Category: Childhood Trauma

Unraveling the Impact of Unresolved Childhood Trauma on Adult Well-being

Introduction

If a child experiences trauma, it should not be surprising that traumatic problems may still be present into adulthood. It could bring up and ruin happiness, relationships, or any area of adult life. Maybe they haven’t been feeling themselves lately. And they’ve been wondering: Am I suffering from unresolved childhood trauma? They thought it was over. But childhood trauma has a way of leaking into their adult life, making them feel everything is turned upside down. Maybe therapy was once prosperous, and they were able to move on. Then comes a time when they begin to feel stressed, anxious, or even on the verge of panic again. Depressed feelings arise and try to take over; they want to withdraw and isolate. I had heard the term but didn’t know much about “unresolved trauma.”

Trauma’s Stealthy Infiltration into Adulthood

When someone has been traumatized as a child, it lives deep inside them. So deep it is as if it settles in the bones. The memories, even if pushed aside and unconscious, are etched into them in relationships, struggles, and self-esteem. Many traumatized children feel they’ve always been on their own and do the best they can to work things out for themselves. There is no template for working out unresolved childhood trauma. Trauma comes with its own experiences and has different effects in particular ways. Unfortunately, the roots of childhood trauma stay unresolved, and those symptoms might go underground for a while. But stress that causes an emotional upheaval or an event that serves as too close a reminder of earlier trauma can put them back into the original experiences.

Although trauma is technically “in the past,” traumatizing experiences in childhood can’t be laid to rest until the ways they live in recent incidents, symptoms, and relationships are deeply understood. Freud said we have a “compulsion to repeat,” even if we try not to. That’s why people might find themselves in relationships that remind them of those that were traumatizing in the past. There are many different forms symptoms or behaviors might take. Again, these are very individual. The important thing is that the past is never “just” the past. Until there has been help working out exactly how the roots of the past are alive in the present, childhood trauma can remain “unresolved.”

Childhood trauma can sometimes leak into adult life because, no matter how hard one tries to go on, there is still a traumatized child living inside. If there has not been sufficient help or the right kind of therapy to work out trauma, the child part still carries the trauma and suffering. Maybe they don’t always feel it or know it’s there, but symptoms of childhood trauma spill out when stressed. Or when something in life serves as a subtle or not-so-subtle reminder of what happened as a child.

Conclusion

Childhood trauma lives on in symptoms. Depression. Panic attacks. An eating disorder. Obsessional worries, catastrophic anxieties, and relationship fears. They might have difficulties trusting, low self-esteem, fears of being judged, constant attempts to please, outbursts of frustration, or social anxiety symptoms that won’t let up.

References

1. “Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving” by Pete Walker
2. “It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle” by Mark Wolynn

The Impact of Early Childhood Trauma on Family and Marriage Relationships

Introduction

One of the major aspects to look at when researching trauma and how it can affect family and marriage relationships is what early childhood trauma can cause later, further down the line. When a parent or caregiver openly rejects the child or is not responsive to the needs of the child, it is possible for the child to develop an insecure-avoidant or dismissive avoidant attachment style (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1). This means that the child is likely to try and avoid close relationships with people.

However, if they do create a close relationship with someone, they will try and keep their partner at an emotional distance. They do not feel like they can securely share their feeling with anyone, so they try to hide their feelings. Along with this, they may keep secrets or shut down when someone tries to share their feelings with them. Unbeknownst to their partner, the person with this style of attachment secretly wants a close relationship and feels alone. However, they do not have the capability to form this kind of relationship (Brandt, A (2017, August 1).

Attachment Styles as a Result of Childhood Trauma

When a child is faced with a parent or caregiver who consistently abuses or neglects the child, there is the possibility that the child will develop a fearful, avoidant, disorganized, disorientated attachment style (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1). With this style of attachment, the child will grow up to fear intimacy with people, but they will also fear being alone. They will have a hard time trusting people and will completely close themselves off from everyone emotionally. They will be terrified of rejection and will be uncomfortable showing emotion (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1).

