Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Human Arenas, 2026 (ESCI, Scopus)
This article argues that childhood trauma cannot be adequately understood if psychological accessibility is equated too quickly with verbal expressibility. In early childhood, distress does not necessarily first appear as narrative; it may emerge instead as bodily tension, repetition, scene-making, withdrawal, sensory intensity, or symbolic action. From this perspective, the article critiques the language bias that continues to shape parts of trauma theory and proposes a broader account of expression, one that allows difficult experience to become representable before it becomes sayable. Within this framework, sandplay is examined not as a superior treatment method or a magical alternative to language, but as a bounded symbolic medium in which experience may be externalized, spatially configured, and worked on. Particular emphasis is placed on symbolization, symbolic distance, and minimal agency: the child is understood not only as the bearer of distress, but also as the maker, modifier, and observer of a scene. The article further argues that the implications of this perspective should not remain confined to the clinic. Sand-based and materially open symbolic environments may also be reconsidered as part of early childhood care infrastructures, especially in settings shaped by trauma, displacement, or limited access to specialized support. The article concludes by outlining the limits of this argument and by calling for a more theoretically and institutionally expansive understanding of childhood distress.