Trauma Supportive Practices in the Classroom

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Understanding trauma is about changing the helping paradigm from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

Student exposure to trauma has been an issue that tends to be ignored in the classroom.  With recent studies, an estimated that half of the students in America have witnessed at least one or more serious types of traumatic events in their childhood, that's around 35 million children.  This plays a negative role in the child's brain development as well as the student's ability and success in the classroom.  If left untreated, the chances of that student developing severe mental and health problems increases dramatically.  Acknowledging the presence of trauma in your classroom, and working together with your school and community resources will give the students the skills and resources to succeeded a create a more positive school environment.  

FPL is an abbreviation for "federal poverty level." A family of four at 400% FPL would be considered making around $94,000 a year. A child in a family making the current poverty level, which is around $23,000, is more likely to experience trauma.

Neglect makes up the majority of maltreatment against children which can contribute to childhood trauma. Neglect can include physical, medical, educational, or emotional neglect.

Creating a Trauma Sensitive Classroom

The first step in creating a trauma sensitive classroom is forcing a shift in your thought processes behind a students behavior.  Instead of focusing on individual behaviors, ask yourself what happened to this child to cause the behaviors to occur. Understanding the whole child is key in building a positive relationship and working together with the family and community to support the child.  Key strategies and implementations that can be transferred to your classroom include:

• Recognize and understand the symptoms that the child shows as a result of his/her trauma 
• Ask questions to parents and administrators to develop a deeper understanding of the students trauma
• Reach out to school and/or community resources to seek assistance for the student and family, for example in school counseling, housing assistance, family counseling, domestic abuse resources and help
• Offer choices and frequent positive praise 
• Constant check-ins which opens up a dialogue allowing the student to discuss issues
• Avoid punishments that result in rejection
• The behaviors are a result of where the student is emotionally and consider that when administering discipline  
• If applicable implement a school wide positive behavior supports 
• Teach and model deescalation techniques 
• Create a consistent and safe environment  

"Relationship is the evidence based practice" - Dr. Allison Jackson 

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Samantha Sinotte
​August 2017

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Traumatic events include:

• Exposure or direct sexual/physical ​​abuse
  
• Neglect
• Violence
• Poverty
• Bullying
• Constant displacement 
• Emotional abuse 
• Accidents
• Medical Crisis 
• Other specific incidents or events that cause emotional or physical psychological  harm 

Trauma in the classroom looks like:

• Inability to self regulate
  
• Struggle academically and emotionally 
• Negative self worth​
• Delayed coping skills 
• Extreme switch in behaviors
• Difficulty forming relationships
• Academic and behavioral regression

Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CBI) 

Students who face traumatic events in their life are more likely to experience behavioral concerns in school.  Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CBI) is a research based approach to help students begin controlling their own behaviors rather than introducing external rewards or enforcing punishments to teach correct behaviors.  Students are taught how to use their inner voice, or "self talk" in order to solve a problem or prevent themselves from getting upset.  The focus of CBI is to shift the students from focusing on "what to think" to "how to think" and how they can use their own thinking strategies to calm themselves down.  Teachers can teach these skills through modeling and role playing appropriate behaviors and interactions between peers, positive reinforcement and feedback when a student appropriately attempts to solve a problem independently, teaching specific deescalation and calming techniques, and thinking aloud during a problem.

Successful steps for CBI include:

1. Think before acting
2. Distinguish the problem
3. Determine solutions
4. Identify consequences for each solution
5. Pick a solution and follow it  

 For example:
                                   
John pushes Thomas during a game of basketball at recess.  At the beginning of the year, Thomas                                               would have pushed him back, causing both students to get more upset.  Now, through CBI, and teacher               
modeling how to appropriately handle a problem, Thomas is able to be aware that he is upset and he                                             decides to take a breath to calm himself down first.  He then tells John that he does not like when he                                             pushes him, and John does not push him again.        

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Calm down cards allow younger students to visually see choices and techniques they can use to help calm themselves down.

Agencies and Resources
for Educators and Parents