Soothing Traumatized Children

"Among the vital supplies sent to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake, some of the most important may turn out to be thousands of kids' coloring and activity books," reports Scientific American Mind (November 2010).

"Created by Mercy Corps...these workbooks are designed to help traumatized kids process what happened to them....Recent research has revealed abnormal patterns of brain activation in people who have experienced psychological trauma...Many people suffering from...stress related disorders show increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain -- and in emotional, nonverbal processing -- and in decreased activity in the left [where logical, linear and verbal processing takes place]...

"The goal in treating trauma is often to get the linear left hemisphere back into action....The books sent to Haiti, entitled My Earthquake Story, are designed to exercise that part of the brain in telling a more cohesive and coherent story....Prompts encourage kids to write and draw about what they were doing when the quake struck, what happened to their homes, and whether they saw any people doing good deeds in the aftermath of the disaster, among other things.  In essence, the workbooks ask the kids, 'How can you rewrite this story in a way that makes sense to you?'"

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