We’ve all heard teachers describe their “problem” children. These are often the students that act out in class, don’t follow instructions, and often show they don’t care about the class. It’s easy to blame the student for their behavior if you don’t take into account\u00a0why<\/em> they may be acting this way. The “problem child” most likely is dealing with some pretty big problems of his or her own. We as teachers cannot ignore these. In fact, we should recognize these problems and do everything in our power to help the student.<\/p>\n These students most likely have a high “ACEs” score, which is defined as a\u00a0quantified number of “adverse childhood experiences.” Just add to the score for every time a student experiences (17):<\/p>\n These students are greatly affected by the\u00a0trauma<\/em> from these types of events in their home lives<\/p>\n Kristin Souers and Pete Hall describe this phenomenon in\u00a0Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom<\/em>. The books includes many different strategies for fostering a safe classroom, as well as addressing students that have experiences high levels of trauma in their lifetimes. It is very likely that every little aspect of trauma will affect their performance in school; whether it is their motivation, awareness, or confidence.<\/p>\n The link below includes a short news article video that features teachers discussing how their outlook on the “problem children” changed once they took part in trauma training. Take a look! (I cannot imbed the video due to its format, but I promise it’s worth it!)<\/p>\n\n
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