Childhood trauma is defined as a mentally disturbing experience that can have long-lasting and drastic effects on a child’s mental health and behavior. It mainly refers to a violent and dreadful experience that a child undergoes.

It induces negative changes in your child’s personality and behavior. As a result, he becomes stubborn and does not communicate or play with anyone.

Studies have revealed that exposure to a greater number of such distressing events increases the risk of life-threatening diseases such as heart attack, cancer, and emotional disturbances.

Causes of Childhood Trauma

In normal routine, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems enable us to deal with emergencies. The sympathetic nervous system can activate the emergency handling mechanism in critical situations, while the parasympathetic system brings the body back to normal conditions.

But, in traumatic events, the body does not turn to normal conditions even when the event has ended. This is because a large amount of cortisol is released due to that trauma. Cortisol can damage the brain and reduce its memorization power.

Due to this continuous stress, the focus and attention of an individual are destroyed. These events keep them traumatized for years.

Moreover, family violence can also result in childhood trauma. Some children experience domestic violence among their parents that keeps traumatizing them for the rest of their lives.

Childhood traumas can be of various types. Their influence also varies from child to child. An event that may be traumatic for one child might be normal for another. These mainly include:

• Physical and Verbal Violence: in terms of beating or torturing the child due to a negligible mistake or making fun, name-calling, and bullying a child
• Emotional Violence refers to insult or manipulation of a child.
• The Separation of Parents makes a child feel insecure and abandoned.
• Being Neglected: Neglecting a child and depriving him/her of basic needs also develops low confidence in them.

What is Learning Disability?

Learning disabilities are challenges that people face in understanding and learning new things. This problem reduces the development of the brain and affects the daily activities of the suffering person. The problem usually lasts a lifetime and has a deep impact on a person’s life.

The symptoms of learning disabilities include;

• Bad memory
• Difficulty in walking
• Inability to focus
• Poor Attention span
• Difficulty in communicating with others.

In addition, the sufferers of learning disability are unable to develop a healthy relationship with their family and friends.

Types of Learning Disabilities

The main types of learning disabilities are as follows:

• Dyslexia: it involves delayed speech and difficulty in spelling.
• Dysgraphia: It involves difficulty expressing thoughts while writing.
• Dyscalculia: it involves difficulty in performing simple calculations

How is Childhood Trauma Related to Learning Disability?

Traumas can strongly influence the learning capabilities of a child. Most of the children who have faced trauma in their childhood experience difficulties in understanding and performing routine tasks and daily activities.

Children with learning disabilities also fail to excel in academics and may develop serious issues like autism and multiple personality disorder. Let’s find out how childhood trauma and learning disability are interconnected.

1.    Impact on Brain

Children experiencing traumas are seen to have their brains badly affected. Their brain’s learning capability is affected. It cannot store information for a long period, and it may also suffer from short-term memory loss. Such kids live their lives like lost persons.

2.    Short Attention Span

Such children cannot focus on their daily tasks, such as eating, sleeping, and doing homework. They lose their focus and attention quickly. They are continuously distracted by the bitter memories of the traumas they experienced. That’s why they remain stuck in the past instead of living in the moment.

3.    Communication Difficulties

Such children can’t convey their emotions precisely. Their behavior also becomes strange. They also develop a fear of socializing with people. This ends up giving rise to a doomed personality.

4.    Academic Incompetence

Most children suffering from trauma are unable to give their best in academics. They struggle in tasks like reading, writing, and calculating. The most common disorders among such children are ADHD and PTSD. In such cases, counseling and special education can be helpful.

Prevention

Childhood traumas can cause unimaginable pain and stress to a child, which usually lasts throughout life. It is associated with negative attitudes like bullying, harassment, insult, and domestic violence. It also has dangerous effects on our body’s control systems, mainly the nervous and circulatory systems. Furthermore, it can be averted by educating the guardians and maintaining a friendly environment. Guardians and family members play a role in a child’s physical and mental well-being.

How Counselling Helps in Overcoming Childhood Trauma and Learning Disability?

Counseling is crucial as it helps the children to heal. It enables them to cope with their traumas. They can process their thoughts and experiences in a safe environment. A therapist provides emotional support and helps them understand their thoughts.

Therapy helps a child to get control over his emotions. It enables people to find effective ways to cope with traumas. Successful counseling brings about the rebuilding of a child’s trust in his family, improves personality and behavior, and improves his academic performance.

The different kinds of therapies are described below:

• Cognitive Processing Therapy

This type of therapy helps persons deal with unmeaningful thoughts they might have after trauma. The sufferers learn to change and control their thoughts.

• Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

In this type of therapy, parents also get involved because parental behavior influences children. They learn to overcome their negative thoughts together. Usually, separate sessions are conducted, but a joint session may also take place to strengthen the parent-child relationship.

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

In this type of therapy, a person focuses on their trauma while experiencing a simulation like the movement of eyes. It helps to weaken the memory of the trauma.

• Prolonged Exposure Therapy

This type of therapy teaches a person how to deal with memories and feelings related to trauma. It also helps to deal with the issues related to post-traumatic stress disorder. It helps a person deal with his problems.

• Play Therapy

Play is considered an essential part of a child’s growth. That is why play therapy is a major way of dealing with issues such as trauma in childhood. The therapist plays with the child, which is a better method of treatment.

• Art therapy

This type of therapy uses the creative process of art making, which enables individuals to express their emotions through art. This also boosts confidence and enhances brain function.

Conclusion

Childhood traumas are the worst experiences that destroy a beautiful childhood, and the learning disabilities caused by them affect individuals throughout their lives. That is why taking therapy and developing the ability to cope with these traumas is very important. With the right treatment, anyone can cope with the challenges and lead a successful and normal life.