Breaking the cycle of violence for child refugees who display aggressive behaviour

Children with refugee experience have often witnessed torture and other atrocities in their country of origin, followed by lengthy periods of deprivation in refugee camps and/or detention centres. If a child faces repeated and ongoing trauma at developmentally sensitive periods before language fully develops, their brain will become wired around hypervigilance. They will become overly reactive to perceived threats and stressful situations, disrupting their developmental processes, delaying learning, and reducing their ability to regulate their emotions and behaviours (Zilberstein 2014). Many of these children will experience high levels of psychological, emotional and behavioural problems in resettlement (Bronstein & Montgomery 2011). This article discusses presentations of aggressive behaviour in young children from refugee backgrounds and explores the way one teacher created a safe, stable environment for a four-year-old boy, serving to interrupt a potential cycle of violence. All names used are pseudonyms.