As a society, we are becoming more aware of trauma, and are beginning to realise how common it is among children and youth today.
As educators, we may not always know the difficult situations our students may be exposed to outside the school environment, or the challenges they come to school with. Therefore, responding in a trauma-informed way to all students can help create a safe environment for them to learn and thrive in, and may be especially necessary for those affected by crisis and traumatic events.
This section contains information related to helping schools become more trauma sensitive. It is organised into three broad categories (Thomas, Crosby, & Vanderhaar, 2019):
Being trauma-informed means understanding childhood trauma, and how it can impact on learning and development.
When a person feels intensely threatened by an event he or she is involved in or witnesses, we call that event a trauma (National Child Traumatic Stress Network). The importance of the personal experience in determining whether or not an event is traumatic to a person, is an important first principle in understanding trauma. The role of this subjective personal experience explains why we often see differences in individual reactions when several people are exposed to a similar event. Experiences like abuse, death or loss of a loved one, accidents, and bullying are events that children (and even adults!) may find traumatic. For more examples of traumatic events, navigate to the About Trauma section.
Another important principle in understanding trauma, is that trauma reactions, are the body’s adaptive response to situations of danger and threat. However, when a person continues to feel a lack of sense of safety even after the threatening event is long gone, or consistently experiences worries about their sense of safety due to exposure to danger/threat on a regular basis, their trauma reactions start to take a toll on their physical health and emotional and mental well-being, and impacts the way they think, feel, behave, and interact with others.
When there is a continued sense of lack of safety, the body’s resources become allocated for survival and the monitoring of safety and danger, and there is reduced capacity for the brain to engage in activities of curiosity and exploration that lead to learning and growth. For a student, this means having less resources to engage in classroom learning and class participation.
For more information about this, please refer to this video.
Other resources on how trauma can affect the brain can be found here and here as well!
Language shapes thought. When we start to change the language we use to understand traumatised children, we also start to approach our students from a different place and relate to them in a different way. When we begin our approach from curiosity and empathy (e.g. “What happened to you?”), it opens up the space for dialogue and understanding, so we can determine the next steps of action in terms of identifying needs and relevant school supports.
We already know that trauma-related difficulties result from experiencing something that is intensely threatening. This means that the experience of safety for traumatised children is compromised, especially for children who have experienced a lack of safety in relationships (such as in the context of abuse). That is why a major resource (and priority) in the journey of healing for any child is to enhance their sense of safety in the present.
The best thing you can do as an educator, is to continue what you have already been doing in your role as an educator. Routine and predictability in familiar environments with familiar adults can help encourage a sense safety for students who experience chaos and a lack of a sense of control as a result of a crisis or traumatic event. Find out more on how you can do so for preschoolers and children and teens.
However, do keep a look out for possible trauma reactions, and how they may affect your student and classroom learning and behaviours, and be prepared to refer students for further assistance if required.
Some things you can do as an educator after your student experiences a traumatic event include:
Routines and structure
Set clear limits/expectations of behavior
Create opportunities to make choices where appropriate.
Managing environmental triggers or transitions
Teachers are human too, and it is only natural that teachers become affected (and sometimes very distressed!) by the stories they hear from their students.
A teacher’s reactions may be complicated by some of the following as well:
It can also be especially hard for teachers if the crisis or trauma happens in school, and they need to juggle between managing their own trauma reactions, whilst tending to the needs of students under their care. Compassion fatigue can sometimes come in, when the cost of caring for others becomes overwhelming.
Sometimes, the impact on teachers can be significant, affecting the ability for teachers to engage in their daily routine and tasks at work and at home, and in their relationships with significant others. The red flags that we look out for in students, would also be relevant to teachers.
There are many good resources available on self-care for persons responding to traumatised children. You may start here at our Self-Care for Professionals section.
Teacher distress and reactions are not a sign of weakness. They are a cost of caring for others. When things become too much for one to bear, it is natural to seek additional support. You are not alone. It is human to have needs, worries, and fears, and it is ok to take time to address them.
References
Thomas, M. S., Crosby, S., & Vanderhaar, J. (2019). Trauma-informed Practices in Schools Across Two Decades: An Interdiscplinary Review of Research. Review of Research in Education, 43, 422-452. DOI: 10.3102/0091732X18821123
NCTSN. https://www.nctsn.org/resources/child-trauma-toolkit-educators
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