By Susan DuFresne.

This is the third post in a series about childhood trauma. In my first post I tell readers how childhood trauma is personal. In the second post, I tell the stories of many voiceless children I have worked to support in my classroom. I question whether school reformers are “safe adults” and introduce the impacts of colonization on children of trauma. I begin to explore new research and introduce the idea of scaling up developing Compassionate Schools vs Test and Punish Schools falsely brought to us under the name “civil rights”. In this third post, I outline specific interventions that have proven effective in my classroom and how as advocates for children of trauma.

As a teacher and victim of childhood trauma, I am hyper-aware of the symptoms of trauma and act as an advocate for these children.  This advocacy sometimes means having very difficult conversations with parents, administration, district officials, school boards, legislators, and reformers. It means being politically active. It means being willing to call CPS. [Child Protective Services -*Note: goes by different names in different states.] Yes, we are mandatory reporters. But, of course not all trauma is from suspected abuse or neglect.

A fellow teacher recently reached out to ask for help support a child in their classroom whose parent died. They heard that I have had some success in supporting children of trauma in my district. It is interesting to note the behaviors of children who experience abuse and children who experience the loss of a parent are often very much the same. The interventions we put in place too, will hold similarities. Yet each child is unique and it is their voices we must listen to. If they are not ready yet to tell us their stories, we must respond by carefully monitoring their non-verbal behaviors.

We must first understand how trauma impacts a child. Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski  explain in their piece “How to Help a Traumatized Child in the Classroom”:

The metaphor Joyce uses in her work with schools to explain the effects of complex trauma is that of a vinyl record. When a song is played again and again, a groove is worn into the record. If, when playing a different song, someone accidentally knocks the record player, the needle will skip across the record and land in the deepest groove, playing that song yet again. Even when you reach the end of the song, sometimes the groove is so deep the needle skips back to play it once more.

Like a needle on a record player, complex trauma wears a groove in the brain. So when something non-threatening happens that reminds us of a traumatic incident, our bodies replay the traumatic reaction—mobilizing us to either run from or fight the threat, while shutting down other systems that help us think and reason. If this happens over and over, we become more easily triggered into that fear response mode, never giving our bodies time to recover. After awhile, as we adapt to this chronic triggering, our behavior can seem crazy or rude when taken out of the context of trauma.

For a child in a classroom, something as simple as the teacher raising his or her voice to get everyone’s attention or accidentally getting bumped by another classmate can steer that child into this groove. When triggered, the child’s out-of-proportion emotional and sometimes physical reaction often makes no sense whatsoever to the teacher, making it difficult for the teacher to respond appropriately.

These experiences can be difficult to see as trauma at first. They might seem like the child is having a tantrum just to get their way, when in fact they are reaching out for help. Recently I spoke to my district superintendent. He said children who experience trauma are increasing regionally and the numbers are expected to increase even more. When I asked my district behavior specialist who was an expert in our district on childhood trauma, he responded, “No one.” We have a half-time counselor, yet children of trauma need counseling support every day. Their emotional turmoil and trauma experiences do not follow a schedule. Time and buracracy move too slowly for these children. The first requirement in our schools for children of trauma? To be and feel safe. Read more about children’s rights to be safe here. There are things you can do now to help children in your classrooms.

In order to create Compassionate Schools, a fellow EduActivist and I have requested a meeting with our assistant superintendent. We are creating a Power Point Presentation to include information about Compassionate Schools and the ACES program.

