Crossing Cultural Thresholds- Engaging EL Caretakers in the Trauma-Aware Conversation
Let’s look to tools and strategies that facilitate re-directive capacities and champion long-term moves toward resiliency. We’ll spend a bit of extra time focused on our Recent Arriver Emergent Lingual (RAEL) students. In this space, we’ll highlight EL parents and families as critical stakeholders in students’ trauma restoration processes.
Trauma-informed pedagogy relies upon, in part, the explicit teaching and modeling of regulatory and prosocial behaviors. Eventually, these strategies can be holistically embedded into children’s everyday school (and life) experiences. In the context of RAEL populations, this also means bridging cultural norms and expectations around mental wellbeing. As learning places, this requires a concentrated shift toward integrating diverse cultural value systems into our trauma-sensitive practice.
The National Council for Behavioral Health names two dimensions of sustainability in trauma-informed programming:
1. Making changes, gains, and accomplishments stick
2. Keeping the momentum moving forward for continuous quality improvement.
So, how can we best support these two dimensions? A sustainable path toward resilience requires us, as practitioners, to monitor students’ success and adapt our instructional cues as needed. Fortunately, we already recognize this as a best practices approach across all grade levels, content areas and language domains. We are experts at checking in on our students and personalizing the learning experience based upon individual strengths and needs. The same tenets apply to the processes of transition shock, including trauma.
Shifts are required in the broader educational landscape, too. Sustainability requires honest conversations about our organization’s infrastructure, including leadership, policies, and procedures as they ignite or diffuse underlying transition shock. It demands moving away from punitive practices and toward restorative solution seeking. Sustainability relies upon the collection and analysis of data in order to determine if our trauma-informed programming is effective and equitable. It means that all team members are equipped with tools for understanding and addressing student trauma, and that educators are widely supported in recognizing and managing the secondary stress that may arise through our work with trauma-impacted youth.
Essentially, we are charged with ensuring that the strategies we introduce are good fits for individual students. A good fit means that they are not re-triggering and are both culturally responsive and language adaptive. A good fit means that learners are empowered to experiment with mitigation strategies in their toolboxes, to fail forward in a safe space, to reevaluate without self-admonishment, and to try again.
Involving Caretakers as Critical Stakeholders
If we are to truly address transition shock (including trauma) in our learning spaces, then we must also become active in engineering webs of support around our students- in this case, we’re speaking specifically about our RAELs. Here, we’ll concentrate on arguably the most critical stakeholder group of all- the parents and caretakers of our Emergent Linguals.
In communicating with culturally and linguistically dynamic caretaker groups about transition shock, it’s important to first identify our guiding principles. How do we cross cultural thresholds to build authentic partnerships?
As with our students, safety and trust are paramount. Cultivate these properties as we would in the classroom- practice welcoming, routine, predictability, and transparency.
Be cognizant of biases around mental health and trauma. Name observed behaviors and avoid labeling.
Reduce isolation by connecting families to appropriate resources, as well as to families with socio-cultural commonalities.
Strive to meet with parents in person and, if needed, arrange for a trained translator wherever possible. Avoid using children as conversational brokers.
Talk to parents about the link between students’ school performance and socio-mental health. Use direct and clear language.
Remember that mental health terms may be unfamiliar, unmeaningful, or untranslatable for Recent Arriver parents. Translate these terms ahead of time if possible, and provide visual cues where appropriate.
Honor socio-cultural perspectives when advocating for student care.
Champion wrap-around supports and refer students for advanced care in a timely manner.
Sustainability is enhanced when students’ home and cultural values show up in the school space. Highlighting the voices of our RAELs’ caretakers can simultaneously bolster our culturally responsive efforts and temper student anxiety. Meanwhile, opening doors to culturally responsive communication around trauma-sensitive topics builds trust and enables a collaborative approach to long-term restoration.
Mitigating Student Trauma in the Virtual Classroom
The most common question on deck these days: How do I go about minimizing student trauma in the virtual setting?
Of course, this is a loaded question. So let’s start by laying a foundation. Here are the most practical ways to get started (or to boost your existing trauma-informed practice).
Reframe the conversation: Mitigating trauma isn't about fixing broken things. It's about restoring power. The distinction is critical. This power belongs to our students, and they’ve owned it all along. Sometimes it gets interrupted. We can see ourselves as technicians, trained to employ tools that can help to get the power-up and running again. The next step: turn those Power Restoration tools over to our students.
