Book review: Helping Children to Tell about Sexual Abuse

Helping Children to Tell about Sexual Abuse: Guidance for Helpers

Written in an easy-to-read style and with useful references to research, this book explores the issue of disclosure of sexual abuse.

It follows a child’s experience of abuse, describing the challenges of disclosure from the child’s and an adult helper’s perspectives, then discusses the help needed after disclosure.

The importance of support for the professional is emphasised and the book explains why disclosure is rarely a single event. It also provides useful pointers in how to ask questions and be confident of not taking the wrong approach.

The voices of children with experience of abuse are presented effectively throughout the book.

My only disappointment is that there are no chapters on challenges for boys and the role