What do children of trauma need? They need all of us to step up and be safe adults. They need us to create and “scale up” Compassionate Schools. These are strategies I have found effective. I am sure I will improve in my support for children over time. These are not meant to be strategies that are deeply research-based or written by reformers. I don’t claim to be an expert and will continue to do the deep work necessary to develop strategies that are even more effective. Some I have implemented out of intuition as a former victim of childhood trauma. Others I have learned through trial and error. Some I have learned through my research at ACESTooHigh.com. I offer a list of 7 immediate strategies teachers can do in our classrooms: 

1. Be their safe adult. More than anything – these children need love and to feel/be safe. Find every spare minute to build a 1:1 safe, joyful relationship with your student of trauma. Go the extra mile. Teach them the difference between safe and non-safe adults carefully. Notice, but don’t press them for information. It will come with trust and usually when you are engaged with them in play once they trust. Use an ultra-calm voice and remind them you are a safe adult.  Look for times when their eyes sparkle to be playful. Give them specific compliments to build self-confidence.

2. Back off of grit, rigor, testing, and academics. This does not mean don’t keep a structure. Involve the child in creating their own picture or word schedule each day. This will help relieve anxiety and give the child a sense of control over their day. Transitions can be difficult. Sandwich the child’s preferred activities on both sides of transitions so they begin to realize they can come back to something they enjoy once the transition is complete. Allow the child/to join you in academics when and if they are ready.  When their interest is piqued and they feel safe, they will begin to join you. Often, they may be listening and join in discussions from across the room in their safe place.

3. Replace reforms with play-based learning and the arts for these children, allow them to choose friends to join them in play.  Use their personal interests to develop the right kinds of play experiences. Teach and develop social skills during this time to create opportunities for safe play, negotiation, sharing, cooperation, and collaboration. While this might sound easier in primary classrooms, it is important for older children as well. I am not suggesting that you try to “joke” children out of their feelings. I am suggesting that children need joy every day. Find a way that is meaningful to THEM to provide those experiences.

4. Play outdoors. Take nature breaks. Give all your children extra brain breaks and movement outside. Remember how nature helped me? [See post 1.] Movement of the aerobic kind releases endorphins. Also – they need safety, not academics. Check to see if your school will allow your child of trauma to join in PE daily with another class. Nature is important to healing. 

5. Get help. Advocate. Build a team. Educate others. You can’t do this alone. Get outside counseling started if possible. Get your school counselor involved.

6. Build a culture of Compassionate Schools: Enlist and teach empathy, to your students, staff, and parents – as Michelle Gunderson calls it: The Common Core of Goodwill. Use the resources from these posts to develop a new culture in your building as a pilot plan and help your district utilize these solutions.

7. Find a way for children of trauma to become agents of their own healing. I believe children of trauma need to find ways of empowerment through social justice activism. Help them find what is close to their hearts to become engaged in community work that leads directly back to empowerment for them. Recognizing their skills to help change the world will go a long way towards rebuilding their self-esteem and development towards self-actualization. This may not be a first step, for some may need to heal before they are ready to give. For others, this giving will be their healing. Provide choices and mentorship, then follow their lead.

Number seven comes from my own intuition and experiences, but in researching this idea I found the 16 Benefits of Activism.  Many of these ideas can apply to children of trauma, although in some cases of trauma, no crime has been committed:

Working for social change is an excellent way for survivors of trauma to channel the normal anger that results from having been abused or oppressed. Public engagement also benefits advocates and other social service providers who sometimes feel frustrated in their efforts to help make the system work better for people who need help.

For some people who have survived trauma, activism offers one way to heal from the violence or abuse. Says Judith Herman (1997):

These survivors recognize a political or religious dimension in their misfortune and discover that they can transform the meaning of their personal tragedy by making it the basis for social action. While there is no way to compensate for an atrocity, there is a way to transcend it, by making it a gift to others. The trauma is redeemed only when it becomes the source of a survivor mission. Social action offers the survivor a source of power that draws upon her own initiative, energy, and resourcefulness but that magnifies these qualities far beyond her own capacities.

