Resources for Parents

Resources for Parents

Children come to school with different backgrounds, knowledge, language, and literacy skills that were learned at home from parents. Parents are instrumental in fostering a nurturing and safe environment for their children in order to build healthy relationships at home, and with others at school including the teacher and their peers. When children have experienced trauma, it is important to teach children coping strategies in order to be successful at school, behaviorally and academically. As a parent, communicating with children in a calm manner when they are acting out can be difficult. Parenting is hard, so where should parents turn when they don’t know how to help their children with these skills? We have collected a variety of resources on this blog dedicated to helping parents learn how to help their children cope with traumatic events, and build literacy skills in the process.

Websites

• MAKE YOUR HOME TRAUMA-INFORMED

This website was created by Cornerstones of Care, an organization that provides families and children a variety of support options for dealing with trauma. The website includes links to their blog as well as their podcast, both of which revolve around topics such as creating a trauma-informed home as well as suggestions of things to do from home. Though much of the website is focused on in person care and therapy in the Kansas area, there are a variety of resources for anyone. 

• Helping Children Cope With Trauma
  This website is developed by the Child Mind Institute, a group that performs educational and clinical research and provides resources to educators and families. This resource provides information about coping skills, tips for helping children after a traumatic event, recovery tips for children. Another benefit of this resource is that information is provided for specific age groups, what teachers can do, and signs of trauma in children and adolescents. Strengths include this being a free resource for parents, assuming they have internet access. The information is concise and to the point, making it straightforward and easy to understand. Drawbacks include researchers focusing on advice for parents of children who have experienced the death of someone close to them. Other resources would need to be provided for other traumatic events. 

• Top 10 Resources on Early Literacy Development
  The article above is a collection of ten resources that are linked to other websites based on what interests the reader, or what they need assistance with for their child. Resources collected include developmental milestones for speech, language, and reading abilities, reading and advocacy tips for parents, a screening tool for readers, as well as research based strategies for developing language and pre-reading skills in young children. Strengths include all of the resources linked being free resources. There is a mix of videos, articles, and a podcast in order to reach all parents, assuming access possibilities. These resources are primarily for parents of children who haven’t yet entered school, so a drawback would be that they aren’t timely for children who are already in school. Another drawback is that these aren’t specifically for children who have experienced trauma in their lives. However, the pre-school resources and experiences that can be provided would be considered stabilizing events in order to prevent trauma and inspire a love of learning and reading. 

• Traumatic Experiences | Sesame Street in Communities
  This website provides resources for a wide variety of traumatic experiences that children have undergone. Sesame Street in Communities is an easy to use website that has a search feature to find information for what individuals need to understand more about. A definite strength includes there is a mix of resources including activities, videos, and articles that can be saved to a list of favorites on a free profile that can be set up in a matter of minutes. Drawbacks include a lack of resources available to children 7-10 years of age, even though the age level is included on the search feature of the website.

• Nine Tips for Talking to Kids about Trauma | Greater Good Magazine
  Comfort and communication ideas for parents to talk to their children in a meaningful way after a tragedy has struck can be found on this website. This resource provides easy to recall communication tips when a child is in disbelief, or can’t understand why the situation has happened. For parents it may be difficult to understand the right way to initiate the conversation in order to provide insight and attempt to comfort their child. A strength found on this site are clarifying questions parents can ask their child to try and understand them, and keep a dialogue open. Parents can also learn the boundaries of sharing their feelings with their child, and how to reassure that everything will be okay. A drawback that is mentioned with these tips, is that parental concerns about the situation in question may provide the child with new stressors they hadn’t previously considered. 

• Supporting Your Child's Reading at Home
  This resource comes from the Regional Educational Laboratory Program at Florida State University. The site has compiled reading tips for parents to implement with their children at home in order to further their literacy skills. A benefit is that it is organized by grade level, from kindergarten to third grade in how to support their foundational reading skills. There are activities as well as videos for each recommendation provided so parents can see a modeled example of how they can work with their child. A drawback to this site is that it isn’t centered on children of trauma. However, these foundational reading skills would be helpful for parents to connect to their child and demonstrate the importance of reading and build resiliency.

Blogs

• Social-Emotional Activities for Home

This blog is written to provide teachers and parents with information and resources about helping students develop social and emotional skills. Much of the blog is directed toward teachers, however the post linked above provides multiple ideas of activities to do at home to support a child’s emotional health. These skills are incredibly important for children who have experienced trauma. The blog itself is a little muddled with links to the author’s other sites. However, there is some wonderful information in her blog entries. 

Videos

• What is trauma? How do we help children who experience trauma?
  The video explains what trauma is, how it affects children at home, what some of the challenging behaviors a parent would notice are, and how to help the situation. A benefit of this resource is the explanation of when a child acts out, it is their way of communicating what they are feeling when they can’t put it into words. She provides information about how to not take the behaviors personally and how to model specific coping strategies for the child. It would have been beneficial to explain how to connect with the child on a deeper level. However, she does provide links to a coping toolkit and other videos that model for parents some of these skills. 

Books:

De Thierry, B. (2016). The simple guide to child trauma. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.  

The Simple Guide to Child Trauma (Simple Guides): de Thierry, Betsy: 9781785921360

• This book was written for parents or other adults caring for children who have experienced trauma. It provides information on understanding emotional and behavioral responses to trauma. It also gives simple, and straightforward strategies to help support the growth of these children. Since it is a published book, this is not a free resource. On Amazon it can be found for $15.

Podcasts

• The Pandemic Parenting Podcast
  This podcast is a collaborative platform created by psychologists, moms, and scholars to share science-based information about supporting children in communicating emotional needs. The multiple perspectives provide wonderful insight into the challenges faced at home by families dealing with trauma or emotional distress. The speaker in each episode brings research or experience based expertise to the audience. The website links directly to multiple media sources where the podcast is available. It also shows the most recent episodes along with a summary. It would be nice if it showed an entire episode list on the website itself. 

Supporting your child who has experienced trauma can be an incredibly arduous task. As explored in our previous posts, the effects of trauma can impact not only a child’s emotional health, but their social skills and academics as well. The resources listed above are just a few simple ideas to help parents and families begin to create a trauma-informed home. Through a supportive home environment, children who have experienced trauma can build the tools necessary to find success. In our next post, we will provide a variety of strategies for teachers to use in the classroom to support children who have experienced trauma.