Daily interactions and managing young children’s experience of trauma and disruption

In this Guide a number of activities are designed to help children become resilient in what is a traumatic situation for the adults around them as well as the children themselves.

The activities are intended to:

 -  Foster security in the establishment of relationships with others (adults and children). It is most important that the child has a carer who is their key contact person rather than a child being looked after by a group of adults without one in particular having responsibility for the child. This emotional security allows the child to be open to new experiences and to learn.

 -  Develop collaboration, social skills, language, physical and mental development through games. turn-taking, sharing, joining in as well as songs and rhymes developing their language and explaining the world around them.

Activities which may help a child understand the changes they have experienced include:

- Story telling: the adult starts a story perhaps about what has been happening and the child finishes it.

- Songs and rhymes which explain everyday life and develop skills – see  below on types of play.

- Role play: with models perhaps made from clay or stones or sticks, or with everyone in a group playing a role in a story. This can act as a way of giving the child understanding of what has happened and how life is going to be now.

- Physical activity developing muscles in the arms and legs as well as fingers and hands.