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Responding to Traumatic Stress, Community Violence, References, How…

- - - - Voyeuristic actions like watching a child shower or undress, or exposing your genitals to a child are considered sexual abuse.
  - - - Withdrawal and mistrust of adults
      - Suicidality
      - Difficulty relating to others except in sexual or seductive ways
      - Unusual interest in or avoidance of all things sexual or physical
      - Sleep problems, nightmares, fears of going to bed
      - Frequent accidents or self-injurious behaviors
      - Refusal to go to school, or to the doctor, or home
      - Secretiveness or unusual aggressiveness
      - Sexual components to drawings and games
      - Neurotic reactions (obsessions, compulsiveness, phobias)
      - Habit disorders (biting, rocking)
      - Unusual sexual knowledge or behavior
      - Prostitution
      - Forcing sexual acts on other children
      - Extreme fear of being touched
      - Unwillingness to submit to physical examination
      - Depression/anxiety
      - PTSD
      - When these changes are sudden, it’s especially telling that a student may be experiencing traumatic life events. A comprehensive list of traumatic stress symptoms can be found in the NCTSN Toolkit for Educators.
  - - - Write down right away exactly what the child told you as specifically as you can with the dates and any documenting information you might have.
    - - Systems of support, provided by family members or peers, allow children to tell their own stories; this indicates to the child that what they have to say has value.
      - But for children who have been affected by trauma, strong connections are vital. Rich relationships with teachers help children form the foundations of resilience.
        
        Use a daily check in to provide a solid foundation for relationship building.
    - - Students require explicit emotional training to regulate their emotions, process stress, and heal from their experiences. Ideally they should receive counseling, but on the classroom level, social-emotional learning can include things like meditation, breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices that provide students with time to pause and reflect on their emotional state.
      - This book can act as an example of how a child might deal with trauma.
      - Let the student express themselves they way that they feel, within reason. For example, drawing, writing, or other forms of art. They should feel safe to express their feelings
    - - Say in a calm, matter-of-fact, warm voice, “Thank you for telling me. Everyone deserves to be safe, and I will figure out what to do to get help.” Reassure the child that telling you was the right thing to do — that he or she made a positive choice.
    - - Providing classroom consistency, daily structures, clear expectations, and reliable warmth and love help stressed students feel safe.
    - - Restorative practices rebuild a traumatized student’s relationship to authority and to the adults and peers in their daily lives. Restorative circles, team-building exercises, meditations, and counseling can all reform a traumatized student’s belief in fairness, as well as their capacity for conducting themselves with integrity.
- - - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8plKfz_kUws
      - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDy-IWfC4fQ
  - - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I33uXzW7SV4
  - - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzKXRuKNd8Q
- - - - Social and emotional learning is the foundation to every child path in life its whats most important prior to learning how to perform academically.
      - https://youtu.be/U6_pLkwaCeY
    - - Keep a look out for
        
        Is frequently late or missing from school
        
        Is frequently unsupervised or left alone or allowed to play in unsafe situations
        
        Untreated illnesses and physical injuries
        
        Hygiene is consistently bad (unbathed, matted and unwashed hair, noticeable body odor)
        
        Clothes are ill-fitting, filthy, or inappropriate for the weather
        
        Noticeable needs and why can include:
        Child neglect—a very common type of child abuse—is a pattern of failing to provide for a child’s basic needs, which include adequate food, clothing, hygiene, or supervision. Child neglect is not always easy to spot. Sometimes, a parent might become physically or mentally unable to care for a child, such as in cases of serious illness or injury, or untreated depression or anxiety. Other times, alcohol or drug abuse may seriously impair judgment and the ability to keep a child safe.
    - - Effects of child abuse and neglect
        All types of abuse and neglect leave lasting scars. Some of these scars might be physical, but emotional scarring has long lasting effects throughout life, damaging a child’s sense of self, their future relationships, and ability to function at home, work and school.
- - - - Signs/Symptoms:
        
        Ages 6 to 10: -Disobedience
        -fear of returning to school
        -difficulty concentrating on tasks
        -perseverate on the event and it happening again
        
        Ages 1 to 5:
        -Disobedience
        -fear of being separated from caregiver
        -difficulty sleeping
        -bed wetting
        -tantrums
        -need more cuddles
        -cry more often
        
        CDC recommends that immediately after a disaster, children and adolescents may have these common emotional and behavioral reactions:
        
        .Ages 11 to 18:
        -Rebellious behavior
        -antisocial behavior
        -depression
        -Drug use
        -Reckless driving
        -Less social
        -More irritable
      - Academic Support: Research suggests that schools and teachers learn about ways to support students that suffer from trauma. Students experiencing anxiety or stress from a natural disaster would benefit from teachers supporting them in the following ways:
        
        According to an abstract, "How Trauma Affects Student Learning and Behavior" the author Stephanie Frieze suggests teachers do the following:
        
        asking how a student is feeling
      - References
        CDC https://www.cdc.gov/childrenindisasters/index.html
        Dyregrov, A. (2018). Children and Natural Disasters. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6095022/
        Frieze, S. (2015). How Trauma Effects Student Learning and Behavior. Retrieved from
        https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1230675.pdf
        The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
        https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/programs_campaigns/childrens_mental_health/what-is-child-traumatic-stress.pdf
    - - https://youtu.be/ykECXnEIcZs
      - Who is impacted?
        Natural disasters will continue to occur due to climate change, and nearly 175 million children per year are affected by them. Studies show that 5-43% of affected children will experience depression, anxiety, mental health illnesses as a result of natural emergency.
        Children who experience drought, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, bush fires and other natural disasters need parental care and societal support to mitigate the stressors they encounter.
    - - Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET)
        
        Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy
        
        Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma
- - - - Expressive Arts and Play Therapy: allows for counseling to advance at the client’s pace.
        
