Displaying symptoms of acute anxiety when the subject of food comes up

Sudden change in clothing styles (particularly adopting much baggier clothing than previously)

Frequent negative comments about their bodies or those of others

A very ridged diet "plan" (ie, eliminating whole food groups, strict schedules for eating, etc)

Resource Suggestion: National Eating Disorder Association's Educator's Toolkit (PDF via https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/)

Often shows some type of obsessive behavior (ie, hand-washing, hoarding, leg jiggling, picking at skin, etc)

Consult your school's SAP resources. Many schools have materials available to help you navigate this situation.

Be knowledgable about school's procedures, resources, and regulations

Create a classroom culture that is healthy and has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying, weight shaming, etc

If the student is in recovery, there will be several things that a teacher needs to do to ensure they continue to get better. The student should have a recovery plan much like a IEP, which includes any special accommodations. Make sure to follow that.

Many schools, including ones in my area, report student BMI scores to parents under the banner of "promoting student heath." If this is happening at your school, do everything you can to make it STOP! Research suggests it 1) doesn't help students become healthier and 2) it can facilitate eating disorders among students.

Understanding that TBI can take a long time to recover from is the most important thing. I have a friend who was in a minor car accident last year, but she still is not anywhere near "back to normal." it is important to be as empathetic and understanding as possible.

The student will most likely have an IEP, since this is a serious medical issue. Refer to it when designing your course. And they will probably be in contact with the school's special education team. Keeping communication open with them is key, since they will have an updated understanding of the student's issues and strategies for the classroom.

Help the student identify their individual stress triggers and brainstorm possible methods for addressing them.

Frequent verbal positive feedback—it is easy to get frustrated when doing something that used to come easy.

Empower student to know their limits and provide space/time for rest and allow/encourage them to take frequent breaks. It would be nice to even make sure there is an area of your classroom with minimal distractions that the student could go to when necessary.

Do your best to maximize the student's involvement in the course, check in with them frequently for their thoughts and feedback. This could be as easy as changing the order of a lesson plan or the timing of a task's completion

Know their social/peer group and make sure that they keep in contact via group assignments or seating arrangements. Breaking from old friends and social isolation are common side effects of TBI, so keeping them close to those they know would relieve some stress

There are a lot of accommodations suggested for students with TBI, which are dependent on the specifics of their injury. I have decided to focus specifically on stress reducing strategies, since we have covered the rest in our last Coodle.

Break down big tasks into smaller units: This is a key skill for academic performance in students with TBI, but it is also a good tool for stress reduction. This can be applied to in class work, but also to other aspects of their life—a truly transferable skill.

clinging to parent (typically mother) or other caregiver (ages 2-5)

violent outbursts resulting in physical injury or damaging of property

creating a model of a non-violent classroom is terms of play an dealing with conflicts

validate feelings and create an environment where feelings can be openly shared

Grouping: Place new students with students who will support and guide them

Routines: Check your routines and procedures to make sure they are understandable and help guide new students

Don't Wait: If new students need other resources (therapists, social workers, ESL support), help them find those resources as soon as possible

Celebrate students unique and new insights, show them that their background is valuable

Obvious: Keep a schedule visible for students to see at all time and follow it

Introduce: Have other students model and introduce procedures to new students

Patience: Students may have linguistic issues and need extra support with language. Take your time, use ELL instruction support techniques, and write down longer, more difficult instructions for student review

Sitting by themselves at lunch/recess, head down during break time

Linguistic Support: https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/supporting-ells-mainstream-classroom-language-tips

SEL Support: https://www.colorincolorado.org/immigration/guide/student

Moving Support: https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr134.shtml

Sharing: Have other students who are immigrants or have moved to the school share their experiences with the new student and give them the opportunity to share their own experiences

Language: How does their native language compare to English? Are there cognates? What sounds are different? What problems should you anticipate?

Cultural: What is your immigrant students home culture like? What differences are there with your classroom culture? What do they celebrate? What are some taboos?

Comprehensive Information on Immigrant Students globally: https://www.oecd.org/education/Helping-immigrant-students-to-succeed-at-school-and-beyond.pdf

Children and Divorce https://www.helpguide.org/articles/parenting-family/children-and-divorce.htm

Helping Children Adjust to Divorce: A Guide for Teachers
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/gh6611

"Fear Ladder" to manage anxiety caused by abuse: Students rank levels of fear caused by certain situations and teachers and counselors can conduct exercises to teach students strategies to overcome each fear and anxiety

Benson's "Relaxation Response" methods: helping students concentrate and overcome anxiety through mindfulness and meditation exercises and mental devices to focus on, and altering patterns of thinking. These exercises can be assigned as homework to help student practice reducing stress

Parent Intervention: Parent involvement must be considered, but with pros and cons weighed before based on situation - family counseling through school or outside agency and working with the parents to come up with strategies for the student to use at home and at school (*note: cultural context must be taken into consideration as parent/child relationships and the role of govt. and outside intervention with this differs between countries and cultures)

Creating a safe classroom environment - children who are victims of abuse and neglect often have lacked an environment where they feel safe and have basic emotional and physiological needs met. Working to create a safe environment in the classroom can help them achieve basic needs to let them begin to heal, grow, and succeed. Some examples can be "cool down corners" and areas where they can be alone in their personal space, cubbies or areas to keep belongings where other people are not allowed to touch them, and simply teaching and allowing students to set boundaries for themselves that others are not allowed to cross without permission.

