Facilitator Notes Understanding Trauma in Classroom Teacher Primary Version final June

Facilitator Notes- Teachers
Primary School Version
Introduction to Understanding Trauma in Classroom
Mental Health In Schools Seminar Programme
Designed by Fran Halford © Flourishing Minds www.flourishing-mind.org.uk
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Definition of Trauma
Trauma shatters our sense of self of safety, stability, trust and innocence
Child Trauma Trust
‘Trauma happens when any experiences stuns at us like a bolt out of the blue, it
overwhelms us, leaving us supported disconnected from our bodies. Any coping mechanism
we may have had are undermined, and we feel utterly helpless and hopeless. It is as if our
legs have been not out from under us.’ (Levine 2016)
Trauma can impact a child’s body, brain, memory, emotion, relationships, learning and
behaviour. ( Dr Karen Treismas)
Trauma is an emotional shock that creates substantial, lasting damage to an
individual psychological development. ( James B 1989)
Traumatic stress is caused by exposure to, or witnessing public street a potentially
life-threatening event. Trauma exposure may be brief in duration e.g. an accident, or involve
prolonged and repeated exposure. (De Thierry B 2015)
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Introduction to what is Trauma
• A traumatic experience could be repeated bullying, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, domestic abuse, an
accident, a severe illness requiring medical intervention, live with a parent/s with physical or mental illness,
addiction violence, neglect and experiences of war.
• Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one's ability to cope, or integrate
the emotions involved with that experience.
• the definition of trauma differs among individuals by their subjective experiences. People will react to similar
events differently. In other words, not all people who experience a potentially traumatic event will actually
become psychologically traumatized.
• Trauma is a direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury;
threat to one's physical integrity, witnessing an event that involves the above experience, learning about
unexpected or violent death, serious harm or threat of death, or injury experienced by a family member or
close associate.
• Memories associated with trauma are implicit, pre-verbal and cannot be recalled, but can be triggered by
stimuli from the environment.
• The person's response to aversive details of traumatic event involve intense fear, helplessness or horror.
• In children it is manifested as disorganized, agitative behaviours or dissociation ( detachment ) .
What are the contributing factors that influence trauma ?
• The young person temperament and unique attributes,
• Previous life events and stressors
• The severity and nature of traumas
• The frequency and duration of trauma’s
• The relationship with the person
• The response of the others around the traumatic event, how is it managed and whether it was believed/
validated
• The sense-meaning-making and attributions about the traumas
• The age and stage of the developing child/young person
• The presence and/or absence of protective factors
• The cultural, gender and contextual relevance of the trauma
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Key Learning Points
• Prolonged exposure to trauma triggers physiological changes in the brain
• Circuits are disrupted, causing changes in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and emotional
sector
• This can cause the brain shrinkage, problems with memory, learning and behaviour
• A child does not learn to regulate emotions when living in a state of constant stress are associated
with greater risk of chronic disease and mental health problems in adulthood
Facilitor Notes
• This slide shows very clearly the difference between two sizes brain and the differences in the surface
and internal structure.
• Show the group the slide and then get them to discuss what they see the difference between the two
brains.
• The core points are visible size the gap at the lower part of the small brain which is where the
cerebellum is very small and how the surface of the brain has gaps and therefore how difficult it will
be for a child to process learning.
• The core idea of this slide is to visually show the children who have experienced stress/trauma how
will impact on the overall development of the architectural makeup of the brain.
• The usual response from group members is what a shock of seeing this slide, and to think about the
relevance of the learning that a child will normally age 3 would be experiencing and what the longterm
impact may be what they are learning with the primary schools with this missing information.
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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI is a functional neuroimaging procedure using MRI
technology that measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.
This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the
brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.
This now gives us the ability to visually see the brain in action and show us why some children will struggle in education
and in life. This images show us the part of the brain that have not developed due to impact of trauma and neglect
and that the presentation of behaviour that might be seen within the classroom setting, we may be able to develop a
better understanding of some the difficulties that children present and have to manage living with, we can really that
behaviour is a form of language.
The brighter the area this is where the brain is most active and the darker area is where there is least active.
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6
5
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Key Learning Points
To see that how the impact of environmental stress, and where that core areas of the brain are underdeveloped
The areas of the brain that have not been developed are in the regions.
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(1) Temporal Lobe is responsible for: memory, understanding, language, facial recognition, hearing , vision, speech
and emotion.
