How can you help a child who has experienced trauma?

“You don’t have to fix what’s wrong with them, you just have to make sure they aren’t alone,” presenter and certified trauma trainer Josh Varner said.

Park County School District 1 members, Powell High School Childhood Development students and Big Brother Big Sister members gathered Wednesday night at the Special Services Building to learn about child trauma and how to best work with and care for children with trauma.

The Trauma Informed Care presentation focused on teaching the audience about child trauma, tools to implement when working with a child impacted by trauma and strategies that can make an impact in a child’s life.

Varner said one-eighth of the population have an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) score higher than four which indicates a high level of trauma, while 67% of the population have an ACE score of at least one, which means they have had at least one traumatic childhood experience.

The Childhood Development students originally were in attendance to provide child care to parents attending the event. When no supervision was needed they joined the audience at the suggestion of their teacher Kandi Bennett.

“It was really good to hear because I want to go into that for my career,” sophomore Kendal Eden said. “And all the information was really good. Learning about being compassionate, about not taking things personal, I think was a big takeaway.”

During the presentation Varner explained that disregulated kids need co-regulation, meaning that if someone can recognize a child’s triggers they can help the child cope with or remove the triggers. An easy method to remember to help a child co-regulate is relax, reconnect and reteach.

Examples of techniques that can be used with a child are as simple as smiling, listening and validating and remaining calm. Varner said that calm creates calm and chaos creates chaos.

Some of Bennett’s students in attendance, like Eden, are taking the class and participating in extracurricular activities like providing child care in the community or attending the Trauma Informed Care class because they have an interest in working with children in the future. Junior Elle Wilson, who was also in attendance, hopes to be a third grade teacher — the presentation helped her understand how to work with children who may require extra help.

“You can’t fix the problem, you can just help them, not the problem,” Wilson said.