        Music Therapy
        
        Bibliotherapy
- - - - General Tips to Support Students of All Ages
        
        Be understanding and tolerant of common grief reactions which include: decreased appetite, difficulty sleeping, a decreased ability to concentrate, increased sadness, and social withdrawal. Students sometimes also feel anger toward the deceased for leaving them.
        
        Be simple and straightforward. Discuss death in developmentally appropriate terms for students.
        
        Use words such as “death,” “die,” or “dying” in your conversations and avoid euphemisms such as “they went away,” “they are sleeping,” “departed,” and “passed away.” Such euphemisms are abstract and may be confusing, especially for younger children.
        
        Let students know that death is not contagious. Although all human beings will die at some point, death is not something that can be “caught” and it is unusual for children to die.
        
        Be brief and patient.
        
        Listen, acknowledge feelings, and be nonjudgmental.
        
        Express your own feelings in an open, calm, and appropriate way that encourages students to share their feelings and grief.
        
        Avoid making assumptions and imposing your own beliefs on students.
        
        A variety of feelings are normal. Be sensitive to each student’s experience, as there is no one right way to respond to a loss.
        
        Be sensitive to cultural differences of students and their families in expressing grief and honoring the dead.
        
        Consider a student’s intellectual abilities, behavior, and conceptual understanding of death. For children with developmental disabilities. Their limited communication skills do not mean they are unaffected by the death. Behaviors such as increased frustration and compulsivity, somatic complaints, relationship difficulties, and increased self-stimulatory behaviors may be expressions of grief.
        
        Maintain a normal routine in your classroom and engage students in activities they previously enjoyed.
        
        Provide the opportunity to talk and ask questions and use these questions to guide further discussion. Encourage students to share feelings, but in ways that are not disruptive to the class or hurtful to other students.
        
        Talk to the bereaved student’s classmates about grief and emphasize the importance of being understanding and sensitive.
        
        Help bereaved students find a peer support group. There will likely be other who have also experienced the death of a loved one.
  - - - Avoid euphemisms as preschoolers have trouble understanding death and may believe the death is reversible. Provide opportunities to express thoughts and feelings about death through play activities and drawing.Answer questions using concrete descriptions and be prepared to repeatedly answer questions.Possible reactions include: Crying or screaming, clinging to caregivers or other trusted adults, fear of separation, regressive behaviors such as wetting pants and thumb sucking and decreased verbalization.
      - Elementary School
        
        These students may ask questions and seek to try to understand what happened. Be patient and refer them to adults that can answer their questions. Students below the age of eight may engage in magical thinking and believe they could have prevented the death. Recognize these feelings and fears but do not validate them. Students ages nine through twelve may feel less comfortable showing feelings and seeing expressions of grief in others. Make sure to provide these students with a variety of ways to express grief.Possible reactions include: Behavioral difficulties, decreased concentration, poor school performance, depression, irritability, withdrawal, somatic complaints (headaches & stomach aches).
        
        Middle and High School
        
        Do not force students to share their feelings with others, including their peers if they do not feel comfortable. Provide them with opportunities to share their feelings privately. Students often seek support via social media. Be aware of what is being posted and shared. Encourage students to seek support for a friend in need. Students in their mid-to-late teens tend to feel more comfortable expressing their feelings and grief similar to adults. High school students may use physical contact to show their support and empathy (e.g., hugging or touching the arm)Possible reactions include: Poor school performance, anxiety, depression, high risk behaviors or substance use, emotional numbing, and suicidal thoughts.
- - - - References:
        https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/517716
        https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/physical-abuse
- - - - Support parents in keeping their children close to them.
        Help the child anticipate what will happen.
        Give choices.
        Provide reassurance when the child needs it.
        Name the child’s feelings.
        Expect to need to do these over and over again. It is normal for children to need repeated reassurance.
    - - Listen to the child’s concerns.Answer questions truthfully and
        simply.
        Support the parent in letting the child stay close to her.
        Offer reassurance that you and the parent are working together to keep the family safe.
        Name the child’s feelings and
        encourage the child to find ways to
        express them through language, play, or drawing.
        Help the child anticipate what willhappen next.
        Give choices.
        Expect to have to do these things
        again and again.
    - - Provide an environment in which the teen can talk about concerns.
        Give choices.
        Support parents in letting their teens stay close to them-even relatively independent teens may need extra support after a traumatic event.
        Help teens anticipate what will happen next.
        Answer questions honestly.
        Help teens find ways to express their strong feelings: journaling, writing stories or poems, art.
        Expect to have to do these things again and again.