Course Syllabus

Spring 2026 | PSY-1020-VO01 - Child Abuse & Neglect

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Stacy Shortle
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Kate Hughes

General Education Requirements

Social Science

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course introduces students to the history, cultural context, and issues of child abuse and neglect. Topics include identification, intervention treatment, and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Students analyze the roles of state agencies and departments, Vermont laws and procedures, and requirements for reporting child abuse and neglect.

Essential Objectives

1. Identify and define the types of childhood abuse, and neglect including physical, psychological, emotional and sexual abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect, and abandonment and neglect.
2. Describe the indicators of abuse and neglect.
3. Discuss theoretical explanations for the causes of abuse and neglect, including the generational, psychological, cultural, social, economic and political factors that can contribute to the risk of child abuse and neglect.
4. Describe the historical and cultural context of child abuse and neglect and how societal norms around intervention change over time.
5. Examine the prevalence and scope of child abuse and neglect as a social phenomenon in Vermont and nationally.
6. Describe both the long-term and short-term effects of childhood abuse and neglect on children and families of the victims.
7. Explain the role of state agencies and departments, communities, and families in addressing issues of child abuse and neglect.
8. Summarize Vermont law regarding child abuse and neglect and outline the procedures for reporting suspected or known incidents.
9. Analyze child abuse and neglect in a variety of contexts and evaluate whether existing approaches to prevention and intervention are just and equitable. 

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a low cost ($50 or less) textbook or resource class. ***

PSY-1020-VO01 Link to Textbooks/Resources Information for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Methods:

Diverse course activities are organized into weekly units. These activities are designed specifically to address course objectives and to ensure that you acquire key factual, conceptual, analytical and decision-making knowledge and skills in the area of Child Abuse and Neglect. Activities include:

Readings

Required Texts:

Burke-Harris, N. (2018). The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Child Adversity. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Texts and readings from the professional literature (journal articles) are included to build your understanding of professional and ethical considerations within the field. In most weeks, you will be assigned readings from the textbooks and/or journal articles as noted in the Course Schedule.

Recommended Text

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin: Boston.

Discussion Posts

In an effort to make this course experience as professionally and personally relevant as possible, I will provide you with a number ofDiscussion Post opportunities. Each week, I will post different discussion topics based on the text readings or other relevant materials. Students will be expected to answer each post and then respond to at least two fellow students’ posts. I will provide specific instructions and downloadable materials inCanvas toguide your responses to these exercises.

In addition to these required postings, you are encouraged to interact less formally, by posting original comments of your own, for example, a new finding or perspective on a topic.

All of the "threads" posted by your instructor and classmates are available for you to review when you log on to theForumin Canvas. This allows for "asynchronous" discussion. That simply means that you do not have to log on at the same time as your classmates (as you would in a chat room), but can post your comments any time, at your convenience.

Chapter Reflections

Throughout the course you will be asked to write a brief summary of the chapters assigned in The Deepest Well. These summaries will help to prepare for your paper writing.

Book Analysis

Students will read The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris and write a paper on the character of Diego using the following essential objectives of the course:

1. Identify and define the types of ACES that Diego experienced.

2. Describe the indicators/symptoms of ACES that you see Diego experience. What brought him in to see Dr. Nadine and what sorts of symptoms/behaviors did you see throughout the novel that indicated developmental trauma?
3.Discuss two theoretical explanations for the causes of developmental trauma that Diego experience, identifying influences which can contribute to the risk of child abuse and neglect including generational, psychological, cultural, social, economic, and political.

4. From our work on ACES, describe both the short and long term effects of those ACES on Diego as a child and on Diego as an adult.

5. Are there mandated reporters in the book? If so, what are the steps they took/should have taken according to Vermont law regarding child abuse and neglect and outline the procedures for reporting suspected or known incidents.

6. Identify and explain two current treatment options for Diego and include evidence to support their effectiveness.
7. Lastly, reflecting on Diego’s story and on Dr. Nadine’s work in Bayview, describe and assess strategies/steps that could have been taken in order to prevent the abuse/neglect from happening.

This is a paper, so please formulate it in paragraph form-not simply answering the above questions in list format! Papers should be AT LEAST 6 pages in order to fully cover the essential objectives above. Follow APA format double spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, etc.).

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

Apply Now for this semester.