Know

Think about a time when you felt welcomed and safe in your environment. What did it look like? Sound like? Or even smell or taste like? Child care centers, preschools, and school-age programs can provide children and youth a break from hardships they face at home. They can also be environments that heighten behavioral or emotional responses from previous traumatic events. However, when caregivers create and implement policies and practices that foster a trauma-informed culture of care, children, families, and staff are better equipped to thrive.

Creating a Safe and Welcoming Environment

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network defines trauma-informed child and family service systems as “one in which all parties involved recognize and respond to the impact of traumatic stress on those who have contact with the system, including children, caregivers, staff, and service providers. Programs and agencies within such a system infuse and sustain trauma awareness, knowledge, and skills into their organizational cultures, practices, and policies. They act in collaboration with all those who are involved with the child, using the best available science, to maximize physical and psychological safety, facilitate the recovery or adjustment of the child and family, and support their ability to thrive.” To create a safe and welcoming culture, staff need to be aware of factors that contribute to trauma and how it may look different for every unique child, and therefore approach it from multiple perspectives. Settings that effectively create trauma-informed cultures do the following four things (adapted from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA):

1. Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand potential paths for recovery.
2. Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in children, families, staff, and others involved with the system.
3. Respond by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices.
4. Seek to actively resist re-traumatization.

Furthermore, SAMHSA states that there is no “prescribed set of practices or procedures” to become trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive. Remember from Lesson One that everyone experiences and processes trauma differently, so there is not an exact science to addressing the needs of those affected. However, SAMHSA provides the following six principles as guidelines in helping to create policies and procedures that meet the needs of individuals affected by trauma:

1. Safety—ensuring that children, staff, and families feel secure in their environment through daily procedures such as locking all of the doors, having sign-in and sign-out sheets for visitors, and practicing crisis preparedness.
2. Trustworthiness and transparency—creating a sense that all members of the program community can be open and honest in written, verbal, and nonverbal communication.
3. Peer support—feeling like there are people in the program community that can be relied upon in times of need.
4. Collaboration and mutuality—the ability to work with others to grow projects of similar interest.
5. Empowerment, voice and choice—creating a space where children, families, and program staff can speak about issues and provide their input.
6. Cultural, historical, and gender issues—awareness and sensitivity for the cultural, historical, and gender considerations for all involved in the caregiving or program settings.

By applying these principles, programs utilize evidence-based, tiered methods to address trauma such as positive behavioral intervention and supports and restorative justice.

Caregiving and Program-wide Initiatives

It is important to actively work toward supporting individuals through environmental and program-wide systems. Caregiving and program-wide initiatives can be implemented to help address trauma in a systematic, consistent way that all caregivers, families, and children recognize. These initiatives take into consideration SAMHSA’s six principals of safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment, voice and choice, and cultural, historical, and gender issues. Consider Laci from Lesson One, who experienced multiple, consistent adverse childhood experiences. She entered child care centers and programs with disrupted neurodevelopment due to the trauma that impaired her social, emotional, and cognitive development. We saw one potential pathway for Laci’s life without supportive systems. Positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) and restorative justice are two evidence-based approaches to creating safe and welcoming environments. These two approaches can be used together to create trauma-sensitive environments. Implementing trauma-informed practices, such as PBIS or restorative justice, can help support, redirect, and create new pathways for people like Laci who have experienced or are experiencing trauma.

The National Technical Assistance Center of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs describes PBIS as a: “framework that maximizes the selection and use of evidence-based prevention and intervention practices along a multi-tiered continuum that supports the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral competence of all children. PBIS implementation involves explicitly prompting, modeling, practicing, and encouraging positive expected social skills across settings and with individuals. When children are taught to effectively use relevant, expected social skills for themselves and with others, program climates are described as more positive, learning environments are designated as safer, and caregiver-child relationships are referred to as more trusting and respectful.”

The National Traumatic Stress Network (2017) recommends the following practices for providing trauma-informed programs:

• Implementing a multi-tiered approach that emphasizes providing a safe environment and nurturing relationships for all children and more targeted and intensive interventions for children that need additional supports
• Establishing nurturing responsive relationships with children and families
• Offering predictable environments and routines
• Teaching children social and emotional skills
• Understanding the functions of behavior and how to prevent and respond to behavior effectively
• Eliminating exclusion practices and punishment as a response to challenging behavior

PBIS is a tiered system that addresses all children and youth at the base-level and gradually meets the needs of more trauma-responsive children at the peak-level. For more information on PBIS, see the References & Resources section. You can also learn more about The Pyramid Model: PBIS for Early Childhood Settings in the VLS Focused Topic course Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors.