Get Brainy: Don't underestimate the power that comes from understanding the human brain. Set aside the time. Open the conversation. Invite students to become observers of their own thinking (metacognition). Practice non-judgmental recognition of fight-flight-freeze-submit responses. Experiment with trauma minimizing strategies in a safe space to discover 'just right' fits.
Resources:
Elementary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dxnYhdyuY
Upper Grades Parts of the Brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpRY9-M
Upper Grades Fight-Flight-Freeze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpolpKTWrp4
Elementary Journal: What Survival Looks Like for Me (Inner World Work): http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/What-survival-looks-like...-for-me-3.pdf
Upper Grades Journal: What Survival Looks Like In Secondary School (Inner World Work): http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Survival-In-Secondary-School.pdf
Practice Predictability: YOU show up day after day. Remember that this seemingly simple act goes a long way in minimizing the impacts of trauma for our students. The consistency of your presence and the routine you strive for in daily learning is critical. Preemptively signal upcoming changes, where possible. Predictability fosters trust. Trust lends itself to safety. And when students feel safe, they are able to learn.
Host a Restore Your Power Space: Create a space or folder in whatever virtual platform you're using. House Power Restoration tools here and encourage students to visit, even when school's not in session. Digital black-out or magnetic poetry, drawing/sketchnoting tools, guided bilateral movements, and SEL-based calming strategies are all good fits here. Looking for more resources and strategies? Explore our blog and stay tuned for our upcoming book on this topic with ASCD (due early 2021).
Resources:
Mitigating Transition Shock in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Settings. Louise El Yaafouri (DiversifiED Consulting) and Saddleback Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KxIFECSF8
Edutopia: Strategies for Easing Transition Shock by Louise El Yaafouri (DiversifiED Consulting) https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-easing-transition-shock
Art Therapy ideas: https://diversifi-ed.com/explore/2018/10/1/art-therapy-for-trauma-in-the-classroom
Recommended at-home resource: http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/What-Survival-Looks-Like-At-Home-Quick-Printout.pdf
ELLs & the Silent Period
The following is an excerpt from The Newcomer Student: An Educator’s Guide to Aid Tranisition (Roman & Littlefield International, 2016). Interesting in exploring the full book? Find it on Amazon, Roman & Littlefield, or your favorite retailer.
The Silent Period & Obstructed Speech
The effects of a child’s emotional and psychiatric distress are routinely fleshed out in the Newcomer classroom. Often, the first of these symptoms are speech-related. In many cases, newly resettled students endure a period of marked silence. Silence is usually ascribed to the process of emotional transitioning. During the silent phase, which last for variant lengths of time, an individual will not express thoughts in the host language, either out of reluctance or inability.[1] Those who experience this phenomenon are sometimes referred to as “shell shocked”.[1] [1] The silent phase can last a period of days, weeks, or months.
In addition to silence, exposure to traumatic episodes at any period in a child’s life can trigger recurring nightmares and cognitive delays, as well as speech “freezes” and impediments. Such blocks include stuttering. Newcomer students who exhibit impeded speech should also be evaluated for traumatic stress.
Both silence and stuttering have a need to be addressed in the classroom. To begin, students should not be expected or mandated to produce oral language before they are ready. It is also wise to avoid situations that might embarrass new language learners, including publicly calling on them to speak before they are ready. We can be careful to offer caring encouragement and guidance. Also, we are responsible to practice patient wait time for processing speakers. In doing so, we model this behavior for other students.
Specific classroom accommodations must be in place to support language learners, and particularly non-verbal ELLs. First, to achieve this, a healthy and nurturing learning environment is critical. Small group engagement, tactile activities and positive feedback may encourage speech attempts and decrease overall anxiety. Alternative-expression tasks, such as drawing-and-labeling, script singing, or charade acting can provide additional opportunities to demonstrate knowledge in a language-centric environment.
Of course, kindness and caring are often the most influential antidotes to stress-stemmed silence. In the context of non-verbal ELLs, relationship and safety are everything. Simply, security induces speech.
Dramatic Play & Language Learning
from The Newcomer Student: An Educator’s Guide to Aid Transition, Louise Kreuzer-El Yaafouri, Roman & Littlefield International Press, 2016.
