3 Tips to Help a Child Cope with a Traumatic Experience

There are many situations that can be emotionally traumatic for a child. Whether it's losing a loved one, being injured in an accident, or going through a period of bullying at school, you need to take action to rectify the situation and help turn their condition around. To help with this, follow the three tips below:

Spend Time with Your Child

In order to help your child overcome their traumatic experience, you need to actively engage them on a day-to-day basis. This means turning off the TV and games consoles and spending time relating to them on a face-to-face basis. Over time, this will help create an environment that your child feels completely safe in and will help them open up about what is on their mind.

To help your child, you need to spend more time listening to your child than talking them through what happened. To do this effectively, make sure you fully acknowledge your child's concerns and let them talk to you about other fears and problems.

If your child isn't ready to talk, it's imperative that you let them be silent until they feel ready to speak. Do not force them to discuss the event if this makes them feel uncomfortable. Rather, let them know that you will always be there when they feel ready to talk

Make Sure They're Active

If your child spends a lot of time alone in their time, it will be more difficult for them to get over the traumatic experience. If they are allowed to dwell on their thoughts and nothing else, the experience will soon become a burden for them and it will become more and more difficult to cope.

One of the best ways you can help your child adopt a more positive mood is to help them exercise. It is a well-known fact that exercise releases endorphins, which will only be good for their mental state. As such, make sure you take the time to encourage physical activity. Whether it's helping them partake in team sports, or even just taking the family swimming, exercise will only be a good thing to help them cope with the traumatic experience.

Watch Their Diet

In addition to exercise, you need to make sure your child eats right. Not only is this good for their overall well-being, but eating good, wholesome foods will help lift their mood and will help them feel more positive about the situation.

You need to be diligent with this. It can be easy to want to smother your child with anything they want when they are going through a tough time. But whilst this may make them happy in the short term, it will only serve to worsen their condition over time. Rather than treating them with fast food or sweet desserts, reward them with family outings and keep an eye on their diet. 

Helping your child through a traumatic experience can be difficult. For more professional assistance and guidance, seek help from a childhood emotional trauma counselor. The counselor can help your child talk through these issues and help you provide a safe space for them to recover.