Creating a “Trauma-Sensitive” Learning Environment for Students 

In this article in Principal, Pete Hall and Kristin Souers say that many students walk into school feeling the effects of trauma. This can affect their own ability to learn, the climate of their classrooms, and the orderliness of the whole school. Trauma, in the words of Daniel Siegel of the UCLA School of Medicine, is “an experience that overwhelms our ability to cope” – perhaps including the death of a loved one, mental illness in the home, witnessing a crime, parental fighting or divorce, an incarcerated family member, homelessness, bullying. 

“When children lose the ability to cope with the traumatic events in their lives,” say Hall and Souers, “they seek ways to regulate. They access whatever resources they have – healthy or unhealthy – to manage the intensity associated with the stress of these events.” Their school work and behavior often suffer. One study found that traumatized children are three times more likely to fail academically, five times more likely to have problems with attendance, and six times more likely to have behavior problems than peers who haven’t experienced trauma. 

“We can’t always know what students have experienced, or even all the details about it,” continue Hall and Souers, who worked together in an elementary school in Spokane, Washington where half the students had a trauma history. “Neither can we erase traumatic experiences from students’ memories or stop trauma from happening again. But we can work diligently to create an atmosphere that is inviting, welcoming, peaceful, and safe for all our students” – one that is “trauma-sensitive.” Hall, who was principal of the school, brought in Souers, a local mental health therapist, to work with teachers, custodians, and other staff on understanding and supporting needy students. “Souers’s lessons,” they write, “centered on the one element of the equation that educators and school personnel can control: ourselves.” Here is what they worked on:

• Understanding motives – When students who have experienced trauma feel threatened, unsafe, or ill-at-ease, they often react by fleeing, fighting, or freezing. In the past, these actions often resulted in students being scolded or punished, but adults in the school began to see what was behind the actions, understood them as “normal reactions to not OK things,” and became more strategic in planning how to react when there were problems.

• Building positive relationships – Staff members were prompted to reach out to students, especially those with the most challenges, and get to know them better.

• Reacting strategically – Teachers and other staff worked on remaining calm, consistent, and caring in the face of provocative behaviors. Traumatized children sometimes create chaos – screaming, cursing, throwing papers, upending desks, tantruming, tormenting others.  “Just because a child has chosen a disruptive regulation strategy doesn’t mean we need to hop on board,” say Hall and Souers. “Educators should ask: What problem is this child attempting to solve?” Was there a trigger? “The key is to avoid reacting to these infringements with frustration, anger, or irritability because a trusted adult’s response to off-kilter behaviors can either escalate or mitigate the surrounding  environment… When we analyze the motivation, we can empathize with the student’s plight, talk the student down off the proverbial ledge, offer alternative strategies for self-regulation, and maintain order in the classroom… Our calmness serves as a model to students of how to self-regulate, reducing the need to remove students from our classrooms.” The teachers in Hall’s school adopted the mantra, Stay out of Oz, meaning don’t get swept away by the tornado. 

• Keeping your footing – Educators have numerous demands and stresses themselves, say Hall and Souers, and it’s easy to slip. They advocate using affirmations of core values and professional purpose and aspirations – I believe… I love… I will always… I can… – to stay rooted in the most effective posture and strategies for helping all children thrive.

“Address Trauma with Calm, Consistent Care” by Pete Hall and Kristin Souers in Principal, March/April 2015 (Vol. 94, #4, p. 14-17), http://bit.ly/1GDsF55

From the Marshall Memo #582