| "> | | | | remembering, and "jitteriness" inside that will not go |
| Parents of children with so-called ADHD, Bipolar | | | | away. Students who experience trauma may develop |
| Disorder, learning disabilities anxiety disorders, even | | | | a sense that something bad is going to happen and |
| Pervasive Developmental Disorder need to know | | | | they need to be ready for it. |
| what trauma is for children and that the effects of | | | | Trauma is Real or Perceived |
| trauma can be healed. Most times I interview parents | | | | While there are some events that are obviously |
| they tell me their child has never experienced a | | | | traumatic, there are many others we simply assume |
| trauma. Yet when I ask more specific questions about | | | | are harmless when they are not. It is the perception of |
| accidents, injuries, falls, surgeries, hospitalizations, | | | | threat that is the critical factor. For instance, an |
| medical or dental procedures, as well as in utero and | | | | extremely loud sound like a car backfiring is a |
| delivery experiences, their face turns white. | | | | seemingly benign or harmless event, not obviously |
| Their memories are jogged. They suddenly recall the | | | | traumatic. To someone who has been traumatized by |
| event. The one everyone told them was nothing, that | | | | gun fire on the streets of their neighborhood, however, |
| their child would outgrow because, after all, children are | | | | such a sound may conjure up previously terrifying or |
| resilient. Worse, they are told that their child will never | | | | life-threatening situations. It is how the event(s) is |
| remember the event. "They're so young," they say, | | | | perceived and experienced by the individual that |
| "They're just babies. They don't even speak." | | | | matters. |
| Parents know, however, that after the event, however | | | | Events that are more obviously traumatic include: |
| seemingly benign or routine, their child was never the | | | | - war |
| same, and the neuroscience supports them. Both the | | | | - rape |
| central and autonomic nervous system can be | | | | - torture |
| changed in very specific ways after a traumatic event. | | | | - severe childhood abuse and/or molestation |
| But what is trauma for a child? What exactly can be | | | | - witnessing or experiencing domestic violence |
| considered traumatic for them? This is what too many | | | | - large catastrophic events, such as Hurricane Katrina |
| parents, educators, mental health providers, even | | | | - community violence, such as witnessing or |
| medical doctors do not know. | | | | experiencing an act of violence as in the case of |
| To become traumatized, a child must have had an | | | | Columbine and the many more recent school terror |
| experience or multiple experiences of terror, an | | | | situations |
| encounter with the possibility of death. It is the body | | | | - near death experiences, such as almost drowning |
| experiencing a threat to its own survival. It does not | | | | (even in the bathtub) or suffocating to death |
| matter whether the event that threatened or terrified | | | | Less obviously traumatic events include: |
| the child was real or not. It does not matter whether or | | | | - chronic disease or serious illness |
| not someone else would experience the same event | | | | - physical neglect and abandonment |
| as threatening or terrifying. Trauma for children is any | | | | - fetal distress (high levels of stress during pregnancy |
| event - real or perceived - that is terrifying or | | | | and/or birth) |
| threatening to them. | | | | - birth complications |
| Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event | | | | - surgery and other invasive medical or dental |
| becomes traumatized. Depending upon how many | | | | procedures, especially when they involve restraint or |
| resources are available at the time of the event, as | | | | isolation |
| well as whether or not previous traumas have been | | | | - general anesthesia |
| experienced, some do well in the face of danger and | | | | - car accidents, major or minor |
| carry on without any noticeable sign of what they | | | | - falls, injuries or other accidents (even on bicycles) |
| went through. Others, even if at first they seem all | | | | - being threatened, attacked or bitten by an animal |
| right, later develop signs and symptoms that something | | | | - sudden death or loss of a loved one |
| is not the same. | | | | - prolonged immobilization from casting or splinting |
| Traumatic effects are not always noticeable | | | | - high fevers, accidental poisoning, exposure to |
| immediately following the event(s) that caused them. | | | | extremes in temperature |
| An early fall that causes shock or injury may produce | | | | - being lost, i.e. at the mall or in a strange neighborhood |
| no obvious problems at first. It may not be until years | | | | - bullying |
| later, until another frightening event occurs that the | | | | - acts of racism and prejudice |
| effects of a previous incident begin to show. Dr. Peter | | | | Remember, even if one or more of these events |
| Levine, a leading expert on the healing of trauma, | | | | occur during the earliest years of life, they have the |
| wrote in his book, "Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma," | | | | potential to traumatize. No matter how young, even |
| that "symptoms can remain dormant, accumulating | | | | preverbal children experience trauma and remember |
| over years or even decades. Then, during a stressful | | | | terror in the very cells of their body. Infants and |
| period, or as a result of another incident, they can | | | | toddlers may be too young to verbalize and cognitively |
| show up without warning." | | | | process traumatic experiences but they are not too |
| As weeks, months, and years pass, children who | | | | young to be changed by them. (For more information, |
| seemed "just fine" immediately after a crisis may begin | | | | please read "Why Students Underachieve: What |
| to struggle with their sleeping patterns, eating patterns, | | | | Educators and Parents Can Do about It," pages 47, |
| level of concentration, and/or ability to focus and be in | | | | 48.) |
| the here and now. Some may become more agitated, | | | | Most importantly, know that trauma can be healed, and |
| more easily upset, and more difficult to soothe. They | | | | when it is, all so-called symptoms go away. These |
| may report a sore tummy, headaches, or pain in their | | | | children do not have lifelong disorders that can only be |
| limbs. Others may report nightmares, difficulty | | | | managed by medication and therapy. |