00:01 good afternoon welcome to our webinar on
00:04 creating trauma-sensitive classrooms on
00:07 barbara Sorrells and i'm the executive
00:09 director of the institute for childhood
00:12 education and also the director of
00:14 learning together through purposeful
00:16 play which is a therapeutic preschool
00:19 program for children with a history of
00:21 significant trauma before we get started
00:24 I'd like to encourage you to attend the
00:27 professional learning Institute this
00:28 summer that will be held in Austin I'll
00:30 be presenting a session on the impact of
00:33 trauma and healthy growth and
00:34 development and she strategies and
00:37 information I would have learned from
00:39 our program and the children that we
00:41 serve I'd like to thank all of the early
00:46 childhood educators who have joined us
00:48 on this webinar we know that you were
00:50 very busy professionals and we deeply
00:53 appreciate that you have chosen to spend
00:55 some time with us I'm excited to share
00:58 that over 2,000 people have signed up to
01:00 deepen their knowledge of creating
01:02 trauma-sensitive classrooms and I
01:05 believe that there has been such an
01:07 overwhelming response to this webinar
01:09 for many reasons we are seeing an
01:11 increasing number of children across the
01:13 country who have experienced traumatic
01:16 life events and the adaptive survival
01:19 strategies that they develop to cope
01:22 with these difficult life experiences
01:25 often interfere with their ability to
01:27 enjoy play learning and relationships in
01:30 the early childhood environment and so
01:32 as early childhood professionals we are
01:35 often the first responders being a very
01:38 unique position to identify children who
01:41 need an additional level of nurture and
01:44 intervention to set them on a positive
01:46 trajectory finally we are very fortunate
01:49 to have Katie statment will presenting
01:52 today katie is an an adjunct professor
01:54 at Portland State University where her
01:57 course is focused on equity and guidance
01:59 strategy that improved social and
02:01 emotional development and
02:03 self-regulation for all learners she
02:06 consults and speaks on the topic of
02:08 early childhood trauma challenging
02:10 behaviors and mental health nationally
02:13 nationally Katy is also a foster parent
02:15 for children who are involved with the
02:17 child welfare system and we look forward
02:20 to her presentation this afternoon after
02:23 the webinar we will have time for
02:24 questions before we get started we do
02:28 have a few housekeeping details if you
02:30 do have questions that you would like to
02:32 ask during the presentation please write
02:35 them in the question box on the lower
02:37 left side of your screen
02:39 Katie will answer as many questions as
02:41 possible at the end of the presentation
02:44 some people using a telephone line may
02:46 experience a slight delay you will have
02:49 the best experience using the sounds on
02:51 your on your computer so now we are
02:54 ready to get started
02:59 thanks Barbara I'm excited to share what
03:02 I know about creating trauma-sensitive
03:04 classrooms today so here's an overview
03:06 of what I will be talking about first
03:09 I'll be defining traumas that we're all
03:11 starting out on the same page next I'm
03:14 going to look at the prevalence of
03:15 trauma in the United States and how
03:17 often children between birth to eight
03:19 have traumatic experiences and after
03:22 this I want to share a little bit about
03:24 the ways that trauma can impact
03:26 children's attachment process in brain
03:28 development before I jump into
03:30 discussing what trauma can look like in
03:32 the classroom and after we have a good
03:35 sense of the ways that trauma impacts
03:37 children I'll be offering some
03:38 strategies and interventions that can be
03:40 used to create trauma sensitive
03:42 classrooms and lastly like Barbara said
03:45 I'll be answering any lingering
03:47 questions you may have concerning the
03:49 information that I'm sharing
03:53 so to begin I really wanted to offer you
03:55 a definition of trauma there are a lot
03:57 of different definitions out there but I
03:59 think that this one is really
04:01 comprehensive so it states that trauma
04:03 is often the result of an overwhelming
04:06 amount of stress that exceeds one's
04:08 ability to cope or integrate the
04:10 emotions involved in that experience so
04:13 trauma differs among individuals by
04:16 their subjective experiences not the
04:18 objective facts so what I think is so
04:21 key here is that the definition is
04:24 saying that something in that trauma is
04:27 not uniform among those who experience
04:30 it so two people could exchange the same
04:33 traumatic event but have very different
04:35 responses to the trauma
04:40 so there are also two different types of
04:43 trauma that we can talk about here so
04:45 there's a cute trauma and complex trauma
04:47 acute trauma is a traumatic event that
04:50 happens one time it includes things like
04:53 a car accident a fest or witnessing a
04:56 violent event and a complex trauma on
04:58 the other hand is a repetitive trauma
05:00 that occurs during childhood in complex
05:03 trauma is persistent it's unpredictable
05:07 and it's often episodic so complex
05:10 trauma usually occurs within intimate
05:12 relationships and it includes things
05:15 like emotional abuse neglect sexual
05:18 abuse physical abuse in with witnessing
05:24 so here's a list of some of the traumas
05:27 that the children we care for in our
05:30 classrooms may experience so early loss
05:33 or lack of consistent caregivers so this
05:36 may include children who are in foster
05:39 care or who are adopted children whose
05:42 parents are divorced or when one parent
05:45 is incarcerated emotional physical and
05:48 sexual abuse are usually what come to
05:50 mind when we think about trauma so it
05:53 includes things like name-calling
05:54 physically hurting children or
05:56 inappropriate touches domestic violence
05:59 can also be really traumatic for
06:01 children seeing and hearing the violence
06:04 even though they're not actually a part
06:06 of it can be really overwhelming neglect
06:10 is actually one of the most harmful
06:12 forms of trauma and it's sometimes the
06:14 hardest form of trauma to identify and
06:17 we'll talk more about this when we talk
06:20 about building healthy attachments and
06:23 then other traumas include things like
06:25 war medical and surgical procedures and
06:28 serious accidents spending a lot of time
06:30 in the hospital as a young child can
06:32 cause a trauma response for some
06:39 so trauma is often not discussed the
06:41 basic trauma can be quite surprising in
06:43 the u.s. 40% of children will experience
06:47 at least one traumatizing event before
06:50 the age of 18 in 2016 there was an
06:54 estimated six hundred and seventy-six
06:56 thousand children in the US for
