This course explores the impact of trauma on developing in toddlers. It offers tools to recognize trauma, address symptoms and develop trauma safe education for toddlers. This course work explores a neurocognitive development model of learning and brain development in early childhood.

2. They Story of Billy…
When Billy was two years old and just learning to
potty train he had a terrible fall. His parents were
grateful he survived.
At that time Billy’s parents said that he became more
clingy and angry but that was understandable.
Since then Billy has been slow to hit his
developmental markers.

3. They Story of Billy…(cont.)
At the age of five he could talk but became frustrated
when people did not understand him.
When a teacher or parent asked him to do something he
often would become angry, or just sit and refuse.
He had a difficult time solving problems with peers. If
there was a conflict over a toy Billy quickly pushed the kid
or bit the kid he was fighting with.

4. They Story of Billy… (cont.)
A very astute teacher noticed that Billy did not always
understand what he was told. The teacher noticed that
using certain tones of voice, and speaking slowly helped.
Billy was popular but also socially awkward. He was
strong an tuff so the other boys liked him but he often
blurted things out in class, interrupted people, and
seemed not to notice when other kids were getting angry.

5. They Story of Billy… (cont.)
Billy has a very hard time when his parents leave in the
morning.
When the teacher is absent and there is a substitute
teacher, Billy will be more hyper, aggressive and brake
toys.
When ever there is a loud noise Billy jumps.
Billy will often play in dangerous ways nearly falling or
getting other kids to fall off of the top of the play structures
at school.

6. They Story of Billy… (cont.)
Billy’s teacher notices that when things are stressful,
chaotic or there are changes Billy’s attention span goes
down and it is hard for him to learn.
When it is difficult for Billy to learn he sometimes gets in
trouble so that the other kids do not notice.
Billy’s parents report that he does not sleep well and that
he often has night terrors.

7. Trauma in the
Toddler Years
Yong Children (0 to 5) Display…
More intense symptoms of trauma
Have a chance of developing symptoms of trauma
More incidence of hyperactivity and depression after a
traumatic events.

8. Trauma in the Toddler Years
Yong Children (0 to 3) Display…
Higher differences in cognitive development, emotional
development due to it being a time of large scale
neuroplasticity, and less language abilities.
Young children often do not display symptoms of numbing.
There is a higher amount of diagnosis of oppositional defiant
disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Toddler’s with
PTSD are often misdiagnosed as ADHD, and behavioral
disorders.

9. Trauma in the
Toddler Years
Yong Children (0 to 3) Display…
Re-enactment play
Toy destruction
Aggression towards peers
Defiance toward parents and adults
Living with domestic violence is related to more aggressive
and acting- out behavior, possibly due to modeling.

10. Trauma in the Toddler Years
Yong Children (0 to 3) Display…
Difficulty sleeping
Night-terrors
Reduced attention span
Relationally, survivors of interpersonal trauma suffer from a
loss of trust and a sense of betrayal from a person who is
loved.
Personality changes
Increased separation anxiety

11. Trauma in the
Toddler Years
Hyperarousal symptoms in preschool children were associated
with increased threats of violence, mild violence, and sexual
violence.
Re-experiencing symptoms in preschool children were associated
with increased violence of all types.
Many studies find that toddlers do not display symptoms of
Numbing and avoidance as frequently as adults or older children
Scheeringa et al. (1995) in a comprehensive study found that for
toddlers the main three symptom groups the same but added a
category called: “new fears and aggression.”

12. Acting In vs. Acting Out
Some children “act out” their emotional pain on others.
Some children “act in” inflicting their emotional pain on
themselves.
These are called: Externalizing and Internalizing
behaviors.
Both of these patterns are difficult or both the child, their
friends and the adults in the their lives.

