Telling Their Stories: Representation and Reenactment of Traumatic Experiences Occurring in the First Year of Life

This article focuses on infants in the first year of life who have experienced single or very circumscribed episodes of trauma in the context of otherwise relatively normal developmental trajectories. Young infants who experience pain may show heightened reactions to pain even years later. Children may remember, and may even reenact, traumatic experiences that occurred when they were infants. A child's reenactment of a trauma may not exactly replicate the event, and may change over time. Imitation or reenactment of observed and/or experienced events is a fundamental, biologically programmed mechanism by which children learn about themselves and others.