Dramatic play is a natural and inherent piece of healthy child development, fostering both language and intellectual capabilities. Dramatics are pertinent to the Newcomer classroom in that they allow for expressed emotion and understanding, even with limited use of the host language. Learners who have not yet become comfortable in the new language framework have an opportunity to discover a “voice” through acting-out processes. These types of constructive experiences can be freeing for the student, revealing for the educator, and base building for the learning community. Beyond all of this, drama is just plain, old-fashioned fun!
One outcome of dramatic play is emotional exploration. Emotional exploration that occurs within a sheltered environment can provide many benefits, especially working with resettled refugee populations, where grief and traumatic exposure are routinely elevated. In positive, carefully crafted settings, dramatic learning structures can provide safe and healthy platforms for combined emotional and vocabulary growth. Meanwhile, theatrics function as a valid comprehension assessment that can be exclusive of the language piece.
For example, guided role-play, in which students silently act out various emotions, can satisfy the aim of associating specific facial features and body language with a given circumstance. In a literary setting, learners may be asked to show a character’s facial expressions (link: feelings); or to mime or act out character traits, actions, or whole scenes. As it is said, the best way to know something is to be it. Here are a few fun starters!
1. Create A Human Machine
Begin with one or two connected children creating a simple, repetitive sound. Children contribute to the machine by entering the work space one at a time, connecting to another part of the machine by some body part, and adding a new beep, honk, bend, squat, jump or squish. After: Discuss questions, insights, new vocabulary and celebrated demonstrations of creativity.
2. “Two Noses”
Invite students to circumambulate the room. Facilitator calls out a) a number and b) a body part. Learners respond to the prompt by aligning themselves with the appropriate number of people, touching at the corresponding body part. For example, three elbows would play out with three students connected to each other in some way by their elbows. Encourage children to be creative in their connective choices and formations. This process continues: 4 knees, 6 thumbs, 2 backs, or 5 shins. This is a fun and creative means of team building; it also functions as a valuable opportunity for vocabulary acquisition.
3. Still Pictures/Tableaus
Working in small groups, students create frozen snap shots of a scene from a text. Tableaus can capture setting, character thought or emotion, sequence of events. This is terrific for group work, and also as a means of evaluating individual understanding and participation.
4. Act It Out
Read and discuss a text with students (The Hungry Caterpillar, for example), and then ask them play out the story alongside a narration. This is an entertaining process for all involved! More than this, dramatic role play is engaging and meaningful for the students, and it meanwhile offers educators a valid formative assessment of learner comprehension. Other ideas: plant life cycle, character reaction, imaginative journey (to another planet, say), migration trails, bullying responses, historical enactments, or the life of a drop of water. This is also a great activity for acting out dialogue or the sequence of events in a story or text.
5. True Theatrics
Simple plays at early reading levels are fantastic for developing and practicing reading fluency. Mask making can incorporate a host of various cultural and country traditions. Puppetry allows for student creativity, reading fluency, imaginative skills, and the ability to act without fully revealing or exposing themselves. Set the stage!
6. Human Knot
Students form a close circle, hands open and facing toward the center of the circle. Each participant reaches for two hands. The hands should not belong to the same person, or be joined to an immediate neighbor. Slowly, and with some coaching, students try to unravel their human knot without disconnecting their hands. This process stimulates teamwork, problem-solving skills and creativity.
7. Treasure Chest
Students sit in a circle. One student is blindfolded and stands inside the circle. An object (scarf, piece of paper, stuffed animal) is placed somewhere inside the circle. Taking turns, participants will guide the blindfolded learner to the treasure chest, practicing the usage of descriptive and clear directions. (Take three baby steps forward, then turn right…) Exchange roles. This process enables students to give and follow prompts, practice directional cue words and creatively problem solve toward a solution.
8. One Word Story
Sitting in a circle, the first person offers a single word to begin a story. The next person contributes the second word of the story, and so on. The story may shift and change unexpectedly, but should ultimately find closing. This exercise is great for sense-making, sequencing, and vocabulary building; meanwhile, it is a fun team-building activity. Certain parameters may be set in advance (theme, topic, unit vocabulary). Recorded sessions are excellent opportunities for practicing recorded dictation and/or recall, story continuation, and listening station options, among others.
9. What Are You Doing?
Divide students in half; one group will be an audience. The acting group of students forms two straight lines vertically facing the audience. One of the two students in front begins a verb motion (for example, eating lunch). The other student asks, What Are You Doing? The first student replies with a new verb. I’m brushing my teeth.
