Psycho-education- Why do we provide psychoeducation to children who have been traumatized?
Goals
To normalize responses to trauma
To reinforce accurate cognitions
Challenges
Children with developmental disabilities have:
poor comprehension and retention
decreased capacity for generalization- black and white thinkers
fixations or special interests
limited attention spans
Skills
use visuals to illustrate concepts and aid in communication
use favorite characters, cartoons, puppets, figurines, sand play, and dollhouses to create stories and metaphor
use active play and games to engage and maintain attention
o What Do You Know Game? (CARES Institute, 2006)
Bibliotherapy
o A Terrible Thing Happened (Holmes & Mudlaff, 2000)
Grosso, C. (2012) Children with developmental disabilities. In J.A. Cohen, A.P. Mannarino, E. Deblinger (Eds.), Trauma focused cbt for children and adolescents (pp. 149-174). NY: Guildford.