Obsessive or pervasive worry or difficulty separating from parents.

Do not treat the topic of Death like a "Taboo." Find ways to talk to your students about death in an age appropriate way and normalize conversations around death.

For Mild Cases: If students experience episodes of sudden sadness or anxiety have a safe space in your classroom or your school that the student can go to and decompress.

Identify students who are experiencing grief and whether their grief is mild or severe.

For students with severe grief, have a safe word which students can use with you in order to leave the room and get support from the school counselor.

Provide extra learning support such as tutors, study groups, extra office hours, etc.

Allow students to talk about their feelings. Create spaces in your class for them to engage in conversation and express how they feel.

If you teach younger students, help them to understand what has happened. Death can be a confusing and difficult topic to explain to young students. Talk to your school counselor about how to talk about death to young kids.

If students have a hard time opening up, give them time and space but always offer space for them to have the channel of communication open to voice their feelings and thoughts.

Provide teens with suicide prevention resources and talk about suicide.

Addressing Grief, National Association of School Psychologists

Preventing Youth Suicide: Tips for Parents & Educator

Express your own feelings in an open, calm, and appropriate way that encourages students to share their feelings and grief.

Maintain a normal routine in your classroom and engage students in activities they previously enjoyed and be accommodating to students who are struggling with severe grief.

The Coalition to Support Grieving Students

If the death is related to a suicide , watch out for statements of wanting to join the dead person or Increased risk-taking behavior.

Cultivate Go-to People in your class and greater school community which students can go to if needed.

Talk to students about what cyberbullying is. Reassure students that if they are the victim of cyber bullying they should tell someone

Recognise that students who have experienced cyber bullying must not have had a bad experience

Very common. I don't think I need scientific data here, but anecdotal data: This is the only trauma I've had to deal with as a teacher as students go through it. Pretty sure we've all gone through breakups though. Some do not handle it well.

Best handled not alone as a teacher but by team of adults: Home room teachers, parents and counsellors. Put those PLC's to use.

As you are generally a semi-parent when a teacher in China, and because I did not find any strategies for dealing with breakups as a teacher, below is what I researched as what to do as a parent, which you will want to adapt as a teacher.

General strategy as a teacher: Be firm but understanding. Do not give them a bunch of leeway, as you do not want them to wallow in their self-pity, and getting back into schoolwork is a good return to normalcy (And yeah, you're a teacher, you want them to learn). You do, however, want to let them know that you know they're going through a difficult time and are there for them if they need any help.

https://community.today.com/parentingteam/post/lost-love-helping-your-teen-bounce-back-after-a-breakup

https://lateentherapist.com/top-11-ways-to-help-your-teen-get-over-a-breakup/

https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-help-your-teen-deal-with-a-breakup-4047445

Validate their feelings/Do NOT minimize them (Roy's Note: Whoops! But I did couple it with the encouraging healthy diversions and getting it back to routine)

Offer them support but give space when it comes to the topic Adaption: Definitely treat them as normal as you can in class, and talk to them after class if they are despondent.

Be Available to Listen and Talk: Take cues from the student, if they want to talk, be there. If they do not, give them their space.

Girls and boys tend to handle it differently. Girls tend to be more emotional and talkative, guys will tend to put a tough guy attitude

ENCOURAGE HEALTHY DIVERSIONS! This is where you should really come in as a teacher. They may be a bit more despondent than normal, but your task is to bring them back

To pre-empt as much of this as possible, make sure they are not completely losing other aspects of their life to their relationship before the (very likely) breakup occurs. Adaption: As a teacher, this means to make sure students work is not decreasing in quality, and speaking to the PLC as necessary. Some schools (all public schools?) in China ban relationships outright, which I am not sure actually works, but I understand the reasons.

Get back to a routine! Also a great place to step in as a teacher and enforce the routine you had previously.

Do not talk bad about the ex (Adaption: Hmm, likely not something you were going to do as a teacher, since the ex is likely another student at your school, and possibly in your classroom. In that case, perhaps a class-wide seating rearrangement, so as to not single out the two students, would be a good call.)

Do NOT try to talk them out of their feelings. E.g. "It's been WEEKS. You should be over this by now!" Try to address ways of thinking (pessimism) instead of feelings: "Things will get better. It does take time, but there is always a way through it."

Students are very despondent in class, missing class, tardy, not completing homework

Prevention. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://homelesshub.ca/solutions/prevention

Empowering children and building resilience is seen as protective by mitigating against developing health and social outcomes from exposure to ACEs

community support systems play in the early intervention must be recognised and a holistic system of support for the child provided

Awareness of the impact of ACEs on later vulnerability in adults, including homelessness, would need to be improved so that all services that come into contact with children and young people are better informed

Cyber bullying is bullying that takes place online, mostly through any messenger or social media platform. It is important to be proactive and keep children using sites that are appropriate and limit their privacy. Teachers can help students with strategies of how to deal with bullying here: School A to Z : Tips for dealing with cyberbullying

https://www.theotx.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/labor-ed-collab.pdf