There is one other kind of attachment style that can result from a parent or caregiver fluctuating between responding to the child and neglecting the child. From this kind of care, the child can develop an insecure, ambivalent, or anxious, preoccupied attachment style (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1). In this style, an adult can become clingy with their partner. They desire a lot of intimacy, and they are always watching to see if there is a change in their relationship. This will happen even to the point of paranoia.

The adult may also experience and show mood swings. This trauma can also end up affecting the partner and other family members as well. With many unhealthy attachment styles, it may be hard for the person to recognize their partner’s emotions and react to them in the proper way (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1). This can go for other family members as well. The adult with this attachment may also feel uncomfortable when their partner is mad or sad and has no clue how to react to these emotions. As a result of this, the adult may pull away or hold on too tight, harming the relationship even more (Brandt, A. (2017, August 1).

Conclusion

Another aspect to take into account is when trauma happens to a family as a whole (Victoria State Government (2015, March). After a family goes through a traumatic event, there are symptoms and reactions that are commonly elicited. There are feelings of being on high alert and being on watch in order to make sure nothing similar happens. It is common to feel emotionally numb, seemingly in a state of shock (Victoria State Government (2015, March). The family is likely to become emotional or upset and to feel tired or fatigued. Another common reaction is to become very protective of both friends and family. They may also not want to leave a certain place because of the fear that something else may happen (Victoria State Government (2015, March).

References

1. “Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life” by Susan
2. “Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect” by Jonice Webb
3. “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity” by Nadine Burke Harris

Childhood Trauma Sensitive Approaches to Education

Introduction

I am currently working in a self-contained behavior classroom as a Special Ed. Instructional Assistant in Milwaukie, Oregon. We currently have eight students in K-2nd grade. Our district divides the behavior classrooms into two levels: Elementary K-2nd grade and Intermediate 3rd-5th grade, and they are housed in various elementary schools in the district. In our district, some of the challenges we are facing are many of our schools are at or over capacity, and our behavior classrooms are being moved to different schools due to the increase in class sizes. The class that I work in is located outside the main building, which is problematic, especially when our students have a history of being violent and leaving school grounds.

This advocacy plan will focus on how to effectively help our students, teachers, and support staff learn when dealing with trauma. Trauma affects everyone differently in our classroom, and because no two individuals are alike, we will need to have a toolbox of strategies ready that we can pull from when supporting our classroom community.

Part 1: Assessing Students’ Needs

Section One

When our students walk through the doors of our classroom, we are faced with several different traumatic experiences. We have students who are in foster care, one who has a parent who is incarcerated, one who is homeless, experiencing poverty, food insecurity, and many more. The school that I work in is a Title I school and is diverse, which means the students are exposed to different things. During the past five weeks while completing coursework, my eyes have been opened to the daily struggles our students deal with in class or before they arrive at school. We just had a student start on Thursday, and he has experienced a significant amount of trauma in his young life; he is only 5, has never been in a school setting, is on the autism spectrum, and has just moved to our state.

I am excited that this course has given me the tools to better understand where they are coming from or what they may be going through and provide them with different strategies to start helping them build resilience skills in order to succeed both now and in the future. According to the article, 10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs to Know, “there’s a direct connection between stress and learning” (WeAreTeachersStaff, 2018, para 9). When students experience stress brought on by trauma, they have a tough time concentrating and difficulty learning. As educators, it is our job to get our students ready to learn and give them the tools they need to be successful. It is even more important when teaching students who are dealing with trauma; we must first understand their situation to be able to help them and then develop a plan.

Section Two

The formal assessment we use in our school district is called “STAR Reading and Mathematics.” We sometimes can’t get a true assessment of what our students know because they are resistant to test taking due to their limited reading and math skills. Half of the students in our class are special needs, which makes formal assessments almost impossible and very impractical. We often use Informal assessments and gather information from families as a way to gather data for our students.

