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Our Mental Health Space - Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

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Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model: Regulate, Relate, Reason

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A great video to use with students to teach about the Window of Tolerance.

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mindful kids peace summit - Search Videos

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Every student enters a classroom with a history. Sometimes that history consists of the typical, if not uneventful, ups and downs of childhood. Other times, that history may include tragedy-many students experience sexual abuse, the loss of a parent, homelessness, and violence. Such tragedies can traumatize students, affecting their ability to perform well in school.

Today's education leaders must recognize the prevalence of trauma and its impact on learning. With knowledge about how trauma affects children's development, educators are better positioned to attend to the needs of all students.

How Prevalent Is Trauma Among Students?

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a 1998 landmark study, transformed people's understanding of just how common trauma is, spawning the development of trauma-informed approaches in disciplines ranging from medical care to education. In the ACE Study, 61% of adults reported having experienced at least one trauma during childhood, and almost 1 in 6 reported experiencing four or more traumas.

Trauma can have devastating consequences in people's lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in addition to increasing children's risk of developing a broad assortment of chronic diseases later in life, toxic traumatic stress can change the development of children's brains and affect their attention levels, decision-making capacities, and learning abilities.

Educators can expect two-thirds of their students to have experienced one or more traumatic events by age 16. How those experiences manifest in student behavior or learning abilities can vary considerably according to age and personality. For example, elementary school students can experience anxiety and fear and struggle to concentrate, while middle school and high school students can experience depression, self-harm, and misuse alcohol or drugs.

A review of research between 1990 and 2015 found the following statistics regarding the prevalence of various traumatic events in school-age children:

13%-17% of girls and 3%-5% of boys had experienced sexual abuse.

69%-71% of students had experienced assault or physical abuse.

70% had witnessed violence.

18% had lost a loved one due to crime or vehicular homicide.

29% had experienced bullying.

22% had experienced disasters.

One consequence of these traumas is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The US Department of Veteran Affairs' National Center for PTSD reports that 3%-15% of girls and 1%-6% of boys who experience trauma develop PTSD. These alarming percentages highlight the importance of trauma-informed teaching strategies to more effectively address the challenges students confront because of past and ongoing traumas.

Trauma's Impact in the Classroom

The harm trauma inflicts on students' lives often carries over into the classroom. Though many children show only some dysfunction as a result of their traumatic experiences, others exhibit significant learning impairments. Trauma-related symptoms can interrupt key areas of a student's education, including relationships, behavior, and academic performance.

Trauma's Impact on Student Relationships

Trauma can make it hard for children to form bonds. For example, students who have experienced neglect or abuse from adults might have difficulty building trust, or they may feel wary of asking for the help they need. However, forming positive relationships with teachers can play an important role in student success.

Students with trauma often need guidance and support in building trusting relationships with teachers and their classmates. Unfortunately, one obstacle to getting the guidance and support they need can be their behavior. When students misbehave, schools often discipline them in ways that isolate them or withdraw support. This approach can further hinder ACE-affected students from bonding with their teachers.

Trauma's Impact on Student Behavior

Traumatic experiences affect students' ability to regulate their emotions. In healthy environments, adults calm and soothe young children, which teaches them to calm and soothe themselves. However, children who have experienced neglect or abuse often do not receive such support and thereby don't learn how to manage their emotions. The inability to manage emotions can lead to outbursts and other behavior problems in the classroom.

Students with traumatic histories may also experience higher levels of fear and anxiety, which can make it difficult for them to control their behavior. Additionally, trauma can skew a child's ability to interpret social cues and express feelings appropriately, which again can lead to disruptive behavior and is often associated with academic difficulties.

Rather than responding with frustration and harsh punishment, educators can coach students to calm themselves and adjust their responses. By helping students de-escalate their feelings of emotional overload, teachers can direct them to healthier responses and improve their chances of engaging in learning.

Trauma's Impact on Students' Academic Performance

Trauma can plague students with intrusive thoughts that distract them from absorbing information in lessons, paying attention in class, or studying. The disruptive behavior students with traumatic histories often display interrupts instruction and leads to more suspensions and expulsions, further reducing their instructional time. Compared with their peers, students with these troubled backgrounds tend to have:

Lower grade-point averages

Higher high-school dropout rates

Poorer employment rates

Trauma can also affect children's executive functions, limiting their comprehension, memory, organization, and engagement. With reduced capacities in those areas, students can struggle with reading, writing, math, and classroom discussions. Trauma can also delay and thwart their development of language skills and hamper their ability to synthesize information or see cause-and-effect relationships. Such problems make success in school particularly challenging.

Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies

As students with trauma often experience feelings of anxiety and lack of control, classroom environments that help reduce stress and guide students toward open, trusted relationships can mitigate the problems that stem from traumatic histories. Trauma-informed teaching strategies foster predictability. They build a sense of stability for students, help cultivate self-worth, and give students opportunities to better regulate their emotions and improve their focus.

Relationship Building

Trauma-informed teaching creates a space for students to build trust and recognizes that content may need to come after the forging of relationships. Trusted relationships often begin with getting to know one another personally. Activities that encourage students to share elements of who they are, such as their favorite songs and interests, help establish a foundation for relationships. For example, community circle conversations can guide students through discussions in which they share their ideas, express their concerns, and connect with peers and teachers.

Teachers can also cultivate trust and build rapport with increased one-on-one interaction. This creates a chance for them to have conversations with students related and unrelated to school. In this way, teachers can help give students a sense of belonging and support.

Restorative Approaches to Discipline

All too often schools mete out punishment for bad behavior without helping students reflect on or adjust their actions. Restorative approaches shift the discipline focus to be positive and supportive rather than punitive. Students with traumatic backgrounds need this kind of support to heal and restore their faith in fairness. They also often need opportunities to rebuild positive relationships with authority figures, and restorative discipline does just that.

Restorative discipline can take many shapes. For example, for younger students, teachers can create "fairness committees." These committees, made up of students and teachers, let students explain themselves when they've done something wrong. Then, instead of doling out a punishment, the committee helps students make amends.

To complement restorative discipline, educators can implement other important restorative strategies, such as meditation, counseling, and team-building exercises. These activities augment students' abilities to reflect on their behaviors, self-regulate, and build trust.

Opportunities to Build Self-Efficacy

Students with traumatic histories often have low self-esteem. They can also feel uncertain about their environments and unable to control them. Giving these students regular opportunities to cultivate self-efficacy, or a belief in themselves and their abilities to meet the challenges in front of them, can prove to be healing.

Trauma-informed teaching should give students responsibility and opportunities to achieve. Both responsibility and achievement help students feel in charge of themselves and promote feelings of self-worth and competence. Several techniques can improve students' chances of success while encouraging accountability.

For example, schools can encourage classroom policies that allow students to submit work for early feedback before receiving final grades or revise their work until they earn a desired score. These policies give students multiple chances to show what they've learned, improve their grades, and ultimately build an image of themselves as capable learners. These policies also reduce stress because they let students see a path to reaching competency.

Learn How to Put Trauma-Informed Teaching Into Action

Educators can create safe learning environments for students with trauma by implementing thoughtful programs that make use of trauma-informed teaching strategies. Explore how American University's School of Education prepares educators to use creative approaches to reach all students through its online degree programs.

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Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies | American University

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How does trauma-informed teaching help educators meet student needs? Explore how an EdD in Education Policy and Leaderships equips educators to address trauma.

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Great podcast episode and useful links for additional resources.

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PAUSE this series until after new year!!!!!

In this episode Lauren walks us through the 4 steps for emotional regulation and gives tips for how to provide support and space for these in your classroom. These skills should be practiced, evaluated, and adapted as you continue to use them with your students and in your own life.

Check out the resources below. These should make it easier to set these spaces and practices up in your classrooms.

Lauren answers this week's listener question during the episode: How do we address behaviors and regulation through a sensory lens?

Try-at-home tip: Witness, allow, release!

Favorite quote:
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
- Viktor E. Frankl
Resources:
Other related resources from The Behavior Hub:

Blog Post:
Podcast: Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!
Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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A Sequence for Emotional Regulation - The Behavior Hub

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In this episode Lauren walks us through the 4 steps for emotional regulation and gives tips for how to provide support and space for these in your classroom.

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Burning Teacher Questions - Pt. 3 — The Behavior Hub

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Today is the third, and last, episode in a mini-series of teacher questions and Lauren saved the toughest questions for last. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of info

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Today is the second episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers. Don't miss this episode.

