Abby Hardy

PhD student

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Lack of respect for access needs and disability accommodation can intensify traumatic experiences, especially in the medical setting. When children are not given the time to process the events around them, or when medical staff do not interact with them appropriately given their accessibility needs, children’s stress levels increase and events that could be tolerable can become traumatic.
Many children are resilient and able to recover from stressful experiences, but trauma is very impactful for others. It can be hard for caregivers to support children with extensive support needs to process their trauma given the communication challenges that are often present, even when caregivers notice behavioral indications that the child is struggling.
Trauma informed care and education is crucial for children with intellectual disabilities, but little is known about how exactly to implement trauma informed care for children with extensive support needs and special education teachers are often excluded from meaningful professional development around this topic.

National Child Traumatic Stress Network at https://www.nctsn.org/
SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach manual https://library.samhsa.gov/product/samhsas-concept-trauma-and-guidance-trauma-informed-approach/sma14-4884
I use local Bright Spots (my advisor, Dr. Catherine Corr, and colleague, Dr. Mia Chudzik) as resources often

Chudzik, M., Hardy, A., & Corr, C. (2025) What influences early childhood special education teachers’ use of trauma-informed practices in Pyramid Model classrooms? Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/02711214251327359

Posted: 26 August, 2025

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