By Starr Commonwealth
With grief, sadness is obvious. With trauma, the symptoms can go largely unrecognized because it shows up looking like other problems: frustration; acting out; difficulty concentrating, following directions, or working in a group. Often students are misdiagnosed with anxiety, behavior disorders, or attention disorders rather than understood to have trauma that’s driving those symptoms and reactions.
For children who have experienced trauma, learning can be a big struggle. But once trauma is identified as the root of the behavior, we can adapt our approach to help kids cope when they’re at school. Starr Commonwealth Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Caelan Soma offers these tips for understanding kids who have been through trauma plus strategies for helping them.
1. Kids who have experienced trauma aren’t trying to push your buttons.
If a child is having trouble with transitions or turning in a folder at the beginning of the day, remember that children may be distracted because of a situation at home that is causing them to worry. Instead of reprimanding children for being late or forgetting homework, be affirming and accommodating by establishing a visual cue or verbal reminder to help that child. “Switch your mind-set and remember the kid who has experienced trauma is not trying to push your buttons,” says Soma.
10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs to Know
About the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study
By the Center for Disease Control The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and later-life health and well-being. The original ACE [...]
How Childhood Abuse Changes the Brain
By Leonard Holmes Studies have demonstrated over and over that childhood abuse and neglect results in permanent changes to the developing human brain. These changes in brain structure appear to be significant [...]
Traumatic Experiences Widespread Among U.S. Youth
By the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Princeton, N.J.—New national data show that at least 38 percent of children in every state have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience or ACE, such [...]
Childhood Trauma May Shorten Life By 20 Years
By Joseph Brownstein While it may not come as a surprise that survivors of childhood traumas have more difficult lives, a new study says that those children can also expect their [...]
Treating Child Abuse Trauma With EMDR
By Deborah R. Huso EMDR has been successful in treating trauma from childhood abuse in victims and survivors young and old. With more than 3 million instances of child abuse reported [...]
Cardboard Treasure Box
by Shawn Alex Nemeth | In a single night, the twisted culmination of all my childhood fears was magnified tenfold when I heard the blood-curdling screams of my mother and sister end with gun fire. [...]