We have discussed numerous specific
disabilities, but there are many other

factors that can impact a child's
development, a child's ability to learn.

One of these factors that I want us

to consider is the role of trauma
and attachment in a child's development.

So what is trauma?

Trauma is when a person experiences or

observes an event that involved threatened
or actual physical injury, or a threat

to the safety and security of self, or
important others in a person's life.

This traumatic event becomes
traumatizing to the child.

When it involves this intense fear,

helplessness, terror,
other really unmanageable emotions.

Then, in the response,

that is what makes it traumatic to them.

This could be a singular
event or a one time thing.

Or also it could involve complex event,

things that are ongoing.

And risk factors of a trauma response

include things like difficult pregnancy or
birth, early hospitalization,

neglect, abuse, trauma
like in a war or even like system effects

like the trauma of separation
from birth parents in adoption.

A traumatic event can significantly
impact brain development.

And I would like us to imagine
that my hand is a brain,

so my fingers up here will represent

the cerebrum, which could be known as
the upstairs brain or thinking brain.

This part of the brain
is not wired at birth.

It's the part that allows us to think,

remember things, plan,
to regulate our emotions, to learn.

This would be our learning brain.

Then underneath here,

my thumb and the lower part of my hand
is going to represent the limbic system.

And this is known as the could be known as
the downstairs brain or survival brain.

And this part of the brain
is wired at birth.

It allows the newborn to eat, sleep,
drink, stay warm, or stay cool.

Also, the reflexes that a newborn is born

with are all wired down here
in the downstairs brain.

So if a child spends too much time being
afraid or never receives comfort or help

regulating his emotions from an adult or
like he's forced to fend for himself,

what happens is the downstairs brain,
his survival brain, overdevelops,

and then his upstairs thinking
brain remains undeveloped.

That first year of life is so critical

to healthy brain development
and healthy attachment relationships.

During that time,

the infant is so dependent on his
caregiver that whenever that care is not

provided, then it completely
changes how the child develops.

And what can happen is that
this neglect or abuse,

those kinds of things, can lead to insecure
attachment where a child doesn't trust

other people in his life and
he lives in this survival mode—

"I have to fend for myself"—
and then he's not at rest and really able

to do the upstairs brain things
of thinking and learning.

Perhaps you have heard
of the term "trigger."

What is a trigger?

That is something that activates this
limbic system, the downstairs brain,

causing the child to go
into survival mode.

And then the thinking,
parts of his brain shut down.

And so trauma memories can be triggered.

Usually they're triggered
by sensory things.

So any of the five senses,
something that you see or smell or hear,

that reminds you of the traumatic
event can be a trigger.

And

those triggers are different
for every individual.

Other things similar

like specific people that remind you
of someone or places or feelings,

for example,

if someone... Or I heard of someone who, when
they went into a city and saw these tall

buildings that reminded them
of the orphanage where they had grown up,

or certain scents, specific times
of the year, dramatic shifts in plans—

all of these things could
be a trigger to a child.

And so sometimes we might need to help

them understand why are they feeling so
afraid uptight over these certain

situations that we
wouldn't perceive as being

dangerous or something to be feared.

So what happens when a child
experiences a trigger of some sort?

There's various responses
that they can have.

And so those three responses
are fight, flight, and freeze.

And probably the most common that I have
seen in my classroom is the freezing,

which is like we shut down,
we're not able to think anymore.

We're not able to move forward.

And maybe one day you completely can
solve this math paper, no problem.

And the next day your brain freezes up,

and it seems like you
don't know it anymore.

Some of those things can show
up when a child is experiencing

triggers, things that are causing their

lower brains to take over
instead of their thinking brain.

One of the things that a child who's

experienced trauma can struggle
with is regulating their emotions.

And I think it's helpful to think about

our emotions as like
they're in a thermometer.

So we hopefully have a low baseline,

as in the red in our thermometer
is down close to the bottom.

And when something happens to upset us,

like we stub our toe or we lose a game
or someone said something unkind to us,

the red, our temperature will rise
a little bit, but it will stay within

a manageable emotional level, and then
we'll return back to normal again.

What happens in trauma is that a child's
baseline, their level of emotions, is going

to start closer to the top
of the thermometer to begin with.

And so they're always going to be up
there because they're kind of on edge.

They're easily become afraid.

It's that survival.

They're watching what's
happening around them.

And so they're not a restful
place like we would wish for.

And so when their baseline is higher,

then it happens a lot quicker
that something sets them off that you have

this volcano effect or
anger or even violence,

throwing something. That can happen because
or when their emotions get out of hand.

So when we recognize that a child is
struggling with the results of trauma

that they've experienced,
what is the path to healing?

TBRI stands for Trust-Based
Relational Intervention.

And this is this model of therapy that was

developed by someone
known as Karyn Purvis.

And there's many videos
online describing this.

She talks in depth about understanding
children who have experienced trauma.

So I really encourage you
to check some of those out.

But in the model of TBRI,
there are three main pillars,

three things that are kind
of the core of what they believe.

The first one is felt safety.

And this is the idea that there's

a difference between a child being
safe and a child feeling safe.

