Supporting our Traumatized Students

I spent part of my Friday with the team of counselors from my school district. We've been watching a video series by Dr. Bruce Perry, which explores the brain science and impact of trauma on children, and offers strategies and approaches to support these learners.

I walked away from the conversation with the same sense I always get when immersed in conversation about a particular population of students.  Learners who are impacted by trauma definitely need us to be sensitive to their individual needs, and to be thoughtful in our approaches for providing them support - but these approaches aren't dramatically different from interventions that other students need.  Dr. Parry isn't advocating for something really out-there or complicated, beyond the support we provide for other kids in our classrooms.  This isn't to say that intensive, clinical support is needed by many children who've experienced trauma.  What I am saying is that the approaches in a classroom setting are the same as approaches which support many of our other kids. It's just that our learners who've been impacted by traumatic experiences will need them more.

Dr. Perry shared some bits of background information that have anchored my thinking.

1.   Our brains are designed to deal with survival first.  

Dr. Perry shares this diagram of brain function.  We work from the brain-stem up.  People who've experienced significant trauma, literally do not develop the neural networks in the other areas of the brain which will help them to reason, problem solve, develop healthy attachments, etc.  Our work with these learners necessarily has to focus on creating safety and acceptance, and recognize that it's not that they won't interact and problem solve the way we would like them to, they really can't.

2.   Our responses are shaped by the templates of earlier experiences in our brains.  

Every bit of learning we do is processed in the context of the learning that came before it.  We expect the stove top to heat up when we turn the dial because we've seen it happen before.  We know we will feel cold without a coat in the winter because we've shivered every time we popped outside poorly dressed in years gone by.  And, if in the past, quiet redirection has immediately escalated to yelling or physical injury at because we didn't quite get off the slide fast enough or asked an innocent question at bed time, we expect adults at school who quietly redirect us or use a stern tone of voice will hurt us too.

It's the same for touch.  If being slapped or shoved has been the norm for someone at home or in the community, their brains will tell them that's what's coming in other environments too.  They may not be shrugging us off because they're trying to get away from us or avoid work, or shoving a peer because they're trying to pick a fight.  For traumatized students, it's very possible these reactions are an autonomous, self-protective response that occurs before they've even processed what's happened.

Not on purpose...but because the template in their brain-stem causes them to react long before other areas of their brain can get involved.  We don't have to wait to process that the stove will burn us.  We react instantaneously to pull our hands away because we just know.

By age 6, we'll have 95% of our adult brain mass and initial neural networks.  That's a lot of patterning that needs changing if there has been significant early trauma, even if the trauma has been over for some time.  What looks innocent or inconsequential to us may elicit strong reactions in our students, because our students' reactions aren't only based on their interactions with us.  They're based on the templates created by the life experiences that have come before.


3.  Trauma responses can look like hyper-arousal, or can be dis-associative.

While harder to deal with in the moment, it's easier for us to "notice" a child who is angry or reactive all the time.  It's more difficult to recognize that the learner who is sitting in his or her seat passively may also be triggered by a traumatic response.  "Checking out" is a coping strategy that helps to numb the feelings of fear and stress.  Additionally, many children who've experienced trauma aren't checked-out at all - they're actually totally checked in- but their focus is not on what we expect.  While teachers and other learners are thinking about the content of a lesson or discussion, a traumatized learner might be intensely focused on the sounds in the hallway, or the movement in a cloakroom, or have "spidey senses" tingling because someone is moving around behind them.  It's not that they're not paying attention.  It's that experience has taught them that it's more important for their radars to be "tuned in" to potential dangers in their environment than it is to a discussion about chapter 4 of a novel..

So what can we do?  Like so many other aspects of learning -  it comes down to relationships.  If we respect our students' early childhood expediences, and we know that the impact of trauma can last for many, many years even after the experiences are well over, and we know that the human brain has an amazing capacity to heal and grow in the right environment....then we will intuitively know that it all comes down to relationships.

As educators, the best thing we can do for traumatized students is care about them. We can begin by assuming that our learners give us the best that they have to offer in the moment, and that focusing on their strengths, on the things we want to see, will help them to build patterns of success, and help to erase the things that hurt.  We can understand that they're not reactive, or not completing assignments, on purpose to hurt us, or because they don't care.  They're not being lazy or combative.  They're simply using the tools they have available to them in order to cope with what they've experienced in the past.

Just like our students, we won't get it right every day.  We're shaped by our experiences the same as they are.  But if we start from a place of caring and understanding, we'll get it right more often. Traumatized learners can come a long way in a short period of time when surrounded by the care and acceptance they need.  And isn't this something that we want for All Our Kids?

Helpful links on Trauma:

Articles on Core Strengths of Supporting Students with Trauma
http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/

Article:  Maltreatment and the Developing Child
https://childtrauma.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/McCainLecture_Perry.pdf

            Dr. Bruce Perry - Handout for Caregivers

                                                      https://tinyurl.com/jrfj7s4

                                                      Child Trauma Academy - articles and resources

                                                      http://childtrauma.org/cta-library/

Trauma and Resiliency....at school

Over the past few months, I've found myself in a number of problem solving situations with school teams where we've sought ways to support learners who experience, or have experienced, ongoing trauma in their lives.

Knowing a student you care about is experiencing ongoing trauma is upsetting, and steps towards healing can be small.  I've been doing some reading and reflecting about how to help, and have come across some useful perspectives and resources. 

