don’t really know who is on the other side.”

With the GPS devices on the apps of these sites, your teenage kid could give a complete stranger the location of your home. They may come into mom and dad’s home without you even knowing it. 

Coffman said that the reason for the bad judgment can be directly related to basic science.

“Teenagers and younger-aged children just aren’t able from a developmental standpoint to really grasp the consequences of what they are doing,” Coffman said. “Their frontal lobe of their brain hasn’t finished developing. Their impulse control is not very good. It’s up to the parents to know what their kids are up to. They have to know what’s on their child’s phone. Parents need to look at their phones and see what apps they’re using and talk to them about it.”

And with kids becoming more tech savvy in elementary school, the need for conversations about predators and sex must begin at an earlier age than ever before.

“The goal is to get them to adulthood, right? Where they can learn and make their own decisions,” Coffman said. “They do have to have natural consequences. That’s the only way they are going to learn. So you do have to let them have some consequences but you don’t want it to be something that’s either life threatening or life altering. As a parent, you can’t allow that to happen. It’s hard as a parent to talk to your kid about sex and the dangers out there. It’s really hard to have those open, non-judgmental conversations. It may be your pediatrician, if you aren’t able to have that conversation. But someone has to talk to them. It’s too important to just ignore the issues facing our kids these days.”

Parents, want to keep your children away from predators? Then be a snoop.

That’s the advice of Dr. Coffman, who is not just talking as an expert in caring for and knowing the signs of abused children, she’s speaking as a mom.

“Parents need to be nosy,” Coffman said. “Your kids may say, ‘It’s my phone.” But you’re paying for it. It’s what I used to tell my kids growing up. If you live in my home, there is no supposition that you are going to have privacy. There is no privacy if I’m paying your bills. I have the right to go in your room. I have the right to look at your phone. I have the right to look in your backpack. I have the right to look in your mattress and in the ceiling tiles and anywhere else you might hide stuff because it’s my house. I think parents are hesitant to take that role. They are so conflicted in what’s Ok and what’s not Ok for their child’s privacy. It’s just a concern for safety. If it’s something that’s a safety issue, you have a right to know.”

Jody Hawkins, Information Security Officer at Cook Children’s, seconds Dr. Coffman’s sentiments regarding privacy of children. In presentations that he gives to parents, Hawkins cautions parents to lay down the rule early.

“This is my phone, on my plan, and I pay the bills,” he said. “If you do not follow my rules, then I stop paying for the phone you are borrowing from me. If I stop paying, the phone stops working. It’s as simple as that.

Hawkins encourages spyware to be installed on children’s phones by the parents. He asks parents, “Would you allow your child to take a stranger into the bathroom, lock the door and have no worries? They usually answer, ‘No.’ I then tell them that if they allow the child to take the phone into the bathroom with no monitoring, they could very well be doing it all the time.”

It’s the world we live in today. If you want to protect your children parents, be a snoop.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) reported 188 cases of suspected teacher misconduct in 2015, causing state lawmakers to launch an investigation into what can be done to curb this alarming trend. An investigation by the TEA shows 19 of those teachers were cleared of wrongdoing. Still, the TEA says reports of student-teacher relations are up 53 percent over the past seven years. One website claims Texas leads the nation as far as sheer number of student-teacher relationship cases.

This has raised concern and placed a greater emphasis on the training of school employees. Another point of emphasis is the amount of teacher-student social media contact.

But what about at home? What do your kids think about this issue?

After all, TV shows like Pretty Little Liars, which features an affair between a student and teacher, seem to normalize the issue.

With so many mixed messages, how do you talk to your own children about this issue?

“I think the conversation begins with a general one about healthy relationships,” said Jamye Coffman, M.D., medical director of the Center for Prevention of Child Maltreatment and CARE Team at Cook Children’s. “If a relationship is very unequal, such as a big difference in maturity such as a minor with an adult or one partner has a position of authority over the other, it’s not a healthy relationship. Also, there needs to be a discussion about the law. This is wrong and the adult, will be prosecuted (not persecuted) and most likely face jail time.”

As a parent herself, Dr. Coffman says parents should be concerned if a teacher or coach is paying excessive attention to a child, is spending time with the child outside of professional responsibilities or gives the child a gift.

Dr. Coffman also says it makes no difference if the perpetrator is male or female. She says there’s still the same emotional/maturity and power inequalities involved.

“It usually starts with flirtation and gradually progresses to sexual intercourse,” Dr. Coffman said. “It’s important to remember, even as teens, they are children. Their frontal lobes haven’t developed where they can think all this through so they may not really appreciate the consequences. Really, they are being taken advantage of by older people.”

So what can parents do? Follow these tips:

1. Be your child’s advocate. A parent or coach shouldn’t want to spend time with your child. Decline any gifts. At no time, should a child have a slumber party with an adult.
2. Establish your home as a no-secret house.
3. Don’t tell a child he or she misinterpreted a behavior.
4. Don’t question any further if you think something is wrong.
5. Report any concerns to CPS or law enforcement.
6. Do not confront the perpetrator. Let the authorities do this.

Photo from Pretty Little Liars Facebook page.

For more information

Child maltreatment, sometimes referred to as child abuse and neglect, includes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child's health, development or dignity. Within this broad definition, five subtypes can be distinguished - physical abuse; sexual abuse; neglect and negligent treatment; emotional abuse; and exploitation. Read more at the child maltreatment prevention resource page. 

But it doesn’t make her any less infuriated by the actions of an adult taking away the innocence of a child. Dr. Coffman said parents need to take certain steps to teach their children how to protect themselves:

1. Educate your children. Most importantly, educate your children about the dangers of predators. “The main thing is to educate your child and let them know what is not appropriate. What’s not OK,” Coffman said. “For children, young adults reading this, it’s not OK to be touched inappropriately. I don’t care who it is. Mom. Dad. Grandma. Grandpa. A family friend. A pastor. A police. A coach. It doesn’t matter who the authority figure is. If you are being abused, tell a trusted adult. If they don’t believe you or do something about it, keep telling an adult until someone does something.”
2. Start at a young age, making children aware of what is and what isn’t inappropriate touching. Dr. Coffman said at around 2 or 3 years old parents can use certain teaching moments to inform children on inappropriate touching. “When you are bathing your child that’s a good opportunity,” she said. “Make sure to name their body parts. I don’t care what you call it, just make sure your children know what their privates are called. During a bath or while they are using the potty, use that opportunity to teach them the difference between caregivers performing necessary child care during bathing or toileting and inappropriate touches. Let children know if someone else makes them feel funny or uncomfortable by touching them, to let you know.”
3. Let your children know it’s OK to talk to you. Generally speaking, Dr. Coffman said pedophiles don’t usually start out being extremely aggressive. They usually start with more generic touching and gaining the child’s trust. Dr. Coffman said that’s why it is extremely important to let your children know that they need to be able to come to you, as a parent, and let you know of anything that’s inappropriate. They also need to be assured that they will not get in trouble if they tell you they are uncomfortable about anything.
4. Communicate and report abuse. Let your child know to tell someone. Just letting someone know and reporting the crime can prevent a whole lot of tragedy.