LONG/SHORT TERM EFFECTS OF

CHILD ABUSE

Name: Jaydah-Marie Waddell

Candidate number:
School: Southern Academy SDA Secondary
Group topic: Child Abuse

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Table of Contents
Plan of Investigation 3

Piece #1 4

Piece #2 5

Piece #3 6

Reflection One 7

Reflection Two 8

Reflection Three 9

Written Report 10

Plan of Oral Representation 11

References 12

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Plan of Investigation

My topic is entitled “Long/Short term effects of Child Abuse”, which is a branch of our group topic:
“Child Abuse”. I selected this topic because we mostly focus on how it affects them in their childhood,
but disregard that it also affects their adulthood, their mentality, how they socialize with other and
other aspects of their life. My artefacts to complete this are a poem, a short story, the internet and an
article. I expect to benefit from this as an English A student by ameliorating my vocabulary, expanding
my knowledge and upgrading my summary skills throughout this whole SBA.

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Piece # 1 – Poem – A Cry For Help – Barbara Green
A child so small
so vulnerable and weak
helpless, powerless
not allowed to speak.
Lying awake in bed
knowing he'll soon appear
Frightened and trapped
living a torturous nightmare.
Body is shaking
trembling within
preparing for
the terrible acts of sin.
Left all alone
with no one in sight
The abused child cries silently
all through the night.

How does one heal

from such a horrible crime?
The scars, the damage
lasts a lifetime.
Emotionally I struggle
to make it through
Not knowing why
I feel and act the way I do.
The tragedy is over
but the turmoil is still there
I wonder, if my outbursts
is a way to see if anyone cares.
Please! God help me
I cry out
with so much anguish
fear and doubt.

https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-cry-for-help

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Piece # 2 – Child Abuse – A Personal Story - J. Smith
Well where do I start? I was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. I’m 23 years of
age and this is my story. When I was five, my family left me and I was put into foster care for
about two years. During my time in these homes I was sexually and physically abused. I was
always told that I was nothing, a worthless person, that my family wanted nothing to do with me
and that’s why I was put into foster care. I was beaten, thrown down stairs and pulled up by my
hair. I remember one day I was in the bathtub crying because I just wanted someone to love me,
and because of the crying my head was pushed under water. I started crying myself to sleep at
night because I feared the abuse if someone caught me crying again. I never was given a chance
to celebrate my birthday, which didn’t really matter at that point because the only thing that I
had hoped for was a loving family.
When I turned seven, my grandparents were given custody of me so I was out of the foster care
system and very excited. I thought this was the best thing to ever happen, but that feeling would
change dramatically two weeks after I got there.
One morning I woke up and my Nana had already gone to work, so it was just my step-
grandfather and me there. As I was about to get out of bed, he walked into my room and sat
down … taking total advantage of me. He forced me out of my bed and into the shower where he
sexually abused me.
He continued to do this to me for months. One day I asked him, ‘What would you do if I told
someone?’ He pulled out his belt, smacked me and said, ‘If you tell anybody I will hurt you. I will
send you back to foster care and you will have nobody.’ I never wanted to go back to foster care,
so I had to deal with the abuse for nine years. This man took my childhood days, my self-esteem,
my trust and my life. I was turned into this boy who lived in fear daily and carried the shame of
who I was. Each day of my life was a living hell.
As a teenager, I couldn't live in this world I was in, and desperately wanted to get out. I started
inflicting pain on myself … I was admitted to the hospital so many times until I was 18. I was in
pain and mentally in another world.
Finally my step-grandfather was put in jail for 13 years, on 21 charges of sexual abuse.
My self- inflicted harm and suicidal thoughts stopped when I was 21. Here I am today … I almost
lost my life more times than I can count due to the abuse, and to this day I still cannot work out
how I survived. I have been through hell and I have seen some things that a child should never
witness or experience at such a young age, but I have come to believe this: if you can live
through the worst times of your life, you can live through anything. Your life is beautiful even if
one person or many people try and take it from you. You will get days that you just want to give
up but you don't, you keep on marching and moving forward. All I can say is, just live your life
how you want it. As we get older we learn, as we learn, we succeed, and when we succeed, we
achieve greatness and we know we can overcome anything.

https://teara.govt.nz/en/community-contribution/44312/child-abuse-a-personal-story

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Piece # 3 – Article – Queensland Government

Effects of child abuse

Harm experienced in childhood can have significant and lasting effects and children can
respond differently to what has occurred.
Children may experience a range of emotional, psychological and physical problems as a
result of being harmed, including:
 low self esteem
 increased fear, guilt and self-blame
 distrust of adults or difficulty forming relationships with others
 disrupted attachments with those who are meant to keep them safe
 mental health disorders such as anxiety, attachment, post-traumatic stress and
depression disorders
 self-harming or suicidal thoughts
 learning disorders, including poor language and cognitive development
 developmental delay, eating disorders and physical ailments
 permanent physical injuries or death
 violent, aggressive or criminal behaviour or other behavioural problems
 drug and alcohol abuse and high-risk sexual behaviour.
It should be noted that for some children who have been abused, the impacts will not be
evident in their behaviour.

https://www.qld.gov.au/community/getting-support-health-social-issue/support-
victims-abuse/child-abuse/what-is-child-abuse/child-abuse-effects

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Reflection #1- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The poem ‘‘A cry for help‘‘ talks about a child who was abused and felt like he had nobody
to help him.
I learnt that child abuse might cause the child to feel isolated which may also affect their
behaviour as a sign for help.
My next piece was a personal short story by J. Smith who states that throughout his
childhood in foster care, he was sexually and physically abused by his step-grandfather. I
learnt that child abuse causes the child to question their worth and may lead to severe
situations like self-harm or suicide attempts.
My final piece was an article published by the Queens Land Government discussing child
abuse's effects.
Although majority of people who experienced child abuse suffer from PTSD for the rest of
their childhood and possibly their adulthood, in some cases it may lead to more severe
effects like suicidal thoughts or attempts.

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Reflection #2- My Language Process.

“A Cry For Help” is a poem uses alternative rhymes throughout the poem. One use of
this method was in line 1-4 “a child so small; so vulnerable and weak; helpless, powerless;
not allowed to speak”. The rhymes were expressed to emphasis the pain that the child was
feeling during his experience and also to make the poem interesting for the reader.
J. Smith’s personal story about child abuse speaks in first person perspective. It’s
shown in the first sentence “Well where do I start?” This builds an emotional connection
between the reader and the writer, allowing them to fully understand the main character’s
thoughts and feelings.
The last piece, ‘Effects of Child Abuse’ published by the Queens Lands Government
uses bullet points for majority of their article. This was used to highlight the important
information that the reader needed, without going into unnecessarily details.

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Reflection #3-
My experience working with this group was great since not only did everyone get the
work done and co-operated, but was also very open-minded to all the ideas being stated
which helped a great deal in avoiding unnecessary disputes.
This SBA has opened my eyes to some of the challenges or after-effects that people
suffer with during/after experiencing child abuse. I learnt that people suffer immensely
from these traumatic experiences and even though it’s over physically and the abuser is
gone from their life, doesn’t mean the pain that was once there has disappeared too.
Working in a group taught me how to co-operate with others as a team/group and also
patience. It thought me how to negotiate with people better and to get my point across
easily without offending the ideas/thoughts of others. Both my vocabulary and ability to
summarize has improved significantly throughout my reflection.

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