We say that a person has experienced or witnessed a trauma when they have been exposed to an unexpected event that seriously threatened, injured, or killed someone. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A traumatic event can evoke feelings of helplessness, horror, and fear in children and teens. Understanding how these elements affect us is our first step, so let’s begin with helplessness . Trauma victims need to regain control; empowering them is one of our first goals. Fo...
Stop by the Office of Child Development’s HealthyCHILD (HC) office any day of the week during the school year and you will likely find empty space. If your visit is in the spring or fall, you’ll also find the P.R.I.D.E. (Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education) team out and about, offering learning sessions for parents. Both of these teams travel all over the city of Pittsburgh to provide their programming. HealthyCHILD helps early educators and families build t...
Knowing where to start when having difficult conversations can paralyze us into not having them at all. Early on Monday October 29th, when I stood in front of classroom of middle schoolers, many of whom had been directly impacted by the Tree of Life tragedy, I wondered, how I could possibly offer them anything useful, how could I even begin to show them the love and support they need to feel safe and cared for? I thought “maybe I should maintain our routines, maybe I should just carry...
In the wake of catastrophic violence, the days, weeks, and months that follow can be very stressful on children. It should be expected that anxiety, fear, and worry are common reactions to the trauma a child has experienced. Children may also demonstrate changes in behavior, including activity level, concentration, irritability, sadness and withdrawal, and sleep and appetite. Schoolwork may be affected. As well, children may become hyper-focused on the traumatic event, experience int...
At the Office of Child Development, we support young children by supporting their caregivers. When traumatic events happen, young children look to these important adults for answers, comfort, and love. The quality of these key relationships is the cornerstone of infant and early childhood mental health. Babies are born completely dependent on their primary caregivers and instinctively regulate to the emotions of these most important adults as a survival mechanism. As an example, res...