The Impact of Trauma on the Developing Brain: Learning, Communication, and

Teacher-Student Interactions

Dr. Charlene Myklebust, Psy.D. Charting the C’s Conference Alexandria, Minnesota

ckmyklebust@gmail.comproedpal.comApril 23, 2017

ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES STUDY

“The largest, most important public health study you never heard of” ---

began in an obesity clinic in San Diego in 1985. The actual ACE study was

completed in 1997 and included 17,421 people.

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

TED MED - Nadine Burke Harris: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

CHECK IN

After watching the Nadine Burke Harris video,WHAT SQUARED WITH YOUR THINKING AND WHAT IS

STILL CIRCLING IN YOUR HEAD?

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

NEUROSCIENCE

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

Exposure to Violence and Childhood Trauma

How Many of Your Students Have ACEs?ACEs result in them needing additional time and support with social and emotional skills in order to . . .

• recognize their emotions • regulate their own behavior • respect and appreciate the perspectives of others • manage conflict • be a friend • have healthy relationships• make responsible decisions

Understanding trauma and providing tiered interventions makes a huge difference for these students.

INSTEAD OF THE OLD WAY…

“Determined Impotence”

Reeves, 2006

● Blame for poor performance is

placed on ○ the kids, ○ the parents, ○ poverty, ○ society, or ○ life circumstances

THERE IS A BETTER WAY…

Trauma-SensitiveSchools

● Aware of ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and impact of trauma on neuro development and learning

● More inclined to help and intervene rather than complain about life circumstances

● Understand the need to calm students and ensure safety-- physical, social and emotional

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

Toxic Stress and Adversity: Affects Perception of the Child

• Constantly on “threat assessment”‐ impact on social awareness.• Their bodies quickly go into “fight, flight or freeze”

mode.• Research has found a change in resting heart rate. • Some of these kids are WIRED to be on “HIGH

ALERT.”• They don’t understand that their “set point” is almost

twice as high as what is typical.• Understand that what they might be perceiving is

real even if different from your “reality” - (facial expression; tone of voice; fail to notice, etc.)

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

[[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

Here’s some important news!

[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

It’s Not: What’s wrong with you? But: What happened to you, and how

can I help you to calm, feel safe and focus on learning?

Neuroplasticty

• Brain process that creates and strengthens nerve cell (neuron) connections THROUGH PRACTICE AND REPEATED EXPERIENCE.

• DNA IS NOT YOUR DESTINY.

• Neurons that fire together – wire together.

• Reinforce the “habit” of responding to stress by focusing on breathing to calm down.

• This leads to REFLECTIVE rather than REACTIVE responses.

NEURON, AXON, & DENDRITES

Cell Body

AxonDendrites

EXPERIENCES BUILD BRAIN ARCHITECTURE

Amygdala - “fight”, “flight” or “freeze; can cause one to react without thinking; programmed to keep you safe at all times.

Prefrontal Cortex - thoughtful decisions, careful calculations, and ability to focus; the amygdala must be calm for the prefrontal cortex to get and process information

The SNS regulates the body's unconscious actions - fight, flight or freeze.

The PNS is often called the “rest and digest” portion, and it slows heart rates.

PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX

A developed brain (mid 20’s)compared to a pubescent brain (age 13).

At 13, her “behavior is at the mercy of her emotional limbic system” because she hasn’t gone through puberty in which her brain will undergo the pruning necessary for her to develop self-control. That’s why teaching SEL skills throughout this process is so important. In her older brother, by contrast, the frontal lobes have become more efficient, allowing him to remain calm in the face of his sister’s wrath.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

1. ONE FACT OR IDEA YOU RECALL ABOUT THE BRAIN, NEURAL CONNECTIONS IN THE BRAIN AND HOW EXPERIENCES BUILD BRAIN ARCHITECTURE.

2. WITH AN ELBOW PARTNER OR TWO, DISCUSS WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.

(TWO MINUTES)

Disorganized Attachment by Dan Siegel Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine

and Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute.

Understanding HOW a healthy brain works is good;

now imagine the impact of trauma and chronic stress on the

developing brain.

WE, the adults, can learn new and effective strategies to help these

kids achieve at higher levels.

All of the things we’ve experienced in our lives bring us to today.[This slide is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18, 2014]

Can trauma be passed to the next generation via DNA?

