Return to Indicators and Predictors of Absenteeism

Trauma

Making Space for Learning: Trauma Informed Practice in Schools is an excellent resource from the Australian Childhood Foundation Protecting Children. SPACE means Staged, Predictable, Adaptive, Connected,Enabled. The resources provides helpful definitions of trauma as simple(“experience of being in car accidents, house fires, bushfires, earthquakes and cyclones”), complex,(“child abuse, bullying, domestic violence, rape, war and imprisonment”) and developmental (“children who are neglected, abused, forced to live with family violence or experience high parental conflict in the context of separation or divorce”) Relationships with a caring adult are highlighted as “Caring adults act as resources that keep track of their moods, their beliefs, their qualities. Safe and reliable relationships are the back up discs for children and young people when their own memory storage units have failed. ” (p. 31) Teacher resources and strategies found on pages 65 – 78 and administrator resources on pages 82-4 are extensive and very helpful.

A powerful video about the impact of childhood trauma illustrated in the lives of inmates

Supporting Students Affected by Trauma Just as students with learning challenges need academic accommodations, students who have adverse childhood experiences may benefit from social and emotional accommodations. Read Edutopia article

The Evolution of a Trauma-Informed School Read Edutopia article

A compelling scientific case for addressing ACEs early with collaborative community actions.
A great and short intro to positive stress (kids surrounded by caring adults), tolerable stress (manageable with help from caring adults) and toxic stress (abuse, neglect, violence) which results in serious health issues for kids over their lifetime.
Told to us through the voices of children, this unique animation teaches us that by putting together the seven-piece jigsaw puzzle of ‘Developmental Trauma’, we can understand how a child’s adverse childhood experiences have shaped their emotional world and outward behaviour. Once we understand this, we can then work with a child to help them with their developmental trauma using an innovative therapeutic approach called the ‘Neuro-Sequential Model of Therapeutics’. This model recovers and repairs each part of a child’s brain in a specific, phased and effective order.

Conclusion of Dr. Felitti’s study
The current concept of addiction is ill founded. Our study of the relationship of
adverse childhood experiences to adult health status in over 17,000 persons shows
addiction to be a readily understandable although largely unconscious attempt to gain
relief from well-concealed prior life traumas by using psychoactive materials. Because it
is difficult to get enough of something that doesn’t quite work, the attempt is ultimately
unsuccessful, apart from its risks. What we have shown will not surprise most
psychoanalysts, although the magnitude of our observations in new, and our conclusions
are sometimes vigorously challenged by other disciplines.
The evidence supporting our conclusions about the basic cause of addiction is
powerful and its implications are daunting. The prevalence of adverse childhood
experiences and their long-term effects are clearly a major determinant of the health and
social well being of the nation. This is true whether looked at from the standpoint of
social costs, the economics of health care, the quality of human existence, the focus of
medical treatment, or the effects of public policy. Adverse childhood experiences are
difficult issues, made more so because they strike close to home for many of us. Taking
them on will create an ordeal of change, but will also provide for many the opportunity to
have a better life.

Students who are chronically absent have often been impacted by trauma. Teachers as caring adults can connect with students in trauma informed pedagogy. The article below “emphasizes the need for teachers to serve as “critical witnesses” who recognize the power differentials that can result from the inequitable consequences of their own traumas versus the trauma of their students. For instance, teachers might challenge colleagues who use deficit language to discuss students and families, or they might seek out resources to better understand the impact of race, gender, and class. Similarly, they might assist families with transportation and other needs or demonstrate solidarity for families experiencing difficulties related to structural inequities.” Read article