ABSTRACT
Introduction Children are a vulnerable population with legal, physiological, and mental constraints. Crises are sudden, unplanned, high-stakes events, containing significant amounts of novelty requiring urgent action (personal communication, Arnold M. Howitt). Children may represent a major portion of “novelty” that can overwhelm an ill-prepared system because pre-defined plans may be counterproductive. In addition, disaster plans that fail to account for the variability that children pose to any response algorithm may be doomed to failure because these plans will not account for the increased resources required to adapt to a crisis. For instance a physically intact toddler who witnessed an explosion or some other horrific terrorist attack may exhibit stress responses that range from crying to silence to restlessness. Even if the caretaker recognizes these behaviors as part of the stress response, the fact remains that the caretaker is responsible for watching and monitoring the unaccompanied child.
