Leveraging serious games to support trauma-informed training for early childhood educators

Young children experience high rates of trauma, yet there continue to be an absence of evidence-informed interventions to address the impact of early trauma on children’s regulation, behavior, and development. Despite being more likely to experience domestic violence and child maltreatment compared to older children, children 8 and under are less likely to engage in mental health services–making it even more important to identify how to support young children with trauma histories in their natural settings, such as early care and education (ECE) settings. There is a need for trauma-informed training for teachers in ECE settings, however evidence-based training resources are difficult to find or come at high-cost to schools. Evidence-based, accessible Trauma-Informed (TI) interventions are needed to help teachers develop and practice skills to support young children with trauma histories in early childhood classrooms. Serious games are learning tools that use game elements and mechanics to promote knowledge, problem-solving, and skill acquisition that hold promise for TI early childhood education (ECE) professional development. The current conceptual paper discusses the need for practice innovations in TI professional development and the role that serious games may play in transforming the delivery and impact of TI trainings for ECE providers.