(2) Parietal lobe is responsible for: perception, object classification, spelling, knowledge of numbers, visuospatial
processing
(3) Cerebellum lobe is responsible for : gross and fine motor skills, hand to eye co-ordination, balance
(4) Frontal lobe is responsible for : thinking, planning, problem solving, emotions, behavioural control, decision
making
(5) Brain stem reptilian brain is responsible for regulates body temperature, heart rate, swallowing, breathing, this
is the part of the brain that responds with flight, flight and freeze response
(6) Occipital lobe is responsible for : vision, visual processing, colour, identification
Even though these slides of adults, what they demonstrate the difference in the brain activity and may give us some
more sense of how our children may struggle with processing information and engaging in the learning process. Of
course this will also show us how some of our parents may have difficulties in processing information and how their
structure of the brain will also be impacted.
The brighter the area this is where the brain is most active and the darker area is where there is least active.
These images show the alertness
within our brain.
If we were in a dangerous
situation this is what the activity
in our brain may look like.
Once the danger passes the
electrical activity that made us
respond to be safe, would return
to normal.
For a child who has or is
experiencing trauma their brain
will always be in a state of over
activity as shown in this slide.
It may reduce after a while, but
research suggest that never to
the level of a health bran.
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Here we can see how the
internal structure is changed by
trauma
These slides just demonstrate how other conditions impact on the brain development.
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Quick Guide to the Brain Anatomy
Right Hemisphere
Functions:
Responsible for control of the left side of
the body, and is the more artistic and
creative side of the brain
Left Hemisphere
Functions:
Responsible for control of the right side of
the body, and is the more academic and
logical side of the brain
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Frontal Lobe:
Location: Frontal and upper area of the cortex
Function:
• Carries out higher mental processes such as thinking, decision making, and planning
• The frontal lobe is also where our personality is formed and where we can carry out higher mental processes
such as planning. In addition, the frontal lobe is necessary to being able to speak fluently (without fault) and
meaningfully.
Parietal Lobe:
Location: Upper, back part of the cortex
Function:
• Processes sensory information that had to do with taste, temperature, and touch
• The parietal lobe carries out some very specific functions.
• As a part of the cortex, it has a lot of responsibilities and has to be able to process sensory information
within seconds.
• The parietal lobe is where information such as taste, temperature and touch are integrated, or processed.
Humans would not be able to feel sensations of touch, if the parietal lobe was damaged
Occipital Lobe
Location: Bottom, back part of the cortex
Function:
• Responsible for processing visual information from the eyes
• The occipital lobe is important to being able to correctly understand what your eyes are seeing.
• These lobes have to be very fast to process the rapid information that our eyes are sending.
• Similar to how the temporal lobe makes sense of auditory information, the occipital lobe makes sense of
visual information so that we are able to understand it.
• If our occipital lobe was impaired, or injured we would not be able to correctly process visual signals, thus
visual confusion would result
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Temporal Lobe
Location: Bottom middle part of cortex, right behind the temples
Function:
• Responsible for processing auditory information from the ears (hearing)
• The Temporal Lobe mainly revolves around hearing and selective listening.
• It receives sensory information such as sounds and speech from the ears.
• It is also key to being able to comprehend, or understand meaningful speech.
• This lobe is special because it makes sense of the all the different sounds and pitches (different types of
sound) being transmitted from the sensory receptors of the ears
Cerebellum
Location: Lower area of the brain, below the pons
Function:
• Responsible for balance and coordination of muscles and the body
• The cerebellum is one of the most identifiable parts of the brain due to its unique shape and location.
• It is extremely important for being able to perform everyday voluntary (done with purpose and intent) tasks
such as walking and writing.
• It is also essential to being able to stay balanced and upright.
• Damaged cerebellums often struggle with keeping their balance and maintaining proper
muscle coordination.
•
Medulla Oblongata ( Lower Brain Stem)
Location: Lower part of the brain stem
Function:
• Carries out and regulates life sustaining functions such as breathing, swallowing and heart rate
• The medulla is easily the most important part of the brain.
• It's functions are involuntary, or done without thought.
• We would not be able to live without the medulla because of the myriad of crucial tasks it performs
including regulating blood pressure and breathing.
• As a part of the brain stem, it also helps transfer neural messages from the brain to the spinal cord.
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Corpus Callosum
Location: Above the Thalamus, under the cortex
Function:
• Connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain
• The Corpus Callosum is the part of the mind that allows communication between the two hemispheres of
the brain. It is responsible for transmitting neural messages between both the right and left hemispheres.
