Supporting Early Learners with Trauma-Informed Practice

1. Supporting Early Learners with Trauma-Informed Practice Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Conference 03.27.19

2. Agenda • Opening and Introduction • What is Trauma? • Trauma and the Brain • Trauma and the Classroom Environment • Trauma and Relationships • Trauma and the Teacher • Debrief and Questions

3. Introduction • Nina Leuzzi, Dean of School Culture and Community, Bridge Boston Charter School • Why talk trauma? • 63% of participants had experienced 1 or more Adverse Childhood Experience. 21% experienced 3 or more, (CDC-Kaiser ACE Study, 1998) • Between half and two-thirds of school-aged children have experienced trauma, (Washington Policy Council, 2009)

4. Trauma is a negative response to an event or series of events that leaves a person unable to cope.

5. Trauma and the Brain • The brain develops from the bottom up, brainstem to cortex • For each of us, our brain’s functioning is a reflection of our experiences. • By age 4, 90% of the brain is already developed. • When a child’s early experiences include trauma and/or neglect, the development of the brain is dramatically altered. Leaving the brain with an overdeveloped brainstem and midbrain. • This results in an overly active and reactive stress response system and a predisposition to aggressiveness and impulsiveness.

6. Hierarchy of Brain Development

7. Window of Tolerance • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcm-1FBrDvU • Discuss • What does this look like in your classroom? • How does the “window of tolerance” look different for different kids? • Talk about fight vs. freeze

8. What Flight, Fight, or Freeze Looks Like in the Classroom

9. Classroom Environment • Teachers can extend those feelings of safety, calm and support just through the physical set-up of their classrooms. • Environments that are conducive to emotionally responsive practice need to: • Have defined areas or centers that contain invitations for expression • Maintain a balance between whole-group areas, and spaces for small groups and individuals to work. • Include a tone that is warm and inviting • Have a space designated for quiet and safe problem solving. • Execute predictable pathways for movement

10. Organization • Classroom walls • Teachers need to maintain a balance of how much of their walls is covered with student work and classroom materials • Classroom walls where every inch is covered would be considered over-stimulating where as barren walls would be under-stimulating. • Centers and Materials • Create predictable spaces that will encourage students to move freely and set a clear use • Centers should support and allow students to employ self-expression and suggest that their social endeavors are valued. • Materials should be organized, clearly marked and be used to help define a centers purpose. • Avoid clutter or creating centers in the classroom where materials are not readily available for use.

11. Lights and Noise • Be mindful about fluorescent lighting, which is not conducive to learning or calming. • If lights are unable to be dimmed, think about using lamps or lighting covers to reduce the florescent glare. • Based on research, sunlight or bulbs with a blue undertone are the best for learning. • Many students who have experienced trauma react negatively to loud noise and sometimes even silence. • Consider noise canceling headphones • Use data to track times when noise may peak and a child is affected.

12. Trauma in Relationships • Preoccupied with their physical and psychological safety and lacking appropriate models, traumatized children may be distrustful of adults and unsure of the security of the school setting in general. • To regain control, they may challenge school personnel or overreact because they misinterpret classroom encounters or directions. • In peer relationships, traumatized children are unable to appreciate clearly who they or others are. Other people are sources of terror of pleasure, but are rarely seen as fellow human beings with their own sets of needs and desires.

13. Creating Relationships • Create Safety to Allow Relationships to Build • Create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment to minimize ambivalence and anxiety • Acceptance • Accept child’s entire self • Help child recognize emotional, social, behavioral difficulties he/she has in a developmentally attuned way • Provide support and nurturing when child is highly distressed • Develop comfort with expression of child’s negative emotions • Foster a sense of relatedness • Avoid battles for control or power in the relationship. • Understand that many of these students are acting due to their “emotional age” rather than their physical age.

14. Creating Relationships 2 • Alliance Formation • Develop a sense of connectedness with child through qualities of commitment, attunement, consistency, etc. • Positive regard for child • Modulating your own emotions and needs (co-regulation) • Correcting the child’s working model • Don’t reject child because of his behavior • Avoid over-emotion, negative or positive • Encourage child to make choices. Engage in activities with the child that allow them to take the lead and make choices to increase his sense of efficacy • Model empathy • Teach problem-solving in relationships • Remember children want, but are afraid of relationships.

