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.