Many of our educators have had some training on ACEs. This study does an excellent job of helping educators understand the long-term implications of trauma. We understand how and why trauma impacts children. In addition, we understand that without responsive systems, interventions, and interactions, the long term impact of trauma on a child has tremendous costly implications to the individual, their family, and society.  A frequent question from educators is “so what do I do about it?” Educators want to help; they want to bring children forward. That is why they became educators. They have to be trained in very specific techniques and strategies that assist children who have been traumatized. It is not enough just to know that trauma has impact, we understand that. It is not enough to know about the limbic system and that the flight, fight, freeze response exists, we understand that.  We have to know how we position ourselves to be an effective responder, and implement systems that assist children impacted by trauma.

How Do I Respond to Explosive Behavior?

The best thing adults can do around children that dysregulate easily is be masterful in the management of your own emotional state and create a culture of calm.   One must ensure that their face or body does not actually reinforce dysregulation.  Only seven percent of communication is words.  What remains is nonverbals such as the look on our face and the tone of our voice. When children are dysregulated at a high level, and operating within the limbic system of their brain, we must keep in mind that the limbic system of the brain has no language.  Therefore, children are reading nonverbals and will respond to the definition they give to what they see.  Adults have to be very purposeful in their ability to manage what a child sees.  In addition, we must maintain an awareness of who else is observing the situation.  As the manager of the space, adults need to show other students that the adult can manage the situation, and the adult can manage their own emotions.  We must model the skills we want to teach so kids can observe and practice.

What About the Impact on the Other Kids?

When dysregulated children learn to regulate their emotions, it helps all children. It is hard for other kids to see children that struggle to regulate their emotions or their physicality. Sometimes our children are exposed to big displays of behavior that are hard to watch, or hear, or be around.  Kids who see these sorts of things from other children want that child to be okay. They do not want them to experience what they are experiencing. They want them to feel better. Kids understand that there are adults in schools whose roles are different from classroom staff, that some adults help kids outside of the classroom, and that is okay. Teachers can learn to normalize through language that does not shame or blame children that struggle. The teachers understand that they need to learn a new set of skills and that is what schools do. We teach kids new skills.

For more information on Teach to Heal, please click here to contact Teach to Heal team.

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There are adults in our schools who believe these are just naughty children who should be punished to correct their behavior.  Yet we know that compliance is the most ineffective response for children who have experienced trauma and have difficulty trusting adults. We also know that consequences are the least effective response when trying to teach children new skills. We cannot punish new skills into children. We have to change the way we see who we serve,  so we can reach them and teach them.  Adults need to be trained in a different paradigm to make this happen.

Trauma responsive schools are aware of the impact of trauma on children. They acknowledge that they cannot educate as they always have due to what we know about trauma: how it impacts the brain, how children perceive adults and adult managed places, why children display the things they do, and the impact trauma has on learning. A trauma responsive school will not blame children for showing us that they dysregulate easily. A trauma responsive school will not support adults who want to punish this away.  Schools must teach and normalize regulation while offering consistent opportunities to observe and practice it.  Kids can then  demonstrate what they have learned.

Is it a Skill Deficit, or Choice?

If a child was struggling to learn to read, we would find another way to assist them in reading. When children dysregulate, we teach them regulatory skills.  This is a skill deficit; it is not about choice.  Social emotional learning is an imperative part of educating young human beings.  It should be prioritized as high as reading, writing, and math.  In addition, children have to believe that the adults want them to be successful. A compliance mindset is not helpful for children who display maladaptive behaviors. These children need to believe that the adult interacting with them wants them to be successful, can move past the things the child displays, and stay present with them in a  nonjudgmental state of mind. If we want kids to take risks and try new ways of managing themselves, they have to believe that we want what is best for them and we are not going to demand it out of them. We are going to meet them where they are, move with them at their pace, and walk forward together.

Aggression, a Dangerous Word

Aggression is a word we should use with significant caution when applying it to what children do.  An adult may define something a child displays as aggressive, whereas another adult may find the behavior to simply be loud, or in motion. This is a term, and a label, that can follow a child far beyond the situation.  Children should never be defined by something they displayed in a moment in time.  Kids are trying to get their needs met, and at times communicate their needs through maladaptive behavior.  This is a skill deficit; this is not about children purposely trying to be naughty.  It is about not having the skills to regulate themselves.

Child behavior exists on a continuum from nonverbal things like posturing (using the body or face to try to manage the person/ situation), to significant property damage and/or harm to others.  Children have varying experiences and behaviors modeled for them by different people in different settings. Kids may think that it is not aggressive until there is hitting, or something is broken. An adult might think it is aggressive when the child is raising their voice, or swearing.  It is important that adults who serve vulnerable children understand their own definitions of aggression.  That definition, and corresponding perception, will guide the language adults use to describe what children do.  We better serve children when we state what the display looked like, sounded like, and how it moved, to determine the most appropriate response to assist in teaching new skills.

For more information on Teach to Heal, please click here to contact Teach to Heal team.

