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Journal of Child and Family Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4, December 2003 (C© 2003), pp. 487–489

Video Review

Understanding Childhood Trauma.Barrington, IL: Magna Systems.

Childhood trauma affects approximately four million children each year.Magna Systems of Barrington, IL has produced six informational videos aboutChildhood Trauma. The videos include,What is Childhood Trauma?, Signifi-cant Event Childhood Trauma, The Brain: Effect of Childhood Trauma, Iden-tifying and Responding to Trauma in Children Up to 5 years of Age, Domes-tic Violence and Childhood Trauma, and lastly Trauma and Healing.In eachvideo, Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Director of Childhood Trauma Programs at BaylorCollege of Medicine in Houston, Texas, explains the different dimensions ofchildhood trauma and what caregivers, parents, teachers, and anyone workingwith a child that has experienced some sort of trauma can do to prevent fur-ther trauma and begin healing in that child’s life. Whether it is ongoing traumalike domestic violence, or an event that occurred only once, like a death of aparent, Dr. Perry gives the viewer insight into what a child’s life is like whensomething traumatic has occurred. Each video is approximately 30 minutes long,which is an appropriate length to keep viewers engaged in the material. At times,the footage is repetitive due to the fact that some of the same information isreiterated in all six videos. I found all six videos to be informative and worthviewing, especially if you are an individual who is interested in or works withchildren.

In What is Childhood Trauma?the narrator and Dr. Perry give the viewera brief outline of childhood trauma. The video focuses on two issues, ongoingtrauma and significant event trauma. Examples of ongoing trauma include childabuse, neglect, and domestic violence and significant event trauma entails deathof a parent or close caregiver, a massive destructive flood, or a school shooting. Iftrauma is not addressed when the child is still young then a number of things canoccur and lead to adult trauma. Unadressed trauma can lead to depression, anxiety,eating disorders, and violent behavior. The video gives the viewer a brief outlineof how to work with and treat individuals that have been affected by childhoodtrauma.

Significant Event Childhood Traumadeals with events, which include schoolviolence, terrorist attacks, life threatening accidents, the death of a parent, and

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natural disaster. Dr. Perry gives the viewer helpful insights into dealing withchildren that have experienced a school shooting. He notes that it is not im-perative that the school administration brings in grief counselors in the daysfollowing the shooting. Most students can get support from family members,clergy, and close friends in the immediate aftermath of a trauma like schoolshootings. It is better to wait a few months and then send in the counselorsif the students are not coping and dealing with the incident in an appropriatemanner.

The Brain: Effects of Childhood Traumadeals with the negative and positiveeffects on the brain during childhood. A positive healthy environment is reflectedin a positive brain development; conversely, a negative unhealthy environment isreflected in poor brain development. This video will be useful to people interestedin the cognitive development in young children because it provides important in-formation on how the brain affects the development of a child who has experiencedsome sort of trauma. For example, healthy or unhealthy brain development willaffect an individual through physical health, mental health, learning, speech, andsocial skills.

Identifying and Responding to Trauma: Ages 0 to 5 years of Agedeals withhow care givers can identify and understand young children who have experi-enced trauma. This video can be beneficial to child care workers, or teachersthat work with young children because it gives helpful information on whatto look for and what to do if the child care worker or teacher encounters achild that they think has experienced some kind of trauma. Dr. Perry explainswhat caregivers need to do in order to address the trauma. He notes that, “thecaregiver must address the trauma; not addressing the trauma will make thatchild’s recovery more prolonged and difficult. Allow the child to bring up thetrauma, listen to the child, answer questions, and most of all provide comfort andsupport.”

Domestic Violence and Childhood Traumadeals with how domestic violencecan affect a child, sibling, or spouse growing up in an environment where abuseis occurring. This video includes women who tell their story of how domesticviolence has affected their lives. For example, Brenda’s story was particularlypoignant for me. Brenda’s sister, Tamara, was killed by her husband, who thencommitted suicide. Brenda explains how it is imperative that if you are a victim ofdomestic violence to get out and to get your children out before something awfuloccurs. This video is powerful because it shows real women telling stories of theirexperience of domestic violence.

Trauma and Healinggives an outline of both trauma and healing. Dr. Perrynotes that if trauma is not dealt with when it occurs then healing will not occurand problems like post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse problems, de-pression, anxiety, and violent behaviors might occur later in that individual’s life.When therapy is provided soon after the childhood trauma, it helps that individual

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grow up and live a happy and healthy life. This series of videos provides valuableinformation on different dimensions of childhood trauma. All mental health andeducation professionals would benefit from viewing them.

Elizabeth RodgersKristen McAleavey Eng

Longwood Universitye-mail: kmcaleavey@aol.com