Hypothalamus
Location: Above the pituitary gland and below the thalamus
Function:
• Responsible for behaviours such as hunger and thirst, as well as the maintenance of body temperature
• The hypothalamus is mainly responsible for motivational behaviour.
• It is the reason we know when we are hungry or thirsty.
• The hypothalamus also helps our body maintain a constant temperature.
• This part of the brain also controls the pituitary gland, which is the master gland that controls all the other
endocrine glands in the body. Thus, the hypothalamus plays a key role in connecting the endocrine system
with the nervous system
Amygdala
Location: Part of Limbic System, at the end of the hippocampus
Function:
• Responsible for the response and memory of emotions, especially fear
• When you think of the amygdala, you should think of one word. Fear.
• The amygdala is the reason we are afraid of things outside our control.
• It also controls the way we react to certain stimuli, or an event that causes an emotion, that we see as
potentially threatening or dangerous.
Hippocampus
Location: Part of the Limbic system, in each temporal lobe
Function:
• Responsible for processing of long term memory and emotional responses
• The hippocampus has a unique shape, similar to that of a horseshoe.
• It not only assists with the storage of long term memories, but is also responsible for the memory of the
location of objects or people.
• We would not even be able to remember where our house is without the work of the hippocampus
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Thalamus
Location: Part of the forebrain, below the corpus callosum
Function:
• Responsible for relaying information from the sensory receptors to proper areas of the brain where it can be
processed
• The thalamus is similar to a doctor that diagnoses, or identifies, a patient's disease or sickness.
• It diagnoses different sensory information that is being transmitted to the brain including auditory (relating
to hearing or sound), visual, tactile (relating to touch), and gustatory (relating to taste) signals.
• After that, it directs the sensory information to the different parts and lobes of the cortex.
• If this part of the brain is damaged, all sensory information would not be processed and sensory confusion
would result.
The Pons
Location: Area of the hindbrain that sits directly above the medulla
Function:
• Connects upper and lower parts of the brain
• The Pons serves as a message station between several areas of the brain.
• It helps relay messages from the cortex and the cerebellum.
• Without the pons, the brain would not be able to function because messages would not be able to be
transmitted, or passed along.
• It also plays a key role in sleep and dreaming, where REM sleep, or the sleeping state where dreaming is
most likely to occur, has been proven to originate here, in the pons
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Relational and Developmental Trauma
Complex/Relational Trauma or Developmental Trauma Disorder — describes how children's exposure to multiple or
prolonged traumatic events impacts their ongoing development.
Complex trauma is:
• Chronic
• Begins in early childhood
Occurs within the child's primary caregiving system and/or social environment
• Exposure to these initial traumatic experiences, the resulting emotional dysregulation, and the loss of safety,
direction, and the ability to detect or respond to danger cues may impact a child's development over time
and can lead to subsequent or repeated trauma exposure in adolescence and adulthood without supports
that might buffer the negative effects
• Typically, complex trauma exposure involves the simultaneous or sequential occurrence of child
maltreatment and may include psychological maltreatment, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and
witnessing domestic violence.
The underlying traumatic events are chronic and affect multiple areas of development including:
• Neurological
• Cognitive
• Psychological development
• Attachment development
Child’s View of Relational Trauma
• Impact of relational and developmental trauma is on children’s bodies, brains, attachment, relationships,
emotions, senses, identity, behaviours, cognitions children who have experienced relational and
development. Trauma often will live through matrix of overlapping and co-occurring traumas, losses and
stresses.
• These children may also experience multiple placements/school boobs, it stayed that ability disruption or
which were at increased at low self-esteem, poor self-worth lobe boot, and behavioural, social, and
emotional difficulties. These children have very fragmented set identity and belonging
• These children I have learned that closeness and intimacy the danger, rejection and ability and therefore
that they can only block themselves additionally, it may have been personal position with a caring family
have been positioned as the caregiver’
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• Relational Trauma occurs with a child of the crucial influences to post your biology, the brain is experienced
is dependent like Early experiences positively or negatively shape something as the fractured practicality
great architecture.
• The brain is made up synaptic connections, so it is understandable that children who experience
developmental trauma there this adapted connections are unused , therefore like the to be eliminated
through the process of pruning. The saying use cells that fire together wire together
• Children who have experienced relational/developmental trauma often been under socialised and starved of
rich relationships, these children sadly have lean to see others as threat, as opposed to as a form of comfort.
• Children may have not learned about safe relational boundaries and healthy ways of doing or being in
relationship
• To survive their life experiences, they develop a range of survival skills and powerful defence mechanisms to
protect themselves from further pain and loss
• Children who have experienced relational trauma are more likely to have diffulties in understanding others
feelings, They are more likely to have poorer social judgement.
