Concerned about the safety of children with disabilities in your agency's care?
Learn the signs of abuse and neglect and how to respond, support, and plan for safety with children with disabilities through a downloadable training.
All Children Safe at Home is a free curriculum for training residential service providers, foster parents, educators, and others who spend significant time with children with disabilities. It includes:
- Facilitator’s Resource Guide and Supplemental Materials, which contains information on how to use the training materials, English and Spanish fact sheets, and evaluation forms.
- A PowerPoint presentation with detailed notes for training facilitators. The PowerPoint is available online for review in PDF format. To request the actual PowerPoints, email disabilityservices@safeaustin.org
- Online Spanish and English fact sheets with additional resources
The training includes three modules that can be used for a full day of training or as stand-alone trainings between 1-3 hours.
Module I. Risks and signs of abuse for children with disabilities
- High risks of abuse
- Reasons children who experience abuse/neglect may not tell
- Common types and signs of abuse
- How children may communicate abuse through changes in behavior
- How to recognize nonverbal signs of abuse in children with communication disabilities, significant disabilities, and young children
Module 2. Responding to abuse of children with disabilities
- What to do if you suspect abuse or if a child tells you about abuse
- What children need to hear from you
- Short and long-term effects of abuse
- How trauma impacts children’s development
- What you can do to support children
Module 3. Tips to increase safety of children with disabilities
- Practical strategies for safety planning