ABSTRACT
Violence in our society affects even the youngest children far too often, sometimes even occurring in their own homes where they expect and deserve to be protected. Even so, many people have difficulty thinking about infants and toddlers being affected as victims and or even as witnesses to violence. We would like to think that infants and toddlers are so young that they do not understand or are unaffected by the violence that they see, hear, or feel. The situation may be further complicated by the fact that infants and young children who are exposed to violence have no voice and have to depend on adults to take care of them and to speak for them. While young children are sometimes victimized by violence, there is also a risk if they are exposed to too much violence, that they lose the ability to empathize with the victims. In fact, infants and toddlers, even when they do not understand the experience of violence, do remember it. Therefore, it is important that we pay attention to their feelings and behaviors. Caregivers have a responsibility to help infants and young children comprehend the meaning of violence, especially since they do not have language to help them organize their experience and express their feelings. While we cannot prevent infants and toddlers from being exposed to violence either in violent neighborhoods or in their homes, we can certainly help protect them, nurture them, keep their hopes alive, and care for them. In this chapter, I will discuss what is known about the effects of exposure to violence on young children and then discuss prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies for infants and toddlers who have been exposed to violence.
