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“It’s to help kids like that that Brannan and her volunteers put together an informational packet on secondary trauma for parents to give to teachers, explaining their battle-worthy idiosyncrasies and sensory-processing sensitivities.”
-Brannan feels that PTSD can cause serious trauma to those that are around people suffering.
-This claim would be more effective if it explained the packet and why people needed to read it
2.“Brannan gave the packet to Katie’s kindergarten teacher, but thinks the teacher just saw it as an excuse for bad behavior.”
-Not all of the population is aware of PTSD and they do not understand the severity of it because they have not directly seen someone suffering.
-Katie’s teacher doesn’t think that her thoughts and behaviors should be effected by her fathers PTSD
-PTSD does not only effect the person suffering, it can also effect their family and friends
This claim would be more effective if it detailed what specific behavior or the teacher’s point of view about Katie
3. Though Brannan hopes Katie will come out of childhood healthy, she still says, “She’s not a normal kid. She does things, and says things. She’s a grown-up in a six-year-old’s body in a lot of ways.”
-There is proof that a child growing up with someone that suffers from PTSD can alter their behaviors.
-Children do not understand the world and life as grown adults do, so they can be inappropriate or sound absurd at times.
-Katie’s actions are effected by her parents thoughts and actions, just like every child that has an adult figure in their life.
-What exactly does she say? Does she feel that she is different from her peers?
4. “She certainly looks like a normal kid when she comes down from her room dressed for tap class. In a black leotard, pink tights, and shiny black tap shoes, she looks sweet as pie.”
-Katie participates in normal activities for a child her age
-this shows she does not want to be different, and she enjoys the same things her peers do
-How else is she a normal kid other then going to tap classes?
5. “One time, a bad guy in Iraq had a knife and my dad killed him,” she says, apropos of nothing. “Katie Vines.” Brannan is stern but impeccably patient. She doesn’t know why Katie adapted this story about confiscating a weapon from an insurgent into a story about bloodshed, but she isn’t too happy about it.
-Unknowingly, Katie says things that she doesn’t fully understand and it can be at an inappropriate time.
-Katies mother isn’t happy about stories like this because she worries her daughter will be too different then kids her age and seen as an outcast.
-The claim should not include “Brennan is stern but impeccably patient”. This statement is weak and has no correlation to the prior or following claim.
6. “Katie is sorry—God, is she sorry, you can see it in her face and guilty shoulders, but she seems to feel like she can’t help it”
-When Katie is told what she said or did is unacceptable, she understands that her mother and others are unhappy with her.
-Katie is sad because when she shares things she knows or thinks, she is told it is not okay and doesn’t understand why because her knowledge of the world is not formed yet.
-She cannot differentiate between what is okay and what is not
-This claim is repetitive but it supports the idea that PTSD can have secondary effects on families
Rowan Counterintuitive 