First 2,000 Days Series: Creating Trauma-Informed Classrooms and Centers

February 17, 2023

The Impact of Trauma on Young Children

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur before a child reaches the age of 18 and include all types of abuse and neglect as well as situations that may cause trauma, such as having a parent with mental illness or being part of a family experiencing divorce. All types of trauma can undermine a child’s innate ability to form healthy and positive attachments, learn without immense difficulty, and excel in school.

Trauma has a profound impact on the first 2,000 days of a child’s life. Those who experience trauma are two times more likely to fail a grade in school. They also score lower on standardized tests, have higher rates of suspension or expulsion, and are more likely to be placed in special education programs.

How Trauma Appears in Early Childhood

Many early childhood educators may feel frustrated and overwhelmed by expressions of trauma in their classrooms or programs. Children who have survived trauma, abuse, or neglect may experience challenging behaviors, including:

Communication: Trauma during the first few years of a child’s life can lead to linguistic and communication difficulties. They may, for example, experience difficulties communicating emotions and feelings, particularly in social interactions.
Social-Emotional Regulation: Many children who suffered from ACEs may struggle to regulate their emotions. They may be permanently stuck in a cycle of toxic stress and find it difficult to self-regulate and self-soothe.

Relationships: Young children who face ACEs may have difficulty connecting and relating to their peers. Instead of sharing emotions and feelings with other children, children who have experienced trauma may distance themselves emotionally.

Play: Learning to play as a child promotes creativity and imagination, however, many children who have experienced trauma may have difficulties learning how to play—and finding enjoyment from it.

Withdrawal: Children who suffer from ACEs may find it difficult to listen and concentrate, particularly in a classroom situation. They may feel triggered by certain behaviors and disassociate from the present situation.

Striving Toward Trauma-Informed Classrooms

Although the consequences of childhood trauma, abuse, and neglect can be staggering, they are preventable. Trauma-informed care and classrooms can play a powerful role in reducing the long-term effects of trauma.

Trauma-Informed Classroom Techniques

As an early childhood educator, keep these tips in mind for creating a trauma-informed classroom:

Realizing: Realize the widespread impacts of childhood trauma—while also acknowledging the various paths of recovery.
Recognizing: As an educator, learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma within a child’s development and within their family culture.
Responding: Learn to integrate knowledge of trauma into your classroom policies.
Resisting: Resist creating further traumatization by noticing and reducing any triggers for children in your classroom.

Your Classroom is a Community

Because every classroom in an early childhood education center is a community, consider taking these steps to develop a positive, responsive community.

1. Be the one. It only takes one consistent, safe, and stable adult to positively impact a child’s life. Know that how you interact with children and families can make a life-changing difference.
2. Change perspectives. Research shows that 25 percent of people in Onslow County have an ACE score of four or higher, underscoring the fact that they have endured significant childhood trauma. Adopt a strengths-based perspective to celebrate the positive elements of a family—while also finding new opportunities to support their long-term growth. Reframe your mindset – Instead of asking “What’s wrong with you” consider “What happened to you.”
3. Build the Five Protective Factors. These characteristics help keep families strong and children safe from abuse and neglect—and when the Five Protective Factors are in place, families have a better chance for positive long-term outcomes.
4. Self-care. As an early childhood educator, self-care is a key component of being a consistent, safe, and stable adult for the children in your care.

Our Impact

Early Prevention Strategies

At One Place, all of our programs are designed to provide children with positive relationships and nurturing experiences—by educating parents and caregivers on the importance of social-emotional development and offering high-quality early childhood education opportunities.

When children in our community are hurt by abuse or through other adverse childhood experiences, they may need professional help to cope with their trauma. Our Child Advocacy Center is a child-focused facility that brings together law enforcement, child protective services, prosecution, and medical and mental health professionals to develop a coordinated strategy to help a child in need.

Learn more about our Child Advocacy Center here.

Policy Intervention Strategies

In addition to the tactical preventative and intervention programs offered by One Place and other nonprofit organizations, policy changes may also result in new possibilities for children.

Zero to Three recommends that state policymakers implement evidence-based strategies to improve mental health outcomes—both for children and for their families. Learn more about what states can do to advance infant and early childhood mental health results.

To learn more about One Place’s work preventing and reducing the impact of ACEs and toxic stress, click here.