Today's Listener Questions:

How do you tell the stress level of your students?

What are the indicators of stress that a student might demonstrate?

How does stress help or hinder the retention of material?

Does constant interconnectedness help or exacerbate trauma/stress?

How to prioritize social and emotional learning AND subject specific content in one class?

How do years of abuse/trauma affect children's learning and processing of information?

How can we weave stress reduction into the day for our students and staff?

Try-at-home tip: Locus of control
Other related resources from The Behavior Hub: Blog Post: Podcast:
Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!

Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Burning Teacher Questions - Pt. 2 - The Behavior Hub

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Today is the second episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers. Don't

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Q & A (part 1) On stress, trauma and behavior

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Q & A (part 1) On stress, trauma and behavior

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Questions addressed in this podcast are listed on the page below the audio player.

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Today is the first episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers so don't miss this episode.

Today's Listener Questions:

How do you de-escalate a child who is losing composure?

How do we reduce stress, trauma, and negative behavior triggers?

How technology use affects stress?

How long can it take to "reprogram" the brain after major stress/trauma events (such as the pandemic?)

IWhat are the best practices, or strategies, to help students who've experienced trauma?

Are young people likely more stressed by the pandemic than adults?

Is it better to teach in a way that assumes all children have experienced trauma?

Is learning to cope with stress as good as eliminating stress?

Try-at-home tip: Create Art
Other related resources from The Behavior Hub: Blog Post: Podcast:
Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!

Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Burning Teacher Questions - Pt. 1 - The Behavior Hub

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Today is the first episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers. Don't

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For building understanding of what your students find stressful at school. Some students will need support from teachers to keep their stress levels within their window of tolerance.

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Tool to help middle school students identify their emotions/mood

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Teaching emotional regulation - podcast episode

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Teaching emotional regulation - podcast episode

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In today's episode, Lauren walks you through teaching emotional regulation. She covers the three steps to helping children regulate their emotions and control behaviors.

1. Teach them to recognize and categorize their emotions

2. Coping and calming strategies to handle those emotions

3. Define a space for kids to implement the strategies they've learned.

There is also a brief overview of the barking dog, wise owl strategy of teaching emotional regulation as well as other calming strategies.

Lauren answers this week's listener question during the episode: How do I get my child to respect me more?

Try-at-home tip: Bilateral Movement
Mentioned in this episode: Other related resources from The Behavior Hub: Blog Post: Podcast: Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!
Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Leave Unwanted Behaviors Behind - Teaching Emotional Regulation - The Behavior Hub

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Want to leave those unwanted behaviors behind? Find out how in this episode! Lauren walks you through teaching emotional regulation. She covers the three steps to helping children regulate their emotions and control behaviors.

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Emotion Regulation with the Top-Down or Bottom-Up Approach - The Behavior Hub

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Emotional regulation is improved when we strengthen and grow the Thinking Brain.

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Bottom-up / top-down regulating strategies

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Bottom-up / top-down regulating strategies

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Understanding Your Stress Response (EMHLR)  (Comprendre votre réaction au stress)

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Practice with Mindful Schools At Mindful Schools, mindfulness practice is at the heart of everything we do. We know that coming back to the present moment, again and again, improves our sense of well-being, the quality of our relationships, and the depth of our presence in the classroom and beyond.

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How to Grow a Brain  (Comment développer un cerveau)

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For grades 3-12

Create a model of a neuron by using clay, playdough, styrofoam, recyclables, food or anything else you can get your hands on. Use pictures from books to give you an idea of where the components of a neuron should go and what shape they should be. Use different colors to indicate different structures. Make a neural circuit with a few of the neurons. Create sensory or motor systems. Eat your model if you made it out of food!!

Materials:

Clay or Playdough or Styrofoam or Recyclables (bottle caps, cups, buttons, etc) OR Food (fruit, jelly beans)

A picture or diagram of a neuron (see the picture below or go to: more about neurons.)

If you would like to use this "build a neuron" as a classroom activity, here is a lesson ready to go.

Need some play dough but don't have any? Here is a recipe that you can use to make your own:

Mix: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt & 2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Add: 1 cup cold water with food coloring, 1 Tablespoon salad oil

Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Let it cool a bit and then knead it. Keep in an airtight container so it doesn't dry out.

