Children With Special Needs and Circumstances: Conceptualization Through a Complex Trauma Lens

Abstract

When conceptualizing this special issue, we had a basic idea of what might be included; however, as submissions arrived, it was evident that our basic definition of special needs was limited and could include much more when broadened. Therefore, the issue was reconceptualized as Children with Special Needs and Circumstances. It is my hope that when practitioners, researchers and faculty read this issue, each begins to see that the term special needs encompasses more than we think, because anything that hinders the optimal growth and development of a child constitutes a special need. In this issue, readers will find articles concerning fears, trauma, sensory processing disorder, foreign adoption, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, homelessness, special education and parent-child interaction therapy.Keywords: counseling, children, special needs, complex traumaTo set the stage for this special issue, to provide a foundation for understanding and to link the various articles, I encourage readers to conceptualize the impact of a special need through a complex trauma or developmental lens. Over the past 15 years, countless articles have reported and described the impact of chronic stress and adverse childhood experiences (Anda et al., 2006; Edwards et al., 2005) and the subsequent development of complex trauma.Complex and Developmental TraumaThe National Child Traumatic Stress Network (n.d.-a) has defined complex trauma as a series of traumatic experiences that are usually interpersonal in nature and lead to numerous long-term adverse effects on health and well-being. Similarly, van der Kolk, Roth, Pelcovitz, Sunday and Spinazzola (2005) described experiencing repeated traumatic events during childhood as developmental trauma. The duration and intensity of the traumatic experiences, as well as the age of onset of these experiences, can determine the outcome of both complex trauma and developmental trauma. Neuroscience research provides ample evidence of neurochemical and brain structural changes caused by complex trauma that result in affective and behavioral dysregulation (Lanius, Bluhm, & Frewen, 2011).Though the terms developmental trauma and complex trauma were originally used to represent repeated abuse or an accumulation of traumatic experiences, recent neuroscience research has extended these terms to other conditions and experiences. Copeland, Keeler, Angold, and Costello (2007) noted that a long-term physical illness may lead to complex trauma, while D'Andrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola, and van der Kolk (2012) and Finkelhor, Ormrod, and Turner (2007) reported that bullying also may lead to similar outcomes.Courtois (n.d.), as well as Ford and Courtois (2009), Vogt, King, and King (2007), and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (n.d.-b), offered a more descriptive explanation and extensive list when they stated the following:Cumulative adversities faced by many persons, communities, ethno-cultural, religious, political, and sexual minority groups, and societies around the globe can also constitute forms of complex trauma. Some occur over the life course beginning in childhood and have some of the same developmental impacts described above. Others, occurring later in life, are often traumatic or potentially traumatic and can worsen the impact of early life complex trauma and cause the development of complex traumatic stress reactions. These adversities can include but are not limited to:* Poverty and ongoing economic challenge and lack of essentials or other resources* Community violence and the inability to escape/relocate* Homelessness* Disenfranchised ethno-racial, religious, and/or sexual minority status and repercussions* Incarceration and residential placement and ongoing threat and assault* Ongoing sexual and physical re-victimization and re-traumatization in the family or other contexts, including prostitution and sexual slavery* Human rights violations including political repression, genocide/ethnic cleansing, and torture* Displacement, refugee status, and relocation* War and combat involvement or exposure* Developmental, intellectual, physical health, mental health/psychiatric, and age-related limitations, impairments, and challenges* Exposure to death, dying, and the grotesque in emergency response work (para. …