13. Acting In: Internalizing
Behaviors
Internalizing behaviors are: Problems that tend to affect
the child’s “inner world”
With-drawing into their own world.
Acting and feeling anxious.
Being inhibited in normal exploration.
Feeling unsafe.
Depressed mood, behaviors, emotions and beliefs.
Children can appear “overcontrolled."
Photoby:Ambro

14. Acting Out: Externalizing Behaviors
Externalizing behaviors manifest in children's outward behavior.
The child acts out their hurt on the
external world.
Disruptive behavior, Hyperactivity, Impulsivity.
Aggressive behaviors.
Often referred to as: Conduct problems,
Antisocial behaviors, Under-controlled.
Sometimes externalizing behaviors can
be triggered by anxiety.

15. Trauma effects the
Whole Child
Trauma is not just a psychological symptom.
Trauma effects a child’s brain development and ability to
learn.
Trauma impacts a child’s relationships with friends and
adults.
One way to understand these impacts is by
understanding the seven domains effected by PTSD.

16. Seven Domains
Effected by Trauma
1. Symptoms of PTSD: Re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing,
hyperarousal, and in young children: new fears and angers.
2. Psychological Meaning Created: Traumatic guilt, responsibility,
shame, life is dangerous, mom hates me, daddy left because I
am bad, strangers hurt people, I can’t trust any one.
3. Developmental disruptions: Each age holds a developmental
task and there are key social, emotional, neurological, cognitive
and intellectual tasks to achieve. Trauma can create disruptions
in these tasks.

17. Seven Domains
Effected by Trauma
4. Effects on later development: Some developmental
stages build on capacities from previous stages thus
disrupting the development of later capacities.
5. Impact on support systems: Often times traumatic
events happen to the whole family or other important
figures in the child’s life. These traumas can effect the
parent’ ability to engage with the child. Many negative
interaction patterns can develop.

18. Seven Domains
Effected by Trauma
6. Impact of child’s symptoms on others: The child’s
symptoms often impact others and make peer, teaching, care
providing, siblings and parenting relationships difficult.
7. Cumulative Trauma…
Higher exposure to trauma increases severity of symptoms
and number of symptoms.
One traumatic event if similar can trigger other events
(trauma stacking).

19. Building Resiliency:
Creating Islands of Safety
Each child has their own innate resiliency.
Their bodies and nervous systems have a drive to
develop.
With young children creating a “relationship of safety”
that provides: containment, consistency and
understanding helps them develop skills and heal
from the trauma.

20. Building Resiliency:
Creating Islands of Safety
Psychologically Young Children are Establishing:
Basic trust in themselves and others;
The ability to act independently;
The ability to self-regulate emotions;
The trust in their ability to master their environment.

21. Building Resiliency:
Creating Islands of Safety
For children who have been traumatized they can be very
sensitive to small changes in the relationship.
Children who have been traumatized also often feel
powerless over the events in their lives.
Children who have been traumatized often feel an “I can’t…”
where other children feel an “I can!”. This can make it more
likely that they give up before trying.
A class room can be an island of safety where the child can
build mastery experiences and learn to trust again.

22. Creating Safety
Building Mastery
Overview: Children with trauma have
experienced “overwhelming events.” They often feel as if
the events of life are unsafe, unpredictable and they can
not effect them.
In the life of a child with trauma it is important to build
“Islands of Safety.” These are place and times when then
the child feels safe.
One of the big ways to create safety is to build mastery.
Mastery is the experience we all have when we feel
capable strong and effective.

23. Creating Safety
Building Mastery
Steps to Build Mastery:
1. Identify an aspect of the class that you teach which a child is
likely to be successful but may at times struggle.
2. Prior to the supporting mastery give clear supportive
instruction on the skill.
3. Then ask the child to set their goal for what success looks like.

24. Creating Safety
Building Mastery
4. Use your verbal support and validation to help the
child stay focused and tolerate the negative emotions
that often impede a child with trauma from being
successful.
5. Allow for pride (pronking – the animal reaction to
success) and support the child to reflect on what
made them successful. Asking them to see the
behaviors and action that helped them reach their
goals.