The second student immediately begins acting out this verb, while the first student goes to the back of his or her line. The next student in line steps up and asks, “What are you doing?” The active student responds with a new verb, I’m driving my car, and returns to the back of the line. The process continues until all players have had a turn. Actors and audience reverse.
This is a fantastic vocabulary building game! For ELLs- if a student can create an action, but is without the English word for it, the audience may kindly assist! A high five to the audience can signal, “Help me out, here!” Both sides love this!
10. Miming
Give a specific direction. Model miming exact directive. For example, Sharpen your pencil. Open your book. Think. Have an idea. Feel the window and look out. Invite students to join. Continue, without modeling. This is a great exercise to check for understanding without language restriction. Miming is also effective for story lines and plot directives.
11. Mock Interviews
Author study? Character study? New science material? Covering world topics or key figures in history? Perfect for an interview! Students can conduct this activity in pairs, or as a larger group interviewing a panel of experts. Many learners, especially ELLs, may need specific insight and modeling regarding the interviewer/interviewee relationship. Graphic organizers specific to the topic may also be very useful for recording responses.
12. Scene Improvisations
Students divide into small teams. Each team selects an index card with a scenario or location (at the grocery store; on the bus; at the pool; at a birthday party; at the zoo; learning to ride a bike; losing a tooth). Teams act out the scenario or a short bit that would reveal the location, without actually saying the actual name of the scenario/locale aloud. Observing teams will attempt to guess the index card cue correctly.
13. Emotion Party
Have students pretend they are going to a fancy party. One student, acting as the host, will begin in the stage space alone, waiting for guests to arrive. Another student will knock on the door, and be let in by the host. The guest, without using words, will show an emotion. (Silent emotions may work best in the classroom setting). The host, upon understanding the new emotion, will immediately assume the same energy.
A new guest will arrive, with a new emotion. Everyone at the party will demonstrate this new emotion, and so on, until all guests have arrived. Once everyone has had a turn to enter, each will leave in the order they arrived, with the emotion they came with.
This is a wonderful chance to explore emotions.Beginning learners will demonstrate simple facial expressions, and will match them with baseline vocabulary- happy, sad, mad, or tired.More advanced students will be able to apply other body language and may also be able to reach beyond basic word use, exploring higher level synonyms and altogether new ranges of emotion.
Trauma, Stress & Friend-Making
Student trauma and high levels of stress can manifest in a wide range of socio-academic challenges. As one example, complex stress can hinder friend-making. This is especially critical for EL students, as social inclusion an integral component of integration. As we strive to create trauma-sensitive learning environments for all students, we must be inclusive of the need to promote healthy social interaction and friend making.
In looking at refugee Newcomers specifically, here’s what we know: “With no other complications, it may be difficult for resettled refugee children to form healthy peer relationships in the host setting.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016). Let’s look at why.
“Newcomers face challenges in communicating thoughts and feelings in the new language, and may feel that peers do not understand them. As an added complexity, children who demonstrate elements of post-traumatic stress also score lower on the prosocial behavior scale. In other words, normative social efficacy is compromised.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016).
Friend making and self-esteem are inherently linked. Learners who feel that they have friends (or at least are largely accepted by their peers) are more likely to demonstrate healthy self-confidence. The ability to make and keep friends has academic implications, too. Students who self-identify as partners in a friendship or friendships tend to have healthier self-esteems; and learners with this type of confidence are more likely to perform well academically.
The reverse is also true: individuals who are challenged to make friends are also likely to experience difficulties in learning and participating at school. For example, “a child who has difficulty recalling, pronouncing, or ordering words in the new language is likely to experience teasing or harassment. … Teasing, in turn, can lead to shame and silence, and ultimately, to isolation. Such stalls create obvious fissures in an individual’s friend-making capacities.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016)
We know that trauma and high levels of stress negatively impact friend making (and consequently self-esteem, school satisfaction and academic success). We can also acknowledge our responsibility to aid our students in navigating social exchange as a mechanism of trauma informed instruction.
We can begin this work in the classroom using evidence-based strategies. Here’s how to get started.
1. Create safe opportunities for social engagement. Begin with pair groupings (to encourage talk and decrease the chances of a student feeling “left out”). Build up to small group engagement. Initially, schedule short periods of interaction, working up into longer ones.
2. Begin simply, with exchanges around likes and dislikes or recalling steps in a process. Invite students to find similarities in their views or observations.