06:58 survivors of child abuse and neglect in
07:00 more than half of these trauma survivors
07:03 were between birth and age and children
07:06 under the age of 1 were the most
07:08 vulnerable to experiencing trauma in the
07:17 perpetrated by the children's own
07:19 so trauma happens across all racial
07:22 ethnic and socio-economic groups but in
07:26 trauma isn't something that is group or
07:28 community specific however young
07:31 children of color in children living in
07:33 poverty are grossly over-represented in
07:36 foster care in the child welfare system
07:38 so as mandatory reporters we really need
07:41 to acknowledge this inequity and
07:43 critically think about what we consider
07:45 a typical behavior for both children and
07:48 their families while all of us who work
07:51 with young children will undoubtedly
07:53 know children who've experienced trauma
07:54 throughout our careers to to really
07:57 successfully serve all children we must
08:01 be able to separate out expressions of
08:02 trauma in the classroom from typical
08:05 behaviors that may be culturally
08:07 different from our own experiences
08:11 so now that were we know that we will
08:14 encounter young children who have
08:16 experienced trauma in the classroom I
08:18 wanted to share some of the foundational
08:20 research on early trauma most of what we
08:23 know about early trauma started with the
08:25 adverse childhood experiences study
08:27 which was a joint study done between the
08:30 Centers for Disease Control and
08:32 Prevention and Kaiser Permanente between
08:35 1995 and 1997 1987 and they included
08:40 more than 17,000 adults who are all
08:42 insured through Kaiser so this study
08:45 revealed that early adverse experiences
08:48 or these early traumas that we can call
08:50 aces are far more widespread than
08:53 formerly believed and experiencing aces
08:56 is strongly connected with negative
08:58 health and behavioral outcomes in
09:00 adulthood so this study defined 10
09:03 different aces which you can see along
09:05 with their prevalence on this slide and
09:08 to find out how many people experience
09:10 aces they asked participants directly if
09:14 they had experienced each ace so it was
09:16 a simple yes-or-no question air and what
09:19 they found was that many many
09:21 participants had experienced aces so for
09:24 example you can see on this slide that
09:26 27% of participants said that they grew
09:29 up with substance abuse in their home in
09:32 23% said they grew up with parental
09:34 separation or divorce so over the 17 of
09:39 the 17,000 people they studied almost
09:41 2/3 of the study participants had
09:44 experienced at least one ace and more
09:47 than one in five had experienced three
09:49 or more aces and what's really
09:52 interesting about the study is that they
09:53 found that there was a clear dose
09:55 response to aces so the more aces
09:58 someone experienced the higher the
10:00 likelihood of having physical or mental
10:02 health issues as adults they found that
10:05 childhood traumas are predictive of a
10:07 whole host of mental and physical health
10:09 issues like early introduction to
10:11 alcohol use and continued problem
10:13 drinking depression sleep disturbances
10:16 suicidality anxiety disorders and then
10:19 they also found that aces are more
10:21 likely to lead to things like liver
10:24 these cancer diabetes stroke and heart
10:29 so this ace pyramid here represents the
10:32 conceptual framework for the study so
10:34 the ACE study takes a whole life
10:36 perspective and you can see on the left
10:38 hand side the arrow that is showing this
10:41 sort of idea of conception through death
10:43 so the ACE study really began to show us
10:46 how adverse childhood experiences are
10:48 strongly related to development so
10:51 children who experience adversity are
10:53 more likely to experience disrupted
10:56 neuro development which leads to
10:58 developmental impairments which then
11:00 leads to participating in health risk
11:02 behaviors like smoking drinking doing
11:04 drugs and these risky behaviors lead to
11:08 a higher likelihood of experiencing
11:10 diseases and social problems which
11:12 eventually and unfortunately leads to
11:15 early death so on a whole life scale
11:18 clearly aces are not something that we
11:20 can ignore if we want to support our
11:22 children's healthy development
11:26 so while the ace study offered us a
11:28 clear and profound link between early
11:30 experiences with trauma and later health
11:33 issues it didn't really identify the
11:35 immediate effects of trauma on children
11:37 themselves but the ACE study really got
11:39 all of that research started so since
11:42 that time a lot of study has been done
11:44 on this and there was a 2014 study of
11:47 three to four year old children that
11:49 were attending a federally funded Head
11:51 Start program and they found that
11:53 childrens ace exposure exposure was
11:56 associated with lower teacher ratings of
11:58 social emotional cognitive language
12:01 literacy and math development and of
12:04 course when I see any study that's
12:06 really focusing on teacher rating I kind
12:09 of want to question that because I know
12:10 that as teachers we come in with our own
12:13 experiences and our own biases but this
12:15 research has really been shown over and
12:18 over again through different studies
12:23 so these findings that aces increased
12:26 social emotional and academic challenges
12:28 hold true for the elementary years as
12:31 well so a 2011 study looking at students
12:34 ages 5 to 11 found that 45% of the
12:38 students experienced one or more aces
12:41 and 6% of students experienced four more
12:45 aces so this study found that just as
12:47 aces have a dose-response for adults
12:49 they also have a dose-response for
12:52 students as well which means that the
12:55 more aces the students experience the
12:58 more likely it was that there would be
12:59 negative academic and social outcomes so
13:03 for example compared to their peers with
13:04 zero aces a student with one ace was one
13:08 and a half times more likely to
13:10 experience academic concerns there were
13:12 two students with two aces were two and
13:16 a half times as likely to have academic
13:17 concerns and students with three or more
13:20 aces were two point times more like 2.9
13:23 times more likely to have academic
13:25 concerns and then as you can see in this
13:27 graph the findings of the study
13:28 demonstrate that students who exchanged
13:31 more aces were also more likely to have
13:35 behavioral concerns attendance concerns
13:42 so when we think about trauma I think
13:45 it's really important for us to first
13:46 think about attachment because children
13:48 learn about the world and about
13:50 themselves through their relationships
13:53 with their primary caregivers so this
13:55 attachment relationship takes place
13:57 through what's called a serve and return
13:59 interaction between babies and their
