abuse or corporal punishment?

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abuse or corporal punishment?
By brooke

Abuse is a huge concern when speaking of the welfare of children. You are right to always be watching, documenting and cautious. The cautious should extend to being aware of abusive situations, but to also being aware of
situations in which abuse may not actually be occurring.
I cannot in any way speak to whether or not there is abuse in your student's home. But, there is a difference between physical abuse and corporal punishment, although some would not agree with that.
Physical abuse, when it is leaving bruises and other marks (such as the hangar marks on one of the previous postings) should

obviously be reported immediately. Most of these abuses seem to be an individual who is deliberately setting out to harm the child.
Some physical abuse is a parent who regularly loses their self-control and does not know how to set limits and be consistent with creative discipline. These instances are those in which you may want to recommend help. Most of them do want help. They don't want to constantly yell, slap and hit - they want to have children who know the boundaries and respect them. These are almost every parent. There are few parents out there who have never reacted in anger to their child.
Corporal punishment is discipline which is given when a child is aware that those consequences exist, the parent is self-controlled and does not physically harm the child (a reasonable spanking or a slap does not injure the child - leave bruises, . . .). Be careful to not label corporal punishment as physical abuse.
This may be a simplistic answer. And I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of abused children, so please don't use this advice selectively, rather in conjunction with others advice, your state reporting guidelines, and also your gut feelings. Sometimes you just know that something is wrong.