ABSTRACT
Child abuse is devastating. ‘It just creeps into every part of your life’ (17-year-old female) and destroys childhood (Mudaly, 2002, p. 247). We contend that ‘abusive acts against children’ continue because children are not only ‘invisible’ but also often silenced (Mudaly & Goddard, 2006, p. 18). The assumption is that children are ‘too young’ to tell what is happening to them (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemueller, & Silver, 1962, p. 18). We assert that children are often capable of telling but it is adults who do not want to hear (Mudaly & Goddard, 2006).
