Every childhood experience has an impact on the body and mind. Some more lasting and meaningful impact than others.

Sometimes due to circumstances that may be out of your control as parents, a child may experience severe trauma. This could take the form of a divorce in the family, death of a parent or grandparent, accident etc. This article is not about discussing the nature of the trauma, it is about understanding one important aspect of managing the trauma. Once trauma occurs, a child may have difficulties coping in a range of areas which may surprise parents.

Many children experience trauma. What can we do to help them recover?

Their brain is busy coping with the experience and as such, the child’s ability to learn at the normal pace, socialise effectively and respond to life generally will have its limitations. It is as though their whole world is dulled. Sometimes when family trauma happens, parents can worry about their child’s school performance and inability to show interest in sport etc. What we say here is that it is quite acceptable to allow a child the emotional space to recover from the trauma. We need to accept that performance will naturally drop off considerably for a while. It is important to let this happen so that the child can recover from the shock and get back all their resources slowly. Take care not to place too many expectations on them during this recovery phase.

This article is simply to remind us that when a child has such an experience, they need space from what they normally engage in so that they can recover in the time their body and mind demands.

I have seen children stop reading after trauma occurs. I, myself stopped reading at the age of seven when my parents divorced.

Children can also slow down their speech, hear words but not comprehend what is said. I have also seen children needing much more sleep, stuttering and losing their skills and interest in formal games. Younger children sometimes bed wet etc. Their resilience to others deteriorates. This is just a short list of how trauma can manifest itself in a child’s behaviour. If this happens to your child, be prepared to allow them the space and time to process the trauma. Understand that providing a climate where they can simply ‘be’ without pressure is the best healing space for them. With sensitive support and strong nurture, the child recovers. The brain is an extraordinary muscle. It does go into overload when trauma happens and shutting down in certain areas is a way for the brain to rest, regroup and prepare to heal. This article is just to remind parents that allowing a child that space is critical for effective recovery. It is not a time to work to improve performance or increase workload to keep up to standard.

For parents it is a time to respect and appreciate the child’s recovery time which will vary in length from child to child.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not however have to be a life sentence.”

— Peter A Levine