3. Choose interactive activities that highlight the various strengths of students within the work-social groups.
4. Aim to initiate small group activities on a schedule, so that students can predict and better prepare themselves for interpersonal exchange.
5. During periods of sustained student interaction, listen for areas that individual students appear to struggle with or exhibit discomfort in. Work with individual students to create “social scripts” that can guide them through tricky points in a conversation.
6. Explicitly teach the meaning of facial expressions and body language. This is especially helpful for students coming from cultures where there are discrepancies in communicative gestures.
7. Avoid competitive exchanges. Instead, offer activities that promote teamwork, sharing, friendly game play and routine conversation. Have students leave personal items behind when they enter a partner or group setting, to minimize opportunities for conflict. Slowly incorporate activities that require sharing or taking turns.
8. Provide live, video or other examples of similarly aged-students engaged in normative play, conversation or group work.
9. Create structure, routine and control, but also allow students some choice and the opportunity to demonstrate self-efficacy. Anticipate that students will act in mature ways. Redirect when necessary.
10. Model how to work through conflict or disagreement. Offer sentence stems and allow students to practice these exchanges in a safe, monitored setting.
11. Prepare students to be active listeners. Emphasize the importance of active listening in a conversation. Ask students to engage in a conversation and recall details about what their partner revealed during his or her talk time. Model facial expressions and body language that indicate active listening.
12. Be mindful that some students will require additional interventions. Be prompt in processing referrals for those services. If, after a period of consistent interventions in the classroom, the student continues to struggle in social setting, request the assistance of school staff who are equipped to support the learner at a more advanced level.
Trauma and stress can impact students’ academic achievement and social wellbeing. The ability to establish and maintain friendships is a singular facet, but an important one. We can do our part to introduce tools that help our students to overcome these obstacles.
Keep in mind that our students are brilliant reminders of the resilience of the human spirit. There is always hope to be found here, and that hope is bolstered by implementation of timely, appropriate and evidence-rooted strategies in the learning context.
Art Therapy for Trauma in the Classroom
All children experience stress. In fact, it is natural and normative for young people to encounter stress and learn to process it in healthy ways. Some children experience very high levels of stress, either as an isolated moment of impact or as a period of heightened, prolonged unrest.
Trauma occurs when the experience of stress is significant enough to overwhelm one’s capacity to manage and diffuse it. Not all individuals who experience trauma will exhibit lasting symptoms of distress. Yet for others, traumatic stress can dismantle one’s entire sense of belonging, safety, and self-control.
As teachers, we may witness the effects of childhood trauma in the classroom. Significant stress manifests in a myriad of ways- from speech impediments and frequent urination to disruptive behaviors and excessive organization. Educators are not advised to step into the role of psychologist or student counselor, unless they are explicitly trained and licensed to do so. However, we can do our best to take proactive measures to mitigate significant stress in the classroom setting.
The implications of trauma in childhood can be significant, affecting physical wellbeing and brain development at a molecular level. Specifically, significant trauma is capable of creating blockages, or “stalls”, in the right brain (where visual memories are stored) and in the Brocas area of the frontal lobe (where speech and language processing occur). Meanwhile, the amygdala, which is responsible for recognizing and reacting to danger, becomes hyperactive, leaving the “fight or flight” switch turned on. (Rausch et al, 1996).
Art is widely recognized as one effective means of trauma-informed care. A variety of art forms are employed in therapeutic contexts. Classroom art activities can be used as a component of trauma-informed instruction and may include drawing, painting, drama, music-making, creative movement, sculpting, weaving, and collage-making.
Artistic expression is unique in its ability to bypass speech-production areas in the brain and construct wordless somatic paths to expression. The actual process of art making is a predominately right-brained activity. As the right brain is stimulated and strengthened, left-brain connectivity (the essential link to language acquisition) can begin to repair. Miranda Field, writing for the University of Regina, explains:
“Research has shown that the non-verbal right brain holds traumatic memories and these can be accessed through the use of symbols and sensations in art therapy. Communication between the brain hemispheres can be accomplished through the use of art therapy and may assist in the processing of the trauma (Lobban, 2014).”
