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Copyright of Canadian Social Work Review / Revue Canadienne de Service Social is the property of Canadian Association for Social Work Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With respect to Ferenczi's founding text "Confusion of Tongues between adults and children", child sexual assault was conventionally regarded as a "story" between two people, an abuser and a child victim. In keeping with four case studies reporting on the analytical treatment of adults, the author suggested that child sexual assault implies interactions between at least three or even four individuals. The relationship between the parental psychological characteristics and the child's latter sexual behaviors is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Drawing is a preferential mode for trauma-affected children, for expressing emotions, as it gives them the possibility of conveying the complexity of traumatic feelings, perceptions, thoughts and memories, by giving them a shape and, therefore, a sense. Notwithstanding these assumptions, the efficacy of art therapies with children exposed to natural disasters, has not been research-proved. This paper presents a pilot study on the use of the “Test de trois dessins : avant, pendant et avenir”, as a diagnostic tool and a therapeutic technique, with children victims of the earthquake that affected the Italian region of Abruzzi, on the 6th April 2009. The analysis of case studies demonstrates the efficacy of the test in both detecting the presence and the extent of the psychological trauma, and in enhancing the process of trauma recovery. Further researches, which may use qualitative and quantitative methodological tools, need to be done in order to validate the use of the “Test de trois dessins : avant, pendant et avenir” as a validated technique with children experiencing disasters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to define ways in which abusive families may be treated: physical, psychological and often sexual violence occurs when incest is perpetrated by an adult. The patients are young children for whose period of latency has been stopped. We meet them with their non-abusive parents. The abusive parents are followed separately. These families are sent to our “Centre des Buttes-de-Chaumont” in Paris by the Child Protection Agency, judges, colleagues or social workers. After more than 20 years experience, we have put in place a systemic network therapy which implicates two specialist therapists, and the presence of social workers, psychologists and any other person with a protective interest in children''s rights. This shows the importance of our work in coordination with the civil and penal jurisdictions. The results are very positive in most situations thanks to the accompaniment of the child until the abuser concerned is prosecuted. These children are able, after years of self-sacrifice, self-devaluation and fear, to enjoy a better body-image and a more coherent psycho-affective future. They are no longer ashamed to live. An individual therapy will later be helpful. A statistical study is now being elaborated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The authors work lies within the framework of medicopsychological emergency activities and of specialized consultation the vocation of which is to insure the care of victims of traumatic events that they be of a deliberate (violence, wars) or non-deliberate nature (natural disasters, accidents). Interventions led close to the events with grown-up victims are well organized nowadays whereas the specific coverage of children is still not envisaged in immediate interventions. Nevertheless, children may be affected as much as the adults by the trauma and can present disorders, which must be tracked down, estimated and taken care of. We propose a reflection on a symptom of reviviscence susceptible to be expressed by children victims of traumatic events: The post-traumatic game. We suggest envisaging the post-traumatic game as a clinical entity testifying of a symptom of reviviscence, which can express itself at three levels: The traumatic game, the abreactive game, the re-enactment. - 1 - The traumatic game: Rather than the ’post-traumatic’ expression because in this activity the child is still in the trauma without being able to get free of it. The traumatic game is to be understood as a symptom situated close to reviviscence because the child ’plays’ by repeating the traumatic scene, which was lived through, as a kind of automatic, repetitive and monotonous production that can become a real compulsion, without any decrease of the fear. This expression, to which no pleasure is attached, is due to the complete overwhelming of the mechanisms of defence, to the failure of the psychic devices in metabolising the influx of excitements, in the fixation of the psyche at the moment T of the trauma. The child, in a state of ’emotional petrifaction’, is the prisoner of a deadly activity from which it cannot release itself. The traumatic game is a game in ’white’. - 2 - The abreactive game: This activity marks an evolution with regard to the traumatic game because here, the child is capable of developing it’s scenario until some kind of end without being blocked in a compulsion of rehearsal of the trauma. Each rehearsal staged in the abreactive game is accompanied with feelings, thoughts, sensations and a physical recall of the initial state of distress but here the child succeeds in partially freeing itself of it and sometimes in avoiding suffering. The dimension