Trauma and Young Children

Teaching Strategies to Support and Empower

Laura J. Colker, Sarah Erdman, Elizabeth C. Winter

• Publisher: The National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781938113673
• eBook ISBN: 9781938113680
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Trauma Is in Children’s Lives—But So Are You

The world can be a confusing, frightening place to young children. More than ever, early childhood educators need accurate information and practical guidance for helping children and families who have experienced trauma. Following a healing-centered approach to working with children ages 3–6, this book provides an understanding of

• What trauma is, what causes it, and its potential effects on the brain and learning
• Why your relationships with children and families are critical to promoting healing
• How to create trauma-informed programs and implement practices that support children and families
• How to care for your own well-being

The thread of hope woven throughout will encourage you as you help children and families find a path forward—not only to survive but also to flourish.

CHAPTER One

Introduction

There is a reason you picked up this book. Maybe you are worried about a child in your care, either because you know something is happening with the child and family or because you feel like there is more than what you can see. Maybe you see a pattern in your program or community of children who are exposed to stressful or dangerous situations and you want to make broad changes that will address these situations. Or perhaps it is because of the regular and repeated media reports of gun violence, natural disasters, global pandemics, and refugee and migrant children being separated from their families. Early childhood educators are bombarded with the reality of trauma in young children’s lives, and the information in this book is a definitive step toward making a difference. Not only do you see the issue and want to make change, but you are also finding the resources to make it happen.

Why It Is Important to Understand Trauma

Young children need guidance and support to thrive emotionally, socially, cognitively, linguistically, and physically. For many children, trauma disrupts this development, making it challenging to learn until the effects are addressed. It is critical that early childhood educators be able to support children and help them develop resilience and coping strategies. Nearly every educator will interact with a child or family who has been affected by trauma, and research shows that the support and intervention a child receives when young can make a critical difference.

Most educators, however, have not been trained in appropriate practices for addressing traumatic response in young children. Indeed, you may even be unclear about what trauma is or whether what you are seeing in the children in your program is characterized as traumatic response. It is even more unclear how you should respond to these experiences. In addition, you or your colleagues may have experienced trauma and may be dealing with its ongoing effects.

In this seemingly unstable world, it is easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed. However, educators can have an immediate and lasting impact on children who experience trauma because of their understanding of how children grow and develop and the opportunity they have to build strong relationships with children. With knowledge, resources, and support to react appropriately and wisely, you can take steps that will turn a seemingly depressing situation into a hopeful outcome.

Supporting children who have experienced trauma guides your choices in what the learning environment looks like, how you respond to children, what skills you focus on, and your interactions with families. Understanding the science behind trauma and traumatic response, what trauma does to the brain, and the different types of trauma and triggers also gives you insight into children’s behaviors.

This book gives educators of children in preschool and kindergarten programs information about trauma, what it is, how it occurs, and what its effects might look like in children’s behavior. It also offers strategies that support all children’s social and emotional well-being and their learning. This information can inform a preservice teacher or new educator’s practice, and it can help experienced educators, directors, and trainers adapt what they already do to include new research and understanding. Young children can work through the effects of trauma. And with your help and appropriate supports from your program and community, they can even flourish.

All Early Childhood Educators Are Professionals

All educators who work with children and their families are professionals. In this book we refer to all of those professionals—whether they work in center-based programs, public or private schools, family child care programs, or other early learning settings—as educators or teachers.

Prevalence of Trauma

Trauma comes in many forms, and its effects can manifest in dramatically different ways depending on the child. Trauma occurs when a child witnesses or experiences an event that is a threat (real or perceived) to themselves or someone close to them. Traumatic events can range from dealing with a threatening hurricane or the lingering effects of a global pandemic to experiencing abuse to losing a loved one. Trauma can overwhelm the child’s ability to cope and cause a chain reaction of feelings like fear and hopelessness as well as changes in behavior or health (Nicholson, Perez, & Kurtz 2019). Outside factors, such as the support system a child has or their previous experiences with trauma, play a huge part in how children respond and recover.

One out of every four children attending school has been exposed to a traumatic event that can affect learning and behavior (National Child Traumatic Stress Network [NCTSN] 2008a). Trauma doesn’t just happen to older children and teens; research shows that 26 percent of children in the United States will have witnessed or experienced trauma before the age of 4 (Statman-Weil 2015). Children of any gender or age and from every type of family, socioeconomic background, culture, and geographic region experience trauma. But while trauma can happen to any child, the prevalence is not evenly distributed across populations. Certain communities are disproportionately affected by trauma because of generations of discrimination and lack of access to support systems, and other groups face specific types of trauma in higher numbers. Chapter 2 provides more discussion on these topics.

Singular Pronouns in this Book

Throughout this book we use the singular they, them, and theirs when referring to someone who uses those pronouns or whose pronouns are not explicitly stated and when the use of gender-based pronouns isn’t critical to the context. This is a growing and encouraged practice to reduce bias. It not only breaks down stereotypes about gender (for example, that all early childhood teachers use she) but also reaffirms that all readers are part of the narrative.

Trauma-Informed Care

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a term prevalent in education, juvenile justice departments, mental health programs, and youth development agencies. TIC can be defined as a strengths-based service delivery approach “grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma; that emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both teachers and survivors; that creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment” (Hopper, Bassuk, & Olivet 2010, 82). The ultimate goal of TIC is that children who have experienced trauma can heal and learn to thrive.

