What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

by Bruce D. Perry

Now envision this child entering a preschool environment with expectations, transitions, rules, and curricula designed for the typical five-year-old. A developmentally uninformed, trauma-unaware setting will expect this child to “act” typical. But that is impossible for the child. The day will be filled with communication difficulties (due to their language development) and intense frustration (due to their self-regulation capabilities). In this overwhelmingly distressing situation, they will shut down or blow up. Either way, they don’t get the full benefit of the social, emotional, or academic learning. They fall further behind. They may be kicked out. More children are expelled from school in pre-K than at any other grade level; children of color, especially boys of color, are expelled at rates three times higher than white children.