Restorative justice uses mediation and relational problem-solving, rather than punishment, for behavior issues. For children and youth affected by trauma, punitive or harsh measures can stimulate traumatic responses. Programs using restorative justice use a tiered model to help children and youth create a climate where they take ownership of their actions and openly communicate about issues they are having with each other. It fosters an atmosphere of respect and responsibility where the program staff provide the child or youth with space and equitable decision-making choices. 

Having a trauma informed approach to caregiving positively impacts your interactions with children, families, the environment and relationships. In addition to the program-wide initiatives just discussed, some recommended caregiving practices that are considered developmentally appropriate and trauma-informed include:

• Establishing clear, consistent appropriate expectations and communicating expectations regularly
• Warning children before doing something out of the ordinary
• Observing routines and behaviors to meet the individual needs of each child
• Monitoring children for symptoms such as re-enactment, avoidance, and physiological changes
• Offering choices to give children a sense of control and safety
• Helping children to identify, express and regulate emotions
• Listening and providing support if the child wants to talk about the trauma experienced
• Communicating openly and honestly helps develop trust and feelings of safety
• Helping children understand the impact that their behavior has on others
• Teaching and model problem solving skills
• Providing one-on-one time to model and allow children to practice social skills
• Celebrating children’s accomplishments and individual strengths
• Using clear, consistent communication
• Breaking complex tasks into smaller parts with simple directions
• Avoiding punishment and using positive reinforcement and feedback
• Controlling your emotions and do not personalize challenging behavior

Case Study

Nick and Maria have been married for 10 years and have three young children, Nico who is 8, Mila who is 4, and Inez who is 2 years old. Nick is currently deployed to Afghanistan for one year, which is the longest he has been away from his family. Maria now finds herself faced with caring for their young family while she is also working a full-time job. She is stressed from their current situation, but she tries to make sure her children are taken care of to the best of her ability. Each day of the workweek, Maria takes all three of her children to their respective programs and schools before she heads in to work. Here is a look at the family’s day:

Even if this information is not available and abuse or neglect is suspected, a phone call should be placed to child protective services for the child or youth’s safety. In some states these reports can be made anonymously; however, providing your information ensures that there is documentation that you fulfilled your mandated reporter duties and can be helpful if a case is opened with child protective services. Refer to your program administrator and program’s policies when making a mandated report. You can find more information about mandatory reporting in the Virtual Lab School Child Abuse: Identification & Reporting courses. 

See

Listen as an expert discusses the importance of instilling empathy in children from a young age and helping children understand how their behavior affects the feelings of others. Can you think of specific ways you can help the children you care for learn these skills?

Do

Creating a Trauma-Informed Culture

Trauma-informed cultures and trauma-sensitive environments allow program staff to incorporate calming strategies into their daily routines. Think about your personal daily routine and the practices in your program. Are there steps you can take to make it more trauma-sensitive? Here are some strategies that you may consider implementing to create a more trauma-informed culture for yourself and your program:

• Establish a daily, visible schedule
• Provide clear, predictable routines and schedule and explain any changes to the schedule beforehand
• Create a pleasing desk arrangement
• Place fewer materials on shelves to allow children to focus and not be overwhelmed
• Create a community meeting time (this could allow for check-in with children and a time to practice deep breathing and guided imagery, for example)
• Provide nurturing, dependable, supportive interactions
• Give clear ‘rules’ and expectations for behavior and respond consistently to behavior
• Avoid heavily scented cleaners and perfumes
• Favor soft, calming music, instrumentals, or sounds of nature
• Avoid posters or pictures with visually overwhelming or unpleasant graphics

Additionally, trauma-informed programs are culturally responsive and consider the specific needs of families and the program community. Use these suggestions to ensure you interact with families and community members in a culturally responsive manner:

• Include family perspectives that reflect your community diversity when making program decisions
• Ask for feedback from the program community about the cultural responsiveness of the program and staff
• Use a strengths-based manner when speaking about children and families
• Recognize that families may have different values and goals for their children than what you have in mind
• Reflect on your own emotional needs and cultural norms that influence your perceptions of children’s and families’ behavior