PRESENTED BY

CLAUDIA BURGER

FEAR DRIVEN BRAIN – UNABLE TO LEARN

QUESTIONS

Do educators and schools have an informed role to play in the lives of students struggling with unprocessed traumatic memories other than providing cognitive learning experiences?

Are there any alternative strategies than a generation ago?

What do you know about the brain, early childhood development and trauma?

WHO ARE WE AS HUMAN BEINGS?

Human beings are at our core RELATIONAL CREATURES

We are designed to live, work, play and work in GROUPS

RELATIONSHIPS are the absolute heart of humanity and we are neurobiologically designed to be in relationships

You learn language, social language, appropriate emotional regulation and essentially everything that is important about life as a human being in context of RELATIONSHIPS

THE HUMAN BRAIN

HUMAN BRAIN

HUMAN BRAIN

HUMAN BRAIN

LIMBIC SYSTEM

NEOCORTEX

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Brain is an upside down pyramid

Bottom – developing first

Brain stem and mid brain -

Limbic System

Largest and part of brain last to develop, are the CORTICAL functions which include our frontal lobes and parts of the brain that control executive functions such as reasoning, planning, anticipating and predicting. Also language, abstract and concrete thoughts

Normal development – healthy brain – proportioned 2 to 1

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Cortical and Limbic systems should be twice as big as the combined Midbrain and Brainstem systems

This proportion of brain development allows the Limbic and Cortical functions (higher reasoning skills) to modulate, control and balance the Brainstem and Midbrain functions (reactive and reflective functions)

When we ask children - think before you act, we are asking them to use one part of their brain to help them access and control what another part of the brain wants to do out of instinct

WHAT IS TRAUMA?

Is it an event/happening?

Is it an individual’s response to an event?

Is it a diagnostic category?

TRAUMA

One word that best captures the experience of trauma is TERROR

One defines the experience of terror as feeling totally unsafe and powerless to do anything about one’s situation

An exceptional experience in which the powerful and dangerous events overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope

Trauma is a wound which needs to heal – not a disorder. So instead of “what is wrong with you” we ask “what happened to you?”

TRAUMA AND THE BRAIN

TRAUMA AND THE BRAIN

When children experience trauma, the Brainstem/Midbrain portion of the brain seems OVERDEVELOPED

Children will have overdeveloped safety and stress response and act more impulsively even though the Thinking/Feeling part of brain may be normally sized

When children experienced neglect, they often did not develop the Thinking/Feeling parts of the brain, resulting in underdevelopment of higher reasoning parts of the brain

TRAUMA AND THE BRAIN

Neglect and trauma – Overdevelopment of Brainstem/Midbrain (anxiety, poor affect regulation, motor hyperactivity) and underdevelopment of Limbic/Cortical (affected empathy and problem solving skills)

Trauma and neglect – child’s brain develops in a survival style to help him stay safe

Child being wired for survival – being impulsive, anxious, acting from instinct instead of reason, and not able to identify or understand feelings

TRAUMA AND THE BRAIN

AMYGDALA

AMYGDALA

AMYGDALA AND HIPPOCAMPUS

TRAUMA RESPONSE

CORTEX OFF LINE

EARLY YEARS AND ATTACHMENT

THROUGH OUR EYES

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SIX CORE STRENGTHS

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WHAT DOES NEUROSCIENCE TELL US ABOUT EMOTIONS AND LEARNING?

