Abstract
Starting from knowledge on the developmental meaning of story telling, we examined the influence of early trauma on children’s narrative capacities. Recently a new research-based method was introduced, with promise in addressing this area. The McArthur Story Stem Battery uses standardized, developmentally appropriate beginnings of stories to elicit relevant play narratives. The story stems build up to a dramatic high point and the child is then asked to “show and tell me what happens next”. Case examples of the narratives of two latency children showed that the experience of trauma can lead to unregulated destructive impulses and/or strategies of avoidance. Both, destructiveness and avoidance, can seriously impair the narrative capacity.
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