TraumaResponsiveSchools.org
The Components of Teach to Heal
Teach to Heal Acknowledges Our Unique Opportunity to Provide a New Experience for Children.
Teach to Heal acknowledges that educators have a unique opportunity, through the platform of schools, to provide a new experience for children that have been impacted by trauma. They can give a child the gift of a new experience with an adult that is not inclusive of fear or inadequacy. This gift can be generalized beyond school toward new possibilities and pathways.
A Child Centered Paradigm Focuses on the Perception and Experience of the Child.
A child centered paradigm focuses on the perception and experience of the child, along with their unique cognitive makeup, to develop individualized strategies to maximize their academic, social, and emotional learning.
A Solutions Focused Paradigm Starts with Who we Serve.
A solution focused paradigm starts with who we serve and making progress at the child’s pace. It is never child, parent, or system blaming. It encompasses an “until” attitude that embraces the endless possibilities and resilience of children.
A Paradigm Inclusive of Nurturance of New Skills Understands that Educators Meet Children Where They Currently Are.
A paradigm inclusive of nurturance of new skills understands that educators meet children where they currently are as it pertains to academics and social emotional learning. Focusing on compliance and consequences is not the answer. We teach children the skills they have not mastered and never blame or shame them for where they are on the continuum of human growth.
Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is a Clinically Informed Trauma Responsive Intervention.
Trauma responsive schools must have a high quality intervention modality applied through interventionists positioned in the school for children in crisis. The best time to intervene with children who have big displays is at the time of the crisis. This is a vulnerable time and must be managed by well trained staff. Children need to learn how to slow down their emotional state and gain insight into the reasons for their maladaptive patterns so they can adjust them. Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is a clinically informed intervention for children who have experienced trauma and display maladaptive patterns of behavior.
Trauma Responsive Schools Require Clear Role Definition.
Trauma responsive schools must have clear role definition. These are children who have not found adults to be consistent, reliable, predictable, or trustworthy. Roles, and corresponding spaces, must be clearly defined and maintained. Kids know there are hierarchies in schools. They know that there are administrators and teachers. They know that teachers manage the classroom. Paraprofessionals or educational assistants should be clearly supporting the instructional direction of the teacher. There should also be interventionists for children experiencing crisis, or are dysregulated to a point that they cannot engage in instruction. They need the adults in schools to consistently be responsive to them, in a calm and non-reactive way, with congruence to their prospective role.
Trauma Responsive Schools Require Effective Nonverbal Environmental Management.
Trauma responsive schools must have effective nonverbal management of the environment. Staff have to know how to set up classrooms, create transition areas, and utilize the environment as a form of guidance. When traumatized children enter school spaces, they scan the environment looking for risk. Risk can come in the form of who, what, and/or where. Educators have to be very aware and responsive to the subtle cues that traumatized children give us when they teach us how to work with them.
Trauma Responsive Schools Should Implement the Performance Tracking System.
Trauma responsive schools should implement the Performance Tracking System (PTS) as a trauma responsive, multifaceted and tiered system to effectively support student regulation, skills, and engagement.
Trauma Responsive Schools Require Effective Teaming.
Trauma responsive schools must have effective teaming which involves the necessary guiding tools, data, knowledge, and language that will assist adults serving vulnerable children. We have to teach adults the components that must be included in these solution focused professional conversations.
Trauma Responsive Schools Require Quality Instruction and Support.
Trauma responsive schools understand that this population must first establish a sense of safety and adequacy in school in order to make their mind available for instruction and learning. Quality instruction and support strategies are guided by the successful implementation of the other five components. Once all six components are successfully in place they are interdependent and fluid.
For more information on the Teach to Heal, please click here to contact Danielle Theis Consulting.
Danielle provides trainings and consultative services to support children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and the adults who serve them, in our schools and communities.