Fortunately, children's healing capacity is far more vigorous than that of older people, so we can rely on the superior recuperative powers of youth in the process of healing. One unfortunate result of injury is children's first realization that Mommy and Daddy can't protect them from the world and that bad and sad things can happen. For children these discoveries can be deeply disturbing. Sometimes following injury the child's need for psychotherapy is ignored, and the physical dimensions are addressed in the hope that this will suffice. Six weeks later, the nightmares have become so bad that they disrupt sleep, the child doesn't want to go to school and is clinging to parents, and it takes much longer for psychotherapy to effectively resolve the distress.
Neglect make things worse.
Following trauma there is often regression, not only with children but also with adults. Part of recovery is to allow for that regression, to meet those strong needs until the child is able to feel safe again and begin to progress. Parents of injured children may need to let them know, for instance, that it's okay to come and sleep in their bed for a while, until they feel safe again. Remember that children often don't have the vocabulary to explain their pain in the way adults do. Parents' reports add important information to the broader picture of how a child is living life.