9th August, 2017
A Foster Care UK blog by guest author Jane Evans
Foster Care in London | Kent | Herts
Tips for parents travelling with traumatised or highly anxious children
Our guest blog, written by Jane Evans, looks at the challenges, issues and offers tips surrounding taking highly anxious or traumatised children on holiday.
For the foster carers I work with, there are similar hopes and expectations for their holidays with the child or children they caring for. Unfortunately, sometimes the level of trauma within the children may mean that additional needs and adjustments have to be factored in, and handled along the way. Trauma doesn’t go away just because its holiday time!
Sadly, for a highly anxious child, going somewhere ‘lovely,’ possibly with a pool, great activities and food and plenty of opportunities for ‘fun’, can feel overwhelming, both on an emotional and on a sensory level. Standing in queues, being in close proximity to strangers, different sounds, smells, tastes, touches and visual input can feel exhausting and put them on hyper, hyper alert thus ramping up their already heightened sense of potential danger and threat.
Jane is a ‘learn the hard way’ person. She has learnt from her personal experiences and her direct work with people who have often been in really bad places emotionally, relationally, practically and sometimes professionally.
Jane began working in early years care and education 22 years ago as a supervisor in a pre-school, she loved it! She also worked in a pre-school for children with complex physical, learning and emotional needs and was a childminder. The children taught her so much and encouraged to study their development and needs so she could better support and care for them. Jane now regularly delivers training to Early Years settings and speaks at conferences focusing the impact of childhood trauma and anxiety on early development.
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