Children who experience several intrusive and interpersonal traumatic incidents are said to have experienced complex trauma. Instances of abuse or extreme neglect are examples of extreme and widespread trauma that fall under this category. It is common for traumatic events to happen throughout a child’s formative years, and they may wreak havoc on their ability to create relationships and find their own identity. Seeing as how these occurrences often occur in the presence of a caregiver, they impede the child’s capacity to build a stable relationship. A child’s emotional and social well-being and cognitive and physical growth depend on this primary source of protection and stability. Complex childhood trauma can affect a child’s ability to learn or associate with other students.
Case Study 1
Jade is a year-one student showing trauma symptoms by dissociating with people and refusing to participate in class activities. Jade lives with a foster family after moving from one foster home to the other for most of his life. Jade lost his mother to drug abuse as a baby and has not been in contact with his biological father since birth. Jade has just joined the class and seems to be struggling to adjust. Jade’s history shows profound neglect that may have led to a sense of poor self-worth. The child feels like he is unwanted, which makes it difficult for him to trust other people. Jade also avoids participating in class activities out of fear that the rest of the class may not want to listen to his opinion or that they may laugh at him. Jade’s trauma response affects his class performance by hindering his learning. He misses out on social activities because he distances himself from the rest of the class during breaks and does not participate in any sporting activities.
Recommend Trauma-Aware Ways to Enhance Their Educational Experiences
The school can help students learn again after trauma by addressing and rehabilitating the underlying deficiencies in children’s and young people’s cognitive and affective abilities. Children lose the ability to learn and remember new knowledge when stress weakens their executive functioning abilities (Karatzias et al., 2020). Children who have experienced trauma often struggle with self-regulation, communication, and recognising the early warning signs of stress and anxiety. Jade has been showering difficulties in communicating his feelings leading to his withdrawal. Teachers and other school personnel can better react to Jade’s display of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if they are aware of the connection between these symptoms and student behaviour. The educators, therefore, should consider taking short courses on how to handle students with traumatic experiences. This will empower the educators to train the other students on interacting with students with complex attachment issues, anxiety, and other trauma responses, such as Jades, to make learning less stressful for the affected children.
Teachers, aides, counsellors, and other school personnel may all play a role in fostering learning environments for their children by using a few simple tactics. Teachers may help kids readjust to school by looking out for indicators of trauma, establishing positive connections, and resuming regular classroom and school routines with required adjustments. In this case, for instance, the teachers can adjust the learning methods to suit Jade’s learning styles. This can be done by observing what works for the child the applying the style in class. The educators can also encourage the child to interact with others, introducing him to one classmate who seems interested in being friends with Jade and assisting them in forming connections. This may help to improve Jade’s interpersonal skills and boost his confidence. Incorporating regulating exercises into daily classroom routines is an example of trauma-informed practice. These exercises may include deep breathing exercises to regulate emotions and counselling sessions to help the children to open up emotionally. Remember that Jade’s conduct is often the consequence of a trigger and calls for a patient and understanding reaction. The educators should take their time and allow Jade to adjust to his new environment.
Case Study 2
Kelly is a year two refugee student. Kelly is older than most children in his class and is known as the class bully. Kelly has been involved in various violent incidents with other children in the class and while playing. Kelly comes from a low-income family in South Sudan. The family moved from their home as refugees and ended up in camps before he finally settled and started school. Because of his age, he feels out of place in his class. Kelly was bullied as a child because of his status and background. As a child, Kelly also faced much violence from both his family and outsiders. As a child, he also lived a life of uncertainty and found it hard to form lasting relationships with people. Kelly also has difficulty responding to authority and dislikes rules and regulations. Kelly’s trauma has made it hard for him to trust adults in authority because of the violence he experienced from adults in his life. Kelly bullies other children and acts violently because that is the only way he knows how to handle his emotions.
Recommend Trauma-Aware Ways to Enhance Their Educational Experiences
Kelly needs to learn how to regulate his emotions. Kelly also needs to feel safe enough to let go of his defences which makes him violent. His reactions are a form of self-preservation to avoid getting hurt. The attachment a child feels to its caregivers, whether their parents, grandparents, relatives or adults, is crucial to their mental and physical development. Simply put, a child’s attachment to their caregivers is critical in developing trust, emotional regulation, and constructive social skills. However, when a child has a traumatic event that teaches them that they cannot trust or depend on a caregiver, they may develop a fear of the world and its inhabitants (Su et al., 2020). This experience makes it very hard for them to establish friends and keep them as they grow up.
Kelly needs counselling and therapy to help him deal with the childhood trauma brought by his violent childhood. Educators can recommend that the child be scheduled for counselling sessions with the school counsellor or advise the parents to seek psychiatric help for the child and the rest of the family to ensure that the home environment feels safe. When trauma experienced as a kid is not addressed, the effects of that trauma may linger far into adulthood. Some of the detrimental effects of trauma may even be prevented on a biological level, but only if the victim receives therapy.
Having a solid social network behind a child may go a long way toward mitigating the effects of trauma and decreasing the likelihood that they would entertain suicidal thoughts. A child may be comforted in a variety of ways after a traumatic experience, including the following:
- Validate the child’s sentiments and encourage him or her to speak about them. In Kelly’s case, the educators should ensure that they listen to his side of the story before they react to his behaviours. The educators can foster this by using dialogue rather than punishment to show Kelly that they care about what he thinks and feels. This validation can go a long way in improving how Kelly handles his emotions.
- Assist them in realising that the problem does not lie with them. Kelly needs to understand that his violent and uncertain past played a role in how he behaves in his current space. This knowledge will help Kelly realise that he is not a wrong person and needs help from his educators and peers to overcome some of his fears.
- Tell the truth when the victim asks a question. The educators should ensure that they are honest and straightforward but also show kindness when relaying information to a child like Kelly. Kelly has probably not experienced much honesty in his life, which makes it hard for him to trust his educators and classmates. Being truthful will help Kelly to trust people again.
- Make sure the student knows that educators have their back and will do whatever it takes to ensure they are safe. Kelly comes from a war-torn area and has not experienced safety as a child. That, coupled with violence and abuse from some of his caregivers, makes the child apprehensive and defensive even in situations that do not require that reaction.
In summation, although children are expected to be distressed after experiencing trauma, it is possible for them to recover to a healthy level of functioning, and some children may be less impacted by their experiences than others. It is never too late to get assistance for the harmful consequences of childhood trauma. Therefore, educators must be keen on the children’s psychological needs and develop trauma-informed ways of handling affected children.
References
Karatzias, T., Shevlin, M., Fyvie, C., Grandison, G., Garozi, M., Latham, E., Sinclair, M., Ho, G., McAnee, G., Ford, J. D., & Hyland, P. (2020). Adverse and benevolent childhood experiences in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD): implications for trauma-focused therapies. European journal of psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1793599. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1793599
Su, W. M., & Stone, L. (2020). Adult survivors of childhood trauma: Complex trauma, complex needs. Australian journal of general practice, 49(7), 423–430. https://doi.org/10.31128/AJGP-08-19-5039
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