Social action on the part of survivors can take many forms (Herman, 1997):

• Helping others who have been similarly victimized. Survivors may become volunteer advocates at rape crisis centers or domestic violence shelters, or advocates for other victims in court. Or they may share their experience with other survivors in a support group setting.
• Political involvement. This may involve educational, legal, or political efforts to prevent others from being victimized in the future. Some survivors have gotten involved at the legislative level, by participating in letter-writing campaigns or lobbying efforts, or even testifying before legislative committees about their experiences.
• Attempts to bring offenders to justice. Many survivors believe holding the perpetrator accountable for crimes is not only important for their own personal well-being but also for the health of the larger society and for other victims. For many survivors, the act of reporting the crime to police or going to court is helpful in and of itself, regardless of the outcome the case.
• Educating others. Many survivors have shared their experiences and success stories as a way of offering hope to other survivors, or have told their stories at conferences and other training venues to help educate service providers about the needs of survivors.

A survivor shares: “I just told my story a couple of weeks ago to some providers, with the intent of sharing the different pieces about medical health, mental health, chemical dependency and domestic violence so they can know, when they get a call, to keep their eyes open to make sure they are referring appropriately, depending on what somebody presents with. I’m using my story to help do that.”

Take these next steps as first responders, suggests Daun Kauffman:

Confronting the learning impacts and the classroom impacts of trauma requires training.  The most efficient approach is through teachers, “first responders” in the classroom, who see the children daily.  Training must be an on-going requirement to stay current with almost continuous research, to better: 1) deliver “safety”, 2) understand complexity of teaching trauma-impacted children, and 3) respond appropriately, including avoiding re-triggering old trauma.

Other crucial investments towards safety include appropriate class-sizes, with limits on trauma-impacted children per classroom.  For example, one teacher alone will struggle to be effective aiding one ‘triggered’ student from among the 10 who have 3+ ACEs, within a classroom of 30 kids, total, who are waiting to be taught.  Additionally, dedicated appropriate space for children to de-escalate is needed, as well as on-site counselors; counselors, who build on-going relationships with the children and families in the school community.

*Notice: Kauffman said “Deliver safety.” Not instruction. Teaching trauma-impacted children is complex. It is critical that we do not re-trigger old trauma. For example: Placing a child who has experienced abuse in restraint holds can often trigger their old trauma. Yet keeping a child safe sometimes means holding them back from injuring themselves or others. Go back to number one: Deliver safety, but talk the child through this with a sense of calmness even when you may not feel calm yourself.

Our role as a teacher takes a shift when we encounter a child in trauma. Teaching Common Core Standards takes a back seat to social-emotional learning and turns us instead towards teaching the other students in our classrooms empathy and compassion. Our best lessons often end up in teaching parents of children who have experienced trauma how to parent their children and other parents how to both advocate for safety of their own children as well as develop empathy – all without revealing confidential information. Parents of abused children often give off an aura of having been victims of abuse and neglect themselves. Establishing trust with these parents is as important as establishing trust with their children. Listening, speaking, and taking actions through the lens of compassion constantly will help with the role you play as a teacher. This is a tricky path to walk as a teacher, but is it important?

This work may be more important than most of the professional development work we may have done to date. It will take time to nudge your building and district to develop a new trauma informed program to support students. It will take community involvement and resources – a community commitment. Creating an environment that is safe within your classroom is not impossible. Your commitment to the seven steps I outlined above can happen rather quickly. But this work we are doing together is complex. You can continue your professional development through ACESTooHigh.com. Continue reading post 4 to find out more about how we can shift the paradigm of test and punish schools to compassionate schools through resistance pedagogy and activism.

Are you a teacher or caregiver ready to be a safe adult for children of trauma? What are you going to do to help create Compassionate Schools? 

Part 1: In Search of Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools: This is Personal

Part 2: In Search for Safe Adults and Compassionate Schools:Why We Must Create Compassionate Schools 

Part 4: Beautiful Trouble: From Compassionate Schools to a Compassionate Society

Susan DuFresne is a kindergarten teacher and activist in the Seattle area. She teaches both general education and special education. Susan has worked in high poverty schools and continues to organize direct actions for social justice. You can follow her on Twitter @GetUpStandUp2.