Reviews developmental sexual behavior of young children; intense preoccupation with sex is the most universal indicator of sexual abuse in children. School counselors are called upon to play a critical and unique role, including setting standards of practice for recording, referring, and coordinating cases. (Author/JDM)

Highlights the potential value of free symbolic play to the field of sexual abuse. Preliminary guidelines are suggested for appropriate use to gain information about possible sexual abuse; a case study is presented illustrating application. Potential impact of research comparing the free symbolic play of sexually abused and nonabused children is…

Provides a review of studies that have examined the peer relationships, school functioning, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors of maltreated children. Implications are drawn for school social work practice, including a description of some interventions that have empirical evidence of their effectiveness. (Contains 59 references and 2…

Ritual abuse consists of mental, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse motivated by religious reasons, out of anger and stress, or inflicted on victims for reasons unknown. Little is now being done to educate and train school counselors on ritual abuse and its signs. This paper offers a literature review of ritual abuse and the results of a…

Although many clinicians use drawing tasks to assess children who have been exposed to family violence, few professionals are aware of current research in this area. Professionals should be apprised of the graphic indicators of child abuse in drawings, reliable art-based assessment tools, and legal and ethical principles surrounding the use of…

The purposes of this article are to present the substantive results of anatomically detailed (A/D) doll studies, to critically evaluate the methodology used in A/D doll research, and to suggest directions for future research. This review generally shows that play with A/D dolls is not traumatizing to children. (LSR)