Education and the Child of Trauma, Page 2
School Time Challenges
Eventually, the child becomes of school age. The operative word being school "age". Due to the effects of the early traumatic (stress) environment, the child’s emotional ability is nowhere near the appropriately functioning ability of a school-ready child. Placing this child in school induces a stress reaction that proves to be nothing more than threatening for the immature system at this time. The constant state of stress translates into fear, which surfaces as hyperactivity, defiance, anger, and poor peer relations, among others behavioral characteristics. This continues to escalate throughout the school years until, in such an environment, the child with a cognitive age of twelve is interacting from an emotional perspective anywhere from two to maybe six years of age. This is all dependent on the environment in which he is currently being nurtured and guided in his development.
Over time, this lack of ability to feel calm within the school environment will begin to take its toll on all involved, including parents, teachers, and peers, but most of all the student himself. At this point the thought of school becomes a stress provoking event because his parents are stressed about receiving calls everyday and negative reports, the teachers are frustrated with this immature child, and the other peers have began bullying the child because he responds in highly inappropriate ways to what is considered typical childhood teasing. The child, however, is responding exactly the way a child of his emotional age would, with extreme ranges of sadness, anger, and threatening behavior. In the classroom, the perceived threatening environment causes the child to react in fear. He may become violent or highly oppositional, completely resistant to following through on any manner of request.
Working as a Team for Development
The school and parents must work together to provide the environment most conducive for the child. In my work with students that present such an overwhelming discrepancy between emotional and cognitive age, a number of changes must be initiated.
First, it must be stated that emotional growth and development are not the primary motives of the educational system. The primary motive is education. Education is highly applicable to cognitive ability, but it is not conducive to emotional learning. Emotional learning must initiate within the family system; however, it can be greatly supported and enhanced by the school system, and vice versa. Second, the family is the center of our educational and emotional development, so with proper support and encouragement from the family system, the student will be better prepared to receive the expertise offered from the educational system.
Specific recommendations for children with a trauma history have been established to assist them in receiving the most appropriate environment conducive to stimulating their emotional development within the capabilities of the school and family. It must be recognized that without the development of the emotional regulatory ability, most school experiences for this child will be a negative. The following are suggestions for helping the child with a trauma history have more success within the educational learning environment:
Modified School Schedule: A modified school schedule may be presented to assist the child in receiving the highest level of educational exposure within the range of his emotional tolerance. This schedule would have the child attending school on a half-day schedule. Areas such as homework and class projects would be best completed in the home environment with the parent's presence. The proposed, modified schedule will keep stressors at a minimum, hence enabling the child to utilize the cognitive skill capacities which this child is able to demonstrate during less stressful times. It is not uncommon for a child with a trauma history to demonstrate high intelligence when the environment is one of calm interaction and allows the child to fully access his cognitive ability.
Credits: Used with permission from:
www.bryanpost.com
Questions and comments regarding this paper are encouraged and may be sent to Dr. Post at bryan_post@hotmail.com
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