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July/August 2013Vol. 14, No. 6Trauma Guide for Pediatricians

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers a Trauma Guide webpage for pediatricians in an effort to help them better understand and support the needs of adoptive and foster families. Developed in partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Jockey Being Family, the webpage features Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope With Trauma: A Guide for Pediatricians and Parenting After Trauma: Understanding Your Child's Needs.

Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope With Trauma was designed to assist pediatricians in supporting foster and adoptive families. The guide explains why a pediatrician should educate families on toxic stress indicators, how they should assume that children have experienced trauma and how to identify the behavior, and how they can provide caregivers and family members with strategies to address the child's needs.

A guide for families, Parenting After Trauma: Understanding Your Child's Needs, is also included in the Trauma Guide. The impact of trauma on a child is explained in the handout, along with tips on how parents can make their home feel safe.

These resources and more are included on the Trauma Guide webpage, available on the AAP website:

http://www.aap.org/traumaguide