April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Many important conversations this month will focus on what happens after harm occurs. How to recognize it, how to report it, how to respond. These are all critical components in the movement to prevent child abuse.
But prevention doesn’t start there.
At Starting Point, we see prevention beginning much earlier. In everyday moments between adults and children. In how caregivers are supported. In whether people have the tools to understand what a child is really trying to communicate.
Because when adults feel prepared and supported, children are safer from the start.
In the earliest years, children don’t have the language to explain what they need. They communicate through behavior—crying, big emotions, shutting down, even hitting. It can be overwhelming, especially without context. But those moments aren’t about defiance or disrespect. They’re communication.
When adults understand that, their response shifts. Instead of reacting out of frustration, they respond with connection such as soothing, staying present, helping a child regulate. That kind of consistency builds trust and helps children feel safe. Over time, it shapes how they manage emotions and relationships.
Those early relationships matter more than we often realize. They are one of the strongest protective factors against harm. Parents can ensure their child care provider is using these best practices by selecting a licensed, high quality child care site. Why? Because High Quality child care for infants and toddlers will have staff and teachers trained and educated on the best practices to support healthy development in children.
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Prevention means that when children do experience harm, they are met with stability.
For children who have experienced abuse, healing doesn’t happen just because they’ve been removed from a harmful situation. What comes next matters just as much, sometimes more.
A safe, stable, and responsive home environment is one of the strongest predictors of recovery.
Research from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University shows that consistent, supportive relationships with caring adults help buffer the effects of trauma and support healthy brain development. This is especially critical in early childhood, when the brain is still forming the foundations for emotional regulation, learning, and relationships.
Foster Parent Recruitment & Retention
In practice, that means a few things matter most:
Consistency and predictability.
Children who have experienced abuse often live in a constant state of alert. Regular routines like mealtimes, bedtime, and transitions help reduce that stress. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, predictable environments help children begin to feel safe again and reduce anxiety-driven behaviors.
Caregivers who understand trauma.
Behavior after trauma can look confusing or even challenging—withdrawal, aggression, difficulty trusting adults. These are not “bad behaviors.” They are adaptive responses to unsafe environments. Trauma-informed caregiving helps adults respond with patience and understanding instead of punishment, which is key to rebuilding trust.
Strong, responsive relationships.
Healing happens in relationship. When a child experiences a trusted adult who shows up, listens, and responds, it begins to repair what trauma disrupted.
Studies show that even one stable, supportive adult relationship can significantly improve outcomes for children who have experienced abuse, including better emotional regulation and reduced long-term mental health risks (Harvard Center on the Developing Child).
Opportunities to express and process.
Not all children can talk about what they’ve experienced. That’s why approaches like play and art are so important. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that developmentally appropriate, nonverbal forms of expression help children process trauma safely and at their own pace.
Art Therapy Approaches
For some children, especially those who have experienced abuse, healing doesn’t always happen through words.
Even in a safe, supportive home, it can take time for a child to make sense of what they’ve been through. Big emotions don’t always come out clearly—they show up in behavior, in play, in moments that are easy to misunderstand without the right lens.
That’s where approaches like art can make a real difference.
Open-ended art experiences give children a way to express what they can’t yet say. It creates space to process feelings safely, without pressure, and helps restore something trauma often takes away—a sense of control.
Research-backed approaches to trauma recovery emphasize that children need both strong relationships and safe ways to process their experiences. Art becomes one of those tools. It supports regulation, builds trust with caregivers, and gives adults another way to understand what a child is trying to communicate.
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But like anything else, it works best when adults know how to use it intentionally.
That’s why Starting Point offers training designed for the people working closest with children—so they can recognize what they’re seeing and respond in ways that support healing, not shut it down.
This Child Abuse Prevention Month, we’re highlighting two Ohio Approved (OA) trainings: Fostering Resilience Through the Arts in ECE Settings (2 OA hours) and Art as a Coping Tool for Grieving Young Children (3 OA hours), both available in English and Spanish.
Because healing doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in small, supported moments—and adults play a critical role in what those moments become.
