Understanding Trauma
Research has shown that trauma has a significant impact on adolescent brain development.
In general, trauma can be defined as a psychological, emotional response to an event or an experience that is deeply distressing or disturbing.
Some adolescents will have a traumatic response to risk and/or harm that they have experienced.
Constrained Choice
An understanding of trauma helps practitioners to recognise that, rather than being completely in control of decision-making, adolescents often make constrained choices compared to developed adults who can make choices over which they have full control.
Experiences of trauma and other factors such as grooming can significantly impact on brain development. The choices of an adolescent who has experienced these factors are more likely to be constrained. In some cases, due to the impact of trauma, an adolescent may not be in a position to make any choice at all.
Practitioners need to be aware that adolescents may have experienced trauma related to their SEND, for example through medical episodes and procedures, through prejudice from others or through failed educational placements. Adolescents with SEND may not be able to identify or communicate their traumatic experiences. Where communication is not effective, choices may be constrained, for example the adolescent cannot express a wish not to take part in an activity or to associate with a peer. Where a female adolescent is experiencing sexual exploitation by a male a professional might ask why the female returns to the harming male and puts herself at risk. This view ignores the impact that trauma can have on the adolescent brain and the harm the adolescent believes they would experience if they tried to escape those causing harm.