14:02 caregivers so this serve in return forms
14:05 the connections that build children's
14:07 early sense of self in their brain
14:09 architecture so children learn to
14:11 regulate their emotions and behaviors by
14:14 expressing their wants and needs this
14:16 serve and learning how their caregivers
14:19 respond to them which is the return so
14:21 the ways their primary caregivers
14:23 interact with them affect how children
14:25 see themselves in the world around them
14:27 so when babies send out this serve when
14:31 they send out a cry or a smile a babble
14:33 or a laugh and their adults respond
14:35 appropriately and appropriately is of
14:38 course culturally bound but it can
14:40 include things like words facial
14:43 expressions eye contact babies are
14:46 learning that when they express a need
14:48 good things happened to in for them so
14:52 they learn through these interactions
14:53 how to trust they trust that when they
14:56 have a need there's someone there to
14:57 help them and they learn they're worthy
14:59 of that help that their needs matter so
15:03 most of the early attachment research
15:05 was done on white middle-class families
15:08 but the more recent attachment research
15:10 has really demonstrated that the concept
15:12 of the serve in return is consistent
15:14 across racial cultural and ethnic groups
15:17 so there are a lot of different ways to
15:19 complete the serve and return
15:21 interaction and there isn't one that's
15:23 better than another but for children
15:26 were living in chaotic or fearful
15:28 environments especially when their
15:30 caregivers are the source of that fear
15:32 they may not be receiving this healthy
15:35 serve and return relationship so they
15:38 can end up feeling hopeless and out of
15:40 control so when they cry they may not
15:43 have anyone who comes to them or
15:45 sometimes they may have someone who
15:47 comes to them who's calm and loving but
15:50 sometimes that the same person may be
15:53 very so they're not learning to trust
15:55 and they're not learning that their
15:57 needs matter instead what they're
15:58 learning is that their world is unsafe
16:00 threatening or unpredictable and that's
16:03 a really scary way to feel as you move
16:06 from being a baby to a toddler to a
16:08 preschooler when you're supposed to be
16:10 ready and primed for exploration
16:16 children who do not experience a healthy
16:17 early attachment relationship and are
16:20 living in environments that are
16:21 unpredictable and scary
16:24 could have negative impacts on their
16:27 brain development as well so there's a
16:29 lot of different ways of thinking about
16:31 the brain but we can think of the brain
16:33 as having two different parts the
16:36 thinking brain in the feeling brain and
16:38 typically young children are really
16:41 living in their feelin brain they're
16:43 having it needs and then they're having
16:46 those needs met and they're expressing
16:47 those needs through their feelings and
16:49 through this interaction they're
16:52 learning how to regulate their emotions
16:55 and that helps them move into the
16:58 thinking brain but for children who
17:00 don't have these healthy early
17:02 attachment relationships and they're
17:04 living in fear and stress they may have
17:07 a heightened stress response which
17:11 leaves them stuck in their emotional
17:13 brains so their biological instinct to
17:17 fight flee or freeze is constantly being
17:20 activated even when there's nothing
17:22 scary happening so they're constantly
17:25 focusing on protecting themselves and
17:27 keeping themselves emotionally and
17:28 physically safe so what happens is the
17:31 feeling brain gets used over and over
17:34 and over again and it becomes really
17:35 well developed which leaves less time
17:38 and activation for the thinking brain
17:40 which can of course cause huge problems
17:43 for them in a dynamic and stimulating
17:45 classroom environment where there's a
17:52 so in the classroom young sergeant who
17:54 have experienced trauma may be triggered
17:56 by some events that caused them to have
17:59 big reactions it's as if there's a
18:02 current threat happening even when there
18:05 actually is not a threat there so they
18:07 may see hear feel or smell something
18:10 that remind them of their past trauma
18:13 and it's what happens is it's as if
18:15 there's a current physical or emotional
18:17 threat and so they're thinking brain
18:18 completely shuts down as they work to
18:21 protect themselves so this is really
18:24 important for us to be aware of because
18:26 oftentimes when we have children who are
18:28 being triggered by events that we cannot
18:30 see or notice we begin to define their
18:33 behavior as the problem so rather than
18:36 trying to understand and respond to the
18:38 underlying cause which we don't really
18:42 understand in the moment we're
18:43 responding to their behavior so we'll
18:45 say things like it seems like their
18:48 behaviors came out of nowhere they show
18:51 no remorse they're being manipulative
18:53 but really what's happening is the
18:55 child's brain is being flooded by the
18:58 overwhelming stress response and they're
19:00 doing everything they can to keep
19:02 themselves safe so to give you an
19:05 example of triggers in the classroom I'm
19:07 going to describe Susan a four-year-old
19:09 who is attending preschool
19:11 so Susan lives with her mom and her dad
19:13 and her three brothers and at home her
19:18 dad is pretty verbally abusive and
19:20 there's physical fighting between her
19:21 parents multiple times a week and just
19:23 recently her mom hit her so hard that
19:26 she left a bruise on her bottom but
19:28 Susan didn't tell anyone about it and
19:30 the fighting between her parents has
19:32 been going on long before Susan was even
19:35 born and so often when Susan was a baby
19:38 she would be left on her own for hours
19:40 at a time as her parents fought so she
19:43 could hear them but it seems like no one
19:45 could really hear her so Susan really
19:48 loves school and she's always happy to
19:50 come it's typically a calmer environment
19:53 than home and she loves having her
19:57 friends there and she loved her teachers
19:59 in one morning she's playing in the
20:01 block corner with a friend and they're
20:03 working on building a tower
20:05 and so they get their tower quite high
20:07 and Susan goes and grabs a chair brings
20:10 it over stands on the chair to place the
20:12 last block on the top of this tower and
20:14 as she does the whole thing comes
20:17 crashing down so everyone in the
20:19 classroom can hear this crash in both of
20:22 the children Susan and her friend both
20:24 start laughing and immediately they
20:26 decide they're going to rebuild their
20:27 Tower so we start working on it again
20:29 but this time as Susan is working she
20:33 sites to kind of lean into her friend
20:35 which kind of moves into pushing her
20:38 friend and she has a lot of opinions
