Do Your Traumatized

Students Traumatize YouGerry van Nie & Krista Strand

Grande Prairie Public School District #2357

Common Beliefs about

Children’s Behaviours

Write down what you think are common frustrations from educators about why a child doesn’t act like he/she is supposed to act.

Children’s Misbehaviours: Common

Beliefs➢ He just wants attention

➢ He just wants his own way

➢ He’s manipulating us

➢ He’s not motivated

➢ He’s making bad choices

➢ His parents are incompetent disciplinarians

➢ He has a bad attitude

➢ He has a mental illness

➢ His brother was the same way

Key Points➢ Kids do well if they can

➢ Doing well is always preferable to not doing well.

➢ The brain is the organ that mediates all emotion, thought,

and behaviour

➢ Exposure to traumatic events has a significant impact on:

➢ brain development

➢ emotional responses

➢ behavioural responses

➢ Impacts of trauma are long lasting

➢ There is no ‘quick fix’

What is Trauma?

➢ Trauma involves an intense feeling of fear, terror and/or helplessness and induces an intense and prolonged stress response

➢ Trauma comes in many forms and each individual responds to trauma in very personal and unique ways

Trauma and Brain Development

➢ During the first 3 years of life, the human brain

develops to 90% of its adult size and puts in

place the majority of systems and structures

that will be responsible for all future emotional,

behavioural, social, and physiological

functioning for life

➢ Teenagers are vulnerable to PTSD because the

hormone (THP) that is released when

experiencing stress, that should have a calming

effect, actually increases stress in adolescence

Impact of Traumatic Experiences

➢ Severe emotional trauma or neglect can

negatively impact the ability to form

meaningful relationships on a lifelong basis

➢ Milder forms of trauma result in a range of

social-emotional, behavioural and relational

difficulties and challenges.

Signs of Traumatized Brains

➢ The child has a stress response that is way over the top

➢ The child has a stress response that doesn’t ‘match’ with the actual stressor involved

➢ The child has a stress response in situations where such a response wasn’t warranted

➢ The child can’t calm down once he/she has a stress response

➢ The child is extremely volatile in his/her moods and emotions (e.g. swinging quite quickly from being calm to being agitated)

Trauma Reactions Change the

Way you React

Adaptive Response Rest Vigilance Freeze Flight Fight

Hyperarousal

Continumum

Rest Vigilance Resistance

(Crying)

Defiance

(Tantrums)

Aggression

Dissociative

Continuum

Rest Avoidance Compliance

(robotic

detached)

Dissociation Fainting

Regulating

Brain Region

(secondary)

Neocortex

(cortex)

Cortex

(limbic)

Limbic

(midbrain)

Midbrain

(brainstem)

Brainstem

(autonomic)

Cognitive Style Abstract Concrete Emotional Reactive Reflex

Internal State Calm Arousal Alarm Fear Terror

Brain Function and Emotional Arousal

NeocortexLearning Part of the Brain

Mental State Calm

Cognition Abstract

Adaptive Response Rest

Hyperarousal Continuum Rest

Dissociative Continuum Rest

Subcortex

Learning/Emotional Part of the

BrainMental State Arousal

Cognition Concrete

Adaptive Response Vigilance

Hyperarousal Continuum Vigilance

Dissociative Continuum Avoidance

Limbic

Emotional Part of the

Brain

Mental State Alarm

Cognition Emotional

Adaptive Response Freeze

Hyperarousal Continuum Resistance

Dissociative Continuum Compliance

MidbrainEmotional/Reactive Part of the

Brain

Mental State Fear

Cognition Reactive

Adaptive Response Flight

Hyperarousal Continuum Defiance

Dissociative Continuum Dissociation

Brainstem

Survival Part of the Brain

Mental State Terror

Cognition Reflexive

Adaptive Response Fight

Hyperarousal Continuum Aggression

Dissociative Continuum Fainting

Trauma Related Behaviours & Effects

➢ Child may be bossy

➢ Child may be aggressive

➢ Child may be cruel

➢ Child may have limited ability to empathize

➢ Child may express ‘regret’, but not ‘remorse’

➢ Child may actively reject school staff

Trauma Related Behaviours & Effects

➢ Child may have developmental delays (e.g. language, motor, social, cognitive)

➢ Child may have odd eating habits

➢ Child may display indiscriminant attachment

➢ Child may display ‘sexualized’ behaviours

Interventions

Connecting

➢ Intentionally ‘reconnect’ with a child following disruption of attachment

➢ Engage in a non-threatening relationship type of activity (e.g. game; cooperative play activity)

➢ Provide nurturing experiences (e.g. cuddling; rocking; having lunch together)

➢ Physical contact (holding; deep pressure; massage; high 5’s; hand shakes)

➢ Provide rhythmic experiences (e.g. rhyming; music; drumming; metronome; swinging; playing catch)

Consider Developmental Age

➢ Be aware of social-emotional development

➢ Intervene at the level of social-emotional development

➢ As much as we might want and encourage the child to ‘act their age’, they may not have the capacity to do so

Misuse of Consequences

➢ Try to understand the behaviour before implementing ‘consequences’

➢ Use consequences only when the child is operating from the ‘learning’ part of the brain where a child can understand time and make connections between behaviour and consequence

➢ Consequences need to match the skill and behaviour regulation level of the child.

Be Predictable➢ Avoid ‘surprises’

➢ Maintain and follow regular routines and schedules

➢ Plan and prepare for new experiences

➢ Prepare for transitions

➢ Provide repetitive activity breaks

➢ Avoid potentially ‘ambiguous’ situations

➢ Maintain calm predictable physical environments

Model and Teach

➢ As you model behaviours, ‘narrate’ what you are doing and why: e.g. ‘I am going to share my toy with Eric because …’

➢ Coaching children using ‘social scripts: e.g. ‘When I don’t take turns on the they probably feel pretty upset so if I want them to have fun when I play this game, I could …’

➢ Model/teach specific skills such as appropriate physical contact, eye contact, personal space

➢ Use ‘gentle’ redirection of inappropriate behaviour and brief non-judgmental instructions to avoid guilt and shame

Listen and Talk

➢ Take time to listen, play, and interact with the child

➢ Try to relax and not worry about the time or the ‘next task’

➢ Practice taking time to just be ‘present’ (here and now) with the child

➢ Teach about ‘feelings’ during these times: 1) all feelings are okay; 2) teach healthy ways to deal with feelings; 3) explore how other people might feel and act in the situation; 4) teach labels for feelings

Have Realistic Expectations

➢ Don’t expect the child to ‘overcome’ all of his/her problems

➢ Expect progress to be slow

➢ Expect progress to be uneven

➢ Expect periods of regression to last longer and to be more significant than for typically developing children

➢ Work at avoiding becoming overwhelmed with the number and complexity of the child’s needs

References

Greene, Ross. (2014). Lost at School. Scribner.

McMahon, Tamsin. (2015). Inside your teenager’s scary brain. Maclean’s

Neufeld, Gordon & Mate, Gabor. (2008). Hold On To Your Kids. Ballantine Books.

Perry, Bruce (2003). Effects of Traumatic Events on Children (An Introduction). The Child Trauma Institute

Perry, Bruce. (2001). Bonding and Attachment in Maltreated Children. The Child Trauma Academy

Shanker, Stuart. (2013). Calm, Alert, and Learning. Pearson, Canada