Children generally retain one or two fears that are specific to the trauma. If they have been attacked by a Doberman for instance it would be common for the child to fear not only Dobermans but all dogs and that fear frequently persists into adulthood. While this is something of a problem when it concerns fairly easily avoided objects like dogs, it is an extreme problem for many childhood victims of sexual abuse, because sex is not avoided without extreme social disadvantage.

Traumatised children also tend to have more fears in general than other children, so that even if it were not related to the trauma, fear of the dark or being alone becomes common.

Children tend not to get the numbing that adults experience but do get rather odd changes in their attitude to themselves and things around them. Whereas children usually regard themselves are more or less immortal, traumatised children seem to see their future as foreshortened and tend to say things like they only live one day at a time because they feel that another disaster is in all probability just around the corner. You might innocently say see you next week and they might reply “How do you know I’ll be here next week? I might die on the way home from your office”.

They may also come to believe that no one can be trusted and that you can’t count on anyone to come to your aid.

Omens refer to the way that children tend to deliberately go back over the event again and again in their minds looking for something that should have alert them to their impending doom. Frequently they see a sign (such a warning that a friend had given them) that they feel they should have heeded. They then come to see themselves or others as responsible for the trauma even when the omen had nothing to do with the real chain of events.

Finally children may report seeing the ghosts of those they lost in the trauma for many months after the incident. Often they may find these visitations comforting rather than frightening.