learn the child: supporting the education of traumatised children

Learn the Child:

Supporting the education of traumatised children

© als-akamas ltd 2010 2

Why do traumatised children find it difficult to manage school?

They may experience many moves Unmet attachment needs may lead to

emotional, social and cognitive developmental delay

Trauma may lead to impairments and distortions

Speech, language and processing disorders Learning difficulties Distorted education narrative Emotional and behavioural difficulties Difficulties with social connectedness and integration


Why do schools find it difficult to manage traumatised children?

Moves in the care system can make it difficult to integrate children into school

DfES survey showed main problem was post traumatic behaviour

Staff recognised traumatic origins but did not know how to manage behaviour in context of whole school

Can be difficult to define roles and responsibilities and work effectively together

Secondary trauma may affect attitudes and behaviour of adults who constitute the care team


Training helps

Online BTEC qualifications aimed at developing expert practitioners in working with traumatised children

L3 Certificates and Short Course Awards Supporting the Education of Traumatised Children

L4 Certificate and Short Course Awards Expert Practice in Work with Traumatised Children

L5 Award for Designated Teachers Online short course programme mapped to

standards Face to face multi-disciplinary training “Learn

the Child” provided by Akamas


Observation and analysis

Think of a traumatised child or young person known to you

What behaviours cause concern? Do these behaviours indicate that the child or young

person has difficulty with: Self-regulating? Processing information and making sense of the

world? Managing relationships?

If the child has none of these difficulties, think of a different child!


Identity, attachment and education

The seven steps of infant attachment Claiming core identity

Attunement trust and stress regulation

Affective attunement feelings and empathy

Impulse regulation morality

Shame regulation social learning

Rage management social acceptability

Pre-cognitive patterning thinking


Disruptions and distortions during the attachment process

At each step of the developmental process linked to attachment, disruption or distortion has an enduring effect

Attachment relationships affect the structure of the developing brain

Traumatic stress injures the developing brain Children with unmet needs may be thinking

and feeling with a different brain What sense do they make of their lives? What is the impact on the child’s education of

unmet needs in relation to infant attachment and recovery from childhood trauma?


Developmental trauma

Trauma means injury Unregulated stress causes injury to the brain Children with unmet attachment needs often

cannot regulate stress Injuries acquired through stress dysregulation

because of unmet infant attachment needs may be described as developmental trauma


Emotional trauma

Once children can process feelings and can

think, they may be injured through exposure

to terrifying events

Such events lead to extreme stress which

injures the brain

Injuries acquired through exposure to

overwhelming fear or horror may be described

as emotional trauma


Trauma and education

For traumatised children life in school often triggers a post-traumatic response

They may be retraumatised OR They may have experiences that enable them to

process the trauma and recover

Education may increase traumatic identity But education may also, at other times,

resolve traumatic identity and allow the child to discover other possible identities


What do traumatised children need?

Recognition Help with attachment

– Affective attunement: soothing/stimulation/trust

– Reintegrative shame:impulse/choice/responsibility

– Sociability: self-control/reflection/reciprocity Appropriate treatment for trauma

– Stabilisation: safety/explanation/words for feelings

– Integration: physiological/emotional/cognitive

– Adaptation: social connectedness/self-esteem/joy


A nine-point curriculum for working effectively with traumatised children

1 Safety first: soothing hyperaroused children

2 Engaging: stimulating interest and teaching about trauma

3 Trusting and feeling: learning connectedness

4 Managing the self: regulating impulse and regulating the

body

5 Managing feelings: choices and emotional processing

6 Taking responsibility: making sense of the world we share

7 Developing social awareness: learning self-control

8 Developing reflectivity: promoting self-esteem

9 Developing reciprocity: learning that life can be joyful


Recreating the claiming process

ABCD: attention, bonding, control, dependency Children and young people need to feel

That they have our attention, that we are fully aware of who they are and how they are

That they matter to us even when we are physically separate from them

That we will exert ourselves to keep them safe, that we are reliably in control of their safety

That they can depend upon us, that we can carry the burden of their needs


Enhancing a sense of safety

Ensuring that every child or young person has some space where they feel safe

This may be a physical space or the emotional space of a safe and trusted relationship

Learn how sensory experience increases the sense of safety for this child or young person

Experiment with the space in discussion with the child or young person

Encouraging the child or young person to generalise the feeling of safety through imagination


Recreating the attunement process

The child or young person needs patient encouragement to turn to a safe adult for soothing

We need to learn the child – what works for this individual person to produce the relaxation response?

