Trauma Informed Practice

Trauma requires an informed team approach

Trauma can result from single or repeated adverse childhood experience and or event, which contribute to a child’s increase vulnerability to behavioural issues and/or developmental delays.

Trauma might come from life-threatening events such as car accidents, bushfires, sudden illness or hospital admissions, traumatic death in the family, crime, abuse or violence in the community. Trauma may also be smaller or less obvious things such as seams on our socks or tags on our clothes resulting in large or unexpected reactions.

Events or experiences that are frightening or traumatising for an adult are likely to be even more traumatising for a child. This is because the young child’s limited experience of the world and their developmental stage means they are not yet fully able to understand what’s happening to them or why. They may not have the words to communicate what they feel, however, their behaviour and the way they play will often give us clues or information as to how the trauma had an effected them.

What does it look like in children?

A child’s response to a distressing or frightening experience will depend on their age, stage of development and personality, as well as the supports around them but some common signs of reactions to trauma may include:

New or increased clingy behaviour, such as following the parent around the house
New problems or regression with basic skills like sleeping, eating, going to the toilet or paying attention
Mood changes – The child might not seem to enjoy daily routines or activities they used to like or may seem more ‘shut down’, listless and withdrawn
Increased fear – For example, the child may
- Be more jumpy or startle easily
- Develop new fears
- Have more nightmares
  Talk about the frightening event more or have it in their play or drawings
- Not seem to be reassured when talking about the scary event and ask about it again and again
- Be scared that the trauma will happen again, or of other things they did not fear before, like dogs, strangers, being apart from caregivers
More physical complaints for which no cause can be found, such as tummy ache or headache, being tired and other problems

What is Trauma Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care is a strength based framework for service delivery that is based on knowledge and understanding of how trauma affects people’s lives, their service needs and service usage.

Trauma-informed care means that services have an awareness and sensitivity to the way in which clients’ presentation and service needs can be understood in the context of their trauma history.

Parents or care-givers should seek help if:

You are concerned or unsure about how your child is coping following a traumatic event
You are not coping yourself – this makes it harder for you to help the child to cope and you may both need to seek help
Your child has regressed in their language, self-care (toileting, sleep) or behaviour and things are not settling or improving after a period of time

What can we do to help?

Trauma requires an informed team approach

Helping you and your child understand their regulation and arousal patterns throughout the day to best support their participating in everyday activities
Helping your child to develop coping strategies to manage their arousal, emotions and behaviour
Developing positive routines that support your child to engage in everyday activities confidently such as toileting, sleeping and playing

What type of therapy is recommended for trauma?

If your child has experienced trauma, it may also be appropriate to consult a Psychologist for support. It is important to acknowledge however that in many (but not all) paediatric cases, there is a large overlap in the skills addressed by Psychology and Occupational Therapy.