At its core, TIC “encourages support and treatment to the whole person, rather than focusing on only treating individual symptoms or specific behaviors” (Ginwright 2018). TIC also reinforces the idea that trauma does not define a child. Rather than looking at behaviors as problems that need to be solved, TIC urges looking at the source of behavior and what steps can be used to help ease it. It also emphasizes that the details of a child’s trauma are not what is important; what is critical is looking at how to care for the whole person. Experts such as Shawn Ginwright and Ellen Galinsky emphasize the need for a wellness and strengths-based approach that focuses on healing-centered engagement for children who have been exposed to trauma.

The term TIC can be an important reminder to educators. Just as your teaching philosophy, curriculum, and day-to-day interactions are informed by what you know about child development and the needs of the children and their families and communities, these aspects should also be informed by a better understanding of the role trauma can play in children’s lives. Throughout the book, remember that TIC does not mean seeing a child only through the lens of the trauma they have experienced. Rather, it is a is healing-centered and strengths-based approach.

Early Childhood Educators Matter

Children who have experienced trauma may believe that the world is a scary, threatening place. They may exhibit challenging behavior or have less developed social and emotional skills that make it difficult for them to regulate their emotions and be successful in interactions with their peers and adults. Their cognitive skills and physical development may also be negatively affected by trauma.

Educators like you are a critical resource for children who have experienced trauma. Not only do you build a close relationship with the child and their family, you also can provide targeted, developmentally appropriate support through the learning environment you create and the choices you make in how you interact with children and families. By creating a safe environment and nurturing positive relationships, you help build up children’s strengths and provide them with opportunities for success.

Family dynamics play a role in many causes of trauma and affect how the child responds and develops resilience. Supporting families is a significant part of helping children cope with trauma. Working with family members, your colleagues, and your community will help you build a wide network of support for families.

The most important piece of TIC is you. Continuing to learn and improve your practice is vital, but so is understanding your own experience with trauma and how to continue being responsive without burning out. Self-care is critical to balancing the needs of children and families with your own physical and mental health and is discussed in Chapter 10.

A Path Forward

Trauma in young children is a crisis, and as is true for other types of crises, it takes a network of individuals and organizations to provide support and make real change. While you cannot solve the needs of the children you work with alone, your voice and effort are critical components. Learning how to use healing-centered practices and focusing on supporting children’s strengths is incredibly helpful in both the short and long term. By educating yourself about trauma and how it can affect children and taking steps to make your program and practice responsive to the needs of children and families, you will add to the network and make a more effective safety net for children and families.

The overarching goal of this book is to provide you with support as you interact with children and families. Each chapter describes current research and best practices and offers specific strategies or suggestions. The appendices provide additional resources for learning and application, including print and digital resources, suggested picture books, and handouts for families. This book is one among many resources at your disposal; numerous organizations provide information and trainings for professionals, families, schools, and communities.

We hope this book serves as a scaffold or stepladder, giving you relevant information on useful strategies to build your understanding of trauma and traumatic response in children and the role you can play in helping them not only survive but flourish.

CHAPTER Two

Types of Trauma Experienced by Young Children

Early childhood educators are constantly adjusting their practice to meet children where they are and help them reach challenging and achievable goals—core tenets of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) (Copple & Bredekamp 2009). To provide a learning environment for children that embraces excellence and equity, teachers incorporate a thorough understanding of how children develop and learn, how to teach based on children’s unique characteristics and experiences, and what each child’s social, family, and cultural contexts mean for learning (NAEYC 2009; NAEYC 2019). This concept is critical; children don’t fit neatly into specific boxes, with one approach covering everyone’s needs.

This same mindset applies when you are striving to be aware of and sensitive to the needs of children who have experienced trauma and their families. Even knowing that a child has been in a traumatic circumstance, because you observed it firsthand or were told by a reliable source who has a relationship with the child, doesn’t give you the full picture or tell you what strategies would best support the child and family.

In addition, if you aren’t told directly about the circumstances, it is easy to fall into the trap of relying on guesswork, unconscious bias, a child’s behavior, and your own experience to assume that a particular child has experienced a traumatic situation. However, all of these can lead you to unfounded conclusions. Educating yourself on what trauma is, understanding potential sources, and learning what a traumatic response may look like in a child enables you to better recognize a child who needs support in the moment and partner with the family to find ways to ease the causes of the trauma. This lets you better individualize your response and care for the whole child rather than trying to address individual behaviors.

This chapter explores broad definitions of trauma and then looks more closely at different types and the presentation you may see in a child who has been exposed to that type of trauma. It is critical to keep in mind, as Ellen Galinsky notes, that “adversity is not destiny” and that a caring person can have an enormous impact on a child’s life (“From Trauma-Informed to Asset-Informed Care in Early Childhood,” Brookings, October 23, 2018). Later chapters will speak about effective strategies that you can use as you build relationships and provide healing-centered TIC in your environment.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma is defined as “an experience that threatens life or physical integrity and overwhelms the capacity to cope” (NCTSN 2008b). There are two major categories of trauma: acute and complex. Acute trauma is “a single exposure to an overwhelming event” (Sorrels 2015), such as being involved in a car crash or experiencing an extreme weather event like a flood o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: Types of Trauma Experienced by Young Children
• Chapter Three: How Trauma Affects Young Children’s Brains and Their Ability to Learn
• Chapter Four: Guiding Principles for Teaching Children with Trauma
• Chapter Five: Establishing a Safe and Inviting Environment for Learning
• Chapter Six: Connecting with Children
• Chapter Seven: The Healing Power of Play
• Chapter Eight: Partnering with Families
• Chapter Nine: Trauma-Informed Care in Schools and Communities
• Chapter Ten: Caring for Yourself
• Appendix One: Resources for Educators
• Appendix Two: Picture Books About Trauma
• Appendix Three: Handouts for Families
• References
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors