Trauma-Informed Practices
There is an abundance of evidence suggesting that early childhood trauma can have detrimental and long-lasting effects on children and their families. We also know that ECE institutions are uniquely situated to intervene early and provide stable and enriching environments, as almost 15 million children under age six attend an ECE center for an average of 33 hours per week.¹ However, not all ECE institutions are utilizing trauma-informed practices which can both limit the benefits children receive from ECE and actively do harm to a child who has experienced trauma. Therefore, it is important to focus on evidence-based trauma-informed practices and explore modes of implementation and accessibility to capitalize on ECE institutions' unique position as community hubs for resources and childcare. Trauma-informed practices require connections across institution-level, community, and state interventions for successful implementation.¹
Trauma-informed care is defined by the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care as "an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma that recognize the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives."² Quality trauma-informed education takes a strengths perspective, works in collaboration with the child's family and community, and provides safe, stable, and enriching educational opportunities.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has laid out guidelines for organizations implementing a trauma-informed approach.
1. Understand trauma is widespread and identify paths for recovery.
2. Recognize symptoms of trauma not only in the student, but in the family, staff, and community.
3. Knowledge about trauma should be fully integrated into all policies and practices.
4. Try to actively avoid retraumatization.
How can organizations put these guidelines into practice?
Safety
The organization should work to ensure both the physical and psychological safety of students, staff, and families.
Collaboration
The organization should partner with families in all problem-solving and decision making.
Voice & Choice
This principle promotes the idea that staff are facilitators and do not hold authoritative power in the healing process. Therefore, self-advocacy and goal setting on the part of the family is encouraged.
Trustworthiness
All goals should be communicated transparently with the goal of building and maintaining the trust of everyone involved in the organization.
Peer Support
Peer support and building community is valuable in establishing safety, trust, and collaboration by using shared lived experiences as a way to heal.
Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
The organization should implement policies and protocols that are responsive to students' and families' needs and address historical trauma.³
There are several trauma-informed strategies specific to ECE environments and teachers that build off of existing literature and research on protective factors to help children develop, grow, and succeed.
Sensitive and Responsive Caregiving
Comprehensive training of all ECE teachers and staff is important in integrating sensitive and responsive caregiving. Many children who have experienced trauma are largely reliant on developing a sense of safety based on their relationship with their caregivers that is reliable and comforting. Therefore, ECE teachers and staff must understand trauma and its impacts on the child's life, be versed in recognizing signs of trauma, and then help children develop coping skills, give meaning to traumatic experiences, develop self-regulation skills, and protect them from retraumatization.
Prioritize Child and Parent Well-Being
ECE teachers and staff should take a two-generation approach to address trauma in their students. By building relationships with the child's parents, ECE staff can utilize family strengths that already exist, respect family values and priorities, and encourage family participation at all stages. The child does not exist in a vacuum, but rather exists within a family and community organization and benefits from taking into consideration familial stressors that may contribute to the trauma. This two-generation approach emphasizes the contextualization of the child in their environment.
Supportive and Enriching ECE Classroom Environments
A supportive classroom environment can promote resilience in several ways. A trauma-informed classroom environment should have predictable routines, safe play spaces, and clearly communicated expectations. Teachers should actively identify and reduce possible triggers for the child. In terms of curriculum, teachers should be trained in teaching emotion regulation and identification skills and social skills that will help children build other stable relationships with peers and adults. Another important facet to ECE classrooms is the emphasis on promoting language development using techniques like sustained conversations and interactive story reading that helps children build vocabularies and understand complex language. Importantly, teachers and staff should take a strengths-based approach when working with children in the classroom and make every child feel heard, celebrated, and comfortable expressing feelings of insecurity.⁴