• Recent research in the field of epigenetics suggests that trauma is transmitted to the next generation.

• Children of holocaust victims have volunteered for and participated in this research.

• Children raised in traumatic environments appear to pass trauma on to their children through altered DNA.

With an elbow partner or two~

Discuss:

1. What is Toxic Stress?

2. What happens with ongoing stress when there is no caring adult to calm the child?

STUDENT

The teachers tell me I’m smart. They say I’m just not trying.I find myself staring out the window during class. Next thing I know two weeks have passed and I have failed yet another algebra or biology test.I really try to listen to what the teacher is saying. Sometimes I can see her mouth moving but can’t hear a thing.They say I have potential but that I am slipping out of reach. I wish I could focus and soak in the material, but I just can’t.

I wish they understood how hard it is.

Four Perspectives - Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) - A collaboration of Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School

PARENT

The teacher told me my six year old, Brody,is the terror of his first grade class.She said he pinches, hits, and refuses to obey her.

I recently had to attend a suspension hearing where he was put out of school for 3 days. At the shelter and at church, Brody is a different child. He clings to his sister and me. He often wakes up with nightmares and a bed that is wet. Brody fled with me and his sister from a father who abused us.

Our shelter advocate is coming with me to the next school meeting. She says the school can help him learn if they focus on helping him feel safe. I hope the school will listen to us.

Four Perspectives - Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) - A collaboration of Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School

TEACHER

Every year, there are a few students in my class who have physical and mental health complaints, as well asbehavioral problems.

I just can’t seem to effectively teach them no matter how hard I try. Sometimes, their issues keep them sitting in the principal’s or school nurse’s office more than at a classroom desk.Other times, a student can’t focus on one thing for more than 30 seconds.The whole year might go by without any improvement - in fact, things get

worse.After learning about trauma’s impact on learning, these behaviors began to

make sense to me.Now I focus on making routines predictable and try to be more conscious of

individual trauma exposure and the tone of voice I use with students.But I’m only one adult in students’ days. I know that for students to truly feel

safe, trauma-sensitive approaches must be infused throughout the entire building.

How do I get this started at my school? I can see that it will take all of us—including our principal.

Key Messages: Toxic Stress and Adaptation• Anxiety and stress are normal parts of life• Stress can become toxic and damaging when:

– Severe, prolonged and/or occurs repeatedly and is not buffered by caring adults

▪ These adverse experiences can have significant effects on brain development and the development of the nervous system

▪ Children “adapt” to these adverse experiences to “survive” – this is normal biological response to traumatic events

▪ Repeated experience gets wired into their biology/brain

[This slide content is from Dr. Mark Sanders’ Presentation at A BETTER WAY on Nov. 17 & 18,2014]

Trauma and Learning

Children who do not feel safe live in a state of emergency. Their energy is consumed by crisis, making it impossible for them to focus on learning.

From “Too Scared to Learn” by Jenny Horsman, 2000

Who is the traumatizedstudent?

ANSWER: Both

Impact on Child’s Communication

▪ Many children experiencing trauma, abuse and neglect demonstrate compromised narrative language skills.

▪ The core of a narrative is the emotional response of characters in stories or real life situations.

▪ Children who have experienced abuse/neglect produce very minimalistic narratives.

Impact on Child’s Communication

▪ Narratives of these children have minimal “landscape of consciousness” (emotions/plans) and minimal cause/effect - impairs their ability to "tell their story" or to explain the motivations behind their actions.

▪ Language and literacy skills are essential for these children to be successful in school and beyond…

▪ Failure to acquire literacy skills can negatively impact students' social, academic and vocational success, limiting full participation in society as adults.

The Threat Recurs: Chronic Hyperarousal

▪ Traumatic reenactment▪ Damages meaning, conscience, view of self/others▪ Disrupted attachment; failed trust, failed

relationships▪ Problems with authority figures▪ Difficulties resolving conflicts▪ Inability to grieve▪ Addiction to stress▪ Resistance to change▪ Deterioration, alienation

• Traumatized children’s behavior can be perplexing.

• Prompted by internal states not fully understood by the children themselves, traumatized children can be ambivalent, unpredictable and demanding.

• It is critical to underscore that traumatized children’s most demanding behavior often originates in feelings of vulnerability.”

(Helping Traumatized Children Learn, p. 32-33)

Insights

Shift in Thinking

• Trauma is a sensory, rather than cognitive experience.

