Children's recollections of traumatic and nontraumatic events

Whereas the social and emotional consequences of childhood trauma are well documented, less is known about how young children understand, represent, a nd remember traumatic experiences. A review of the literature indicates str iking similarities in the development of young children's ability to recall traumatic and nontraumatic events. More specifically, events experienced b efore the age of about 18 months do not seem to be verbally accessible; eve nts experienced between about 18 months and 2.5-3 years are reported in fra gmentary fashion and seem to be prone to increasing error over time. From a bout age 3 years on, children can give reasonably coherent accounts of thei r past experiences and can retain these memories over long durations. The w ays in which children are able to participate in conversations about events as they are occurring and in retrospect seems to play a critical role in t heir developing event memories. Implications of the empirical data for unde rstanding trauma memory in childhood are discussed.