While I definitely don't have all the answers, I have learned a few things over the past while:

1.  Trauma responses are not the same as "poor choices" or "bad behaviour."

Kristin Souers and Pete Hall say it well in their book Fostering Resilient Learners-  they argue that the observable negative behaviours of a child experiencing trauma are "not an intentional attempt to hurt others; rather, it is the best tool they've got to manage the intensity of their reality"  (p. 56).   Souers and Hall go on to say that "these children aren't seeking attention (even though they will settle for it).  They are looking for a safe and trustworthy relationship (connection)" (p.93)

Ross Greene describes this as "lagging skills."  If we begin from a premise of "this child can't" as opposed to "this child won't,"  it shifts the whole conversation.


2.  What we say and do matters.   A lot. 

Think about frog ponds.  If environmentalists are concerned because the frogs in a pond are sick, and are not doing "frog things,"  we don't start by trying to fix the frogs. We start by looking at what is going on with the pond.   If we are going to support a child who has experienced significant trauma, we need to look at the environment surrounding this learner.  The school environment is the only one we have control over.  Traumatized children need to be surrounded by safety, empathy, and predictable structures.  They need to know we care and are in their corner, before any other strategies will work.

3.  Traumatized children need us to model healthy ways to respond. 

I've tried my hand at an infographic illustrating some of Souers' and Hall's suggestions.

(Click to enlarge)

4.  It's not about me.  (But it can feel like it sometimes). 

It's sometimes very challenging to move from a place where we're considering the "triggers" and "consequences,"  to a lens of empathy and support for some difficulties that are beyond the student's control.  It's hard not to take it personally when you feel like a target.

Using a structured approach to communication and resolution can help.

5.  I'm not a counselor, but I know lots of smart people who are. 

We've all heard the saying "it takes a village to raise a child."  It really does.  Where situations are layered and ongoing, our best way forward is together.  The situations that have had the best results have involved school and community partners working together, Integrated Case Management meetings where we put our heads together, and share what we know.  Going it alone is too tough, and someone with expertise in trauma informed practice is needed to create sustainable, proactive support structures.  After all, They're All Our Kids.

Thinking Critically About Classrooms

If you've been glancing at what I've been reading at all, you'll see I've been reflecting on the most recent offering of Roland Case and Garfield Gini-Newman from the Critical Thinking Consortium- titled Creating Thinking Classrooms.

I was lucky enough this past week to spend a day with Roland Case at our administrators' annual retreat, where we explored ways and reasons to shift traditional lesson structures and provide more differentiated, inclusive, engaging ways to help our students learn to problem-solve and to think critically.  Roland really put us through our paces-  challenging us to personally experience some of the lessons he's used with students in classrooms, and to think about ways to ask really good questions of our students-  the type of questions that help them to reflect, synthesize, make connections-  really learn to be learners, and not just learn to provide right answers.

In his book, Roland states that "many existing practices and the proposals for new practices will succeed only if they embody powerful principles of effective teaching and learning."  Case argues that the key areas to address are to:
-  engage students
-  sustain inquiry
-  nurture self-regulated learners
-  create assessment-rich learning
-  enhance learning through digital technology.

When I reflect on these principles through the lens of inclusion, I can't find one thing on the list that isn't a critical piece of planning for our more complex students.  It's certainly the list I hope teachers are thinking about when planning things for my own children at their school.

I had an opportunity to chat with one of our district's learning services teachers about a student who is really struggling with the math curriculum this year.  He was concerned not only about her progress with mathematics, but about the fact that, even in a heavily adapted environment, the material was still out of reach for her a lot of the time, and that she had left class that day in tears.

We brainstormed a little about ways that the current day's lesson could be adapted for next time, and I think we have a plan for the next little bit-  but we were both aware that something more radically different than just tweaked assignments is needed for this student to have success.

That conversation led me back to some of the activities that we worked through with Roland.  In particular, we worked on a line graph assignment where we were asked to set our own parameters for the axis, and then draw a line which told a story where we travelled a distance over time.  Some of us got going right away, most of us needed his example to get started, a few of us needed a bit of coaching from a peer or from Roland personally.  All of us had to really think about what we were doing, and then reflect on our choices critically in order to see if the story our partner was suggesting  was accurate.  I personally thought I had it, drew a line quickly, then scribbled a bunch of changes while talking to my partner and finally, went back to where I started as I talked it through and my understanding deepened.  If it had been a worksheet, or less open ended, I would have ended with the first drawing, and missed the best part of my thinking.

So...back to the challenge of supporting the young lady in her math class.  If I think about her experience in terms of Roland's principles, the path becomes clearer for me.  At the moment, she's engaged.  That's where her frustration is coming from.  She desperately wants to be successful, but is not yet able to sustain her inquiry because we're asking questions she's not confidently or comfortably able to explore.  We need to reframe things in an open-ended way to allow her to enter the conversation from the place she's currently at.  We can only expect her to self-regulate if she has the capacity and confidence to tackle the tasks we offer her.  What kind of assessment can we possibly complete if we're giving her work we already know she can't do before we ask it of her.  We were using calculators for that particular lesson, but we have so many other options as well -  virtual manipulatives (have you peeked at the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives????  Google NLVM if you haven't seen it-  transformed my math classroom, but more on that another day....)-  we could show some video tutorials, or record some examples for her to follow-  all of these are options-  but what's landed as the question for me this week is, "How would Roland do it?" 

I've just been given access to the myriad of resources in the Critical Thinking Consortium's website (http://tc2.ca/). That's where I'm going to start.  I plan to head back to the teacher and see if, together, we can build an open-ended frame for some of the concepts he's planning on tackling in the next little while.  There's no doubt in my mind that what will support this student will support all of the students in this classroom.  If his experience with this type of supported task is anything like mine was last week, the approach will gain momentum quickly.  It feels good to think about things deeply and feel better at it when the assignment's done.    It just makes sense to find things we can all explore together.  A classroom is a community-  and after all, THEY'RE ALL OUR KIDS.