What Happens to Early Memories of Trauma? A Study of Twenty Children Under Age Five at the Time of Documented Traumatic Events

Abstract

The verbal and behavioral remembrances of 20 children who suffered psychic trauma before age 5 were compared with documentations of the same events. Ages 28 to 36 months, at the time of trauma, serves as an approximate cut-off point separating those children who can fully verbalize their past experiences from those who can do so in part or not at all. Girls appear better able than boys to verbalize parts of traumas from before ages 28 to 36 months. Short, single traumas are more likely to be remembered in words. At any age. however, behavioral memories of trauma remain quite accurate and true to the events that stimulated them. © 1988, The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. All rights reserved.