Child Trauma
Children experience trauma in different ways and most importantly
through different eyes. A child’s temperament and personality can
effect the traumatic outcome (if one) for the child.
Reactions to trauma may appear immediately after the traumatic event
or days or even weeks later. The symptoms of the traumatic reactions
may be very individual and depend on the age of the child.
Very young children typically have a strong fear of being separated
from their parents. They might show behaviours of earlier
developmental stages (regressive behaviour) like thumb-sucking,
bedwetting, or they cannot sleep alone in their beds anymore (fear of
darkness)
Any change of social interaction to relatives or at kindergarten or
school with withdrawal, disruptive behaviour or changes of the
attention functions (inability to pay attention) with additional
sleeping problems or nightmares can be due to trauma. Some children
only report somatic complaints or other bodily symptoms.
Older adolescents will describe flas...
