Impact of Trauma

The following section is from Trauma-informed behavior support and contains remixed information with permission from Ayre, K. & Krishnamoorthy, G. (2020).

Often interconnected with the presence or absence of mental health disorders are factors that may heighten or lower risk at various stages of development and contribute to EBD or more prosocial behavior. These factors that heighten risk in one’s early years are often called trauma or ACES. Additional factors that influence students’ social and emotional well-being and behavior are culture and the impact of multiple identities, also known as intersectionality.  This section guides educators in supporting students, so the impact of these factors is minimized.

Trauma

There has been an explosion of knowledge regarding the detrimental impact of trauma on the developing child, particularly on the neurological development of infants. It is critical to have a good working knowledge of this growing evidence base to support students and families. The information about trauma shared in this section should not become judgments about a particular child or caregiver made in isolation from others who know the child and family well or from other sources of information. This section covers foundational information about trauma, its impact on health, and learning to include strategies that educators can use to support students.

Foundations

The following basic points about trauma shared by De Thierry (2017) are useful to remember:

• Children need stable, sensitive, loving, and stimulating relationships and environments to reach their potential. They are particularly vulnerable to witnessing and experiencing violence, abuse, and neglectful circumstances. Abuse and neglect at the hands of those meant to provide care are particularly distressing and harmful for infants, children, and adolescents.
• Given that the infant’s primary drive is toward attachment to a parent or caregiver, and not safety, they will accommodate to the parenting style that they experience. They have no choice, given their age and vulnerability; in more chronic and extreme circumstances, they will show a complex trauma response. These children can eventually make meaning of their circumstances by believing that the abuse is their fault, and that they are inherently bad.
• Infants, children, and adults will adapt to frightening and overwhelming circumstances via the body’s survival response, where the autonomic nervous system will become activated and will switch on to the freeze/fight/flight response. Immediately, the body is flooded with a biochemical response, which includes adrenalin and cortisol, and the child feels agitated and hypervigilant. Infants may show a “frozen watchfulness,” and children and young people may dissociate and appear to be “zoned out.”
• Prolonged exposure to these circumstances can lead to “toxic stress” for a child, changes the child’s brain development, sensitizes the child to further stress, leads to heightened activity levels, and affects future learning and concentration. Most importantly, it impairs the child’s ability to trust and relate to others. When traumatized, children find it very difficult to regulate their behavior and soothe or calm themselves. They often fit the description of being “hyperactive.”
• Babies are particularly attuned to their primary caregiver and will sense their fear and traumatic stress. This is particularly the case where family violence is present. They will become unsettled and, therefore, more demanding of an already overwhelmed parent. The first task of any service is to support the non-offending parent and to engage the family in safety.
• Traumatic memories are stored differently in the brain than everyday memories. They are encoded in vivid images and sensations, and lack a verbal narrative and context. As these traumatic memories are unprocessed and more primitive, they are likely to flood the child or adult when triggers such as smells, sights, sounds, or internal or external reminders are present later.
• These flashbacks can be intense feelings that are often unspeakable, or cognitive, vivid memories or parts of memories that seem to be occurring. Alcohol and drug abuse are the classic and usually most destructive ways to numb the pain and avoid these distressing and intrusive experiences.
• Children are particularly vulnerable to flashbacks at quiet times or bedtime and will often avoid both by acting out at school and bedtime. They can experience severe sleep disruption and intrusive nightmares, which add to their “dysregulated” behavior and limit their capacity at school the next day. Adolescents will often stay up all night to avoid nightmares and will sleep in the safety of the daylight.

Impacts on Health

Children who have experienced trauma may experience physical and emotional distress such as:

• Physical symptoms such as headaches and stomach aches
• Poor control of emotions
• Inconsistent academic performance
• Unpredictable and impulsive behavior
• Over- or underreacting to bells, physical contact, doors slamming, sirens, lighting, and sudden movements
• Intense reactions to reminders of their traumatic event
• Thinking others are violating their personal space, i.e., “What are you looking at?”
• Blowing up when being corrected or told what to do by an authority figure
• Fighting when criticized or teased by others
• Resisting transition and change

Impacts on Learning

Children who have experienced trauma may also have struggles in school. As students get older, the impact of unchecked trauma can increase their risk of EBD, as negative experiences at one developmental level may lead to negative outcomes at the next level, and so on. For instance, a student who experiences neglect and inconsistent discipline during preschool may show defiance and aggression in their early elementary years. By middle school, this may manifest as truancy, and they may eventually drop out of high school. Once teachers understand the educational impacts of trauma, they can nurture safe and supportive environments. For example, teachers can support students in making positive connections with adults and peers whom they might otherwise push away, calm their emotions so they can focus and behave appropriately, and feel confident enough to advance their learning. Trauma can impact school performance, as evidenced by:

• Lower academic achievement and grades
• Inconsistent academic performance
• Higher rates of school absences
• Increased drop-out rates
• More suspensions and expulsions
• Decreased reading ability
• Single exposure to traumatic events may cause jumpiness, intrusive thoughts, and interrupted sleep and nightmares, anger and moodiness, and social withdrawal—any of which can interfere with concentration and memory.
• Chronic exposure to traumatic events, especially during a child’s early years, can adversely affect attention, memory, and cognition, reduce a child’s ability to focus, organize, and process information, and interfere with effective problem-solving and planning. This may result in overwhelming feelings of frustration and anxiety.

A Way Forward

The connections between the risk factors that heighten the risk for EBD and those that lower the risk and may lead to more prosocial behavior. It is also important for educators to know that various forms of systemic oppression lead to or heighten the impact of trauma (e.g., racialized, gender-based, trauma of poverty, etc.) for both caregivers and children. For example, anti-trans/homophobic attacks/laws in the media, regular school shootings, ongoing state/police violence against Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian and Pacific Islander community members, etc . To counter these factors, teachers should help students minimize as many risk factors as early as possible to increase their chances of prosocial behavior and prevent students from developing EBD.

The following bullet points from Hallahan et al. (2019), reflect the stages from preschool through high school/adult, detailing how trauma impacts behavior and what factors may increase or lower the risk of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) or foster prosocial behavior.

Preschool

Increasing Risk – May lead to EBD:
– Poverty, abuse, neglect
– Inconsistent discipline
– Caregiver substance abuse
– Observing violence
– Family disruption (divorce/separation)

Lowering Risk – May foster prosocial behavior:
– Nurturing caregivers
– Exposure to prosocial behavior
– Family stability
– Consistent discipline

Early Elementary

Increasing Risk – May lead to EBD:
– Defiance
– Aggression
– Difficulty problem-solving
– Frustrated teachers

Lowering Risk – May foster prosocial behavior:
– Positive interactions with others
– Skilled at problem-solving
– Supporting teachers
– Effective instruction

Late Elementary/Early Middle School

Increasing Risk – May lead to EBD:
– Truancy
– Difficulty in making and maintaining friendships
– Trouble at school or in the community (suspension)
– Drug use (including alcohol)

Lowering Risk – May foster prosocial behavior:
– Regular attendance
– School success – academically and socially
– Able to form and sustain friendships
– Involvement in extracurricular activities

High School/Adult

Increasing Risk – May lead to EBD:
– Failing classes
– Dropping out
– Violence or delinquency
– Substance abuse
– Adult criminality

Lowering Risk – May foster prosocial behavior:
– Graduation
– Contributions to the community
– Healthy relationships
– Avoidance of substance abuse