One way we assess our students is by gathering information from their families, having them fill out questionnaires, looking at their Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and periodically having meetings. Also, at the beginning of the year, the students are sent home with a paper for parents to fill out telling me about their child and return during back-to-school night. The information is then put into a binder for each student, including their family make-up, who lives with them, what pets they have, and their strengths and weaknesses from their parents/guardians’ point of view. I even have a section asking for any other information that would be good for me to know.

This information is very important, and it provides me with what I need to build relationships with my students. A couple of students are not able to tell us about their lives outside of school because of speech delays, traumatic brain injuries, etc., so having this information filled out already by the parent is crucial. Based on the information that is obtained from their families, we can better understand what may or may not be causing their behaviors. Also, by having the information about their experiences readily available, I can better understand where they are coming from and know what tools and strategies they need to be successful.

References

1. WeAreTeachers Staff. (2018, February 22). Ten things about childhood trauma every the teacher needs to know. Retrieved from https://www.weareteachers.com/10-things- about-childhood-trauma-every-teacher-needs-to-know/

Part 2: Instructional Strategies to Meet Students’ Needs

Section One

Trauma can affect each person differently. Therefore, it is important to remember as an educator that a child’s ACE score doesn’t define who they are or what they can do. The negative effects of traumatic experiences can be helped by building resilience through positive experiences early on in life. According to Starecheski (2015, para 4), “Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may reduce the long-term effects of early trauma.” As an educator, it is my goal to help my students succeed; by understanding the effects trauma and toxic stress have on my students and myself, I need to have my tools and strategies ready to support them and provide them with the help they need to be successful later in life.

When a student is experiencing trauma, it will show up differently for each student in the classroom, and sometimes, students’ behaviors or symptoms are misdiagnosed because it may look like something else. According to Starecheski (2015, para. 9), “reactions to trauma are sometimes misdiagnosed as symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because kids dealing with adverse experiences may be impulsive—acting out with anger or other strong emotions.” Although this puts more stress on us as educators, it will help make us better and more effective teachers. We need to approach the challenges that our students face and come up with more efficient ways to help them. Instead of forming our own judgments, conclusions, and diagnoses, we need to form trusting relationships with our students and help their families figure out if it is truly a medical issue like ADHD or if the behavior we are seeing is caused by a traumatic experience.

Trauma can alter one’s brain, and students who have experienced trauma will function differently than those who haven’t experienced trauma. “Stressed brains can’t teach, and stressed brains can’t learn” (Souers & Hall, 2016, p.29). Souers and Hall (2016) highlighted that when a child has experienced trauma, they function out of their downstairs brain, unable to regulate their emotions, in a state of fight, flight, or freeze; in general, they are stressed just trying to survive. Our job is to teach them strategies that they can use to help them get back into their upstairs brain so that they are able to learn.

Section Two

One strategy I will continue to use to support my students, especially those experiencing trauma, is to form safe and positive relationships with my students. Students who have experienced trauma look at school as being a safe place; therefore, I create a safe and comfortable space in my classroom for them and continue to build a trusting relationship with them. One way I start building a good relationship with my students is by greeting them with a smile each day, getting to know their likes and dislikes, and showing genuine concern for them and their well-being. This strategy supports my student’s social and emotional development while building a relationship with them. It is important to model expected behaviors, as students will pick up on your body language, tone of voice, and attitude toward others in the class.

Social skills are another vital component for students learning as well, “children who have strong social and emotional skills perform better in school, have more positive relationships with peers and adults, and have more positive emotional adjustment and mental health” (Jones & Bouffard, 2012, p. 3). The negative impact of traumatic experiences can be helped by teaching our students how to build their resilience and have a growth mindset. According to some psychologists, “Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma” (Starecheski, 2015, para 4). As educators, our goal is to help our students succeed; by understanding the effects that trauma and toxic stress have on our students, we can better support them and get them the help that they need to be successful later in life.