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Violence in and of itself comes from people who are in a dysregulated state.  This is vastly different in children, than adults. There are significant differences in the ability to manage what adults are thinking about, and their emotional response to what they are thinking about. Children are very much led by strong emotions which interfere with rational thought.  Adults, with healthy frontal lobe development, have additional cognitive capacities to manage their emotions, and outward expressions of their emotions, and corresponding thoughts.  School violence is different than typical community violence, adult violence, or violence in prisons.  When children are displaying violent behavior, there is significant hope for change as their brains are still forming. We have the capacity to be proactive and intervene in a way that will hopefully stop violent tendencies from continuing or worsening.

Trauma Responsive Schools Reduce Aggression

Adults who understand the impact of trauma on children can purposefully create a culture of calm, inclusive of nonjudgmental thinkers, which establishes an environment where property damage and harm is reduced.  We can assist adults in the creation of a culture that is so soothing, that presenting big, loud, physical displays does not fit. When teams of adults choose to create a soothing environment for children who have experienced trauma, the children can take risks. They can take risks to not display the defensive things they have done, the ways they have tried to manage the environment, and the ways they have tried to manage adults. They can slowly let some of those things go and start engaging with the adults, and in classrooms, and in learning.

Trauma Responsive Schools Reduce School Violence

Adults need to understand why children display physicality, aggression, or property damage. When we understand where that comes from within the brain, we are able to slow that process down so the child can get out of the limbic system and the corresponding emergent response.  With proper training and interventions, children can learn to slow down their emotional state, identify what they perceive to be true in the moment, move forward through rational thought and insight on their impact, and make a choice on how to proceed. We can teach kids how to manage some of that internal dialogue that results in them feeling like their only option is to be physical, violent, or aggressive.

Proactive Practices to Prevent School Violence

If we want to prevent school violence, we have to understand where violence comes from. We have to understand what would position a child in a place where they feel their only option is to be physical with the person or the property that is in front of them. When children have such fear inside of them that they believe they have to manage places like schools, or manage people like teachers and administrators, we must assist them in resolving the fear.  When we understand a child’s perception, through the implementation of proper interventions with fidelity, we can slow their display down.  We can work to guide the student to the realization that there may not be the same level of risk at school, than they have experienced with other people and places in the past.

We also have to teach adults not to establish a defensive response when a child is displaying maladaptive things that may elicit an emotional reaction.  Children may be using language that is not pleasant such as swearing or name calling.  They might even become physical with property or people.  We must get adults to understand that all of that is in an attempt to try to manage the adult or the situation.  We must seek to understand where that is coming from and what needs it serves for the child. When we understand that it is not personal, and it has nothing to do with us, then we use our energy to better position ourselves to support the needed skills of that child. At that point, we can truly assist the child and we can ALL move forward.

For more information on Teach to Heal, please click here to contact Teach to Heal team.

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Children who have experienced trauma exist in every school across America.  According to the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention 25% to 30% of children experience trauma. We must understand that in adult-managed places, like schools, there are children who do not trust the guidance of adults. This is not because of anything the school staff have created.  A perception is formed over time based on the experiences that children have through adults. We have to teach adults how to make necessary adjustments, so that children can increase their capacity to tolerate their guidance.

From Trauma-Sensitive to Trauma-Informed to Trauma Responsive Schools

Trauma sensitive means that we are aware and we have some compassion and empathy about the impact of trauma. Trauma-informed means that we are going to take the time to be trained to inform and modify our practice as an educator. Trauma responsive means application and implementation holistically across our school culture. It will be part of the paradigm, the lens, through which our staff see the children we serve.  All these elements are necessary to change the paradigm of how we support and educate our children in schools.

Is it Trauma, Mental Health, or Behavior?

Traumatic experiences can result in maladaptive behavior patterns and mental health diagnoses later in life.  Some of the symptomology associated with certain diagnoses are the result of the impact of trauma.  Therefore trauma, mental health issues, and behavioral displays exist on a continuum.  They are interconnected and continuously impact each other. Children come to us with one brain, and we must address all areas of need holistically.

Trauma Responsiveness is a School Responsibility

Trauma is an experience defined as negative, that exists over time, without the option of avoiding it, with no apparent relief in sight. Trauma has long-term impacts on what children perceive to be possible through the management and guidance of adults. A trauma responsive school embraces the fact that schools have the opportunity, as a platform that serves children, to model interactions that do not mirror what children have experienced with other adults in their lives; to build systems that assist children in learning a new way of interacting with adults that is not inclusive of fear. 

Schools Must be a Safe Place From Community Violence

The research on the impact of violent communities and corresponding post-traumatic stress disorder is clear.  Children experience a constant level of stress wondering not if, but when, a violent incident will occur.  This is a very traumatic set of circumstances for children, particularly if it is the community they live in, the home they live in, or both.  That is why schools need to be a place where children feel safe.  A platform where nurturing opportunities and experiences are purposely practiced and modeled that create new possibilities and pathways.

For more information on Teach to Heal, please click here to contact Teach to Heal team.

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