How do you tell if a child has been traumatized?

Trauma Signs and Symptoms
  1. Eating disturbance.
  2. Sleep disturbances.
  3. Somatic complaints.
  4. Clingy/separation anxiety.
  5. Feeling helpless/passive.
  6. Irritable/difficult to soothe.
  7. Constricted play, exploration, mood.
  8. Repetitive/post-traumatic play.
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What are the signs of a child being traumatized?

Children may feel terror, helplessness, or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control.
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What are three signs of childhood trauma?

Some of the most common signs of childhood trauma are:
  • fear, including fear when being separated from a parent.
  • frequent crying or tearfulness.
  • regressive behavior, or returning to an earlier stage of development — also a sign of stress.
  • bed wetting.
  • difficulty concentrating.
  • expressing concern about their safety.
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What happens when a child is traumatized?

Impact of Child Traumatic Stress

Learning problems, including lower grades and more suspensions and expulsions. Increased use of health services, including mental health services. Increased involvement with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Long term health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.
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What are visible signs of trauma?

Signs and symptoms of emotional & psychological trauma
  • Intrusive thoughts of the event that may occur out of the blue.
  • Nightmares.
  • Visual images of the event.
  • Loss of memory and concentration abilities.
  • Disorientation.
  • Confusion.
  • Mood swings.
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Conducting a Quick Screen for Trauma - Child Interview



What types of Behaviours come from trauma?

Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.
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What are the 5 signs of emotional suffering?

Know the 5 signs of Emotional Suffering
  • Personality change in a way that seems different for that person.
  • Agitation or displaying anger, anxiety or moodiness.
  • Withdrawal or isolation from others.
  • Poor self-care and perhaps engaging in risky behavior.
  • Hopelessness, or feelings of being overwhelmed and worthless.
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How do you comfort a traumatized child?

Tips for Helping Children After the Event
  1. Make your child feel safe. ...
  2. Act calm. ...
  3. Maintain routines as much as possible. ...
  4. Help children enjoy themselves. ...
  5. Share information about what happened. ...
  6. Pick good times to talk. ...
  7. Prevent or limit exposure to news coverage. ...
  8. Understand that children cope in different ways.
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What are the 3 types of trauma?

There are three main types of trauma: Acute, Chronic, or Complex
  • Acute trauma results from a single incident.
  • Chronic trauma is repeated and prolonged such as domestic violence or abuse.
  • Complex trauma is exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature.
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What is unhealed childhood trauma?

Neglect is also traumatic, and so is the loss of a parent, a serious childhood illness, a learning disability that left you doubting yourself, too many siblings, a detached, emotionally unavailable, or anxious parent, even your parent's own childhood trauma.
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What are examples of childhood trauma?

The most common causes of childhood trauma include:
  • Accidents.
  • Bullying/cyberbullying.
  • Chaos or dysfunction in the house (such as domestic violence, parent with a mental illness, substance abuse or incarcerated)
  • Death of a loved one.
  • Emotional abuse or neglect.
  • Physical abuse or neglect.
  • Separation from a parent or caregiver.
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Can a 3 year old remember a traumatic event?

If it is, the event is recorded in the child's brain as a traumatic memory, and research concludes that if it is still remembered after about age 2.5, children do not forget it. Sure, exact details may be blurry but they don't forget the general event.
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What age is childhood trauma?

“Child trauma” refers to a scary, dangerous, violent, or life threatening event that happens to a child (0-18 years of age).
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What is emotional trauma?

Emotional trauma is the end result of events or experiences that leave us feeling deeply unsafe and often helpless. It can result from a single event or be part of an ongoing experience, such as chronic abuse, bullying, discrimination or humiliation.
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What is abandonment trauma?

Abandonment trauma refers to the intense emotional response and related behaviors that being neglected, emotionally or physically, can have on you, regardless of age. Significant abandonment incidents can cause you a great deal of emotional pain.
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What does generational trauma look like?

Also known as generational trauma or transgenerational trauma, this type of trauma often goes unrecognized. This allows the cycle to continue. Common symptoms of intergenerational trauma include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, and self-destructive behaviors.
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Can a child heal from trauma?

Although childhood trauma can have serious, lasting effects, there is hope. With the help of supportive, caring adults, children can and do recover.
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How does unresolved trauma affect parenting?

The guide says a common reaction to unresolved trauma is parental dissociation, with parents “likely to neglect the emotional needs of their children and/or have difficulty in assessing risk in their partners”.
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What are the warning signs of emotional distress?

Symptoms of emotional distress
  • feeling overwhelmed, helpless, or hopeless.
  • feeling guilty without a clear cause.
  • spending a lot of time worrying.
  • having difficulty thinking or remembering.
  • sleeping too much or too little.
  • having changes in appetite.
  • relying more heavily on mood-altering substances, such as alcohol.
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How do you recognize emotional pain?

Common warning signs of emotional distress include:
  1. Eating or sleeping too much or too little.
  2. Pulling away from people and things.
  3. Having low or no energy.
  4. Having unexplained aches and pains, such as constant stomachaches or headaches.
  5. Feeling helpless or hopeless.
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What are the behavioral signs of stress?

What Are the Symptoms of Stress?
  • Becoming easily agitated, frustrated, and moody.
  • Feeling overwhelmed, as if you are losing control or need to take control.
  • Having a hard time relaxing and quieting your mind.
  • Feeling bad about yourself (low self-esteem), and feeling lonely, worthless, and depressed.
  • Avoiding others.
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What are the 6 trauma responses?

In the most extreme situations, you might have lapses of memory or “lost time.” Schauer & Elbert (2010) refer to the stages of trauma responses as the 6 “F”s: Freeze, Flight, Fight, Fright, Flag, and Faint.
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Can toddlers be traumatized?

Babies and toddlers are directly affected by trauma. They are also affected if their mother, father or main caregiver is suffering consequences of the trauma. If their home and routine become unsettled or disrupted as a result of the trauma, babies and toddlers are also vulnerable.
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What age is most vulnerable to trauma?

Children can experience trauma as early as infancy. In fact, young children between the ages of 0 and 5 are the most vulnerable to the effects of trauma since their brains are still in the early formative years.
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What is a bad childhood?

What a bad childhood can look like: 1) one or more parents were unpredictable in their availability leaving a child unable to know when she'd feel cared for. 2) a parent committed the ultimate betrayal and violated sexual boundaries with a child.
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