20:40 about where the blossoming to go and
20:42 she's telling her friend how to put the
20:44 blocks onto the tower and at one point
20:46 she gets so frustrated she leans over
20:49 and she bites her friend's arm so this
20:53 may look like it's coming out of nowhere
20:54 to her teachers and her peers
20:56 she appeared fine one moment until her
20:59 behavior suddenly changed but really
21:01 what's happening is that she's triggered
21:03 by the loud noise that she hears in the
21:06 classroom even though she was there for
21:08 it and she was the one who made it
21:10 happen so her body became overwhelmed by
21:13 the stress and fear of the crash and now
21:16 she's dealing with the effects of the
21:23 the susan's triggers that only bring
21:25 about behavioral changes but living in a
21:28 constant state of fear and stress can
21:29 also have long-term effects on Susan and
21:32 other children's cognitive development
21:34 so children who experience overwhelming
21:37 stress can have troubles with memory
21:39 problem solving reasoning thinking
21:41 through concepts and understanding
21:43 cause-and-effect and they may struggle
21:45 to learn new skills or to take in new
21:47 information they can also have
21:49 difficulty focusing which is why they
21:52 are often misdiagnosed as having ADHD
21:54 when really what they're experiencing is
21:57 hyper vigilance so all of these
22:01 cognitive challenges can make typical
22:03 behavior management strategies
22:05 completely ineffective and really
22:08 frustrating for teachers because they
22:10 often require that children have typical
22:13 cognitive skills which they may just not
22:16 have so they may not have the memory
22:19 skills or the cause-and-effect the
22:21 memory or the cause-and-effect
22:23 understanding that they need in order to
22:26 be successful with what we use in in
22:29 terms of typical behavior management
22:31 strategies often in the classroom
22:36 - like all development language
22:39 acquisition occurs through relationship
22:41 so it's through these interactions that
22:43 children learn how language is used on a
22:45 social level so children who experience
22:48 trauma may not have the healthy and
22:50 consistent caregiving they need to learn
22:53 important pre verbal or verbal language
22:56 skills which can cause delays or gaps in
22:59 their communication so for babies this
23:03 may look like not cooing or babbling
23:05 when we expect them to they may be
23:07 really shut down and unresponsive and
23:10 not really able to focus on their
23:12 caregivers space and then for toddlers
23:15 preschoolers and early elementary age
23:17 children they may not have the receptive
23:20 or expressive language skills they need
23:22 to communicate effectively with their
23:23 peers and they may need extra processing
23:27 time to make sense of what's said to
23:29 them so they may really need you to slow
23:31 way down so they can understand what
23:34 you're saying and when children are
23:37 heightened and overwhelmed they
23:38 definitely can't process a lot of words
23:41 coming at them and so usually they can't
23:44 process about five word statements so
23:46 you need to be succinct into the point
23:48 for them to be able to hear you so
23:50 children who live in environments that
23:52 are built on control are often exposed
23:55 to instrumental language things like sit
23:59 down come here be quiet versus
24:01 expressive language which you need to
24:03 share feelings to negotiate or problem
24:06 to solve so as children get older we
24:09 expect them to have the skills to be
24:12 able to communicate with each other more
24:13 and more we expect them to move beyond
24:16 hitting or yelling to get what they want
24:18 but for children were living in stress
24:20 they may need lots and lots of practice
24:22 using this healthy expressive language
24:25 because they're not getting it at home
24:26 as well the children with limited
24:30 language skills may use this the
24:32 negative tactics that are used in their
24:34 home to try to build relationships which
24:37 can be frustrating for them when they
24:39 don't work so I'm going to give you the
24:42 example of Leon so I was once asked to
24:45 consult with teachers we're struggling
24:47 with his five year old named Leah
24:49 one who is having big behaviors and he
24:52 was having trouble building
24:53 relationships in the classroom so I
24:55 observed him as he built this really
24:58 intricate ship out of Legos and then I
25:01 watched as he walked around the
25:02 classroom moving from child to child
25:05 saying I bet you can't build a shelter a
25:08 ship like this and each child just
25:10 looked at him with his annoyed voice or
25:12 your face or a confused face and then
25:15 they just turned away they didn't really
25:17 know how to respond to him and after a
25:19 few tries I walked over to him and said
25:22 Leon are you wanting to play with your
25:24 friends and he enthusiastically looked
25:27 at me and responded yeah and I said why
25:30 did you say you want to play with me and
25:32 then he went off and he tried it and it
25:35 worked and he was able to find a way to
25:37 break into the play but at first glance
25:39 his behavior could have been
25:41 misconstrued as simply mean or
25:44 competitive instead of what it really
25:46 was which was this desire for connection
25:49 using the only language that he knew
25:55 perhaps most importantly
25:57 social-emotional development can be
25:59 significantly impacted by early trauma
26:02 so in babies we may see them having a
26:05 really hard time being soothed
26:07 lots of crying they may be arching away
26:10 from their caregivers they may not want
26:12 to be touched or held or they may want
26:15 to be close all the time and have a
26:17 really hard time being put down and then
26:20 in toddlers preschoolers and elementary
26:22 age children we may see kids who either
26:25 don't want to move away from their
26:27 teachers at all in the classroom they
26:28 always want to be closed or children who
26:31 rarely want comfort and try to always
26:33 care for themselves and all of these
26:36 children may express their feelings
26:39 through big behaviors so behaviors
26:41 towards themselves or towards others so
26:44 things like slapping themselves in the
26:46 face banging their head on the ground
26:48 kicking hitting biting screaming and
26:51 crying because children coming from hard
26:54 places often distrust that others will
26:57 be predictable they feel like they need
26:59 to keep themselves safe by being distant
27:02 and not creating close relationships
27:04 with their peers and teachers which is
27:06 absolutely counterproductive for
27:08 children who really need that connection
27:11 they may also try to control the
27:14 classroom environment because since
27:16 their lives feel so out of control
27:18 they're trying to take control wherever
27:20 they can find it so you might find kids
27:23 who are very demanding or inflexible in