• Restore a sense of safety and renewed sense of empowerment and control in the face of fear and uncertainty generated by the incident.

• Reduction of the arousal level is critical to the

restoration of pre-trauma cognitive processes, learning functions, behavior and performance.

More About the Shift

• When the student is not feeling safe and in control, the aroused state makes it difficult to process verbal information, pay attention, focus, retain and recall.

• Interventions designed to deactivate the arousal state helps to restore previous cognitive and behavioral patterns.

• Immediate, short-term and long-term intervention must be designed to restore sense of safety and control.

Essential Elements of Trauma-Informed Education

• Maximize child’s sense of safety.

• Help child reduce inappropriate hyper-arousal and/or dissociation.

• Address impact of trauma and changes in the child’s behavior, learning, development, and relationships.

• Comprehensively assess trauma experiences and their impact on development and behavior to guide services.

• Coordinate services with other agencies.

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• Intensive social skills teaching (SEL)• Self-management programs• Partner with parents• School based peer mentors• Support groups for grief,divorce, chemicals,LGBT-QA, etc.

• Collaborative Problem Solving• Intensive social skills teaching• Individual behavior management

plans/BSP’s/FBA’s/Success Plans• Parent training and collaboration• School-linked mental and chemical

health services

Tier 3: Individual IntensiveHigh-risk students

Individual intervention; 5% of students

Tier 2: TargetedAt-risk students

Classroom and small group strategies; 10-20% of students

Tier 1: Universal - (Core)All students

School-wide, culturally relevant systems of support; 75-85% of students

• Positive relationships• Social skills teaching• Agreeing to and teaching positive school behavior

expectations• Positive reinforcement systems• Firm, fair, and corrective discipline/intervention• Effective classroom managementCourtesy LAUSD LRE Dept. Modified from Sprague & Walker, 2004

TIERED INTERVENTIONS

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Key Trauma-Sensitive Strategies for Educators

The Trauma-Informed Professional

• Understands the impact of trauma on a child’s behavior, development, relationships, and survival strategies

• Can integrate that understanding into planning for the child and learning.

• Understands his or her role in responding to childhood traumatic stress.

What Can Parents and Schools Do Together?

• Recognize that exposure to trauma occurs for many children, not just those in protective or foster care.

• Recognize the signs and symptoms of child traumatic stress and how they vary in different age groups.

• Realize that children’s “bad” behavior is often an adaptation to trauma.

• Understand the impact of trauma on various developmental areas.

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What Can Educators Do When Working with Parents?

• Discuss the impact of trauma on learning.

• Learn about the cumulative effects of trauma.

• Gather and document psychosocial information regarding traumas in the child’s life to make better informed decisions.

• Work with parents to lessen the risk of system-induced secondary trauma by being a protective and stress-reducing buffer for children:– Develop trust with the child through listening, frequent contacts,

and honesty.– Understand that schools would do well to be proactive about

trauma rather than reactive.

Result: Trauma-informed Educator

• Offers interventions that increase self worth.

• Forms strong relationships to enhance sense of trust.

• Emphasizes the relationship consequences of behaviors.

• Builds avenues for achievement and hope.

• Helps child learn both emotional management skills and relationship skills.

• Teaches how to calm biology to increase ability to think.

Use Restorative Practices

• Help the child repair the harm that was done.

• Ask restorative questions of the child who harmed another:*What happened?*What were you thinking at the time?*What have you thought about since?*Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?*What do you think you need to do to make things right?

Use Restorative Practices

• Help those harmed by the child’s actions.

• Ask restorative questions of the child who was harmed:*What did you think when you realized what had happened?*What impact has this incident had on you and others?*What has been the hardest thing for you?*What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Result: Trauma-informed Parent* Learn about mindfulness strategies.

• Lead your child in deep breathing activities.

• Yoga and movement activities can be hlepful.

• Look for community activities such as church, the Y, and other youth groups to cultivate positive peer relationships.

• Support emotional management and relationship skills (read “10 Mindful Minutes”(G. Hawn) and practice with your child.

• Show your child the video on the next slide; many traumatized children bully others or are bullied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBwf-VPZqDs

ACE STUDY FINDINGS: (as published in October 3, 2014 by Jane Ellen Stevens in ACE Study,

Child Abuse, Child Trauma, Chronic Disease, Neurobiology)

• Live much of their lives in fight, flight or freeze (fright) mode.

