Yes, your child can have school-related post-traumatic stress disorder. The combination of learning disabilities, demanding curriculum, bullying, peer isolation and a demeaning teacher can produce PTSD symptoms.
Bad dreams and recurrent, intrusive memories of the events, flashbacks, hypervigilance, school avoidance, persistent negativity, are signs of PTSD.
Kids, or anyone else, for that matter, don’t have to be the direct victim of violence; they only need to witness others being shamed such as when the teacher “dumps desks” to punish kids.
Kids’ perceptions of threat will be different from yours, so don’t minimize them. Humiliation is a powerful force and when you’re 8 years old or 10 or 13, trauma happens.
Could your child’s school refusal be related to PTSD? It’s not just soldiers and survivors of natural disasters who suffer from it.
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