Cleo Smith's classmates are ready to welcome her back to school whenever she's ready.
The day after the four-year-old was found in a house in Carnarvon, ABC News spoke to parents of children at the school Cleo attends in the town.
After two and a half weeks of sadness and fear in the wake of her disappearance, the mood suddenly shifted to joy on Wednesday morning when WA Police revealed she had been rescued.
"When Cleo came back it was really overwhelming. Very happy," said Joseph Nguyen, the father of a child at Cleo's school.
He said his kids had been concerned, just like the adults.
"The town is just like a whole family. To us everyone in town is family," he said.
"All the children in the class are very happy and waiting for her to come back and she will be very happy as well."
Another parent, Denim French, said there was a great feeling of relief when Cleo was found, but explaining it to the kids was "a bit awkward".
He said he was focusing on the positives of her return, rather than the terror of her being taken.
"Just such a big relief. It has been great," he said.
"For the community to feel whole again, to have that worry — it was a really tough couple of weeks — so I think everyone is very buoyant now."
Yen Trieu said her daughter in year 6 broke the good news to her.
"I cried a lot yesterday because we heard the news early," she said.
'Highly traumatic' event
Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro told ABC News four-year-olds are "aware of their surroundings and closely bonded to their parents," despite being at an early stage in their development.
"My observations of this family is that it is a very loving, well bonded and caring family. So for her to be whisked away in the middle of the night and put in a strange environment I can only imagine would have been highly traumatic for her," he said.
News of Cleo Smith's rescue has been met with elation in her local community, but Mr Watson-Munro said her 18-day disappearance could have traumatised parents of young children.
"I think we were all hoping for the best and fearing for the worst for this child, and when news came through that she was safe, I think the nation was united in its joy," Mr Watson-Munro said.
How do parents tell their children?
Mr Watson-Munro said parents should try to explain Cleo Smith's disappearance to their children in an age-appropriate way.
"The conversation you may have with a teenager would be different to an infant or a four-year-old, or a pre-adolescent child."
Having worked on high-profile cases since the 1980s, Mr Watson-Munro said he understood the "vicarious trauma" felt by communities.
"[Parents] would have been very concerned about an uncharged potential offender in their community," he said.
"I would imagine that at least [now that] someone has now been arrested … [that] that sense of insecurity, the threat to their safety, for the time being is gone.
He said it was important for locals to continue their support for Cleo Smith's family, now that she has been found.
"During the period of the traumatic event there is a lot of press attention, police attention, great support from the community. But then, when the case is solved, it drops away very quickly, and people can feel very isolated and abandoned," he said.
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