CTC Child Development & Trauma Impact 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to Piaget, a 6-year-old trauma survivor who believes the abuse was their fault is demonstrating which cognitive characteristic?
- Formal operational thinking
- Concrete operational egocentrism
- Preoperational egocentrism (Correct answer)
- Sensorimotor reasoning
Correct answer: Preoperational egocentrism
Children in the preoperational stage are egocentric and tend to believe events—including trauma—revolve around or are caused by themselves.
Question 2: Prolonged childhood trauma most commonly leads to which alteration in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis?
- Consistently elevated cortisol throughout life
- Blunted cortisol reactivity and flattened diurnal rhythm (Correct answer)
- Increased oxytocin production
- Suppressed amygdala sensitivity
Correct answer: Blunted cortisol reactivity and flattened diurnal rhythm
Chronic trauma often dysregulates the HPA axis, resulting in blunted cortisol response and disrupted diurnal cortisol rhythms rather than perpetual elevation.
Question 3: A teenager with a childhood trauma history presents with impulsivity, poor planning, and difficulty learning from consequences. Which brain region's development is most impacted?
- Brain stem
- Limbic system exclusively
- Prefrontal cortex (Correct answer)
- Occipital lobe
Correct answer: Prefrontal cortex
Trauma impairs maturation of the prefrontal cortex, which governs executive functions such as impulse control, planning, and consequence learning.
Question 4: Which term describes the phenomenon where a traumatized child's emotional age is younger than their chronological age?
- Developmental dissociation
- Trauma-induced regression (Correct answer)
- Chronological mismatch syndrome
- Affective forecasting error
Correct answer: Trauma-induced regression
Trauma-induced regression occurs when stress causes a child to revert emotionally or behaviorally to an earlier developmental stage.
Question 5: In Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model, which sequence correctly represents the order in which the brain should be addressed in trauma treatment?
- Cognitive → Relational → Regulatory
- Relational → Regulatory → Cognitive
- Regulatory → Relational → Cognitive (Correct answer)
- Cognitive → Regulatory → Relational
Correct answer: Regulatory → Relational → Cognitive
Perry's Neurosequential Model prescribes addressing lower brain functions (regulation) first, then relational capacity, and finally higher cortical (cognitive) processing.
Question 6: A child who experienced chronic neglect in infancy is most likely to show which pattern in Strange Situation testing?
- Secure attachment (Type B)
- Anxious-avoidant attachment (Type A)
- Anxious-ambivalent attachment (Type C)
- Disorganized attachment (Type D) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Disorganized attachment (Type D)
Chronic neglect, like abuse, frequently produces disorganized (Type D) attachment because caregivers fail to provide a consistent safe base, leaving the child without a coherent coping strategy.
Question 7: Which developmental theorist described 'sensitive periods' during which the nervous system is especially plastic and vulnerable to environmental input, including trauma?
- Albert Bandura
- Lev Vygotsky
- John Bowlby (Correct answer)
- James Heckman
Correct answer: John Bowlby
Bowlby integrated ethological concepts of sensitive periods into attachment theory, emphasizing that early relational experiences have outsized impact on neural and psychological development.
CTC Child Development & Trauma Impact 3
According to Piaget, a 6-year-old trauma survivor who believes the abuse was their fault is demonstrating which cognitive characteristic?