Humans retain traumatic memories in physiological and cerebral ways. The use of art in education addresses both facets. Chloe Chapman, for The Palmeira Practice, shares that “using art to express emotion accesses both visually stored memory and body memory, as not only does it enable people to create images, but the use of art materials such as clay and paint can reconnect them to physical sensation.” In fact, research links sights and touch to the amygdala and the processing of fear. When these sensory elements are introduced in safe contexts, the slow relinquishment of trauma can occur. (Lusebrink, 2004)
Art making provides a container for trauma and can promote feelings of safety, security, belonging, grounding and validation. Creative output engages the student in organizing, expressing and making meaning from traumatic experiences. It also encourages the reconstruction of one’s sense of efficacy and and the notion of “being present” in the new context.
Art expression provides learners with the option of creative choice, as well as the ability to process trauma in their own measure- reducing the likelihood of emotional overload. Ultimately, students who are exposed to art as therapy are more likely to reach a place of recognizing and valuing their own existing coping strategies- and becoming more receptive to learning new ones.
Ready to grow on the path of trauma-informed education through art therapy?
Visit the incredible authors and resources below.
1. 101 Mindful Arts-Based Activities to Get Children and Adolescents Talking: Working with Severe Trauma, Abuse and Neglect Using Found and Everyday Objects (Dawn D’Amico)
https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Arts-Based-Activities-Children-Adolescents-ebook/dp/B01N47I0FI/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514483429&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=dialectical+behavioral+therapy+101
2. The Big Book of Therapeutic Activity Ideas for Children and Teens: Inspiring Arts-Based Activities and Character Education Curricula (Lindsey Joiner)
https://www.amazon.com/Therapeutic-Activity-Ideas-Children-Teens-ebook/dp/B00812X6GE/ref=pd_sim_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SB2JP3ZDPDZW5VQXHC03
3. Free Video Series: Trauma Training For Educators (ACES in Education)
http://www.acesconnection.com/g/aces-in-education/blog/trauma-training-for-educators-free
4. Essentials for Creating A Trauma-Sensitive Classroom
https://traumaessentials.weebly.com/resources.html
5. The Art Therapy Sourcebook (Cathy Malchiodi)
https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Sourcebook-Sourcebooks-Cathy-Malchiodi/dp/0071468277/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1514483721&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=The+Art+Therapy+Sourcebook
6. Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul (Shawn McNiff)
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Heals-Creativity-Cures-Soul/dp/1590301668
7. DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition (Marsha M. Linehan)
https://www.amazon.com/Skills-Training-Handouts-Worksheets-Second/dp/1572307811/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514484354&sr=8-2&keywords=dialectical+behavior+therapy+skills+workbook
Risk Factors for Newcomer Trauma
Approximately one quarter of the young people in U.S. schools have endured some type of significant trauma. Trauma can occur as a singular paralyzing event or as a period of intense ongoing stress. We can define significant trauma as distress that is impactful enough to overwhelm an individual’s ability to produce and manage healthy responses to upheaval.
Trauma and shock are complex issues, especially with respect to students’ academic participation. It is important to bear in mind that trauma is often multi-layered and can be influenced by a broad range of factors. This helps us to better understand why two individuals who may have experienced very similar profound-stress life events may rationalize that information in vastly different ways. Underlying risk factors can have dedicated implications for both the impact of trauma and the viability of resilience.
Refugee newcomer students are vulnerable to additional risk factors that may impair or restrict an individual's ability to access emotional coping resources. For example, the age at which the trauma occurred can influence the degree of affectedness (preschool and early adolescence are especially critical periods). In The Newcomer Student, we read:
“The degree to which our Newcomer students are impacted by stress can be notably profound. We can assume that most Newcomers will have endured episodes of prolonged stress, as an organic byproduct of abrupt flight. Of course, affectedness presents itself in individualized ways, and it is intensely codependent upon the length and gradation of stressful experience, as well as a string of alternative variables.”
What are those variables?
We can explore some of the most common trauma impact risk factors for refugee Newcomer students in the info-chart below. We can use this resource to increase our own educator awareness around our students’ vulnerabilities. This understanding can be integrated into a whole child approach to trauma prevention and mitigation in the school setting.
By increasing our own awareness into trauma, we are also expanding the breadth and depth to which we are able to service our students. We can commit to meeting our learners where they are now; setting high expectations for their socio-academic achievement; and celebrating with them critical milestones along the way.
Let's embrace this cognizance that episodes of trauma may manifest in our students, but focus our sights looking forward- to our students' overwhelming, captivating resilience. Our learners have a story to tell, but that's not the whole journey. It's just the beginning.