In this article, Lara El Khatib, MEPLI 2018 Fellow, defines trauma and how parents and caregivers can identify the signs and symptoms of it in a child’s behavior. This article is part one in a series on the topic of trauma, with the forthcoming article focusing on how teachers can identify the signs of trauma in the classroom.
By Lara El Khatib
May 20, 2022
This is the first in a series about the effects of trauma on children. Part 2 will cover signs of trauma that teachers should be aware of in the classroom.
Trauma can be defined as any event that undermines a child’s ability to feel safe. Trauma can be a one-time event (e.g., the Beirut port explosion) or a chronic prolonged event (e.g., child abuse). Unfortunately, trauma is becoming increasingly common in children’s lives (and the lives of their caregivers and family members). From child abuse and domestic violence (events within the child’s family) to natural disasters and pandemics (events outside the family), it seems that today’s children cannot seem to get a break from traumatic events.
Although trauma has many signs and symptoms in adults, these signs and symptoms can manifest themselves quite differently in children under twelve.
It would be good for parents to be aware of some of the signs of trauma in children, as trauma and its symptoms need to be addressed as soon as humanly possible particularly because the impact of trauma rarely goes away on its own. In fact, the impact of trauma can sometimes snowball into a wide variety of symptoms that might end up affecting every aspect of a child’s life. Below is a list of some of the most common signs of trauma in school age children. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and most children will not display all these characteristics. Additionally, each characteristic may be displayed in varying levels of frequency and intensity, depending on many factors (including the child’s perception of the traumatic event, the child’s resilience, family history…). What will also impact how trauma will be displayed in children is the chronicity of the trauma, i.e., its timing (the earlier in the child’s life, the more severe the impact, usually, but not always) and severity, and whether it was predictable (e.g., I know daddy hits mommy when he drinks). Finally, a child might manifest one symptom on one day, and the opposite symptom on another day (e.g., defiant on one day and submissive on another day).
Signs of Trauma to Watch For
Changes in sleep behavior: over or under sleeping; going to sleep but waking up soon
after having gone to sleep and not being able to sleep again; nightmares and night terrors
• Changes in eating behavior: over or under eating (and in extreme cases, eating inedible
foods)
• Being irritable, fussy, or angry a good portion of the time
• Engaging in aggressive behaviors against people and/or objects
• Bullying peers, classmates, or siblings
• Being uncooperative or defiant or throwing massive temper tantrums
• Being sad, morose, or melancholy a good portion of the time
• Feeling worthless and having low self-esteem (e.g., saying I am bad, I am a bad child…)
• Appearing withdrawn and not participating in family activities, especially ones in which
the child previously enjoyed engaging
• Not being able to describe how one is feeling or how others are feeling (and sometimes
seeing threatening behaviors when in fact, there are none)
• Exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms (e.g., complaining of headaches, stomachaches,
butterflies in the stomach, etc.)
• May be hypervigilant
• May cry for no apparent reason and may laugh at inappropriate times
• Not being able to express empathy for others
• Clinging to attachment figures and sometimes showing signs of separation anxiety
• Changes in memory, experiencing lapses in memory, and appearing a lot more forgetful
than usual. Also common is not remembering the traumatic event.
• Struggling with emotion regulation: overreacting to what appear to be simple events, and
not being able to calm down (from being upset), even when offered help from an adult
• Reenacting the trauma during play, especially pretend play
• Taking out anger and frustration on toys
• Hoarding items (feeling that these are yet other things that they can lose, so they end up
hoarding them)
• Regressing to earlier stages when the child used to feel safe (before the traumatic event
happened): going back to bed-wetting or sucking one’s thumb
• Engaging in infantile self-soothing routines such as sucking one’s thumb
• Engaging in other types of self-soothing routines such as rocking back and forth
• In rare or extreme cases, engaging in self-injurious behaviors, such as pulling one’s hair
or hitting one’s head against a solid surface
One particular sign to look out for is the loss of a previously acquired skill. For example, a seven-year-old who has been talking and talking quite well suddenly stops talking, almost altogether. We have seen this phenomenon in children in Lebanon after the huge port explosion that destroyed huge parts of Beirut. These are enormous red flags that need to be taken very seriously, as soon as they appear.
It is worth noting that trauma can and often does lead to changes in the brain’s structure. These changes can be manifested in some of the behaviors that were listed above. Some of these changes can be permanent and irreversible, hence the need for immediate intervention when we notice the signs of trauma in children.
For Further Reading:
Craig, S.E. (2016). Trauma-sensitive schools. Teacher’s College Press.
Jennings, P.A. (2019). The trauma sensitive classroom. W. W. Norton & Company.
Sorrels, B. (2015). Reaching and teaching children exposed to trauma. Gryphon House.
Web resources:
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Trauma. Psychology topics.
https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma#:~:text=Trauma%20is%20an%20emotional%20response,sy
mptoms%20like%20headaches%20or%20nausea.
Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center. (n.d.). What is trauma?
https://www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org/what-is-trauma/
Mind. (n.d.). Trauma. Types of mental health problems. https://www.mind.org.uk/informationsupport/types-of-mental-health-problems/trauma/about-trauma/