WEBINAR: The Traumatic Impact of Violent Death For Children

Violent and unexpected loss of life can leave children in a chaotic wake. The act of violent death may influence the worldviews of children and may lead to problematic beliefs of uncertainty and perceiving the world as dangerous, which may subsequently disrupt their normal psychosocial growth and development. Childhood behaviors that demonstrate the trauma-learning patterns of re-enactment, repetition, and displacement can become persistent parts of a symptom complex. These trauma-specific behavior patterns can include general hyper-arousal symptoms, and avoidant, numbing symptoms. The response of the child’s social and interpersonal context to the internalizing or externalizing behaviors post-trauma continues to shape the way the child views the environment. When the child is unable to link ongoing, disruptive behavior to the traumatic experience, the underlying fear persists. This interferes with the child’s ability to modulate emotions and contributes to an inability to use the new experiences to develop and grow. The flexibility of children to discriminate new information may be lost; the child is either numb to new information or hyperalert and perceives danger. Issues for treatment include the child first relearning flexibility through the element of self-soothing and calming behaviors.