TRAUMA, DEVELOPMENT, AND SPIRITUALITY 1
Trauma, Development, and Spirituality in Toddlerhood and Preschool Age
Taylor Davis
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
Trauma, Development, and Spirituality in Toddlerhood and Preschool Age
Trauma can come in many forms at many times throughout an individual’s life. The
American Counseling Association (2024) defines trauma as “a strong emotional response to
distressing events”. Traumatic events can have both short term and long-term impacts on
development in any stage of life. Young children are remarkably impressionable in both a
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positive and negative manner. This extends to the impression that trauma can leave on their life.
Spirituality also has an impact on trauma in both a positive and negative manner.
Trauma and Resilience
Toddlerhood
Toddlers are generally categorized as age one to three years old (Wong et al., 2021). This
age group is met with numerous developmental milestones, including development of speech,
mobility, cognitive processes, and formation of relationships. With such an impactful season of
development, research has shown that trauma has significant effects on a toddler (Cohen &
Shulman, 2017). While some symptoms mirror posttraumatic stress disorder, others do not
(Cohen & Shulman, 2017).
When toddlers experience trauma, the event can cause changes in the child in every
aspect of their development. The toddler may begin to cling to a parent more than they used to,
become more timid, or have more emotional outbursts than their average peer (De Bellis & Zisk,
2014). The child can also experience developmental regression. For example, if a toddler was
potty trained, they may revert to bed wetting post-trauma (De Bellis & Zisk, 2014). The child
may also revert from walking to crawling or even have disruption in sleep cycles (Cohen &
Shulman, 2017).
Preschool
The preschool age is recognized as ages three to six years old (Wong et al., 2021).
Children this age are often beginning their educational career, developing interpersonal
relationships, and learning skills such as riding a bike. Trauma impacts preschool aged children
dramatically. While effects of trauma on this age group seem to mirror the toddler age group,
there are significant differences.
Trauma can be seen in every aspect of the preschooler’s life. The child may develop
learning difficulties, such as problems with language development or trouble focusing (De Bellis
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& Zisk, 2014). Preschoolers could also have a hard time anticipating consequences and
processing information due to post-traumatic cognitive changes (Wong et al., 2014). Depending
on the traumatic situation, preschoolers may start having nightmares. They could also begin to
change their behavior to exhibit more temper tantrums and aggression.
Resilience
An important aspect to trauma is the development of resiliency. Masten and Barnes
(2018) describes resiliency as “the capacity of a system to adapt successfully to challenges that
threaten the function, survival, or future development of the system” (p. 1). This process can
happen before or after a significant event. Preventative interventions can be conducted in
regular stages of development, as a result of adversity, or a combination of the two (Masten &
Barnes, 2018).
If resilience is developed before a traumatic event, the child is more likely to respond to
the trauma in a healthy way (Wong et al., 2021). There are multiple ways it can be developed
including counseling, parent training, school-based interventions, and community-based
interventions (Wong et al., 2021). If a child experiences trauma without the prior development
of resilience, research shows that interventions that promote executive function in preschool
aged children has a positive impact on academic success post-trauma (Masten & Barnes, 2018).
Processing trauma aids in the development of resiliency.
Spirituality
Effects on Trauma
Spirituality infiltrates every aspect of life. This includes pain and trauma. When religious
individuals experience trauma or any kind of adverse event, they often turn to higher powers for
comfort (Seremet, 2023). By allowing processing of trauma to happen through a spiritual lens,
an individual can grow in their faith and trust (Seremet, 2023). Sometimes, however, people can
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feel angry at God for not preventing the trauma. This can cause regression in and retreat from
spirituality and religion.
Addressing spirituality and religious components of trauma in a professional counseling
session must be done ethically according to the ACA Code of Ethics. If the client expresses that
religion and spirituality is an important part of their life, the post-trauma victim could benefit
from including such topics in their counseling sessions. Seremet (2023) suggests that spirituality
and religion “represent potential sources of support and inner strength for victims” (p.14). As an
individual grows in their faith, they learn to rely on the higher power when things happen that
feel unmanageable. Research has concluded that posttraumatic stress symptoms in war
veterans were diminished when positive religious coping was present (Seremet, 2023).
Adversely, war veterans that partake in negative religious coping had more symptoms of moral
injury (Seremet, 2023). Engaging in positive spirituality and religion encourages healing in
posttrauma victims.
Conclusion
Trauma affects individuals of all ages and developments. When a toddler or preschooler
encounters trauma, it can have lasting developmental effects. While many of these can be
combatted with intervention counseling, some symptoms require modeling and relearning
certain skills. Positive spirituality and religion have been proven to aid individuals in healing
after trauma. Further studies could be conducted to determine what kinds of childhood trauma
produce which age specific symptoms, if any. Additionally, conducting a study to show which
religions offer the highest level of traumatic healing would give further insight to spirituality and
faith.
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References
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