Classroom Strategies For Students Exposed To Trauma

1. Classroom Strategies For Students Exposed To Trauma Jessica Greenwald O’Brien Joel M. Ristuccia c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

2. What Is Trauma ? • Trauma is • Not an event, but a response • To a stressful experience • Where one’s ability to cope is overwhelmed • Trauma overwhelms the ability to adapt and generates feelings of helplessness and terror c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

3. Impact on Brain Development • Brain development is influenced by environmental stimuli. • Traumatic experiences can trigger “fight, flight or freeze” response (e.g., arousal, heart rate, numbing, dissociation—the Limbic System). • Chronic state of fear can impede development of critical brain functions (e.g., memory, language, problem solving, higher order thinking). c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

4. Traumatic Impact – Traumatic Stress • Children with Traumatic Stress are about “Survival-in-the-moment.” Immediate and extreme responses to reminders of the trauma. • “Survival-in-the-moment” is governed by pathways in the BRAIN that appraise threat, sacrifice context for speed of response, make decisions out of consciousness, mobilize the body for fight, flight, freeze • Higher order brain functions are temporarily put on hold when survival is at stake. • This explains many of the experiences, behaviors and symptoms of trauma surviving children. (Saxe, Ellis, Kaplow, 2007, chap. 2)

5. What can be a Trigger? • Sensory Experiences: Sights, sounds, smells, touch, tastes • Emotional Experiences: Anxiety, fear, anticipation of unknown, vulnerability, being overwhelmed, shame, loss • Some triggers are obvious and known to the student. • Some work out of consciousness of the student, and are unobservable to outside persons • Lifelong pattern of responding to triggers, builds on itself and decreases conscious connection

6. Trauma Response: Influencing Factors • Individual Characteristics • Age, developmental stage, history, intelligence, personality, resiliency factors • Environmental Characteristics • Reaction of caregivers, supports, community attitudes, cultural norms • Event Characteristics • Frequency, severity, duration, persistence of threat, proximity to threat c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

7. Potential Impact • Neurological • Hyper arousal, difficulty attending (relevant from irrelevant), difficulty regulating emotions, impaired executive function • Language • Not a medium for social/affective exchange, difficulty expressing feelings, little experience with language as a problem solver • Cognitive Structures • Difficulties with cause/effect relationships, difficulties taking another’s perspective, difficulties organizing narrative material (sequential memory difficulties) c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

8. Resultant Impacts on Learning c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

9. Assumptions For Teaching Strategies Discussion • The impact of trauma on student learning is a school wide issue/Not just a classroom issue • Teacher and classroom strategies are an important and integral part of the response, but not the only response c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

10. School Wide Response • Infrastructure and Culture • Leadership support • Staff Support/Staff Development • Teacher Training and Support • Mental Health Support • Consultation/discussion of issues • Linkages to community resources • Policies, Procedures and Protocols • Confidentiality • Discipline c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

11. Creating an Environment for Learning:In-Class Approaches • Teachers have expertise in conveying content through creative processes. • For trauma kids, we need to focus on getting READY to learn • Sometimes at middle and H.S. levels, youth are expected to have the readiness skills • We bang our heads against the wall teaching when we expect kids to have readiness skills that they don’t. c 2007 Greenwald-O'Brien, Ristuccia

12. Readiness to Learn • Sense of Safety • Managing Feelings • Negotiating the World Around You c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

13. Sense of Safety • A child can sit in his own skin. • Calm, and therefore able to focus • Trusting of people, particularly adults around him. • Having real relationships with key adults. Connection. • Real physical safety. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

14. Sense of Safety - Strategies • Adult Control • Classroom Culture & Values • Ways students treat each other • Ways professionals treat each other • Ways professionals treat students • Values of non-violence, tolerance c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

15. Sense of Safety - Strategies • Predictability • Clear, consistent expectations • Classroom structure • Structured peer interactions • Consistent consequences • Conveying Care & Concern • Safe “Space” c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

16. Identifying and Managing Feelings • Recognizing bodily sensations as emotional indicators. • Having an emotional vocabulary. Communicating feelings. • Coping with arousal level. • Containing it to allow child to focus • Managing it, to avoid hair trigger actions • Managing it, to avoid shut down • Learning to recognize triggers; minimizing them, managing a response to them • Recognizing emotional cues in others. • Making appropriate behavioral choices based on emotional state. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

17. Identifying and Managing Feelings: Strategies • Discovering and avoiding triggers. • Professional self-regulation. • Operate at a feelings level during interactions. Consider underlying vs. surface causes for behavior. • Teach about emotional management. • Relaxation and Calming and Venting techniques. • Coordination among teachers. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

18. Identifying and Managing Feelings: Strategies • Discipline as learning opportunities. • Physical outlets to manage arousal. • Predictability and structure around transitions. • Strategies that focus on positive progress. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

19. Negotiating the World Around You • Personal agency. Sense of competence, confidence, that the child matters and can make things happen. • Social competency and independence. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

20. Negotiating the World Around You: Strategies • Use students’ competence to bridge to areas of difficulty • Social skills teaching strategies. • Leadership, mentoring, coaching opportunities. • Create opportunities for stretch and independence. c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

21. Classroom Tools Summary • Learning Readiness is a key component of classroom success for students impacted by trauma • Readiness is achieved by focusing efforts on • Sense of Safety • Managing Feelings • Negotiating the World Around Us c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia

22. Summary • We are educators, not clinicians • We operate as part of a team and focus on school based issues of relationships, regulation and success • Classroom strategies are best developed within a framework that recognizes the impact of trauma on learning and learning readiness c 2007 Greenwald O'Brien, Ristuccia