Children who have experienced an initial traumatic event before they turn 11 years of age are three times more likely to develop psychological symptoms than children who experience their first trauma as a teenager or as an adult later on.[1]
While a traumatic experience can damage a child if left unspoken about and untreated, the good news is that children are better able to cope with a traumatic event if they receive support from parents and other trusted adults they rely upon such as family members, friends, teachers and so forth.
Helping a child through a traumatic experience is important for building a child's resilience (ability to cope), so that they learn how to face what has happened, grieve over it, then put their life back together again and move forward.
Help for children who have experienced a traumatic event should commence as soon as possible after the event has occurred. As such, it is important to identify signs of trauma in a child as well as to presume nothing from their silence but to seek to ensure that they are both reassured and supported.
identify steps
Be aware of what can be considered a traumatic experience for a child. A traumatic experience is one that terrifies or shocks the child and may have felt life-threatening (whether real or perceived) and caused the child to feel extremely vulnerable.
The types of events that might trigger a traumatized response in a child include anatural disaster, a vehicle accident, other types of accidents, childhood neglect, abuse (verbal, physical, emotional or sexual), rape, war, and violent bullying or victimization.[2]
A parent suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can also be a trigger for a child to develop a traumatized response; in fact, a child may even react more strongly to trauma because adults around them have done so, especially parents because they're so attuned to them.[3]
Start by assessing physical symptoms. A child who has experienced a traumatic event may show the following physical signs:
- Become easily upset, crying and whining;
- Revert to younger behavior such as bed wetting and thumb sucking;
- Misbehavior;
- Have symptoms of illness, such as headaches, vomiting or fever.
Look for any of the following psychological signs in a child. A traumatized child may exhibit any or all of these behaviors after a disaster:
- Be upset over the loss of a favorite toy, blanket, teddy bear or other times that adults might consider insignificant, but which are important to the child;
- Change from being quiet, obedient and caring to loud, noisy and aggressive or may change from being outgoing to shy and afraid;
- Develop nighttime fears. They may be afraid to sleep alone at night, with the light off, to sleep in their own room, or have nightmares, night terrors or bad dreams;
- Be afraid the event will reoccur;
- Lose trust in adults. After all, their adults were not able to control the disaster, so they reason "who can?" and decide that nobody can;
- Not want parents out of their sight and refuse to go to school or childcare;
- Feel guilty or ashamed that they caused the disaster because of something they had said or done;
- Feel alienated from other children;
- Become afraid of wind, rain or sudden loud noises;
- Worry about where they and their family will live or survive;
- The child may talk about or exhibit signs of interest in suicide;
- A psychologist or psychiatrist might see signs of anxiety, depression or fearlessness in the child.
Be aware that even if a child does not display any or a few of these symptoms that that doesn't mean they're coping. A child can be impacted by a traumatic event but keep it bottled up inside out of a misguided need to be strong for mom or courageous for dad, etc.
Assume that a child who has been part of a traumatic event needs to be cared for with extra attention to helping them through the event.
Seek help as soon as possible. The responses, reactions and abilities of those immediately responsible for a child influence the child's ability to cope with a traumatic occurrence.
While you can and should talk to your child about their feelings and make it clear that you're available to talk at any time, it can be much more helpful to have professional help assist you.
The types of therapy likely to assist recovery for your child includepsychotherapy, psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).
- Don't try to cope alone. While it is only natural for you to want to try and be the support for your child, going it alone will make it harder on you, especially if you have also experienced the traumatic event.
By allowing others to help your child, you are not reneging on your responsibility for caring for your child; rather, you are broadening the opportunities for your child to recover through help from various people, including yourself and your other family members.
- You can help a great deal by seeking to restore a routine as soon as possible, continuing to feed your child a nutritious diet and helping your child maintain play andexercise schedules that ensure connections with others of their own age and body movement for good health.
- Be available for your children and try to stay focused about what matters in the nowin their presence, rather than ruminating on the past event.
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