Citation

Kuntzag L. Prax. Kinderpsychol. Kinderpsychiatr. 1994; 43(1): 21-26.

Vernacular Title

Diagnostische Probleme bei Verdacht auf sexuellen Missbrauch an behinderten

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Verlag Fur Medizinische Psychologie)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8146096

Abstract

The diagnostic process in four developmentally retarded pre-school girls who, on grounds of sexual behaviour inappropriate for their age, were suspected by their nursery school teachers of having been sexually abused, is here described as a way to understanding the behavioural sympomatology. Suspicion was confirmed only in the case of one of the girls. It has been shown that the early development of relationship disorders and sensomotory retardation either alone or in connection with maternal experience of violence may lead to characteristic forms of masturbation, even when sexual abuse has not occurred. The building of a patient-therapist rapport during the diagnostic process is here even more crucial than in the case of non-retarded children. It is only on the basis of the development in the child of an improved ability to form relationships that the therapist may gain psychological access to the child and thus insight into its traumatising experiences.

Language: de