What are signs of PTSD in children?

If children experience symptoms that interfere with their ability to do their job as a kid, they may be affected by PTSD. HealthMaker Jamie Howard, PhD, psychologist at Child Mind Institute, details the specific signs to look for following a trauma.

Transcript

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So what we want to look for is something we call functional

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impairment, and that means that kids jobs as being kids has been impaired, so kids jobs are to go

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to school and to learn and to do the best they can. Their jobs are to make and keep friends to love their families and to engage

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in activities that they enjoy and to keep doing that. And if they are experiencing symptoms that are interfering with their jobs as

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kids, that's when we want to apply a treatment to help them to recover.

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Some things that we see are avoidance of people, places or things that remind them of the traumatic event, so

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for example if there was community violence and there was a shooting in a nearby park. The child might not want to go to that park anymore.

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So that would be interfering with their job as a kid go there to have fun to play with friends and it's also avoidance.

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So that is considered a symptom of post traumatic stress disorder and something we'd want to work with to encourage the child to go back and to face the park

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and to recognize that that was an isolated incident and that the child is generally safe. That's providing that the child

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is safe and that that playground is safe. So we want to look at the duration, the intensity and the impact on daily living.

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So if it's gone on for several weeks if it's so intense that it's hard to get out the door in the morning to go to school and if they

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are just not seeming like themselves, they are withdrawn, they are not spending time with their friends, they are not engaging in activities that they used to enjoy, that's when

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we want to get concerned and get them connected into a mental healthcare provider.