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Assessing hearing and communication in children, born prematurely and at term, includes taking a detailed history and following many of them up over years. Over the years many great articles talked about the management of and outcome for these children, including the present one.
Studying also developmental trauma, some of these traumata can predate birth, I was struck by the helpful strategies and management approaches that do exist to help them.
Noting the difficulties of the trauma group one and the group of extremely premature children, I could see the similarities between them.
The two articles: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-055924 and this one highlight the significant number of children with traits of ADHD, autistic spectrum and "behavioural problems" in children born extremely prematurely.
Similar clinical presentations are those found in children with developmental trauma and being correctly attributed to (complex) developmental trauma disorder.
Everyone who has worked on a neonatal intensive or even special care unit can relate to the fact that pre-mature children experience significant trauma, not only painful interventions, but also separation from their closest caregivers (their parents, particularly their mother who were in direct contact with for months.
The article states that some parents experience the circumstances such that it causes them PTSD type problems. The trauma experienced by the infant is by far greater than that.
For the above reasons I would like to propose that the difficulties these children present with might benefit from being labelled and summarised as (Complex) Developmental Trauma Disorder [DTD]. One can even add something like " including symptoms similar to ... ".
The reason why considering the label of (C)DTD for these children is that some of the approaches and support strategies can be different and far more helpful for these children, families and education.
Some of the strategies used for a trauma-informed approach overlap with those for ASD and ADHD.
A few resources can be found through the following channels and of course many others:
Using the term: "(complex) developmental trauma disorder (DTD" in children with extreme preterm birth
Dear Editor,
Assessing hearing and communication in children, born prematurely and at term, includes taking a detailed history and following many of them up over years. Over the years many great articles talked about the management of and outcome for these children, including the present one.
Studying also developmental trauma, some of these traumata can predate birth, I was struck by the helpful strategies and management approaches that do exist to help them.
Noting the difficulties of the trauma group one and the group of extremely premature children, I could see the similarities between them.
The two articles: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-055924 and this one highlight the significant number of children with traits of ADHD, autistic spectrum and "behavioural problems" in children born extremely prematurely.
Similar clinical presentations are those found in children with developmental trauma and being correctly attributed to (complex) developmental trauma disorder.
Everyone who has worked on a neonatal intensive or even special care unit can relate to the fact that pre-mature children experience significant trauma, not only painful interventions, but also separation from their closest caregivers (their parents, particularly their mother who were in direct contact with for months.
The article states that some parents experience the circumstances such that it causes them PTSD type problems. The trauma experienced by the infant is by far greater than that.
For the above reasons I would like to propose that the difficulties these children present with might benefit from being labelled and summarised as (Complex) Developmental Trauma Disorder [DTD]. One can even add something like " including symptoms similar to ... ".
The reason why considering the label of (C)DTD for these children is that some of the approaches and support strategies can be different and far more helpful for these children, families and education.
Some of the strategies used for a trauma-informed approach overlap with those for ASD and ADHD.
A few resources can be found through the following channels and of course many others:
The effects of complex trauma: https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/complex-trauma/e....
A "Close-up" on Developmental Trauma from Beacon House: https://beaconhouse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Developmental-Trau...
Support for families and education using a therapeutic approach: https://www.naotp.com/
Competing interests: No competing interests