Recent advances in neuroscience are highlighting connections between emotions, social functioning, and decision making that have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the role of affect in education. In particular, the neurobiological evidence suggests that the aspects of cognition that we recruit most heavily in schools, namely learning, attention, memory, decision making and social functioning, are both profoundly affected by and subsumed within the processes of emotion – Immordino-Yang and Damasio 2007

ATTACHMENT

Our minds are continually shaped by emotions, experiences, relationships, opportunities, attitudes, values and beliefs, knowledge and genes. However, there is an instinctive priority of attachment over the brain’s exploratory system – feeling Safe and Secure is more important than learning

ATTACHMENT

The nature of a child’s primary attachments to caregivers lay the foundations for socio-emotional wellbeing and therefore children’s capacity to learn

Secure attachment relationships correlate strongly with higher academic attainment, better self-regulation and social competence

Secure attachment support mental processes that enable the child to regulate emotions, reduce fear, attune to others, have self understanding and insight, empathy for others and appropriate moral reasoning

Insecure attachments can have unfortunate consequences. If a child cannot rely on an adult to respond to their needs in times of stress, they are unable to learn how to soothe themselves, manage their emotions and engage in reciprocal relationships

A child’s initial dependence on others for protection, provides the experience and skills to help a child cope with frustrations, develop self-confidence and pro-social relationships – all qualities necessary to promote positive engagement with learning

INTERNAL WORKING MODEL

These are the mind’s internalized pictures of the physical and mental experiences of attunement with caregivers. They are establised in childhood and used to inform behaviour in all of the significant relationships in a child’s and adult life. They serve as filters for understanding current and future interactions and are used to help the child evaluate, predict and choose what behaviour to present

FOUR TYPES OF ATTACHMENT

SECURE – I am okay, you are there for me

INSECURE AVOIDANT – It is not okay to be emotional

INSECURE AMBIVALENT – I want comfort but it does not help me

INSECURE DISORGANISED – I am frightened

NEURONAL NETWORKS IN THE BRAIN

Our minds are complex systems constrained in their activity by neuronal connections, which are determined by both constitution and experience (Siegel 2012)

Secure, nurturing environments and stimulating, engaging experiences support the development of neuronal networks – they help to build the brains

Empathetic, supportive attachments and relationships are essential to optimize brain development as “the attunement of emotional states is essential for the developing brain to acquire the capacity to organise itself more autonomously as the child matures” (Siegel 2012)

TOXIC STRESS

Constant activation of the body’s stress response systems due to chronic or traumatic experiences in the absence of caring, stable relationships with adults, especially during the sensitive periods of early development, can be toxic to the brain architecture

Connections in the brain are reduced and lost through toxic stress

Fewer connections means it is more difficult to utilize the brain capacity and learn effectively

NEUROSCIENCE OF ATTACHMENT – KEY MESSAGES

Warm, responsive relationships and interactions (attunement) build children’s brains, and help them to learn to self-regulate their behavior

Securely attached children build positive internal working models of others as trustworthy and of the self as valuable and effective

Connections, relationships and attachments are vital for the development of the brain and mind and support learning at an anatomical, physiological, psychological, social and environmental level

Parents and key professionals need to have the understanding and knowledge of how to build the social and emotional capability within children and therefore empower individuals to break inter-generational cycles of dysfunction and underachievement

QUESTIONS

In what ways do schools provide “safe havens” for children?

When might they not be safe havens for some children?

Why do educators need to know about attachment? - the implications for learning and behavior

INFLUENCE OF ATTACHMENT

Attachment influences students’ school success – This is true of students’ attachment to their parents, as well as to their teachers. Secure attachment is associated with higher grades and standardised test scores compared to insecure attachment. Secure attachment is also associated with greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, with lower level of delinquency, which in turn is associated with higher achievement

EMOTIONS AND LEARNING ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED

Research demonstrates that emotions fundamentally drive cognitive learning and, in order to generate successful learning, educators need to engage the affective dimensions of pupils’ minds

Research draws attention to the significance of the pupil-teacher relationship in order to develop a positive emotional climate and an effective learning environment

Children who can regulate their own emotions and responses are more popular, have fewer behavioural problems, are more emotionally stable, have fewer infectious illnesses and achieve more academically in schools

To be able to engage in learning a pupil needs to be able to take risks, to learn new things and face new challenges. A good learner needs to be able to manage frustration and anxiety, have good self-esteem, be willing to take risks and be able to ask for help when needed

Attachment relationships therefore have a direct bearing on children’s capacity to succeed in school