You can also add color to the play dough by adding some poster paint with the liquid instead of food coloring. Try to use as little paint as possible to get the desired color or it will make the play dough sticky.

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For grades 3-12 Create a model of a neuron by using clay, playdough, styrofoam, recyclables, food or anything else you can get your hands on. Use pictures from books to give you an idea of where the components of a neuron should go and what shape they should be.

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Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

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Co-regulation: What It Is and Why it Matters

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The human brain and nervous system: facts and resources

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The human brain and nervous system: facts and resources

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The human brain is like a powerful computer that stores our memory and controls how we think and react. It has evolved over time and features some incredibly intricate parts that scientists still struggle to understand.

The brain is the centre of the human nervous system, controlling our thoughts, movements, memories and decisions.

Our nervous system is the message centre of our body. Messages of the nervous system travel throughout the body to help the body function and stay safe. The nervous system is an amazing and complex network of cells that relay messages from all parts of our body to our brain.

The spinal cord is the main highway in which these messages travel. Messages can travel in such a short span of time so that it is almost immediate.

Top 10 facts

1. Although the brain looks like a dull grey organ, it is actually mostly water. About 80% of our brain tissue is liquid. This is why it is important to drink lots of water - if you are dehydrated, your brain will not work as well.

2. Our reactions to touch, danger and fear are so fast because the electrical signals in the nerve fibres travel around 280 kilometres per hour.

3. Think about that famous image of a light bulb light up above someone's head. The reality is not very different - our brain operates on the same electrical power as a 10v lamp.

4. The brain contains billions of nerve cells that send and receive information around the body.

5. The human brain is over three times as big as the brain of other mammals that are of similar body size.

6. The human brain is protected by the skull (cranium), a 3D jigsaw of 29 bones (including the jaw) that form separately before birth and join as we grow to form a solid 'helmet' of bone.

7. While your body rests at night, the brain is actually still active. Brain activity while sleeping is quite high: assessments say that the brain re-organises thoughts, processes the day you've just had and prepares itself for a new day.

8. Dreams lasts between 2-3 seconds at the most. We mostly do not remember our dreams, just the ones that we have close to when we wake up.

9. The brain of an adult human weighs around 3 pounds (1.5 kg). Although it makes up just 2% of the body's weight, it uses around 20% of its energy.

10. Each side of the brain interacts largely with just one half of the body, but for reasons that are not yet fully understood the interaction is with opposite sides (the right side of the brain interacts with the left side of the body, and vice versa).

Did you know?

The central nervous system is responsible for so many things we almost take for granted: tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, thinking, dreaming, breathing, heart beating, moving, running, sleeping, laughing, singing, remembering, feeling pain or pleasure, painting, writing... You couldn't do any of these things without your central nervous system.

Your brain is wrapped in three layers of tissue and floats in a special shock-proof fluid to stop it from getting bumped on the inside of your skull as your body moves around.

Your brain is more powerful, more complex and cleverer than any computer ever built. It is constantly dealing with hundreds of messages from the world around you, and from your body, and telling your body what to do.

Doctors and scientists have found that different parts of the brain are in charge of different things. The cerebellum controls and coordinates movements of the muscles, like walking or swinging the arms. This means that the movement is smooth and controlled and you don't fall over when you turn around. The outside layer of the cerebrum has special areas, which receive messages about sight, touch, hearing and taste. Other areas control movement, speech, learning, intelligence and personality. The brain stem is in charge of keeping the automatic systems of your body working. You don't have to think about breathing, you just do it automatically, but you can decide if you want to hold your breath for a short time. You don't have to think about your heart beating because your brain keeps it going automatically.

Your brain keeps on growing until you are about 20 years old. By then the brain has made lots of links which it no longer needs so it is able to shed any unwanted connections and still have billions of brain cells left to cope with whatever you may want to do. You can still make new connections even when you are 100 years old!

The human brain is so complex that doctors and scientists still don't know what some parts of it do. They do know that if the brain is damaged, the damage often cannot be repaired. You can't join brain cells together like you can bones. Doctors and scientists know how some of the brain works and can sometimes fix it when things go wrong, but the brain is truly amazing and we don't know all its secrets yet.