The first strategy I will implement to help my students is to develop the basic skills needed to explain their own emotions and to recognize the emotions of those around them. When introducing these concepts to the students in my class, it is important that they understand their own emotions and also the emotions of others. One way to introduce this skill is through the use of picture books during community circles. The book I would start with is Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda (1997). I have used this book with my own children, and I feel it would be great to use as an introduction to emotions. The book also gives examples of what causes the monsters to feel each emotion: glad, sad, loving, worried, silly, angry, and scared. There are also questions at the end of each emotion that students can answer, such as “What makes you glad?” (p.4) and “Have you ever been sad, too?” (p.7). This book will help my students develop the skills needed to build relationships with others while understanding where they are coming from.

References

1. Emberley, E., & Miranda, A. (1997). Glad monster, sad monster: A book about feelings.
2. Boston: Little, Brown.
3. Jones, S. M., & Bouffard, S. M. (2012). Social and emotional learning in schools: From
4. Programs to strategies. Society for Research in Child Development, 26(4), 1-33.
5. Souers, K., & Hall, O. (2016). Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for creating
6. Trauma sensitive classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
7. Curriculum Development Starecheski, L. (2015). Take the ACE quiz – and learn what it does and doesn’t mean.
   Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health- shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and- doesn’t-mean

Part 3: Self-Assessment and Self-Care

Section One

When a student in my class is having a challenging time, it directly impacts my mood both in and out of the classroom, as well as the mood of the other students in the class. When my students are sad, I feel for them and want to make them better. As stated by Souers Hall (2016, p.29), “stressed brains can’t teach, and stressed brains can’t learn,” and because teachers are compassionate and empathetic when it comes to our students, we sometimes take on the emotions of our students and feel what they feel. We are with our students 7 hours a day, and they become our children. Therefore, we carry their feelings and emotions with us when we leave school and when we go home for the night. When a teacher is stressed, it impacts the way we teach; we are not prepared, we react to small situations, and our ability to effectively teach will negatively impact our student’s ability to learn.

As part of my continued self-care plan, I will start taking more time for myself and focus on how I am feeling at the beginning of the day to be a better teacher and mom. My goal is to continue starting my day off with meditation, assessing my stress level daily, and recording it. Practicing mindfulness, such as breathing, 5-minute meditations, or going for a walk to help regulate my stress and emotions. Over the past five weeks, I have realized that adding a personal self-care routine to my already busy schedule has made me realize that my time management is very important, especially if I want to avoid getting burnt out.

By checking in with myself and my students each day, I can get a better sense of where the class as a whole is at and what they need. If they are fidgety and have an increase in negative behaviors, then that is my cue to take a brain break, do yoga, go outside, or complete a breathing exercise.

Section Two

One self-care strategy focuses on getting more sleep and building new friendships since I don’t have many friends outside of my work circle. I am also more conscious about my own health since my family history of diabetes has increased recently. I have started cooking more meals at home and really focusing on what I am putting in my body. I have also increased my workout plan from a couple of 2-3 days a week to 5 days a week, which has been great for me because I feel more energetic and can get more done.

Another self-care strategy I want to implement is doing yoga. I feel that it is something that will help me de-stress, relax, and increase my flexibility. Yoga is a fantastic way to decompress; it is more popular now, and now more schools are using it as part of their physical education curriculum. I recognize that there are times I am not very motivated to carry out a self-care task for myself, but I now have designated days and times that I have set to get it done.

Conclusion

Self-care is important, and I need to make sure I am consistent with taking care of my own well-being before I can help anyone else. Because it not only impacts me but also impacts my family, friends, and students. To make sure I am consistent and using my self-care strategies, I will have a notebook or calendar where I can record each month what I have done for myself. By taking the time to recognize where I am with my personal self-care, what I need to work on, and what changes need to be made so that I can start off the next school year fresh and ready to go. Personal self-care can be hard to implement and change, but if I make it a part of my daily routine, it will become second nature. “It takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to create a lifestyle.”

References

1. Souers, K., & Hall, O. (2016). Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for creating Trauma-sensitive classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Attachment and Self-Esteem

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to test the association with childhood emotional abuse. The purpose was to test whether the association with childhood emotional abuse was either positive towards being fearful or negative towards having a secure attachment.