TRAUMA FROM INSECURE ATTACHMENTS CAN LEAD TO VARIOUS CHALLENGING BEVAVIOURS

Toxic stress – high levels of stress hormones leads to hyperarousal (fight/flight) and dissociation (tuning out)

Inability to manage behaviour

Shame – hypersensitivity to criticism/apparent lack of remorse

Impaired understanding of others and difficulty with empathy

Feelings of worthlessness and poor self esteem

Lack of capacity for joy

Impaired understanding of the world

Difficulty making sense of sensory information

Difficulty making sense of feelings

THIS MEANS THAT

Neural systems in the brain (mirror systems) are frequently employed to defend rather than cooperate

Regulatory systems become biased/primed towards arousal and fear rather than relaxed and ready for learning

Neural brain patterns (attachment schemas) are used as battle plans for apparent survival rather than for ways of connecting

Reward systems seek alternatives (drugs) rather than contact with attachment figures

RECOVERY FROM TRAUMA

1. Feeling safe and secure – physically and emotionally

2. Relationships and secure attachments

3. Being able to express what has happened – creating a narrative to make the memories safe

SO THIS MEANS THAT

Teachers and other significant adults in a child’s life can provide important attachments for children

Positive associations are found between quality of teacher – child relationships and achievement

High quality teacher-child relationships help buffer children from the negative effects of insecure attachment on achievement

Emotional resilience and the ability to learn are inextricably linked

Secure attachment relationships correlate strongly with higher academic achievement, better self-regulation and social competence

SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE SCHOOLS?

Schools are children’s communities

Follow the ARC model which is –

1. building secure Attachments between the child and educator

2. enhancing self –Regulatory capacities and

3. increasing Competencies across multiple domains

Be child centred and acknowledge children’s different attachment styles

Create nurturing relationships

Create nurturing relationships to promote children’s learning and behaviour and satisfy children’s innate need to have a secure sense of belonging

Acknowledge adults’ roles as a potential secondary attachment figure who can help to reshape insecure attachment behaviours and support the development of more secure ones

Remember that safety cannot be experienced through cognitive processes alone; it must first be experienced at a sensory, implicit level in the deep mid-brain rather than the neocortex, upper brain region

Dual awareness – living in the trauma experience, children are unable to cognitively distinguish that the threat is over. We must therefore help the child with the “then” and the “now” or the internal and the external

Teach the child to recognise the differences in his body when traumatised versus relaxed and then engage the child in activities which replicate the relaxed state. Use his body as resource

Body awareness and control leads to self-regulation, which diminishes the deep mid-brain dominance and can provide access to those cognitive functions needed to attend, focus, recall, communicate, problem solve and consciously regulate one’s reactions

A trauma-informed school environment is not about creating a milieu the traumatised child can fit into, but allowing the child to discover those parts of the milieu that physiologically/neurologically feel the safest and then presenting the child with choices and opportunities to have access to those parts of the environment

We cannot possible assume we know what is best for a traumatised child until we can see

1. what he sees when he looks at himself

2. see what he sees as he looks at those around him

3. what he sees when he looks at the environment

Trauma surviving says “I must do something to let you know I am terrified...I will do whatever I need to do to control you and control your responses in order to survive....I will fight any experience, any activity, any person that I see as a threat to me... any person that tries to “control” me because if I let you control me I am vulnerable to your abuse, abandonment, again and again – (Internal working model)

Respond in a non-threatening sensory manner – bodily experience

To be influential, not controlling educators must be –

1. a safe person to be with

2. be in control of your emotions

3. provide clearly expressed expectations to the child

4. daily demonstrate your confidence in that child, that he can master new experiences and relationships

5. consistently follow through

IMPORTANT ROLE OF SCHOOLS

Emotional well-being must be a larger part of any learning, and by association, the educational agenda.... Schools may be the optimum sites for buffering the impact of stress/trauma, building resilience and enhancing the individual’s capacity for learning