Trauma-Informed Care in Early Education: A Provider’s Guide

During the early stages of development, children often don’t have the words to describe their feelings. With the lack of words, emotions show up in their behavior. And unfortunately these emotional challenges can affect a child’s schooling experience.

As a provider, you and your teachers can support the emotional development of children in your program with the trauma-informed care approach. This teaching approach allows teachers to go beyond disciplining challenging behaviors. Instead teachers focus on understanding and working with children and families to solve the root cause.

In this guide, we’ll help you understand everything about trauma-informed care in early education. From what it is, who it's for, how it works and how you can incorporate it into your program.

What Is Trauma-Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care isn’t a change in curriculum. It's a teaching approach that allows teachers to help children regulate their emotions. On a deeper level, the stress and traumatic experience children have can affect their development. And a trauma-informed care approach enables teachers to recognize this and address it through education instead of traditional disciplinary measures.

Teachers who adapt this approach teach children how to identify their emotions, regulate them and understand the root cause of their behavior. These practices are incorporated into daily teaching practices so they are taught alongside traditional subjects like reading and counting.

The goal with this teaching approach is to give children the support they need to feel safe enough to learn, develop emotional skills and build relationships.

Differences between traditional teaching and trauma-informed teaching:

This shift in perspective allows educators to respond with empathy while still maintaining healthy classroom expectations and boundaries.

Why Trauma-Informed Care Matters in Early Education

During the early years in a child’s life, emotions show up in the behavior. It can appear in tantrums, aggression, anxiety, and changes in eating habits to name a few. Trauma-informed care aims to give children the tools to understand their emotions before they become bigger issues down the road.

This teaching approach isn’t only for children who have experienced trauma. Trust building, emotional regulation, confidence and problem solving are tools all children should develop.

Building a Trauma-Informed Childcare Program

The great thing about adopting the trauma-informed approach is that you don’t have to change your curriculum. Instead, it should be weaved into everyday practices that can help the children at your program feel safe, understood and supported.

Predictable Routines

Many children feel secure when they have consistency. This can be done through transition warnings which can be a simple alert letting them know the class would be moving from reading to math in five minutes. Consistency in daily schedules also allows children to know what to expect each day and sets clear expectations.

Focus on Connection Before Correction

Because every child experiences and understands things differently, responding to challenging behavior shouldn’t be linear. Instead teachers first ensure safety, then emotional regulations and then teachers work with the child to find the root cause of the behavior to address it.

Teach Emotional Regulation Throughout the Day

Instead of having classes or sessions that specifically focus on trauma-informed care. Teachers teach these skills throughout the day. Tasks like practicing deep breathing, problem solving with classmates and even counting to calm down can be regular classroom activities.

Build Strong Partnerships With Families

Parents know their children best. That said, your program should work closely with parents to insure support in the classroom and at home. This is done by teachers sharing regular updates on a child’s behavior and emotional development. Teachers may also ask about major life events such as moving, a child’s comfort items such as a blanket or toy, all to better understand the child and create a smoother learning experience.

Training and Supporting Your Staff

Many providers give their teachers access to professional development causes where they can gain the skills and knowledge needed for Trauma-informed care. In courses teachers and providers can learn:

• How to recognize the sign of trauma
• How to respond appropriately
• How to help dysregulated children soothe and manage emotions
• Managing secondary trauma

Keep in mind these are only a few of the skills teachers can learn at programs like iLearning. But it's also important for providers to also support the wellbeing of their staff to prevent childcare worker burnout. Remember, to suppose emotions, teachers need to have a higher level of empathy which can be emotionally and mentally exhausting.

Evaluating Your Trauma-Informed Practices

Much like running a daycare program, trauma-informed care is an ongoing process. With that said, consistently reviewing and evaluating your program can help identify areas of improvement. Use the table below as a guide when evaluating your trauma-informed care practiced:

Common Challenges When Implementing Trauma-Informed Care

Adapting to a new initiative will take time and challenges are to be expected. Factors like staff shortages, limited resources, busy classrooms and changing regulations, can make it harder to implement trauma-informed care.

However, these challenges can be worked on by implementing this approach gradually. Starting by strengthening family partnerships, creating predictable classroom routines and providing staff with support, can be a great starting point and much easier to manage. These are also practical steps that can move your program to being more trauma-informed.

How Winnie Can Support Your Childcare Program

Many families are becoming increasingly interested in providers who can not only support academic development but emotional development as well. With a Winnie listing, you are able to showcase everything your program has to offer families and essentially tell them why your program is a top choice.

On your Winnie listing you can clearly communicate your classroom environment, trauma-informed care approach, licensing details, program philosophy, and other offerings. Potential families will also be able to see reviews from other parents, which can strengthen their confidence in your program.

With that, parents are also able to schedule tours with your program. You see Winnie assists providers by making the review, inquiry and engagement process easier. Giving you more time to support staff and manage your program,

Final Thoughts

Trauma-informed care in early education isn’t about creating an entirely new system. Instead, teachers are skilled to understand a child’s behavior and support them as needed. It also allows teachers to teach children about their feelings, understand it and work through it.

Adopting this approach to your program can greatly benefit learners not just in their early years of development but as they continue their learning journey. This approach also shows families that your program goes beyond what is expected and how much you provide a care program that cares for the academic needs and emotional needs of their children. And having this approach showcased on your Winnie listing can allow parents to find out more about why they show enroll their child.