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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