Working With Traumatised Children - Child Safety Commissioner

Hi Everyone,

Sadly, I have been in the position of working with many traumatised children over the course of my teaching career. Unfortunately, those days are by no means over.

Such trauma may have been caused by war, or the more common experience of growing up neglected and abused.

Many young people grow up well in spite of their traumatic experiences while many others end up in our child protection and care, justice and mental health systems.

It is clear that children who have experienced trauma are impacted physically, cognitively, developmentally, socially and emotionally. Many are so consumed by the impact of their traumatic experiences that their ability to learn is severely compromised.

It can be difficult for teaching and support staff to understand why some students behave in ways which undermine their own health and freedom.

The Child Safety Commissioner has released some excellent, free resources to assist school staff in developing best practice strategies to assist children impacted by trauma. These can be ordered as hard copy texts or printed out in PDF format.

I have just finished reading Laura Downey's 'From Isolation to Connection - A guide to understanding and working with traumatised children and young people' . It is a fantastic, free resource.

I would also advise you to look at some of the other excellent resources on the site which can be ordered or downloaded for free. Just click on the name of the document to download.

Otherwise, visit the Office of the Child Safety Commissioner website to access a range of excellent resources on a whole range of health and child safety topics.

Download These Resources:

From Isolation to Connection - A guide to understanding and working with traumatised children and young people.

Calmer Classrooms

Great Expectations - Supporting Children in Out of Home Care

Wise Up. Indentify Child Sexual Abuse