Look through the gallery and see if you can spot the following:

What brains look like inside our skulls

A nerve cell

Scans of the brain

Some of the many functions of the brain

Gallery

About

The nervous system is made up of the brain, the spinal cord, and a large network of nerves that covers all parts of the body. Together, the nervous system helps different parts of our body communicate and allows our brain to control what is going on. Without the nervous system our brain wouldn't work. It wouldn't know anything that was going on in the outside world and wouldn't be able to control our body.

The brain and the spinal cord make up what is called the central nervous system. The rest of the nerves together are called the peripheral nervous system.

Nerves are a little like wires that carry communication signals or impulses around the body. Inside each nerve is a bundle of nerve fibres. Some nerves are really long, like the ones that go all the way from your feet to your spinal cord. Nerve cells are called neurons. When a neuron is stimulated - by heat, cold, touch, sound vibrations or some other message - it begins to generate a tiny electrical pulse. This electricity and chemical change travels the full length of the neuron. But when it gets to the end of finger-like points at the end of the neuron, it needs help getting across to the next extended finger. That's where chemicals come in; the electrical pulse in the cells triggers the release of chemicals that carry the pulse to the next cell.

There are two main types of nerves: motor nerves and sensory nerves.

1. Motor nerves - Motor nerves allow the brain to control our muscles. The brain sends signals over the motor nerves to tell our muscles to expand or contract so we can move.

2. Sensory nerves - The second type of nerves are called sensory nerves. These nerves carry signals to the brain to tell it about what is going on in the outside world. They come from our skin (touch), nose (smell), eyes (sight), tongue (taste), nose (smell), and ears (hear).

Our bodies are incredibly clever. Sometimes we need to move so fast that our brains don't have time to think. So our body just bypasses the brain. This happens when we touch something hot. Our hand actually moves before the brain tells it to. The brain eventually finds out what is going on, but our body has done the clever thing and moved first.

The biggest part of the brain is the cerebrum. The cerebrum makes up 85% of the brain's weight. The cerebrum is the thinking part of the brain and it controls your voluntary muscles - the ones that move when you want them to. So you can't dance or kick a ball without your cerebrum!

When you're thinking hard, you're using your cerebrum. You need it to solve maths problems, read a map, and draw a picture. Your memory lives in the cerebrum - both short-term memory (what you ate for dinner last night) and long-term memory (the name of the place you went on holiday two years ago). The cerebrum also helps you reason, like when you know you need to put a bookmark in your book to keep your place.

The cerebrum has two halves, with one on either side of the head. Scientists think that the right half helps you think about abstract things like music, colours, and shapes. The left half is said to be more analytical, helping you with maths, logic, and speech. Scientists also know for sure that the right half of the cerebrum controls the actions of the left side of your body, and the left half controls the right side.

The brain is suspended in a special fluid, and floating in liquid acts as both a cushion to physical impact and a barrier to infections. As the brain is made up of mostly water, keeping it hydrated is crucial for it to work efficiently... so drink plenty of water!

Words to know:

Abstract - not relating to actual objects but expressing something that can only be understood by thinking
Analytical - able to separate things into their parts in order to study or examine them, draw conclusions, or solve problems
Automatic - done without conscious thought
Complex - made up of many interrelated parts
Evolved - to develop from an earlier biological form
Interact - to be or become involved in communication, social activity, or work with somebody else or one another
Intricate - containing many details or small parts that are combined in a particularly complex or skilful way
Mammals - a class of warm-blooded vertebrate animals
Network - a pattern or system that looks like a series of branching or interconnecting lines
Organ - a complete and independent part of a plant or animal that has a specific function
Relay - the passing on of something, especially a message or information received, to somebody else, or the process of being passed on
Voluntary - resulting from somebody's own choice or decision

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The human brain is like a powerful computer that stores our memory and controls how we think and react. It has evolved over time and features some incredibly intricate parts that scientists still struggle to understand. The brain is the centre of the human nervous system, controlling our thoughts, movements, memories and decisions.

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A Tour of the Brain! | Self-Regulation Lesson 1

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Mindsight is a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds. It helps us get ourselves off of the autopilot of ingrained behaviors and habitual responses. It lets us “name and tame” the emotions we are experiencing, rather than being overwhelmed by them. Mindsight includes emotional awareness strategies and mindfulness exercises.