Which senses are most involved? Sight: lighting, colour, vista, images Hearing: rhythm, music, words, silence Smell: relaxing oils, clothing, pets Taste: milk, chocolate, special food, special drinks Touch: fabric, water, care of hair/hands/feet …


Helping children to connectto their physical experience

When children and young people dissociate they cannot connect to their own experience

They need help to recognise physical experiences such as hot/cold or sweet/sour

Activities and games may be used, such as: Working with clay Making bread Taste or smell guessing games Making and listening together to music


Recreating affective attunement

Encourage the child or young person to pay attention to the facial expression of the safe adult

Notice non-verbal signals of feelings in the child and help them to recognise and name what is happening

Start with powerful feelings angry, sad, frightened

Add in more subtle feelings happy, lonely, sympathetic, awed

Whenever possible take pleasure in simply being with the child or young person, and comment on this


Recreating patterns for self-regulation

Once the child or young person begins to form a secure attachment relationship, help them to build on this to begin to self-regulate impulse, rage and shame

Notice and bring to their attention indicators of physiological change, such as

Muscle tension Breathing changes Skin changes Posture

Physically model regulating stress


Recreating pre-cognitive patterning

Games, activities and stories help the child or young person to begin to develop patterns for cognitive function:

Distinguishing fact from fantasy Recognising cause and effect Generalising accurately from the particular Distinguishing mine and yours

It is important to recognise that children and young people whose thinking is impaired or distorted do not have control over these impairments or distortions


Working with the child to promote adaptation

Even when recovery is impossible children and young people can learn to adapt to acquired impairments

Everyone around the child must be aware of the nature of these impairments

We can say to the child: “it seems that some things are harder for you than they are for other people”

We can engage the child or young person by asking how we can help them with this

It is essential to be creative, and to help the child be creative, in finding solutions to the problems of developmental and functional impairment


Teaching children about the effects of unmet needs and the impact of trauma

Before children can start to engage they must begin to understand and recognise their own stress arousal

To do this they need to learn about the impact of developmental and emotional trauma

Children can be helped to gain insight into their own stress responses

Carers and school staff can work with the child and with each other to help the child learn about trauma


Teaching children about relaxation

Once children have some insight into their own

responses they are ready to learn to gain

some control of those responses

Relaxation is a change in physiology

Relaxation is enjoyable, but not for victims of

trauma

Different approaches work for different people


Helping children to regulate impulse

Children with unmet needs may never have developed impulse regulation

The process of impulse regulation in the brain is also affected by trauma

Many traumatised children find it difficult to regulate impulse

They often find this frightening Children who cannot control their own

impulses may be very controlling of others


Think first

Steps to impulse regulation:

Recognise the arousal Practise relaxation to modulate the arousal This builds a gap between impulse and action Use the gap to think about how you will explain the

action you are about to take to someone you care about

Now CHOOSE what action to take


Helping children to regulate shame

Explain that shame is the affect that underlies Embarrassment Shyness Guilt

All these will become easier to live with when the child can learn to control their reaction to shame

Help the child to put words to the experience of shame

Sense of exposure Stress

Identify strategies to regulate the stress


Developing social learning

Encourage the child to notice accurately the impact they have on others, and to discuss any differences between this outcome and their intentions

Talk about what has been learned from every mistake the child makes

Notice and comment upon examples of adaptation to a social setting

Model social learning so that the child sees that this is a lifelong process of adaptation to other people and situations


Promoting resilience through developing self-regulation and social

learning Six domains of resilience in childhood

Secure base Education Friendships Talents and interests Positive values Social competencies

Resilience in each of these domains is enhanced as the child gains self-regulation and develops the capacity for social learning


Assessing resources

Thinking about the child or young person as part of the school community:

Who are the members of the team supporting the education of this child or young person?

What do each of these people need in order to support the child most effectively?

What resources are currently available to enable the team supporting the child to work effectively?


Whole school policies

Thinking about the school for the child or young person being considered:

What additional whole school policies or changes to existing policies would need to be in place in order to provide for the needs of all children including those who are traumatised?

Who are the key people to set these policies or policy changes in place?

What is the first step to be taken?


Action plans/improvement plans

Thinking about the school action plan or improvement plan:

What would be the key steps in the action plan to implement such policies or policy changes?

How would the implementation be evaluated?

learn the child: supporting the education of traumatised children

Documents

akamas slide

developmental trauma

developmental trauma

attachment process

developing brain children

unmet infant attachment

moves unmet attachment

emotional trauma