And so the child will be completely safe

in my classroom, but they might
not perceive that they are.

And this is different
for different children.

So one child might feel safer if they're

up front because they're closer
to the teacher, and another child might

feel safer because they're in the back of
the room and there's no one behind them.

And so they can see more of what's going
on, and they feel safer in that location.

The second pillar is connection.

It's been said that if harm has happened

through relationship, the only way
for healing is through relationship.

And just that connection is so important
that children

believe that we have their back,
and they're going to push back

on that relationship because
it doesn't feel safe.

They don't want to be hurt again.

And so

that's why when a child has been adopted,
they can really push back against

the mother figure,

the father figure in their life because
of their distrust of relationship.

The third component is self-regulation.

And so we need to create an environment
that helps the child regulate, kind

of models, what it's like to regulate
self, to manage stressors as well.

And so each of these pillars need to be

present in this healing
relationship as part of TBRI.

When we understand trauma and its impact,
it really changes how we view, or we start

to shift the way we see our students
and their challenging behaviors.

A child might be doing something that they
should not be, and we could view it as

willful disobedience,
like, "They have chosen to disobey.

And so I'm going to punish them,

and you're going to have a power struggle
here." When we recognize that maybe this

behavior has a different
root or a different cause,

if we view it as a survival behavior,

like, "Oh, they're doing this because
this is how their brain is wired.

This is how they've learned
to make sense of their world."

It changes how we approach it.

I think we should view this
behavior as a cry for help.

Like, what is a child trying
to communicate to us?

What's the reason behind their
behavior and what does he really need?

How can I meet that need in his life?

There are some general principles that we
can follow to create a trauma-informed

classroom or a classroom that is
functioning in such a way that a child

who's experienced trauma can feel safe,
that they can thrive.

And these principles really are helpful
for all of the students in our classrooms.

First, we need to create a sense
of belonging, a sense of community.

"You are one of us.

You belong here.

Listen well to each other."

Teach our students to care for each other,
to listen to each other.

We also need to have a classroom that's

designed for regulation,
giving opportunities for movement, also

keeping things simple in our classrooms,

giving snack breaks and opportunity to get
a drink.

Even things like classroom pets and
the sound of water flowing in a fish tank

can be helpful in helping
a child with trauma to regulate.

Words like predictability, consistency,
stability, all of those things are really,

really important in a
trauma-informed classroom.

Also, as we think about managing our
classrooms, we need to have a high level

of structure or routine, a certain
level of expectations in our classroom.

But we have to make sure we balance

that with the relationship part,
the nurturing, love, affection.

If we have high structure and high nurture

in our classrooms, that would be
a place where our students can thrive.

When a child feels safe and understood,
we think back to our brain.

When he feels safe and understood,
his lid will stay down and he'll be able

to engage his thinking
brain and make progress.

If the classroom doesn't feel safe to him,
he's going to flip his lid.

His lid is going to be up,
and he's going to be in survival mode,

watching his surroundings. "Is
a safe place for me to be."

And so we want our classrooms to be places

of rest, places where
our students can thrive.

When we are working with a child who has
been adopted, a child who has experienced

trauma in those early years of life,
it's going to be very important that we

communicate well with his parents
and that there's this team effort as we

try to identify, what are
triggers for this student?

How can we help them when they are

struggling with behaviors
at school and at home?

Because of the child's lack of trust
and healthy relationships,

they can tend to use triangulation,
which is this trying to set the two

authority figures in their lives,
to set them against each other.

This is part of his survival strategies
to protect himself from being hurt again,

to try to stay in control
of what's happening around him.

And so it's going to be critical

that parents and teachers are
communicating, perhaps frequently, to

work with the difficulties
that they're experiencing. As teachers,

I think we need to ask questions,
ask questions of parents.

What are you seeing at home?

What do you do when your child is
struggling with this behavior?

Do you recommendations for what I could do
differently and listen well to parents,

listen to what they're
saying and work with them.

If parents and schools are a team,
it's going to be hugely helpful

in providing this place of security,
this place where a student can make

progress, that they can
move toward healing.

In general, as we think about these

challenges, it's important to realize that
one difficulty can look like another.

So, for example, when a child has come

from hard places,
it can look like a severe case of ADHD. Or

when a child is experiencing trauma,
it could look like dyslexia because

they're struggling to learn to read when
really maybe what's going on is this

trauma piece that's inhibiting
their ability to learn.

Also it's not uncommon for children
to experience multiple things at once.

So maybe they have dyslexia and ADHD.
Maybe they have experienced trauma

and they have ADHD and so it can be really
challenging to pick apart those pieces,

kind of figure out, "where do we start here?"
And I think it's important to identify

what's maybe the biggest problem
here and let's start with that.

We can't tackle it all at once,
but pick one thing.

Set specific goals that you can work
toward that feel

maybe attainable to the student,
to the parents, to you as the teacher.

I've worked with children from hard
places, and it's not easy.

Most of all, I think we need to remember,
in the words of Karyn Purvis, that each

child is precious
and there is hope for them.

God bless you as you love
the children in your care.