Suggestions for a paper?
 

I am in a Child Welfare and Protective Services course and one of our final papers is 7-10 pages on a specific type of child maltreatment and one method of treatment for the problem. I'm having a hard time thinking of a topic that isn't too broad (I don't want to pick a big topic and not do it justice since the paper is only 10 pages) or too specific (so that I wouldn't have enough information to write about).

I'm trying to go ahead and finish all of my papers early in the semester so I'll be more help to Mom and my family later when they need me. Any suggestions for a topic??

hmmm I LOVE writing and this is my specialty.. well self proclaimed specialty.. lol... ummm topics.. .lets see...

LOL...so did you think of a topic? :D

I'm leaning towards emotional abuse, because I think this often gets neglected and overlooked even though it has a HUGE impact on the child, but I'd need to narrow it quite a bit...and that's hard to do without making it TOO specific. New ideas are more than welcome though... I just want to get started so I can feel productive. ;)

By the way, did you mean your specialty is writing or issues involving children? :confused:

I would go with maybe neglect. I meant writing papers.... lol

I thought about that...but it's almost as broad a topic as emotional abuse. The four main types of maltreatment are emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and physical abuse, so I probably need to be more specific than any of these. Maybe I could focus on blended families or single-parent families or something like that?

how about looking at it from a standpoint of a child.. maybe that will help...

Angie, maybe use an age category, say 5 to 7 or 8 to 10, and like Cindy said, place yourself in the child's "point of view" it will make it easier.

Hmm, that's a great idea Mandy! Maybe I could do emotional abuse of preschool children and show the long term effects of this abuse. Now I just need a treatment... lol

A possibility I came up with is "Is it abuse if parents smoke in their own home?"
We know the dangers of second hand smoke, but it's not illegal... so could make for interesting debate with yourself.

That's a good and tricky one Tink. I'm sure Angie could make a really good argument with that topic.

My previous idea was also emotional abuse, like only in the home. So many children are treated so poorly in their own home, but you'd never believe it the way their parents make over them in public.

What about the effects of lack of discipline in children? We have a lot of undisciplined kids in our society. My daughter works at the middle school and they have had a big ordeal with a child that is undisciplined and his parents.

Wow, you guys have so many good ideas! Now I have a new problem--how to choose between all of these great topics!!! :) I think I like this problem better than not having a topic at all. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for all of your input! I really appreciate it!

VERY true Janet, we dont expect it, but it sure happens.

How about one with teens, who think they are being abused.