How parents can know whether or not they need to seek services for their child because of a traumatic event really is based on the child's response, not the event. And that's what's difficult for people. If they look at the event and decide, "Oh, they must need help. They've lived through that event." And what's really more important is to look at the child and decide how they are responding to that event
And so, the main things to look for is just changes in basic day-to-day functioning. Is there disruption in the child's sleep? Is there disruption in the child's eating behavior? Is there disruption in the child's mood? Is there a disruption in the child's engagement in typical activities, like not wanting to do so much, as much as they normally do? Or having trouble engaging in those activities?
Increased conflict with peers or family members, or increased isolation. It can look a lot of different ways, but what you're looking for are changes that are not healthy for that child, and did those start to occur sometime after that event? That's a pretty good indication that something could be...those two things could go together.
