Reaching & Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma

by Barbara Sorrels

What does a harmed child look like? It’s the little girl on the playground who has mysterious bruises on her legs. It’s the three-month-old baby boy who arches his back when you try to hold him. It’s the four-year-old who bites and hits when asked to clean up. These are the faces of traumatized children. As an early childhood professional, you play a key role in the early identification of maltreatment and unhealthy patterns of development. You are also the gateway to healing. In Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma, you will find the tools and strategies to connect with harmed children and start them on the path to healing.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Psychology

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Kari Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This needs to be required reading for anyone teaching young children who have been exposed to trauma. It goes into understanding trauma, a child’s reactions to trauma, and gives real life activities and even classroom setup to help heal.

[Alana Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing and Dr. Sorrels lays out what many teachers and other leaders who work in public-facing roles with children and teens need to know. Our culture is full of those facing trauma and we have to be equipped to better respond to behaviors and attitudes when they are coming from a place of past or current trauma. This book is organized by age and described many, many activities and points of intervention that can be used to help a child recover what developmental stages they lost due to regression and help them connect and begin to thrive. I recommend this book to all first year teachers.

[Allie Genia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book. I picked this up at the National Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference, and it's been an excellent read. In terms of helping me to understand how trauma can affect children's behavior and how we can help them develop more effective behaviors, this book is a winner. Granted, this was also my first exposure to trauma-informed education, but I think that I'm at a good start.

[Vic S-F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, lucid, full of tools and strategies that I think about all the time, for children dealing with any number of challenges. It is almost entirely geared toward ages birth to five years, and I'd eagerly pick up a sequel for older students.

[Janine Darragh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid resource for teachers and care givers of children who have experienced trauma. I felt like it was heavy on the very early years, but that's my only complaint :)

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for those working with young children!!