27:26 children who have experienced early
27:29 trauma and especially children who have
27:31 experienced early neglect may lie or
27:34 steal to get what they want or to get
27:36 out of getting in trouble so we can
27:38 literally find a child covered
27:40 head-to-toe in pain and that child may
27:44 still look at us and earnestly say nope
27:48 I didn't take out the pain now even if
27:51 we're not upset about this they may be
27:53 convinced that we will be and in that
27:57 moment they're doing absolutely
27:58 everything they can to keep themselves
28:00 safe and it's our job to show them that
28:04 they are safe rather than just simply
28:06 punishing the behavior so when I see a
28:09 I was lying or stealing I try to move
28:12 beyond those labels and their behaviors
28:14 to understand the underlying need and
28:17 we'll talk about that more as we
28:23 children who experience trauma may be
28:25 fearful of exploring and trying new
28:28 because they may not know if the world
28:30 is safe or if there will be someone
28:32 who's there for them when they have a
28:34 hard time so this can really hinder
28:37 their curiosity and interrupt their play
28:40 so for babies it may look like very
28:42 little movement little interest in toys
28:44 they may not interact with adults or
28:47 other babies and they may look stolen or
28:49 listless and for toddlers this may look
28:52 like erratic and purposeless play so
28:55 picking up objects quickly dropping them
28:57 moving around and kind of watching other
29:00 children for short bits before moving on
29:03 to different activities and although
29:05 toddlers typically do have short
29:07 attention spans their play is usually
29:11 purposeful and it's very different
29:13 toddlers who've experienced trauma who
29:16 sometimes their play can seem really
29:18 frenetic as if they're in constant
29:20 motion without really moving anywhere or
29:23 to anything the children in preschool in
29:27 early elementary school can also have
29:29 difficulties in play they may have a
29:31 hard time concentrating negotiating
29:34 problem-solving and moving into
29:36 imaginative play world because in order
29:38 to move into imaginative play you have
29:41 to feel safe enough and in your
29:43 environment but you don't feel like you
29:44 have to constantly scan the environment
29:47 to make sure that you're safe they may
29:50 also prefer to play with younger
29:52 children because then they can control
29:54 the play or because emotionally they
29:57 just are younger and so they connect
29:59 more with younger kids and sometimes
30:03 children who've experienced trauma can
30:04 get stuck replaying the triggering
30:07 experience over and over again and they
30:10 may need an adult to support them to
30:13 think of alternate endings or other play
30:15 experiences they can have the children
30:22 who've experienced trauma may have both
30:24 fine and gross motor delays and as they
30:27 get older they may have somatic symptoms
30:30 things like headaches or stomachaches or
30:32 great amounts of pain for what seemed to
30:35 us like minor scrapes or Falls so we
30:38 have to remember that for them that tiny
30:41 scrape does feel like a big big deal in
30:46 children who come from hard places can
30:48 also have sensory challenges in the
30:50 classroom they may be sensitive to noise
30:52 and touch or hardly seem to notice these
30:55 things and they themselves may be really
30:57 loud and pretty rough with their friends
30:59 without meaning to be and frequently
31:02 it's difficult for children who've
31:04 experienced trauma to fall asleep or to
31:06 stay asleep and this can be because
31:08 scary stuff has happened around now for
31:11 bedtime but it can also be because their
31:13 bodies are just having a hard time
31:14 settling down and calming because
31:17 they're constantly scanning the
31:19 environment to keep themselves safe and
31:21 once they are asleep they can have a
31:23 hard time waking up because when they're
31:26 living with such stress and fear when
31:28 they do fall asleep they fall into a
31:30 very very heavy deep sleep
31:34 and the last thing that we see in the
31:36 classroom that I really wanted to talk
31:38 about the dissociation so children have
31:41 experienced early trauma may also have a
31:43 hard time listening and concentrating in
31:46 class because they're just shutting down
31:48 they're freezing and this can look like
31:51 daydreaming so often when I hear
31:54 teachers talk about how they have a
31:56 student in their class who just spends
31:58 their time daydreaming and they could
32:00 just focus on their work a little bit
32:01 more they would be doing so well I
32:03 always like to think about is this a
32:07 trauma symptom are other things
32:09 underlying this behavior that's causing
32:12 this to happen in the classroom
32:17 so now that we know that trauma can
32:19 impact the brain in all developmental
32:21 domains it's important for us to ask
32:23 what can we do in the classroom and
32:26 luckily for us the brain has an amazing
32:30 ability to rewire change and reorganize
32:33 in response to new experiences and this
32:36 ability is called neuroplasticity so
32:40 amazingly just as young children's
32:42 brains can change based on traumatic or
32:44 stressful environments they're also able
32:46 to change again when they're exposed to
32:49 supportive environments the
32:51 neuroplasticity is especially prevalent
32:53 in young children because this is when
32:55 their brains are developing the fastest
32:57 which is why early childhood is such a
32:59 critical period for appropriate trauma
33:02 sensitive environments and it's why the
33:04 role of the educator is so very
33:10 so to create trauma senses classroom
33:13 environments we must understand the
33:15 prevalence of trauma we also need to
33:17 understand how the behaviors and trauma
33:20 symptoms we're seeing our adaptive
33:22 behaviors the children have learned to
33:25 keep themself see if we are focused on
33:28 being angry or frustrated by the
33:30 behaviors themselves we're missing out
33:32 on understanding what children are
33:34 communicating to us through their
33:36 behaviors and their symptoms so it's our
33:38 job to offer healthy reparative
33:40 experiences to support children in
33:43 learning new ways of feeling and being
33:45 so I'm going to go over in detail some
33:48 of the ways you can support children
33:49 who've experienced trauma and you're
33:51 going to notice as I talk that most of
33:53 the suggestions I offer are
33:55 relationship-based as I've discussed
33:58 children you need to feel safe and
34:00 connected before their behavior can
34:02 change so these relationship based
34:04 interventions offer the foundational
34:06 skills young children need to learn that
34:09 they matter they have an impact on the
34:11 world and that they are capable of
34:14 gaining the skills they need to succeed
34:17 so these suggestions are not quick fixes
