Many children in the foster care system (including children placed with relatives and children adopted from foster care) experience complex developmental trauma; which impacts them in profound ways. Learn more about what this is and how to support the children in your life.
First, let’s review what a traumatic experience is:
Traumatic Experiences: Trauma is about perception – not every child will experience the same event as traumatic. Of course, there are some experiences that almost everyone will be traumatized by, such as a school shooting or being sexually assaulted or being seriously physically harmed.
A traumatic experience is one that:
Threatens the life or physical integrity of a child or of someone
important to that child (parent, grandparent, sibling)
Causes an overwhelming sense of terror, helplessness and horror
Produces intense physical effects such as pounding heart, rapid
breathing, trembling, dizziness, or loss of bladder or bowel control.
Traumatic experiences can be:
ACUTE: A one-time event – Such as being in a car accident or being sexually
assaulted by a neighbor or living through a natural disaster (flood,
earthquake, tornado) OR
CHRONIC: Repeated over time – Such as living in a home where there is
domestic violence or being sexually abused repeatedly by a
parent or living in a war-torn community
WHAT ABOUT NEGLECT? Neglect is also considered to be traumatic, especially for a very young child. They are completely dependent upon adults to keep them alive so neglect can be life-threatening. Additionally, neglect can open the door for other traumatic events to occur and may reduce a child’s ability to recover from trauma.
Complex Developmental Trauma refers to both the exposure and impact of specific kinds of early childhood experiences. There are three primary features of Complex Developmental Trauma:
(1) Multiple invasive and interpersonal negative events such as physical
and/or sexual abuse and/or chronic neglect and/or exposure to domestic
violence
(2) Occurs early in life; disrupting many aspects of the child’s development
and the formation of a sense of self
(3) Caused by a primary caregiver; interfering with the child’s ability to form
a secure attachment and impacting many aspects of a child’s healthy
physical and mental development rely on this primary source of safety
and stability.
What Can You Do To Help?
Click Here for an incredibly helpful guide about the impact of developmental trauma on a child’s life over five developmental stages: infancy, toddlerhood, pre-school age, school age, and adolescence.
Click Here for an excellent guide for older children (10 – 12) and teenagers and the people who care for them.
If you are interested in an RPC+ class in your area – contact: RPC+ Classes
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