What Are The Six Risk Factors Indicating Trauma?
Where Does Trauma Originate? What are the Six Risk Factors for Trauma?
Where does trauma originate?
How do I know if my child has experienced trauma?
There are six risk factors that are indicators of trauma. Find them here!
“A scar is evidence of a wound, but also evidence that we can heal.”- Scott McClellan
I didn’t think it would be this hard.
My child’s behaviors are out of control.
He got kicked off the school bus AGAIN.
He keeps punching kids in line.
The whole house is like a war zone.
I thought I could do this, but I don’t know if I can. It’s just too hard.
I’ve heard these statements along with pleas for help from countless parents. I have offered to come into the home and do some observation, as well as get some parenting tools that work into the hands of the parents. It seems as if every time, the parent says, “Oh, he/she is so manipulative, I don’t know.” As if the child will pull the wool over my eyes or their situation is so unique, so individual that I won’t be able to grasp it. It is this pit of “aloneness” that foster and adoptive parents feel. No one else struggles like you. Nobody understands. We adoptive/foster parents may feel as if we have slipped an Alfred Hitchcock are captives who will never escape. To move forward with understanding, we must first have knowledge. The first bit of knowledge we need is about behavior. If we can grasp this first:
Every behavior is a need inappropriately expressed.
Then we can move into the science of trauma with more understanding. Our kiddos are not ALWAYS just trying to push our buttons. There is a reason they behave the way they do. That reason is trauma.
Foster/Adopted/Capital Letter children have had trauma in their lives. Trauma changes the neurochemistry of the brain in these children.
At this point, you may be wondering – where did this trauma come from? What creates trauma? What are the risk factors for trauma? In adoption/foster circles we hear the phrase “children from hard places” to explain kiddos who have experienced trauma. As Ryan North, Executive Director of Tapestry Ministries, reminds us, this is not a geographical location and may I add, not a socioeconomic one either. Everyone is at risk for trauma.
As explained in The Connected Child, there are six primary risk factors that characterize children from hard places:
- Prenatal stress and harm-over 80% of children adopted/foster care have been exposed to drugs or alcohol. A woman highly stressed during pregnancy had elevated levels of cortisol. Cortisol crosses the placenta, alters the brain’s structure, and damages the immune system. (This is just one example of prenatal stress).
- Difficult labor or birth.
- Early medical trauma – hospital stay, surgery, etc.
- Trauma- a house fire, natural disaster, auto accident, death of a parent, or fill-in-the-blank.
- Neglect- teaches the belief – “You don’t exist.”
- Abuse – teaches the belief – “You don’t matter.”
*This is a skeletal list. You can find more information by listening to the podcast linked below.
Review of Five things impacted by early trauma (any one of the six risk factors).
- Brain- altered brain development, an overactive amygdala. It’s as if the child is chased by a bear all the time. Our experiences shape the connections in our brains. This is the Hebbian principle- what fires together wires together.
- Biology- Neurochemistry is altered. Hormones altered. Serotonin is often low. Dopamine is low or high. Some young children who have experienced trauma have the adrenals of a ninety-year-old.
- Body- Learning delays, developmental delays, and sensory issues
- Beliefs- What’s one firmly held belief that you have? What would it take you to change that belief? Kids from with trauma histories often believe: People don’t love me because I’m not worthy. If I was worth something, people won’t treat me this way. Everyone leaves.
- Behavior – Regulation – A child with a trauma history or a Capital Letter Syndrome* has difficulty regulating because he has not had the natural progression of regulation followed by co-regulation. Remember, a behavior is a need inappropriately expressed. Fight, Flight, Freeze mode is often what kids from hard places get stuck in.
Grab your reference guides
Need some science based trauma-informed reference guides? Then this is for you -How Trauma Affects Your Kiddos, Six Risk Factors for Trauma, The IDEAL Parenting Approach, and the “Instead Of”Tips – Parenting tips to use instead of traditional parenting for a more connected approach.
Grab these references for yourself and share with family, teachers, Sunday school teachers, and anyone who works with your kiddos. You’ll no longer struggle with explaining your parenting with these handy guides to help you.
Processing the Six Risk Factors and The Five Bs Affected by Trauma
I’ve given you a lot of information in this short educational article. If all of this is new and overwhelming to you, take a deep breath. It’s okay. You don’t have to understand or absorb it all right now. Think of it as information and confirmation if you saw yourself in the Six Risk Factors or if you recognize the effects of trauma in the Five Bs (in your life and your kiddos). I get it. It’s a lot to process.
Avoid Wearing the Garment of Guilt
Hubby and I were just talking about when we first learned about the Six Risk Factors and The Five BS. When hubby and I first encountered the science of trauma, it was as if a light was suddenly turned on in a dark room – immediately followed by the sledgehammer of guilt for the way we had been parenting. May I encourage you to NOT wear the guilt as a garment? If you messed up because you didn’t know anything about the science of trauma, ask for forgiveness, and move on.
Be An Impartial Observer For A Season
Maybe you could observe yourself and your kiddos as an onlooker would—an impartial observer without all the FEELINGS. From here you can begin to learn about yourself and your family. May I suggest one more thing before I close this article let me just say I’m preaching to myself here, or as we say in this house, preaching to the Guire. Don’t try to fix everything at once. I’m sooo guilty of that. As soon as I learned the science, I wanted to do EVERYTHING right. It’s not going to work that way.
Review the Material. Let it Soak In
Take some time and let the material soak in. Listen to the podcast, and reread the other articles in the Trauma-Informed Parenting Beginner Bundle. Listen to the podcasts associated with each piece before you move on to the Trauma-Informed Parenting Experienced Bundle. Most important of all, ask the Lord to guide you in reframing your thoughts toward yourself and your child as it pertains to trauma.
* Capital Letter Syndromes- FASD, ADD, ADHD, SPD, ASD, Dyslexia, etc.
Conclusion
This article is packed full of bite-sized bits of information. Be careful not to overwhelm yourself by hyper-focusing on the six risk factors and five Bs and get stuck. This article is meant to inform, not shame. Read through the information, and listen to the podcast, as an impartial observer. Then whichever risk factors apply to you, take some time to revisit them via journaling. Finally, decide to proactively parent and work on one new practice at a time with the risk factors and five Bs in mind.
Other Helpful Resources:
3 Things You Need To Know About Felt Safety
5 Helpful Practices for Dealing With Compassion Fatigue
Traditional parenting (old-school) versus connected parenting