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Trauma-Informed and Responsive (TIR) Early Childhood Programs

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This Q&A describes trauma informed and responsive (TIR) early childhood programs, and the underlying principles that guide them.

What is “trauma”?

Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident or natural disaster. A traumatic event threatens a person’s ability to survive or to remain healthy and unhurt.  

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) identifies three factors relevant to understanding trauma: event, experience, and effect.  

  1. Event – Traumatic events may be one-time (e.g., natural disaster, death of a loved one) or ongoing (e.g., war, addiction).  Negative treatment based on race, gender, religion, or other aspect of identity can be traumatic. Historical trauma such as racial discrimination can affect families across generations. 
  2. Experience – How is the child involved in the event? Does it happen to them directly, do they witness it, or do they hear that it happened to a loved one? Humans have biological responses (fight,flight,freeze) that help them survive threatening situations. Which response did the child have? Were they overpowered, or could they get help? The child’s age and the presence of support affect their experience.

Something Happened: Understanding Extreme Stress and Trauma in Young Children provides information about adverse experiences young children may have. 

  1. Effect – How does the traumatic situation affect the child? Exposure to traumatic events can impair children’s brain development and their mental and emotional health. The effect on the child is often evident in their behavior.  

What is “trauma informed” or “trauma responsive”?

  • Trauma-informed – refers to the work of individuals (such as teachers, caregivers, directors)  
  • Trauma-responsive – refers to how organizations address the issues involved in serving traumatized people 
  • Trauma-informed and responsive (or TIR) – refers to programs that build policies and practices on an understanding of trauma and its impact on individuals and communities. TIR early childhood programs are committed to promoting the growth and well-being of all children and their families, including those who have experienced trauma.  

Becoming Trauma Responsive provides a deeper look at trauma-informed and responsive programs. 

Fortunately, measures that help children who have experienced trauma also benefit those who have not! 

What principles guide trauma-informed and responsive (TIR) programs?

Policies and practices of a TIR program are based on research into what children need for healing from adverse experiences.  

As explained in the Framework for Trauma-Informed and Responsive Organizations, five principles guide policy and practice in trauma-responsive programs serving children: 

  • Physical and psychological safety 
  • Transparency and trust 
  • Empowerment, voice, and choice 
  • Equity, anti-bias, and cultural affirmation 
  • Healthy relationships and interactions  

What are some ways trauma-informed and responsive programs address their five guiding principles?

Principle 1: Physical and psychological safety

Trauma makes people feel profoundly vulnerable even after the event is over. They may feel unsafe in spaces with a lot of movement, noise, and “loose parts”, such as early childhood classrooms. In TIR programs, classrooms should have a feeling of order without being restrictive. Predictable schedules, consistent staffing, and explanations ahead of time when something new is planned can all be reassuring to children who have experienced trauma.

Less is More: Finding Peace in Your Organized Classroom offers information for professionals seeking to create a sense of safety and comfort.  

Clear communication with children and families about security and safety is essential. For example, children exposed to community violence or family abuse may need assurance that their school is safe from weapons, drugs, and suspected abuse perpetrators. Security and safety measures such as fire drills and lockdown practice should be easy to understand, and presented in ways that don’t re-traumatize children. For example, a teacher might alert their class that the fire alarm sound will be horrible, and help them brainstorm ways to deal with it. This approach avoids singling out a traumatized child, and empowers them to manage their reaction.

After “Something Happened”: Responding to Trauma in Young Children provides suggestions for working with children who have experienced trauma. 

To help all children feel safe and socially competent, TIR programs teach conflict resolution procedures; cooperative interactions; and ways to stand up to bias, bullying, and aggression. This can support resilience, and counteract feelings of being helpless and alone. Traumatized children need recognition that they “belong” in their classroom community.  

Principle 2: Transparency and trust

TIR programs strive to maintain mutually trusting relationships with children and families. Trust is complex in education settings. Young children who experienced trauma may find it hard to trust others, particularly adults. Yet, they thrive on relationships with adults who treat them with respect. They need adults to be competent at caring for them, and to follow through on their commitments.  

Families may also have trouble trusting school authorities. Staff members of TIR programs recognize the power imbalance in relations between families and education programs, which can affect trust and complicate efforts to work with children who have experienced trauma.

Information about relational trust in education settings can be found in Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform.

