Practical strategies for working with traumatised children from refugee backgrounds in early childhood settings

Abstract

Maryam, not her real name, drew alongside me because she wanted to tell me her story outside of the focus group setting. She said, 'I had to withdraw my son from child care because he wanted to kill himself'. When I expressed surprise she repeated that child care had made him 'upset and suicidal' and that he was 'cutting himself'. Maryam is a refugee from a Middle Eastern country who arrived in Australia with her nine-year-old daughter, Sarah, via a perilous boat journey after enduring unspeakable atrocities. On arrival they were incarcerated in an Australian offshore detention centre for several months while their claims for asylum were processed. She told me that parenting was 'very hard' under the 'horrendous' conditions they had endured inside the camp. Her son, who I will call Benjamin, was born after her release from detention and he was sitting alongside her, nonverbal, clingy and anxious.