Elizabeth Gormley-Liffley

Elizabeth Gormley-Liffley

Doctoral Student
Michigan State University

[email protected]

Lessons Learned

• Signs of maltreatment may differ for children with disabilities, especially those with extensive support needs, from children without disabilities. Yet, this area is underexplored.
• Teachers play a pivotal role in detecting and reporting maltreatment! These are the professionals most consistently in children with disabilities’ lives outside of the home. They have the opportunity to identify nuanced signs of maltreatment that may be missed by others due to their proximity and close relationships.
• Communication skills are essential for self-reporting! As this is an area of difficulty for many children with disabilities, developing methods for teaching related vocabulary and conversational skills is vital for them to effectively communicate their experiences with maltreatment. On the flip side, children with disabilities are already communicating their experiences with maltreatment; caregivers, family members, and professionals are just not able to interpret their messages. Therefore, tools for detecting signs of maltreatment in children with disabilities are needed.

Resources Developed

• Liffley, E. & Fisher, M. H. (2024). A call to action: Extending the research on trauma assessment and treatment for children with intellectual disabilities and extensive support needs. Research and Practice in Severe Disabilities. https://10.1177/15407969241268664.
• Fisher, M. H., Liffley, E., Black, R., & Kammes, R. (2025). “And I just don't like being depressed”: Exploring depression among adults with Williams syndrome. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1080/19315864.2025.2471281  
• (Forthcoming) Liffley E., & Fisher, M. H. (under review). Unequal representation? Examining child and case characteristics in child protective services cases involving children with disabilities. Child Abuse and Neglect.   
• (Forthcoming) Kammas, R., Liffley, E., & Fisher, M. H. (under review). Perceived vulnerability and parents’ views on intimate relationships: Adults with intellectual disabilities vs. their siblings. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research.
• (Forthcoming) Brown, R. C., Liffley, E., York, T. P., Capone, G., Jackson-Cook, C., & Amstadter, A. B. (in preparation). Prevalence of stressful life events and their association with mental health outcomes in individuals with Down syndrome.
• (Forthcoming) Liffley, E. & Fisher, M. H. (2025). The role of special educators in maltreatment identification and trauma treatment for students with extensive support needs. In P. Sturmey (Ed), Handbook on Maltreatment and its Prevention in Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Academic Press.
• (Forthcoming) Brown, R. & Liffley, E. (2025). Maltreatment in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and its impact on physiological functioning. In P. Sturmey (Ed), Handbook on Maltreatment and its Prevention in Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Academic Press. 

Suggested Resources

• Byrne, G. (2018). Prevalence and psychological sequelae of sexual abuse among individuals with an intellectual disability: A review of the recent literature. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 22(3), 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744629517698844
• Flynn, S. (2021). Towards parity in protection: Barriers to effective child protection and welfare assessment with disabled children in the republic of Ireland. Child Care in Practice, 27(4), 333–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2019.1701413
• McElearney, A., Craig, L., Fullerton, D., Morris, S., & Murphy, C. (2021). Teaching children and young people in special schools to recognise abusive behaviours and tell: Findings from the process evaluation of Keeping Safe, a whole-school education programme. NSPCC. https://learning.nspcc.org. uk/media/2607/keeping-safe-process-evaluation-in-specialschools.pdf
• McMinn, L. E., Kloess, J. A., & Stephenson, Z. (2024). Empowering young people with special educational needs to recognize and report child sexual exploitation and abuse: A mixed-methods review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(3), 2503–2520. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231217047
• McTavish, J. R., Gonzalez, A., Santesso, N., MacGregor, J. C. D., McKee, C., & MacMillan, H. L. (2020). Identifying children exposed to maltreatment: A systematic review update. BMC Pediatrics, 20, 113. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-020-2015-4
• Global estimates of violence against children with disabilities: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis:  https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00033-5

Collaborative Areas of Interest

• The recognition of maltreatment
• The reporting process
• The impact of maltreatment on the well-being of children with disabilities