Education of Young Children Caught in Disasters

This book addresses different types of disasters, both human crises and environmental disasters, and their implications on the education and social-emotional development of young children (birth through age 8). This volume is a new edition to “Assisting Young Children caught in Disaster: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Interventions" that highlighted 14 different disasters. This edition revisits some of the main topics in the previous edition from 2018 and also focuses on some recent crises, such as community and school violence, infectious diseases, recent gang activities in Haiti, and child trafficking during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it provides strategies regarding trauma-informed practice and coping with the aftermath of violence, terrorism, and living in war torn contexts.

As both the research literature and current events indicate, almost every day, children around the world experience some type of a crisis. According to UNICEF’s 2023 report, “ .. there have been an unprecedented number of humanitarian emergencies – natural and human-made – unfolding around the world.” These include violence, armed conflicts, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Children who experience these conflicts most likely also experience poverty and become more vulnerable to malnutrition and diseases.

As the previous edition indicates, such crises and trauma have various consequences on the lives of children such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. Although governments and agencies have done a large amount of work to address the needs of children affected by disasters, early childhood teachers often still feel helpless and not prepared to address these needs in their classrooms. This new edition provides both pre- and in-service early childhood teachers with such support.