Masters Thesis

Childhood sexual abuse: prevention, education, and awareness for the parents of deaf children

The purpose of this project is to provide an accurate and accessible resource for the education of parents of Deaf children about child sexual abuse prevention and awareness. While there is limited research on the Deaf community and child sexual abuse, researchers have found a higher vulnerability to child sexual abuse in the Deaf population. The best prevention for child sexual abuse is education, awareness, and communication between caregivers and children. For Deaf children communication with those around them can be difficult. It is vital that parents and caregivers are educated about the need for conversations with their children about the possibility of abuse, and how to handle it. Many parents, hearing or Deaf, struggle to understand how to have these conversations, yet the hearing population has more access, resources, and support. It is crucial that projects such as this exist to provide full and culturally sensitive information about child sexual abuse to the parents or caregivers of Deaf children.

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