Traumatic Experiences

Children’s traumatic exposure risks, outcomes, and therapeutic needs must be understood within a developmental context. Typically, children do not have the capacity to fend for themselves, care for themselves or communicate fully their complex emotional needs to others. Given their dependant position in families and communities, they face greater risk of PTSD if their needs are not met.
In the aftermath of trauma, children must also rely on caring adults in their lives to help them recover from traumatic experiences and those adults and systems of care must be ready and able to respond to those needs.