15. Creating Relationships 3 • Connectedness • Address child in a personal way, “the power of seven seconds” • Make contact with each child as they enter the room and throughout the day. Studies show that personal touch is the most powerful communicator of warmth. • Recalling and referring to positive experiences that the child has had in the classroom • Acknowledging the time that the student and teacher are apart. • “I missed you when you were out, and I am glad that you are back.” • Be available. Find a set time every day, where for five minutes the child is your only focus.

16. Creating Relationships 4 • Physical Objects and Materials • Transitional objects, perhaps given or introduced to by the teacher • Photographs • Emotionality • Express a range of genuine emotions without being scary or overwhelming • Provide a commentary on feelings • Tuning in to the child’s signals and anticipate moments when they feel stress • Monitor non-verbal cues that you may project, such as: eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, body language, pace, timing and intensity. • Try to understand and address the feelings behind the behaviors before consequences.

17. Teaching and Trauma • Tone and Language • Includes: choices, acknowledgements • Classroom Management • Includes: transitions, routines, expectations and rules • Community Building • Includes: rules creation and teaching, community meetings (morning meetings), relationship building among peers, accountability • Discipline and Consequences • Includes: Logical consequences, calm down versus time out, break it and fix it • Ask the “right” questions

18. Tone and Body Language • Teachers should remain quiet, present and authentic • Keep questions clear • Slow yourself down. Talk slower, move slower, when in direct conversation with the child. • Watch the tone and speed of your voice/words • Children with trauma are hypersensitive to facial expressions, volume of voice, tone, etc. • They pick up on stress-related behaviors. • Avoid ever standing over a student or invading their personal space • Always go down to students eye level or below to reduce feelings of threat

19. Choices • Children who have experienced trauma often struggle with control. • Popular choices: seating, work activities, transition time, location of their personal belongings • Keep the choices consistent (kinds or number). For example, if a child has choices of where to sit, those choices don’t change within different activities. Or if a child has three choices of work, always give them three choices. • Make sure the choices you give are still ones that you are okay with the child choosing.

20. Acknowledgements • Praise versus Acknowledgements • Refrain from the use of “good job” • Rather employ the use of phrases such as: • I noticed… • I see... • Labeling the behavior or skill that the student did without attaching feeling or judgment. • “I noticed you had your eyes on the book during our whole read-aloud” • “You worked really hard and didn’t give up on that test.” • This is imperative for children who do not know that they are valuable or are unaware of their actions.

21. Transitions • Use the same language and expectations during all transitions • Give children with trauma a job or responsibility that they can focus on during a transition. • Use of music and songs are calming to the right brain, where stress resides. • Identify a typical path for a child during a transition that they can follow to avoid uncertainty or disorder. • Prepare children for transitions ahead of time. • Sometimes children with trauma benefit from transitioning early or later than the rest of the class.

22. Behavior Management • Logical Consequences • Calm down versus Time Out • Calm Down or Safe Spaces • Break it, fix it • Peace Paths • Restorative Justice

23. Asking the “Right Questions” • Often, we look to change behavior, but with students who experience trauma, the behaviors we see are not conscious behaviors. Remember, to change the behavior we have to treat or change the feeling that drives it. • Questions to ask: • What is driving the behavior? • What does the child need? • What am I assuming about the behavior? • Is there anything in the environment that could be triggering? • What is the behavior communicating right now? • Are there trends in the behavior?

24. Above All • When teaching and interacting with a child who has experienced trauma, always be asking yourself: • What is the goal? • At this moment. In this interaction. For this time of the day. In this lesson.

25. Trauma Cheat Sheet • Set the tone—you need to use the environment to regulate the brain • Recognize that the child is going into survival mode • Self-regulation through co-regulation • Relationship—not attachment • See the NEED, behind the behavior • All behavior is communication!