Building Partnerships: Guide to Developing Relationships with Families describes how cultural differences can affect program-family relationships.  

Transparency refers to honesty about goals and actions. Clear classroom rules help children know what adults expect of them. Similarly, families need to understand program goals, policies and practices. They need to see actions that work for all involved. For example, communication with a family in their home language sounds ideal. But if the staff uses a translation app instead of a fluent interpreter, they can miss important details about children’s well-being.  

Principle 3: Empowerment, voice, and choice

Trauma involves feelings of powerlessness. Trauma-informed and responsive curriculum emphasizes empowerment-focused experiences, such as class meetings where children have a voice in decisions about what happens in the classroom, ranging from “How should we treat each other?” to “What songs should we sing today?”.  

Some teachers amplify children’s voices by encouraging them to dictate stories they make up to an adult, who then reads them aloud to the whole class. Classmates can be invited to act out a story, enhancing a child’s sense of having a place in the classroom community.  

All children should learn to make choices, but children who have been traumatized may find it hard to choose among many options. Teachers can limit options at first, and eventually expand to a wider field of choices. Open-ended play materials such as paint, “dress-up” materials, and dolls can foster autonomous choices during play.   

Trauma-informed and responsive programs use curriculum as a tool for children to process something that happened to them, helping them connect difficult experiences to a safer “here and now.”

Project Katrina illustrates how a Project Approach investigation built upon children’s experience of a hurricane, encouraging them to experiment with the power of wind and water, investigate what makes sturdy structures, and talk with rescue workers about staying safe in a disaster.  

Principle 4: Equity, anti-bias efforts, and cultural affirmation

Power inequities between programs and families are strong in populations with histories of “difference.” This includes people living in poverty, recent immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, people who are homeless, and people with disabilities. TIR programs have concrete commitments to equity, anti-bias efforts, and affirming diverse cultures.  

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy statements are important, but actions that reflect DEI matter even more in a TIR program. Families notice inconsistency. For example, program events should take into account religious and cultural calendars. A TIR program would not schedule “Eat Lunch with Your Child Day” during Ramadan, if Muslim families would be affected.  

Children’s books are a vital part of anti-bias and cultural affirmation efforts. Children need to “see themselves” in books. Teachers can choose books that reflect a range of family structures; a variety of people with disabilities; and the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious groups represented in the community. Books in the home languages of all families in the program are an asset.  

Children who have experienced trauma may feel “seen” when they hear stories about trauma, healing, and resilience. They, like other children, are also likely to enjoy funny fantasy books, stories about favorite characters, or informational books about interesting topics.  

TIR programs can put diversity/equity/inclusion commitments into action by hiring well-qualified staff whose identities reflect those in the wider community. 

Principle 5: Healthy relationships and interactions

Children who have been traumatized may have difficulty establishing healthy relationships with others. They need to see adults modeling respectful, caring relationships with children, families, and colleagues. They need to know that adults see them as capable and competent. Trauma may occupy space in a child’s life, but it’s not their entire identity. They need to interact with the world around them, and find activities and people that interest them.  

In TIR programs, decisions about children’s challenging behaviors, for example, are based on understanding the effects of trauma on individual children. Trauma may have altered their ability to act in ways that others take for granted. Trauma-informed and responsive guidance may be flexible (such as letting a child sit apart from the group during story time). Teachers in TIR programs take a “firm but friendly” approach to setting limits on some behaviors, making clear that children may not hurt themselves, hurt or threaten others, or damage classroom materials.  

The Impact of Trauma on the Lives of Young Children (Part 1) and The Impact of Trauma on the Lives of Young Children (Part 2) provide examples of ways program staff can accommodate children who have experienced trauma. 

Adults in a trauma-informed and responsive program may never learn what the traumatizing event was or how the child was involved. They cannot save the child from what already happened. They may never be sure whether anything traumatic did happen to a child, though they may see many behavioral clues. Adults can apply their concern and what they know of child development and the nature of trauma, to provide an environment where children can function and heal to the best of their ability. The roles of investigation and treatment belong to other trauma-informed and responsive professionals.  

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About this resource

Setting(s) for which the article is intended:
  • Home
  • Family Child Care
  • Child Care Center
  • Preschool Program

Intended audience(s):
  • Parents / Family
  • Teachers / Service providers

Age Levels (the age of the children to whom the article applies):
Reviewed: 2024