Teaching to the Trauma

Caelan Kuban, LMSW and Director of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children, stated in one of her October Focus Newsletter articles the following: “Research strongly supports that children exposed to traumatic experiences are at-risk for cognitive dysfunctions. The ability to attend, focus, retain, and recall information, which are primary learning functions, begins to diminish when a child is under stress and prolonged arousal. Processing verbal information, identifying and verbalizing internal emotional experiences also impair a child's ability to communicate in a way that allows others to be helpful. In short, it becomes difficult to help traumatized children using cognitive interventions alone.” She also indicated in a recent training on trauma-informed care that those who are emotionally charged by a stressful situation experience a temporary impairment of left-brain functions. In other words, when the body and mind are undergoing chronic stress, “talking it out” is probably the least effective method of help. What does this mean to an educator?

It means that teaching students who come to school stressed or traumatized is a challenge to say the least. How do you go about engaging their brains when much of what you are teaching requires left-brain functions? We are often quick to assume a disability is the culprit when learning appears to be impaired, but that is a life-long problem that encourages long-term interventions. We should always rule out short-term variables as the origins for poor performance prior to looking for explanations in conditions that carry long-term effects. These research findings suggest that we as educators should consider chronic stress and trauma as possible reasons for academic mental blocks. This does not mean that we need to delve into a family’s private life, but that we learn to recognize the outward signs and symptoms of stress so we can be sensitive to a student’s need for a safe, secure, peaceful environment where trust, hope, and confidence are exuded. Such students will be more significantly impacted by teacher, peer, and classroom stressors than the average person who carries a manageable level of stress with them from place to place. We should not conclude, of course, that every student who presents with low frustration tolerance is traumatized, but we should question whether or not a student who presents with this poor coping trait might be experiencing more stress than they can handle. Think about a time when you were experiencing many stressors at once or even a single life-altering event. Remember for a moment how you managed everyday dilemmas or unexpected snags during that time. Were small issues more upsetting than usual? Was it more difficult to stay focused? Did you experience an uncharacteristic amount of forgetfulness or disorganization? Do these features sound like ADHD symptoms? The stress you experienced very likely was not all in your head, either. There were probably physical signs, indicating that there was something going on in your body that was not typical. What exactly does go on when stress hormones get the better of us?

Many of us know about stress hormones like cortisol and how they help a person “survive” a stressful situation. These hormones are designed to change the brain’s operation temporarily to be able to deal with the immediate crisis. Access to the left hemisphere is hindered so the brain can shift its focus to the senses and automatic functions for a quick response, the type of problem solving that does not require a lot of logical analyses or brainstorming. What happens, however, when this system is triggered repeatedly without time enough in between events to fully recover and rest? These stress hormones that nature intended for good start to harm the brain and body over time. The right and left hemispheres lose some of their ability to work together as neural connections are lost, damage to the left hemisphere decreases the ability to reason and use language effectively, the hippocampus becomes impaired reducing the brain’s ability to process, understand, learn, and retain new information, damage to the right hemisphere results in hypersensitivity or dulled sensory responses and loss of emotional control. In other words, the brain’s ability to cope with new stressors deteriorates as an overproduction of stress hormones takes place. Of course, stress takes its toll on the body as well, breaking down the immune system and ultimately leading to chronic health problems in some cases. With everything else on your plate as an educator, how in the world can you be expected to teach and heal the mind at the same time? The good news is that we can run interference for one another and interrupt the cycle of stress. As long as the brain is given a stress break on a regular basis, permanent damage can be avoided. There are things you already are doing in your classroom to reduce stress and other fairly simple strategies you can incorporate into your regular schedule and lessons that offer temporary relief from stressors and even the effects of trauma. For instance, you have probably been told that teaching your students self-management skills will help them own their performance and save you grading time. You might not have been told that learning and using self-management skills helps stressed and traumatized individuals regain a sense of control over their lives.

Clearly, learning stress-reduction strategies for use in your classroom can help improve your students’ performance. The website listed in this blog, Praise Exchange, has a page devoted to this subject. New information and strategies will be added throughout the school year to help you engage your students in stress-busting activities. As a bonus, there are stress-reduction aids for you as well – some as simple as pointing and clicking. Are you guilty of abusing the chemical substances known as stress hormones? Don’t become another trauma victim. Take a stress break!