Abstract
2005. www.pbs4549.org/trauma
In this issue of Word of Mouth, I have described the health and development issues that affect children who have experienced multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Because abuse and neglect affect neurological systems underlying language and self-regulation skills, many of these children will be on the caseloads of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Massachusetts advocates for trauma-sensitive schools. Two reports are available for free download from https://traumasensitiveschools.org/. Helping Traumatized Children Learn, Volume 1: Supportive Environments for Children Traumatized by Family Violence (HTCL 1) summarizes research on trauma’s impact on learning, behavior, and relationships at school and offered a flexible framework for weaving trauma sensitivity into all the activities of the school day. It proposed a policy agenda to support schools in this work. The second volume of HTCL, Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Safe, Supportive School Environments That Benefit All Children, gives recommendation for how to create a trauma-sensitive school.
Is this article, I review The Language of Trauma and Loss Teacher Guide which is available for free download from https://westernreservepublicmedia.org/trauma/images/trauma.pdf. The Language of Trauma and Loss has a dual purpose:
To use the standards of language arts to help students who may have experienced stressful events
To help teachers understand how to deal with these stressful situations and to determine what their role is in working with the affected children
Part 1 of the Teacher Guide is reference material that includes information about the brain, the causes of trauma, and loss and ways to create a safe school environment. Part 2 includes lesson plans for elementary, middle school, and high school students. The program does not expect teachers to become guidance counselors. Rather, the intent is that teachers will gain a better understanding of why behaviors occur and, in turn, know when they should make a referral to a counselor. Although the guide is directed toward teachers, the lessons could easily be used by SLPs. All the lessons address narrative structure, vocabulary, and syntax. The middle school and high school lessons also address compare-contrast and persuasive texts.
Supportive materials are available at https://westernreservepublicmedia.org/trauma/. Four videos are part of the program, but the links in the manual are not functional and the videos are no longer on the Western Reserve website for the program. The videos, however, are available on YouTube if you put these titles into the search box on the YouTube site.
Video 1: Dealing With Trauma and Loss
Video 2: Bridgett Bunny’s Ordinary Day That Wasn’t
Video 3: My Best Friend
Video 4: Erica’s List
Video 1 is a professional development video that explains the effect of trauma and loss on brain development and the role of the teacher in developing a “safe” classroom. Teachers or SLPs should watch this before implementing the lessons.
Videos 2, 3, and 4 have correlating stories, each of which is designed for specific grade levels. The teacher has the option to either show the video or read the story first. At the end of each video, Bruce Perry, a noted researcher in the area of abuse and neglect, discusses important areas of concern for teachers and students.
Video 2 contains the story Bridgett Bunny’s Ordinary Day That Wasn’t and is directed at elementary school students. Bridgett Bunny is a story of a bunny who has always been happy but suddenly becomes quiet and withdrawn because a sad and scary thing has happened to her. She meets Mr. Owl, who listens to her and helps her understand what has happened. The students are never told what the sad and scary thing is. This allows students to think about their own experiences while listening to the story.
Video 3 features Erica, a middle school student who has had a startling behavior change and reveals a sad experience.
In Video 4, Erica is in high school; she has been sent to the office for being belligerent. This leads to a discussion of why these behaviors occur, with an emphasis on stimulus-response reactions.
After the students have watched the video and/or read the story, the teacher asks standard questions about the story to determine students’ levels of understanding. These questions focus on plot, character, setting, problem, and solution. For each grade level, the teacher guide offers language arts lesson plans that are keyed to the story and that match state standards. These plans can also be used as a model with other stories. The guide offers some other suggestion stories for each grade level.
Self-healing activities can be found in the teacher guide and on the Website. These include activities that allow students faced with trauma or loss to reestablish a feeling of safety and some degree of control over their surroundings, for example,
Safety list—In this activity, students are asked to make a list of people, places, and things that make them feel safe. Encourage students to refer to the list whenever the need arises.
Stop—Students make a little stop sign and put it in a place where they can look at it. When they start to think of their bad memories, they look at the stop sign and it reminds them to stop their current action and think about something pleasant.