• World is a place of constant danger.

• Brains are on overload with stress hormones - can’t focus on learning.

• Fall behind in school or fail to develop healthy relationships with peers or create problems with teachers and principals because they are not able to trust adults.

• Find solace in food, alcohol, tobacco, methamphetamines, risky sex, high-risk sports and/or work, over-achievement.

• Don’t see these coping mechanisms as problems; they use them as an escape from depression, anxiety, anger, fear and shame.

Let’s think again about the many incidents that

get kids suspended from our schools these

days. Might we think differently about how

we react to these behaviors when

considering the reality that some of our

students have grown up with adverse childhood

experiences and their brains don’t function as

we wish they would?

• Disrespect• Disruption• Disobedience• Defiance• Insubordination• Inappropriate

behavior • Noncompliance• Profanity• Verbal assault• Refusal to give up a

cell phone

School Can be a Place of Resilience!• Schools and school staff can be intentional

about how we interact with students.• POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS are a powerful

intervention.• The students who need those relationships the

most can be the hardest ones to connect with…

ABOVE ALL ELSE, NEVER DIMINISH HOPE

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

It starts with us. It starts by believing

ALL kids can learn and applying strategies that have been shown

to work best to help calm our students and help them learn to regulate themselves.

Remember, parents send us the best kids they have.

Reflection

1. With an elbow partner, discuss two concepts you have learned this morning about the brain and adverse childhood experiences.

Quiet Reflection: Is there a student(s) who you started thinking about differently after learning more about the brain?

HOW YOU CAN HELP

• Increase knowledge of ACE’s. http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html

• Attend the MACMH conference.http://www.macmh.org/event-page/annual-child-adolescent-mental-health-conference/2017-conference-information/

• Share information with your colleagues.• Work with other school support personnel to develop

trauma-awareness.• Share the need for adults to engage in a shift in mindset

and approaches.• Approach all student concerns with a trauma-sensitive

lens.

Hoberman Sphere and Woodstock Zenergy Chime

Mind Up Curriculum, Goldie Hawn Foundation(published by Scholastic and available on Amazon)

Initial Focus is on Learning about the Brain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxyxywShewI

ResourcesACE Executive Summary for Minnesotahttp://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/brfss/ACE_ExecutiveSummary.pdf

Behavior Institute for Children and Adolescentswww.behavioralinstitute.org

Child Trauma Toolkit for EducatorsNational Child Traumatic Stress Network http://rems.ed.gov/docs/NCTSN_ChildTraumaToolkitForEducators.pdf

Coles, S. et al (2005) Helping Traumatized Children Learn: Supportive School Environments for Children Traumatized by Violence. Boston: Massachusetts Advocates for Children / The Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School

Collaborative for Academic and Social Emotional Learninghttp://casel.org

Craig, S. (2006) Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt: Strategies for your classroom. Paul Brookes Pub.

Resources Davidson, Richard. The Emotional Life of The Brain, 2012

Hanson, Rick Ph.D., Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence, 2013

Hart, S. and V. Hodson (2004) The Compassionate Classroom: Relationship based teaching and Learning Puddledancer Press

Hawn, Goldie and Wendy Holder, 10 Mindful Minutes, 2011

Heart of Learning & Teaching Compassion, Resiliency & Academic Success Wolpow, Ray; Johnson, Mona M.; Hertel, Ron; Kincaid, Susan O. 2009 http://www.k12.wa.us/CompassionateSchools/HeartofLearning.aspx

Jaycox, L. et al.(2006) How Schools Can Help Students Recover from Traumatic Experiences: A Tool-Kit for Supporting Long-Term Recovery, RAND Corporation (TR-413), RAND Corp.

Resources (cont.)

Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health Fact Sheetshttp://www.macmh.org/publications/mental-health-fact-sheets/

PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Centerhttp://www.pacer.org/bullying/

Siegel and Payne Bryson, Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture your Child’s Developing Mind, 2012

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, 2013

Violence Prevention Workshttp://www.violencepreventionworks.org/public/index.page

Thank you!

Charlene Myklebust, Psy.D.Educational Leadership Consultant

President, Professional Education Pal, LLCOnline continuing education for educators - courses for all

of the MDE required areas for relicensure.

www.proedpal.orgckmyklebust@gmail.com