Understanding Childhood Emotional Abuse and Attachment

Five hundred and fifty-four undergrad students participated in this study. Specifically, 429 women and 125 men. This study used three different measures: emotional abuse, secure/fearful attachment, and self-esteem. For the emotional abuse, the measurement was a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire, called Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form or CTQ-SF, looked at five different subtopics of childhood abuse. The five subtopics were emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. For the secure/fearful attachment, the measurement was the Relationship Scales Questionnaire or RSQ. This measurement consisted of 17 different items reflecting from general to close relationships. For self-esteem, the measurement was the Self-Esteem Scale or SES. The SES is a self-report questionnaire looking at 16 items.

Childhood Emotional Abuse, Attachment, and Self-Esteem

While looking at the results of this study, it was found that emotional abuse was associated with secure attachment in a positive way. However, it was found that emotional abuse was associated with fearful attachment in a more negative way. The results were in correlation with their hypothesis.

From a counseling perspective, I would say that this article applies to it because attachment and trauma play a big role in our life. This study shows how certain traumas an individual may experience in their childhood can affect them in their adolescence through adulthood. As a counselor, you may want to try and figure out the source of a client’s behavior. Personally, I think that a lot of individuals do not think about childhood experiences. Most individuals might ask, “What is wrong with that individual?” rather than “What has happened to that individual.”

This article relates to my paper by discussing different types of abuse. One of the things that I am focusing on in my paper is childhood trauma. I was not sure how generic or specific I wanted to be in my paper, but I thought that it would be interesting to try and talk about different forms of trauma. One of the things that this article talks about is different forms of trauma: emotional, physical, and sexual.

Conclusion

I will fit this article into my paper when I want to talk about the different types of trauma and how it can affect attachment. However, I am not sure how I would exactly take this article and incorporate it into my paper. I think that I might start talking about the different types of trauma and use this study to further get my point across. This study showed how trauma affects attachment, and I think that it will be very important to use this study.

References

1. “In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness” by Peter A. Levine
2. “Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal” by Donna Jackson
3. “Help for Billy: A Beyond Consequences Approach to Helping Challenging Children in the Classroom” by Heather T. Forbes

The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Brain Development and Function

Abstract

current article will provide an overview of the research literature on how trauma impacts brain development. An exploration of trauma is outlined, as well as the sources of childhood trauma. Understanding how the brain develops and how trauma impacts this development provides the means to better understand traumatized children. This article is a literature review focusing on the brain and the impact of traumatic experiences on both brain development and function.

The Effects of Childhood Trauma on the Developing Brain

Many researchers suggest that early childhood trauma can be described as those that happen before the age of six (Murray & Fortinberry, 2006). These experiences lie at the root of most long-term psychological illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders (Anda et al., 2005). In addition, this trauma can alter the chemistry and physiology of the developmental brain (Beers & DeBellis, 2002). Among mental health professionals, there seems to be a lack of agreement on what exactly constitutes childhood trauma (Christopher, 2004).

Inflicting serious emotional trauma on children is a common occurrence in society (Lubit et al., 2003). Unfortunately, it has only been in the last 30 years that there has been research on the consequences of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (Teicher et al., 2003). Prior research explored traumatic experiences in adulthood only. This could be because young children were believed to be unaffected by trauma because they will not remember the experience later in life (Maas et al., 2018). However, current research supports childhood trauma having significant impacts on the emotional, cognitive, social, and physical functioning of the child (Lubit et al., 2003). This literature review will briefly discuss brain development and then further discuss how trauma can negatively impact it. To understand the impact trauma has on the brain, it is necessary to define trauma and explain the sources of childhood trauma.

