{"id":23358,"date":"2021-01-03T09:58:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T13:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=23358"},"modified":"2021-01-15T19:06:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T23:06:21","slug":"children-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/","title":{"rendered":"Children and Trauma: Coping Using Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How can you help children with trauma? What can you do to help your child process difficult memories and attain closure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since children&#8217;s brains are not yet fully developed, they have an added challenge of processing traumatic experiences and attaining closure. To help children with trauma, help them to make sense of the event by telling a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is how storytelling can help children <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-process-trauma-on-your-own\/\">process trauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Helping Children Cope With Trauma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child has been through a trauma, like a car accident, it is important to help her process the event and her emotions so that she can move forward, instead of fixating on an unresolved traumatic experience.\u00a0To this end, help your child tell the story of the experience and how it made her feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When children learn to organize memories into stories and then share those stories, they can use those skills to work through difficult experiences for the rest of their lives. Research shows that storytelling\u2014either verbally or through journaling\u2014calms emotion-driven activity in the right brain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you help your child tell her story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Emphasize how the situation was resolved<\/strong>, which reassures your child that there\u2019s a solution if the situation were to come up again.<\/li><li><strong>Talk about strategies to avoid a similar incident <\/strong>in the future (if applicable).&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Help your child create more positive associations <\/strong>with the thing or the place that has become scary; for example, if your child got sick at school and now is afraid to go back, remind her of everything she loves about school, such as her friends and favorite activities.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t force your child to retell the story if she\u2019s not ready <\/strong>or not in the mood. Be aware of the time and place when you initiate the conversation. <\/li><li><strong>Be creative about how you apply this strategy.<\/strong> If your child resists talking, encourage her to write about the memory, draw a picture of it, or talk to a friend or trusted adult. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tips for Helping Children Cope at Different Ages<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ages 0-3<\/strong>: Even before your child can talk, name emotions as often as possible. When you\u2019re telling a story, you\u2019ll need to do most of the narrating, and you may want to act out certain events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ages 3-6<\/strong>: Although your child\u2019s verbal skills are well-developed, she may still need to lean on you to lead the storytelling when she\u2019s upset. Start the story, and pause to give her an opportunity to pick it up from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ages 6-9<\/strong>: At this age, your child can take the reins on storytelling, but she might still need you to nudge her along. As she narrates, ask questions to encourage her to fill in details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ages 9-12<\/strong>: Acknowledge how your child is feeling, then let her take the lead on the storytelling; your primary role is to ask questions to prompt the story, and to be patient and present as she tells it in her own way and her own time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can you help children with trauma? What can you do to help your child process difficult memories and attain closure? Since children&#8217;s brains are not yet fully developed, they have an added challenge of processing traumatic experiences and attaining closure. To help children with trauma, help them to make sense of the event by telling a story. Here is how storytelling can help children process trauma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,13,9],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-23358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-parenting","category-psychology","tag-the-whole-brain-child","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Children and Trauma: Coping Using Storytelling - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Children find it more difficult to process painful experiences and attain closure. Here is how storytelling can help children with trauma.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Children and Trauma: Coping Using Storytelling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children find it more difficult to process painful experiences and attain closure. Here is how storytelling can help children with trauma.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-03T13:58:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-15T23:06:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-gene-westover.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Children and Trauma: Coping Using Storytelling\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-03T13:58:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-15T23:06:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\"},\"wordCount\":508,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-gene-westover.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Whole-Brain Child\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Parenting\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/\",\"name\":\"Children and Trauma: Coping Using Storytelling - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-trauma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-gene-westover.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-03T13:58:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-15T23:06:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"Children find it more difficult to process painful experiences and attain closure. 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