34:21 even though you may see some significant
34:23 changes right away but really these are
34:26 long-term techniques that take time
34:28 patience and understanding
34:37 so before everything else we really need
34:39 to first find strengths in the children
34:42 we work with oftentimes when I'm
34:44 consulting with educators I can see how
34:47 easy it is to get caught up in the
34:51 the children are experiencing and the
34:53 challenges that educators are having
34:55 caring for children so we forget to see
34:58 the highly adaptive and often extremely
35:01 creative behaviors the children are
35:03 demonstrating so when I sit down to work
35:08 with teachers we're struggling with a
35:10 child the first thing I want to know is
35:13 what does that child do well I want to
35:16 know what teachers love about the child
35:18 where and how are they able to connect
35:21 what do they find inspiring about the
35:23 child because from there we can find
35:25 ways to build on their strengths
35:33 to support children in learning that the
35:35 world can be safe and predictable we
35:37 need to create classroom environments
35:39 that are built on mutual respect and
35:41 belonging we need to share power in the
35:44 classroom and allow for childhood voice
35:46 and celebrate child's voice and one of
35:48 the things that's most important in
35:50 creating this respectful environment is
35:54 being culturally responsive and aware so
35:57 we need to deeply know our children and
36:00 their families and the different
36:02 expectations that they may have in their
36:04 home and in their communities the
36:06 children we work with need to be
36:08 represented in the classroom so they can
36:10 build a sense of belonging
36:12 we can communicate to them through both
36:14 our words and our environment that
36:17 they're visible and that they matter
36:20 another way to support children is by
36:22 creating safety through a very
36:24 consistent and clear daily rhythm
36:27 children can learn what to expect each
36:30 time they're at school and this can shut
36:32 down shut down some of that hyper
36:37 and if there are changes to the rhythm
36:39 children may need lots of warning before
36:42 it happens so supporting them during
36:47 changes in the classroom happens through
36:51 talking about it before it happens
36:53 discussing it while it happened and then
36:55 processing it afterwards because as I
36:59 talked about when discussing cognitive
37:00 development they may not have the skills
37:03 to put what happened in sequential order
37:05 or to remember all the details but you
37:08 can help them remember the experience
37:25 so rather than focusing on punishments
37:28 and ways to stop behavior we need to
37:30 focus on the underlying needs of our
37:32 students we have to remember that the
37:34 children in our classrooms may not have
37:37 the cognitive skills or language to ask
37:40 to take turns instead of grabbed or
37:42 problem solve instead of instead of hit
37:45 so they need support in learning these
37:47 skills rather than punishments for doing
37:50 so rather than punishing I like to offer
37:53 do-overs where they get to practice
37:55 these skills so offer the language they
37:58 need to interact appropriately rather
38:00 than rather than just shutting down the
38:02 inappropriate language you hear so this
38:05 doesn't mean that all behavior is
38:07 allowed and acceptable but it does mean
38:10 that we're focusing on skill building so
38:14 let's take Leon for example who I talked
38:17 about earlier with his Lego ship so
38:19 rather than rather than going over and
38:21 telling him his behavior wasn't nice or
38:24 it was mean because he was telling other
38:26 children they couldn't build ships that
38:28 were as good as his I look for the
38:30 underlying need or warrant what was he
38:33 meeting what was he wanting in that
38:34 moment and what was really wanting with
38:37 connection and so I offered him the
38:39 language he needed to make that
38:40 connection with his peers and after
38:43 working with Leon for several months as
38:45 we observe documented and built a
38:47 proactive plan around his classroom
38:49 behavior I can tell you that he needed
38:51 many many reminders and supports to
38:55 practice healthy connection making but
38:58 through it all he grew and he changed as
39:00 he began to realize that his classroom
39:02 environment was safe and his peers
39:05 wanted to befriend him
39:13 to support children feeling like their
39:15 voices matter we need to create
39:17 proactive rather than reactive classroom
39:21 environments that focus on building
39:23 children's social emotional capacity
39:25 capacity and there are so many different
39:28 ways that we can do this but it's our
39:30 job to find ways to teach them
39:33 self-regulation skills so there are
39:35 things like mindfulness and breathing
39:37 techniques that can be really helpful we
39:39 can talk to the children about what they
39:42 can do if they start to have big
39:44 feelings that they start to feel mad or
39:46 angry or upset or sad or worried we can
39:49 discuss strategies that they can use the
39:51 stake home and many children don't have
39:55 the capacity to recognize and name their
39:58 own feelings or the feelings of others
40:00 and so when they see feelings in others
40:03 they immediately feel like it's a threat
40:05 and maybe it's a feeling of anger so
40:09 when I'm working with children who are
40:11 having a hard time staying calm in the
40:13 classroom I want to begin to build the
40:15 basic language and facial cues that go
40:18 with different emotions so this can be
40:20 done through photos books games and
40:23 often it can be really fun to make
40:25 different emotion faces using the
40:27 students in your classroom because that
40:31 way you're building their emotions
40:33 vocabulary while also building community
40:36 and sometimes for children who have
40:39 experienced trauma like we talked about
40:40 with the sensory stuff the classroom
40:42 environment can feel really overwhelming
40:43 and so creating a calming space where
40:47 they can go can be really helpful so
40:50 this calming space is a space where they
40:53 can go by themselves or with you or with
40:57 a peer to calm down so I never use this
41:00 space as a punishment it's a space where
41:04 they can go if they want to so it's a
41:07 comfort for them I never use isolation
41:11 things like timeouts as a strategy for
41:14 children have experienced trauma because
41:15 children who have a hard time regulating
41:17 need an adult to Co regulate with them
41:21 and so cutting them off from connection
41:23 really does the opposite of what
41:29 a lot of children who've experienced
41:31 trauma may not have opportunities to
41:33 express their wants and their needs and
41:35 their interest in their home so they may
41:38 need lots of opportunities to share
41:40 power in the classroom so offering them
41:42 choices can help them feel like they
41:45 have some control over their lives so I