Childhood Trauma

Definitions

In psychiatry, “trauma” has been defined as an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking. These experiences often result in long-lasting physical and mental effects (Heide & Solomon, 2006). An academic report (Myers, 1992) from the American Academy of Pediatrics defined childhood abuse as the damaging interaction between the child and the caregiver that becomes typical of the relationship. According to (Felitti et al., 1998), child neglect is the negligent treatment of a child by a caregiver that indicates harm or threatened harm to the child’s health or well-being. In addition to physical, sexual, and verbal abuse and neglect, making a child feel worthless, unloved, or insecure can also be a form of damaging act (Myers, 1992).

Trauma can further be defined as a serious injury or shock to the body from physical or emotional violence that causes lasting damage to the psychological development of the person (Maas et al., 2018). This psychological damage can cause illness in the form of neurosis, which is excessive and irrational anxiety and worry (Maas et al., 2018). A specific form of trauma is attachment trauma (Anda et al., 2005), which can be defined as the physical or sexual abuse, rejection, cruelty, or lack of response from caregivers that, in turn, fails to provide the basic needs of a child. This type of trauma influences the child’s ability to appropriately attach to his/her caregiver, which can also lead to failure to thrive. Infants are completely defenseless and rely on the caregiving of an adult to survive. The response of a caregiver determines the attachment style the child will incur, which is crucial for the survival of the infant (Myers, 1992).

Sources of Childhood Trauma

There are multiple factors that may influence the child’s reaction to the trauma; according to Maas, Laceulle, and Bekker (2018), the trauma’s specific nature influences the child’s reaction. Some examples of factors that influence the child’s reaction include the duration of the event, trauma involving loved ones as the victim, the involvement of physical injuries, and the child’s perception of the traumatic outcome. Another source of trauma can occur during pregnancy. Developing fetuses may experience trauma through the use of malnutrition and substance abuse. These experiences can create significant deficits in brain development; prenatal vulnerabilities minimize healthy development and create biological and behavioral complications in the child’s brain (Bremner, 2005).

Childhood trauma differs from ordinary stress in childhood in multiple ways. According to (Christopher, 2004), trauma occurs suddenly and catches a child off guard. In addition, these events are unpredictable and atypical for a child. Lastly, the child can feel a great sense of helplessness and inability to cope. These factors all combined to create a terror response from the child. Sources of childhood trauma can come from accidental injury, illnesses, catastrophes, physical and sexual abuse, interpersonal and community violence, observation, traumatic loss, and psychological trauma and neglect (Christopher, 2004; Perry, 2006). In addition, certain traumatic experiences, such as sexual abuse, have a high chance of retraumatization (Maas et al., 2018).

The Brain

Overview of Brain Development

All necessary brain structures are present at birth; however, brain development continues long afterward at a significant pace. After birth, the brain becomes dependent on environmental cues to establish how neurons will differentiate and create their final neural network (Perry, 2002). According to Heide & Solomon (2006), the brain is not done developing until a person is in their mid-twenties. During the first year of life, the brain will grow to and a half times its birth size (Anderson et al., 2000). The size of the brain at age four is 90 percent the size of the adult brain (Perry, 2006).

The brain develops in a sequential hierarchical manner, and different areas of the brain are fully functional at different periods in childhood (Perry, 2006). Due to differences in maturing brain functioning, there are critical periods in which childhood should experience certain things for normal brain development (Perry, 2006). Because brain development occurs mostly in early childhood, this critical period has the most enduring effect on how the brain functions in the future (Perry, 2006).

Impact of Trauma on the Brain

According to Perry (2006), neural connections in the brain are mostly formed by the age of four, when a child’s brain becomes ‘hard-wired’ from repetitive experiences. Neurons that originate from the brain stem (lower in the brain) send signals to neurons in the higher portions of the brain (Perry, 2006). If these neurons are not firing properly due to trauma, the entire brain’s functioning is impaired. The longer the child is left in a neglectful environment, the more difficult it will be to stimulate correct brain development.