of auxiliarity of the processes of symbolization is partially restored. The abreactive game has a dimension of emotional discharge, exorcizing the suffering and allowing the restoration of the capacity to support the processes of representation and symbolization. Contrary to the post-traumatic game, which testifies to the failure of any possibility of elaboration, the abreactive game authorizes the reorganization of the psychic contents and restores temporality: the child is not petrified in an instant T of the trauma any more but succeeds in reaching beyond in an ’after traumatic’ mode. The child repeats with the same intensity and in an active mode, via the game, the trauma it experienced passively so as to succeed in mastering it. The abreactive game authorizes the reorganization of what it lived passively on an active mode so as to succeed in mastering it and this reproduction of the experience, by modifying its status, allows its assimilation. The abreactive game then allows the child to resume control over what it underwent and to assimilate its own reactions and feelings: Its mechanisms of defence are not overwhelmed any more: They are restored. - 3 - Re-enactment play such as defined by Terr is characterized by the expression a posteriori of traumatic traces through the game and by the investment of the child. This acting of the traumatism it lived through a posteriori intervenes while the child recovers a certain psychic balance. It is not an automatic rehearsal of the event in its global nature but only a rehearsal of certain aspects of the trauma. The child spends a period of intense stages of psychic suffering through certain activities and by recalling the ancient traumatic memories encrypted in its unconscious. The expression of the re-enactment does not present the rigidity of the traumatic game but is more difficult to track down. We shall then discuss the interest of observing the game for the diagnosis and for the understanding of the child’s psychodynamique traumatic traces. These various modalities of expression show the intensity of ’the after-effect activity of the traumatism’ and the underlying dynamic processes. They are to be understood as symptoms giving evidence of the persisting suffering in the symbolization of these traumatic traces. Distinguishing between the various meaningful activities of the child after a traumatic event offers us the possibility of observing the child to better estimate the impact of the trauma and to perceive if what he/she shows can likely or not play the role of ’psychic prosthesis’ for certain psychic functions having failed due to the event. The distinction between these three post-traumatic expressions is still easy because the child can, on the basis of the same post-traumatic scenario, appeal to these various modalities of expression. This is particularly the case for the children victims of serious and repeated violence (sexual violence, war). We will discuss what it is in the traumatic game, in the abreactive game and in re-enactment, in the process at work in the passage from the passivity in front of the traumatic experience to the activity of the game that aims at cancelling the loss undergone and at retroactively giving meaning to the traumatic scene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As regards the judicial field, when one''s word is contrary to another one''s and when there is no tangible evidence, how can truth be discerned ? In such a case, quite frequent with sexual assault cases, the investigator''s mission gets all the more difficult since the presumed victim is a child. Knowledge in child and adolescent psychology together with the non suggestive interview''s method contribute to the demonstration of truth. Justice mainly bases its argument on the investigation''s developments and the expert reports to determine whether the suspects are guilty or not and hold as true word of children. The question of the testimony''s credibility thus becomes a key question. However, the truth of the subject does not always correspond to the historicojudicial truth. Considering that there is no unfailing method to report the objective truth, the challenge is to give place to doubt without ignoring the presumed victim. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Le but de notre Permanence d’Accueil Pédiatrique de l’Enfant en Danger (PAPED) est d’accompagner l’enfant lors du recueil de sa parole après révélation d’un abus sexuel. Objectifs: montrer l’importance d’une action structurée et concertée des différents professionnels de la PAPED. Matériel et Méthodes: la PAPED accueille les enfants pour une audition filmée à la demande du Parquet. L’équipe soignante n’assiste pas à l’enregistrement. Une infirmière et une assistante sociale accueillent l’enfant et évaluent ses besoins et ceux de sa famille. Des soins pédopsychiatriques peuvent être proposés. Résultats: En 4 ans, plus de 1200 enfants ont été vus à la PAPED. Le binôme infirmière-assistante sociale et des synthèses avec l’équipe médicale évitent l’isolement émotionnel de chacun. Des échanges réguliers formalisés avec les enquêteurs permettent d’instaurer des rapports de confiance tout en évitant la confusion des rôles. Le professionnalisme d’une équipe soignante multidisciplinaire est le garant d’une aide efficace pour l’enfant et sa famille au cours de cette épreuve. Lors d’une enquête d’évaluation faite par une des infirmières, les parents ont manifesté leur satisfaction pour l’accueil reçu et notre disponibilité de l’équipe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]