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ANALYSING THE NEEDS OF TRAUMATISED CHILDREN

Written By

Kate Cairns

Learning Outcomes

To achieve this unit a learner must:

1. Design a method or tool to enable you to analyse the needs of a traumatised child
2. Revise the method or tool you have designed to include an analysis of needs relating to unmet infant attachment needs
3. Produce an integrated system for analysing the needs of traumatised children that takes account of attachment and resilience
4. Evaluate the system you have designed

Content and Structure

MODULE 1

The needs of a traumatised child

The need for stabilisation

• Traumatic stress as critical systemic loss of stability
• Effects of traumatic stress on brain and body: stress regulation; creation of language and meaning; empathy; mood regulation; impulse regulation; memory; physiology; physical health; emotional well-being; social competence; capacity for joy
• Stabilisation as the first phase of recovery from disorder: safety; learning about trauma; relearning words for feelings

The need for integration

• The disintegrative impact of traumatic experience
• Shattered assumptions: loss of core cognitive schemas after traumatic stress
• Integration as the second phase of recovery from disorder: physiological self-management; emotional processing; cognitive restructuring

The need for adaptation

• Trauma and transformation: radical changes in personal and social functioning after trauma
• The power of traumatic identity: why children may resist recovery
• The human ecology of trauma: post traumatic disorders as a social phenomenon
• Adaptation as the third phase of recovery from disorder: establishing social connectedness; building self-esteem; recovering the joy of living

MODULE 2

Unmet infant attachment needs

Long-term effects of unmet infant attachment needs

• The need for claiming: impairments and distortions in attention, bonding, control and dependency
• The need for stress regulation: impairments and distortions in stimulation, relaxation and self-regulation
• The need for affective attunement: impairments and distortions in emotional and social functioning
• The need for impulse regulation: impairments and distortions in behaviour management and moral accountability
• The need for shame regulation: impairments and distortions in social responsibility and learning
• The need for management of rage: impairments and distortions in self-regulation of anger and aggression
• The need for pre-cognitive patterning: impairments and distortions in the making of meaning

Effects of traumatic experience in children with unmet attachment needs

• Increased vulnerability to trauma of children with unmet attachment needs
• Chaotic unpredictability of outcome: children may be more vulnerable or differently vulnerable to disorder after traumatic stress
• Long term mental health issues for children with complex needs

Allowing for complexity in modelling need

• Recreating the attachment process throughout the three phases of recovery from disorders after trauma
• Stabilisation: claiming, stress regulation and affective attunement
• Integration: emotional processing in regulating impulse, managing shame and managing rage; cognitive restructuring in creating patterns of meaning
• Adaptation: exploring social connectedness; building a sense of self; establishing the experience of joy in living

MODULE 3

The needs of traumatised children: attachment and resilience

Resilience, vulnerability and the ecology of human development

• Defining resilience and vulnerability
• Systemic factors in the development of resilience
• Ecological mapping of need in relation to traumatised children

Domains of resilience

• Secure base: assessing security and the quality of attachments
• Education: assessing educational development, attainment and opportunities
• Friendships: assessing sociability and social support
• Talents and interests: assessing existing activities and opportunities for development
• Positive values: assessing moral reasoning, understanding other perspectives and caring for others
• Social competencies: assessing autonomy, self- control, temperament, self-efficacy and attention

Increasing complexity in the analysis of need

• Resilience and vulnerability as dynamic factors affecting recovery from disorder after trauma
• Stabilisation: secure base; education
• Integration: secure base; education; positive values; social competencies
• Adaptation: all domains

This material provides a notional 30 hours of learning.

Level: 4

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