The brain allows one to be connected to other humans in the present moment; it is the brain’s job to protect us in situations we cannot flee from. Research from Perry (2006) depicts a hierarchy of brain function. It is suggested that the human brain is organized from the most parsimonious regions (brain stem) to the most complex regions (frontal lobe). The functions that happen in the brain stem are most simple and reflexive (body temperature regulation) (Bremner, 2005). Brain structure can be altered by the incoming messages from one’s senses (Bremner, 2005). The formation of memory is created by pattern, intensity, and frequency of neural activity (Anderson et al., 2000). The more frequently a certain pattern of neurons fires together, the more permanent the memory. Experience can, therefore, create a processing template in which new information is inputted (Anderson et al., 2000).

According to (Teicher et al., 2002), traumatic stress can have an effect on bodily functioning. There has been research that suggests children exposed to repeated trauma have differing levels of cortisol, a critical stress-sensitive hormone (Lubit et al., 2003). Cortisol is a necessary hormone for healthy functioning; however, it can be damaging if levels are too high or low. Stress can impact cortisol levels significantly, even in children as young as six months (Lubit et al., 2003).

When a child’s brain is exposed to chronic trauma, the developing brain and the child may actually begin to feel the hyper-aroused state experienced during trauma is normal (Bremner, 2005). What is unhealthy, unsafe, and damaging to the child is what feels most familiar to him/her. Trauma can cause abnormal development of the hippocampi (cognition and memory) and the amygdala (emotions are located here) (Teicher et al., 2002).

Trauma can also weaken the connection between the two hemispheres and, in turn, can be the cause of an underdeveloped cerebral cortex. Neural functioning can also be inhibited by trauma (Perry, 2002; Perry, 2006). Other researchers (Beers & Debellis, 2002) found similar results relating to trauma and brain development. Trauma-induced cortisol levels can adversely affect brain development by accelerating loss of neurons, abnormal pruning, delayed myelination, and stunted neurogenesis (Anda et al., 2005).

One common reaction to danger has been labeled the ‘fight or flight’ reaction. As an individual begins to feel threatened, the brain orchestrates a complex total-body response in which the brain and body shift along an arousal continuum (Perry, 2006). All aspects of functioning are altered during a traumatic event: feeling, thinking, and behaving (Anderson et al., 2000). In an alarm state, the individual has no time for abstract thinking and planning; they are using the most primitive part of their brains to react and survive (Perry, 2002). This increases the sympathetic nervous system activity and causes an increased heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration. These physiological increases can also cause hypervigilance, in which the child tunes out all non-critical information (Anderson et al., 2000).

The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study is an ongoing collaboration that analyzes the relationship between multiple categories of childhood trauma (ACEs) and the health and behavioral outcomes later in life (Karatekin, 2016). Results from this study indicate a strong correlation between exposure to trauma in the first eighteen years of life and multiple negative adult behaviors. These include smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, depression, suicide attempts, alcoholism and substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer (Felitti et al., 1998).

Conclusion

As this literature review demonstrated, the experience of childhood trauma has a substantial influence on a child’s brain development. The brain acts as the operating center, receiving all new information and having to make sense of it. This means that a child who experiences trauma will filter all his/her new experiences through this lens of traumatic events. This may cause a minor stressor to be a large trigger for the child, initiating the stress response. The stress response may cause the child to perceive past trauma, making the child feel threatened and hypervigilant. In order for professionals to work with children who suffer from childhood trauma, it is important for them to think about the trauma and how it impacted the client’s brain before intervening with treatment.

References

1. Murray, J., & Fortinberry, T. (2006). Early childhood trauma. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 13(2), 69-73.
2. Anda, R. F., et al. (2005). The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 256(3), 174-186.
3. Beers, S. R., & DeBellis, M. D. (2002). Neuropsychological function in children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(3), 483-486.
4. Christopher, C. (2004). Defining child abuse in psychiatry: Pathologizing the victim. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 21(5), 421-442.
5. Heide, K. M., & Solomon, E. P. (2006). Mental health professionals’ perceptions of childhood trauma. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(12), 1613-1631.
6. Lubit, R., Rovine, M. J., Defrancisci, S. J., & Eth, S. (2003). Child and adolescent psychiatrists’ views on early childhood trauma. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 33(1), 19-34.