• They will also often be described as having difficulties such a social rejection, unusual social behaviour,
defensive conflictual aggressive relationship, indiscriminate friendships, intense relationships, mistrusting
relationship, poor relational choices, social withdrawal and poor social stranger danger.
• Children who have experienced trauma within a relationship which was meant to protect them, so in a school
setting where it is safe or there maybe another child within the classroom who is facing
relational/developmental trauma, and to be able to engage in education, they need to be re-taught and need
to be shown how to do and be in healthy relationships.
• Their surrounding relationships need to be anchor of changes, in providing them with new experiences
When working with children within the classroom setting we need to always remember that there are
multiple relationships within those four walls of the classroom.
• There will be competing needs for the school environment in trying to find the balance teachers and parents
an individual child.
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• We always need to remember that whenever we are entering a new relationship or even maintaining
present relationships this takes a lot of emotional energy, will be don’t know the rules of relationships or
these rules are continuously changing we’re going to approach the place about safety.
• In other words, a place of being in fear. Definition of fear an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that
someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain , or threat.
• Sometimes we misunderstand how paralysing fear could be, the essence of fear is about not knowing what
to expect in new situations, it is a moment by moment experience.
• The core problem with this moment to moment experiences of fear, it is only as we travel through each of
these moments heading towards completing the task that child can overcome the fear, it’s important to fully
learn that I do not need to be fearful of the situation or person I will need to repeat the same or similar task
many times.
• This is why what we think around about how in schools, engage with children who have experienced trauma
into their learning, we need to keep repeating the same task, some research, it is only through this repeating
process that a child can learn to trust the process because it becomes predictable, as we know a lot of our
children their foundation of relationship is completely opposite that of unpredictability.
• One of the key ways that we can help children in our classrooms to engage in learning is by staying mindful
of those huge gaps the you will see those scans and what changes can we make to meet the lower
development age when we are engaging with that child.
• Through the process of repeating we can start to rebuild the connections pathways that allow that allow the
architecture of the brain to repair by filling those gaps, building the tracks that allow information to join and
to make sense.
• The biggest gift that we give children who experience trauma is patience to always ask ourselves how are
they hearing what I am saying ?, how are they experiencing what I am doing ?, do they have the
developmental awareness to be able to understand what I am asking ?.
• And even though the child may be a certain age on their birth certificate under the times of distress in a
classroom I will usually regress to a younger age. Ask yourself what age does this child feel, listen to the very
first stage that comes into your mind. You have potentially identified the age that the child is functioning at
when they are struggling with their behaviours or feelings, this is the age that the repair must begin.
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Relationship Between Anxiety and Trauma
• Anxiety is fear and understanding how fearful safe relationships are, as they do not the rules
• Children experience safe range are likely to export energy is rather than being a bit thick, and to the
advanced eight competencies.
• Fear restricts safety expands the relationships every example child is less focus if a child”. Effective at
another way thinking about this imagine perhaps with fragile foundation subs. How could it be built,
expected without attended about basic what have what like to be left switched another way thinking about
this so children may fall through
• Children are expected spectral and internal work but it’s difficult to be able to distinguish between safe an
unsafe. The belief systems relational templates bedded often internalised. When a child functions in the
limbic system and or survive, mode have limited access to the brain, which leads the subject simulation
belief systems. These blue systems may be positive or negative just imagine is power.
I’m unlovable/unwanted
I’m unsafe /vulnerable
I’m nothing/worthless/useless
I’m not worth protecting
I’m powerless
I’m invisible /forgettable
I’m a mistake
I deserve to be hurt
I’m damaged/defective
I’m bad
I’m ugly
I’m dirty/disgusting
I’m hopeless/helpless
I’m inadequate/incompetent/stupid
I’m a loser/failure
I’m alone
Other don’t love me
Other are dangerous or bad
Others are abusive
Others are hurtful
Others are unpredictable/
inconsistent
Others are unreliable
Other are untrustworthy
Others reject me
Others abandon
Others forget me
Others come and go
Others puts their needs first
Others are exploitative
Others are controlling
Others are self-serving/selfish
Others don’t protect me
Others people manipulate me
The world is dangerous
The world is abusive
The world is hurtful
The world is unpredictable
The world is rejecting
The world is hostile
The world is hostile
The world is exploitative
The world doesn’t protect me
The world is unjust/unfair
The world is cruel
The world is meaningless
The world is full of manipulative,
mean, abusive, selfish people
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