Education specialists at Sheffield Hallam have worked alongside Trauma Informed Schools UK (TISUK) and Nifty Fox Creative to develop resources aimed at supporting parents to help children to understand and deal with their feelings related to the current conflict.
The resources focus on how to talk to children about conflict and war, the importance of play and how this can help children and young people to open up about their feelings, as well as activities to support mental wellbeing.
The resources have been translated into several different languages including Polish, Romanian and Russian and are being distributed to schools and parents through councils across the region.
Sally Pearse, Strategic Lead for Early Years at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “Trauma is the response to any event that frightens us or makes us feel that our life is out of control. Children need to be supported to cope with and make sense of their feelings around the current conflict, coming as it does on the back of the pandemic that has also impacted on children’s feelings of safety and security.
“The trauma informed principles have never been more important to help support children who are suffering anxiety and trauma as a result of the current situation and the resources we have produced will hopefully support that.”
TISUK is a non-profit educational organisation that aims to provide appropriate training for schools, communities and organisations so that they become trauma informed and mentally healthy places for all. By appropriately training school staff they can help to deliver interventions addressing mild to moderate mental health problems in children.
Julie Harmieson, Co- Director Trauma Informed Schools UK, said: “The events in Ukraine are impacting on both adults and children. For children who have family members within Ukraine and for those children and families who are arriving having fled the conflict, anxiety, fear, grief and loss are prevalent. We cannot minimise the impact of these events, nor can we make them go away.
“What helps is connection and courageous conversations to help children make sense of their experience and what they may see on the news. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to provide these resources in familiar languages that can be truly understood by adults who can then best support their children.”
