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© 2005 Jordan Institute
for Families

Vol. 10, No. 3
June 2005

Preventing PTSD in Children

Adapted from Goodman, 2002

Parental support influences how well children cope after a traumatic event. Birth, foster, and adoptive parents, kin caregivers, and professionals can help children by:

  • Providing a strong supportive presence

  • Modeling and managing their own expression of feelings and coping

  • Establishing routines with flexibility

  • Accepting children’s regressed behaviors while encouraging and supporting a return to age-appropriate activity

  • Helping children use familiar coping strategies

  • Helping children share in maintaining their safety

  • Allowing children to tell their story in words, play, or pictures to acknowledge and normalize their experience

  • Discussing what to do or what has been done to prevent the event from recurring

  • Maintaining a stable, familiar environment

References for this and other articles in this issue