We often hear that all behaviour is communication, but how do we fully understand what children are telling us when they act in distressed and often challenging ways in our settings? And how do we respond? This book offers a practice-oriented look at current theory around early childhood adversity, attachment, trauma and brain development. Traumatic experiences such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence, bereavement, bullying and others can have long-lasting effects on children, making responding to their impact a complex task for education professionals. But it is precisely through their enlightened response that healing can begin.

Providing children with positive childhood experiences is dependent upon knowledgeable practitioners who can determine children's different needs and use this understanding to create flexible, responsive learning environments. This book draws on up-to-date research informing the conceptualisation of trauma and trauma-informed interventions and uses this to establish links to practice, highlighting relationship-based interventions. Real world vignettes of trauma-aware schools and professional dialogue with experts in the field allow for a strong focus on practice.

Each chapter begins with key ideas outlining the content of the chapter, and ends with a summary paragraph to link back to the key ideas. Each chapter also provides suggestions for further reading as well as thinking points, in the form of questions for reflection. Each of the four parts of the book ends with a chapter providing insights from experts in the field, schools utilising trauma-informed and attachment-aware approaches as well as several Local Authorities seeking to introduce systemic change.

This book is essential reading for all those interested in how theory, research and policy developments can help to enhance practice in developing trauma-informed and trauma-responsive educational environments.