41:48 don't want to get into a power struggle
41:50 with a child over small tasks instead I
41:53 want to find solutions with them that
41:55 can meet both of our needs
41:57 so I'm also not going to offer them
42:00 extremely large toward entices like
42:03 deciding if the entire class is going to
42:05 go outside for recess or stay in to play
42:07 board games instead I'm going to offer
42:10 them small manageable choices like their
42:14 socks got wet playing outside where
42:16 they'd rather put on red sauce or blue
42:21 I think it's also really important that
42:23 we're holding all of the children we
42:25 work with to high expectations so just
42:28 because I'm offering choices does not
42:31 mean that I'm excusing them from
42:33 participating fully in the classroom
42:35 community and that I'm excusing behavior
42:38 but if we believe in them they will
42:41 learn to believe in themselves
42:46 to show the children who have had
42:48 unpredictable or inconsistent early
42:50 lives that our classrooms are different
42:53 we need to always be working on
42:55 connection rather than focusing on
42:58 correction so we can use non-judgmental
43:01 language to explore why children are
43:05 expressing big feelings or behaviors so
43:08 I want to avoid using language like
43:09 you're being sneaky right now and then
43:12 stay instead say something like I see
43:15 you're leaving the table with Jennifer's
43:17 cookie so I can be curious I can kind of
43:20 state what I'm seeing happen without
43:23 being judgmental and this can help me
43:26 learn more about their fears their needs
43:28 and their warrants which can help us in
43:31 creating this proactive classroom
43:33 community that we're trying to create
43:38 to best support young children we need
43:40 to connect with families our children's
43:43 families are our partners and our best
43:46 allies we need to respect them and
43:49 believe in them and we need to build
43:51 rapport in connection with families if
43:53 we're asking for their help
43:55 understanding their children and their
43:57 children's behavior in the classroom
43:59 parents love their children all parents
44:02 love their children so whether they've
44:05 made mistakes in the past or not it's
44:08 truly counterproductive for us to spend
44:11 our time judging and shaming families
44:13 for the choices that they've made
44:14 because we need to be working with them
44:16 and then when we're stuck or we're
44:19 having challenges we need to be
44:22 and ask for support from colleagues we
44:25 need to bounce ideas off of others and
44:27 learn through their experiences and if
44:30 that only gets us so far we also need to
44:32 turn to outside resources such as books
44:35 and articles and the National Child
44:38 traumatic stress Network has a whole
44:40 host of resources that you can look into
44:42 and then we also need to connect to
44:45 mental health and other early childhood
44:47 professionals so people like
44:49 occupational therapists physical
44:51 therapists and speech pathologists can
44:53 have great insight into specific
44:56 developmental domains that we may not
45:02 working with children who've experienced
45:04 trauma can feel overwhelming and it can
45:07 trigger when own experience of trauma as
45:09 well so self-care is vitally important
45:13 if we want to be able to remain remain
45:15 emotionally available in calm with the
45:17 children in our classrooms so in
45:20 self-care is something that's really
45:21 different for everyone so you will have
45:23 to figure out what works for you do you
45:26 like to take walks you meditate do you
45:28 get massages you get your nails done
45:30 whatever it is we all have to hold
45:33 ourselves accountable to doing the
45:36 self-care activities so that we don't
45:38 burn out because our communities
45:40 children really do need educators who
45:44 are and want to be trauma sensitive
45:50 and lastly to be trauma sensitive
45:52 educators we must understand that what
45:55 we're dealing with are
45:56 neurodevelopmental changes and that is
45:58 our job to stay calm and supportive we
46:01 must see the children themselves rather
46:04 than just seeing their behaviors and we
46:06 must trust that we can and we will
46:08 support young children in moving through
46:11 and learning to cope with some of the
46:13 challenges that they expressed in the
46:14 classroom and importantly we must truly
46:18 believe that the way to do this is
46:20 through relationship so I really
46:24 appreciate the opportunity to share with
46:25 you all and at this point I welcome any
46:28 questions that you may have
46:32 thanks Katie for a great presentation
46:35 there are some interesting questions
46:37 that have been posed one says one child
46:42 in my classroom were years old is
46:44 exhibiting aggressive behaviors toward
46:47 peers such as hitting pushing biting
46:50 when we talked to him about being nice
46:53 to his friends he'll say they're not my
46:55 friends we work hard to help him make
46:58 friends with his peers and also he says
47:01 I'm not a hero I'm a villain how would
47:04 you respond to these comments yeah so it
47:08 sounds like this child is having a hard
47:11 time with self-esteem and so I think the
47:15 first thing that I would really focus on
47:17 is building his self-esteem so when I
47:20 was talking about the strengths what are
47:22 the strengths that he has in the
47:24 classroom so how could me feel good
47:26 about himself because right now it
47:28 sounds like he doesn't even feel like he
47:31 can have friends but he can have
47:34 relationships and that he's worthy of
47:36 that so I would try to find ways to
47:38 build him up to make him feel good about
47:41 himself and then from there he can start
47:45 to enter into relationships with others
47:51 okay another question is trauma and
47:54 children commonly misdiagnosed
47:59 well is it misdiagnosed maybe just to
48:04 clarify I am seeing this question as is
48:06 it misdiagnosed as other issues and
48:09 oftentimes children who have experienced
48:12 trauma are diagnosed with things like
48:15 ADHD opposite oppositional defiant
48:19 disorder conduct disorder lots of other
48:22 sort of surrounding things that are
48:25 really getting to the behaviors and the
48:28 symptoms of the trauma rather than just
48:31 the trauma itself and sometimes this is
48:34 done because that's the way to get
48:36 supports that's the way to get support
48:38 in the classroom through the school
48:40 district and sometimes it's done because
48:42 there's just a lack of knowledge of what
48:45 trauma looks like in children
48:49 okay thank you you mentioned not
48:52 addressing the behaviors are acting out
48:54 but focusing on the underlying fears of
48:58 the child can you speak to this or to
49:02 this kind of encounter I have a student
49:04 who acts out when he suspects fear or
49:07 the unknown but I also find myself just
49:10 pacifying him for the moment I really