25. Exercise: Seven
Domain Assessment
Overview: This skill looks to identify which areas of a
child’s life is effected by the PTSD.
Through that assessment it is possible to create
educational interventions that will make them more
successful.
It will also help teachers identify what referrals would
best help the families.

26. Seven Domain Assessment
1. Identify which symptoms of PTSD you see:
1. Re-experiencing: Do they have thoughts that keep playing in
their minds? Do they worry about their parents? Have
separation issues, or seemed “spaced out” like they are not
listening to you?
2. Avoidance/numbing, hyperarousal: Do they have trouble
staying in their seats? Difficulty concentrating? If there are load
noises do they jump?
3. Young children: new fears and angers: Are they set off easily
and get angry quickly? Are the afraid of things thy used to
enjoy?

27. Seven Domain Assessment
2. Psychological Meaning:
• Are they highly sensitive to shame? Embarrassment
• Do they feel guilty and responsible for things they did not
do.
• Do they make comments that seems like the think that life
is dangerous, (e.g. mom hates me, strangers hurt people, I
can’t trust any one.)
• Do they seem to think that the difficulty is their fault (e.g. daddy
left because I am bad)

28. Seven Domain Assessment
3 Developmental disruptions:
• Are they meeting the developmental tasks for their age?
• Assess their social skills, emotional skills, cognitive
skills. Are they age appropriate? If not was there a recent
stressor?
• When do their developmental abilities fluctuate wildly
when they are under stress, angry, embarrassed?

29. Seven Domain Assessment
4. Effects of developmental delay on later
development:
• When did they last meet their developmental abilities in
cognitive, emotional or social domains?
• Is there a current cognitive, emotional or social ability
that seems to be effected by previous disruptions in
development? (e.g. In order to develop complex moral
reasoning they would need the ability to understand
their own experience and anticipate the experience of
others).

30. Seven Domain Assessment
5 Impact on support systems:
• Were family members also traumatized by the event? If so
how many?
• Did the event or events effect other important people in the
child’s life?
• Is the trauma impacting the ability of the adults in a child’s
life to effectively support the child?
• Are their many negative parent child, teacher parent
interactions or teacher child interactions?

31. Seven Domain Assessment
6. Impact of child’s symptoms on others:
• Are the child’s symptoms often impacting others?
• Are they impacting peer, teaching, care providing, siblings or
parenting relationships?
• If so how?
7. Cumulative Trauma: Is there cumulative trauma (e.g. leaving a
war zone, alcoholism or addiction, ongoing abuse)? Identify
the triggers related to the events.

32. Key Points
Trauma in Young Children
Young Children Display:
More intense symptoms of trauma;
Increased risk of developing PTSD;
More incidence of hyperactivity and depression then older children.
Young Children:
Act out the trauma in play more often the older children;
Tend to have a higher incidence of destructive behavior and violence;
Can display higher levels of oppositional behaviors then older children.

33. Key Points
Trauma in Young Children
Young children often do not display “numbing/
avoidance symptoms.”
They often display what one researcher called, “New
fears and aggressions.”
Young children display an increase of externalizing
(acting out) and internalizing (acting in) behaviors.

34. Key Points
Trauma in Young Children
Trauma effects Seven Domains of a Child’s
Functioning…
1. Symptoms of PTSD
2. Psychological meaning
3. Developmental disruptions
4. The effects of developmental disruptions on later development
5. Direct Impact of the traumatic event on social support systems.
(Other’s symptoms of trauma).
6. Impact of child’s symptoms on others.
7. Cumulative Effects of Trauma. (Trauma Stacking).

35. Key Points
Trauma in Young Children
Educators can create islands of safety.
Children who have been traumatized often feel an “I
can’t…” where other children feel an “I can!”
A class room can be an island of safety where the
child can build mastery experiences and learn to
trust again.