49:13 want to formulate more solid solutions
49:15 or phrases to help him okay yeah so when
49:20 I am thinking about children who have
49:22 really big behaviors I want to think
49:25 about what are the things that I can
49:27 create in my classroom to proactively
49:32 stop those feelings and overwhelming
49:35 feelings before they happen so we want
49:37 to catch those feelings before they
49:39 become so overwhelming that they are
49:42 these big behaviors right so there's to
49:46 me that involves a lot of observing a
49:49 lot of documenting the behaviors that
49:51 I'm seeing in finding ways to kind of
49:54 get in there to support them before it
49:56 happens and this can happen through
50:00 social stories you can discuss the issue
50:04 you can look at books you can you can
50:09 plant and play the experience with the
50:13 child you can act out what can happen
50:15 but you want to find ways that they can
50:18 feel calm in the classroom as much as
50:20 possible because the more they feel calm
50:23 the more they're going to have that
50:26 experience in their brains of oh I can
50:28 feel calm in this space and I can play
50:31 with my friends and I can imagine
50:35 different scenarios and I can be curious
50:38 and I can go do art and all of those
50:41 different really important skills for
50:47 okay next question is a don't children
50:52 need to learn to self smooth just like
50:54 everyone else that's a really great
50:58 question yes children do need to
51:00 self-soothe but what's really I think
51:02 interesting about self-soothing is that
51:06 self soothing lerton is learned through
51:09 soothing with another person right so we
51:12 learn to regulate ourselves until we
51:16 learn how to come through big feelings
51:19 by first having that experience with
51:22 another person we can't learn that on
51:26 our own because just the same way that
51:28 we don't ask teeny-tiny babies to learn
51:31 how to feel better on their own we come
51:34 to them right over and over and over
51:37 again we're coming to them when they
51:39 have these feelings and these needs for
51:42 children who haven't received that when
51:44 they were really little they need all of
51:46 that understanding over and over and
51:49 over again and when we think about tiny
51:52 babies we are coming to them
51:54 so many times in just one day right they
51:58 need bottles or to be nursed they need
52:02 their diaper change they need to be held
52:04 they need to be rocked this is kind of
52:07 constant when they're Contini tiny and
52:09 if they haven't gotten that then they're
52:12 missing all of those interactions so we
52:16 need to sort of build back up for them
52:18 all of that experience of having someone
52:21 meet their needs over and over again and
52:24 helping them regularly before we're
52:26 expecting that they can do that on their
52:29 own and they will be able to get there
52:31 but you can't really skip over that
52:34 serve and return relationship without
52:38 first really working on it together
52:43 okay and there's one a quick question
52:46 from my friend Jeannie forest she's
52:50 asking if there will be an a resource
52:52 list at the end of the presentation that
52:55 will be available I don't have a
52:58 resource list to send out and I
53:02 mentioned during the presentation the
53:04 National Child traumatic stress Network
53:06 they are a really great resource to go
53:10 to and Barbara I know you wrote a really
53:14 fantastic book about working with young
53:16 children who've experienced trauma in
53:18 the classroom and then also anyone can
53:20 feel free to email me with other
53:26 probably this may be our last question
53:29 how does trauma affected behavior differ
53:32 from behavior of children you have had
53:34 fetal alcohol or fetal drug effects
53:38 that's a really great question
53:42 oftentimes these behaviors can look very
53:45 very similar one thing about fetal
53:48 alcohol it can so there can be
53:53 developmental delays and concerns in
53:56 sort of similar ways and sometimes for
53:59 children who have fetal alcohol effect
54:02 they have some days that are really
54:06 really great and it doesn't seem like
54:09 there are issues sort of all of the
54:10 connections are happening and in other
54:13 days there can be large large gaps so
54:15 that's one thing that can sometimes look
54:18 a little bit different and often times
54:21 especially for children who are coming
54:23 into the foster care system there may be
54:26 an overlap there may be trauma and there
54:28 also may be fetal alcohol stuff going on
54:30 and we just don't know so we kind of
54:33 have to approach it from the best way
54:36 that it seems to meet that child's needs
54:41 okay um look squeeze another lemon I am
54:46 thinking of a child in my room who is
54:48 often aggressive it was very difficult
54:50 to refrain from putting hands on this
54:53 child in order to keep other children
54:55 safe I realized that this could be
54:58 triggering ideas on this how to deal
55:01 with constant aggression in the moment
55:03 yeah that's a really great question so
55:07 again I go back to can we observe can we
55:12 document what's happening for this child
55:14 before the aggressive behavior begins to
55:19 try to stop it and then if it does
55:21 happen can we have a plan in place for
55:24 what we do so it may be that we move
55:29 some of the other children away from
55:31 that child so that child can have this
55:33 in space I really appreciate that you're
55:35 thinking about what would happen for
55:37 that child if you are putting your hands
55:39 on them because that can be super
55:41 triggering and oftentimes it can really
55:44 be counterproductive right so we want to
55:47 be able to create a space for them where
55:49 they can be really upset and we can be
55:53 while also not getting ourselves in the
55:56 way of being hurt so sometimes we're all
55:59 doing this classroom if I have a child
56:01 who's really upset and they're hitting
56:04 and they're kicking and I will just move
56:06 you know a chair in between us so that I
56:09 can kind of stay calm
56:11 I can stay present but I can also give
56:13 myself a little bit of space between
56:15 them and other things are just really
56:17 making sure that you're wearing clothing
56:20 that can work with a child like this
56:22 right so making sure that you can move
56:24 quickly and easily and sometimes I've
56:27 worked with teachers who they know that
56:30 the first thing that a student does is
56:32 kind of reach out and pinch them so
56:34 feeling upset so they started wearing
56:36 long sleeve shirt to work for a couple
56:39 of months that we were dealing with this
56:40 just to just to sort of be proactive in
56:43 every way that they could as they were
56:45 working on the escalating these
56:50 well thank you so much you have some
56:52 great answers to these questions as you
56:55 see on the screen this is the
56:57 information about the professional
56:59 learning Institute we hope that we will
