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By Elizabeth Chuck and Marshall Crook
YAKIMA, Wash. – Instead of going out for recess last Friday, fifth grade student Thomas Stevenson walked down a hallway to the Ridgeview Elementary School and entered a dimly lit room.
Inside, aromatherapy with lavender filled the air, a spa-like music was played and a projector broadcast clouds on a screen. Passing through bean chairs on the floor and chess games on tables, Thomas picked up Legos and began building a complex structure.
Thomas, 11, was spending his holidays in this reconverted classroom, known as the Quiet Room, by choice. At his previous school, he often fought on the playground. His first academic suspension was held in kindergarten, the year of his parents' divorce. both parents had addiction problems and his father was briefly incarcerated.
The troubles at home caused difficulties at school. In fourth year, he was suspended five times.
Since his transfer to Ridgeview in the fall, he has not been suspended at all – partly because of his work in the Calm Hall.
"People talk about my mom, that's what I was fighting earlier," said Thomas, whose mother had been clean since 2009 and who is now an addiction and alcohol counselor herself. "It's good to be a child who does not quarrel anymore."
Jeff Clark, a school counselor at Ridgeview, created the Quiet House in January 2018 as a space where students can get help to manage their emotions, including talking to an adult, or to talk to an adult. they wish it.
"Some kids want to focus on solving the problem. some kids just need a safe space to reset themselves, "Clark said.
The room is open to all students, but is specifically designed for people with home problems, such as abuse, neglect or divorce – stressors that are among those classified by the Centers. control and prevention of the disease as adverse experiences in childhood, or ACE.
Across the country, where more and more people understand the trauma of childhood, they are able to focus in class or stay healthy in adulthood, a growing number Schools are moving away from traditional forms of discipline, such as suspensions or expulsions, and experimenting with new ways to solve behavior problems. This includes encouraging educators to understand why students are acting; create spaces where students can practice yoga or play with sensory toys, such as stress balls or sparkling bottles, to calm down; and the implementation of positive reinforcement systems, such as offering rewards such as ice cream for good behavior.
In Yakima, in addition to the Ridgeview Calm Hall, the school district also runs anger management classes and students who are not afraid of trouble can get prizes, such as a special lunch. Although the approaches differ from one district to another, the goal is the same: to encourage students to treat their anger and other emotions in a constructive way, but also to give them the opportunity to create a bond of trust with an adult.
"It's not like the teacher is going to become the mother of the child, or whatever happened," said Susan Cole, director of Trauma and Learning. Policy Initiative, a joint program of Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a rights organization. "But they will show them that you can have good relationships with an adult, that an adult will help you succeed, and that you will continue to build more caring relationships."
Addressing the "biggest unacknowledged public health crisis" in the United States
Psychologists have begun to understand the profound effects of adversity in children two decades ago, when a landmark study conducted in 1998 by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente revealed that adverse experiences in the world of children's lives were noticeable. Children were linked to a higher risk of health problems later in life, including hepatitis and lung cancer. and suicide attempts.
The study found that adverse experiences in childhood are commonplace: at least two-thirds of the adults surveyed had one or more ACEs and nearly one in eight had at least four.
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, pediatrician named the first general surgeon in California in January, sees in the adversity of children the "largest public health crisis not recognized by the United States." Starting in 2020, California will review all Medicaid children and adults for CEAs. to help those who are struggling.
"I think the probability of eliminating all the negative experiences of childhood is similar to our probability of eliminating all bacteria," said Harris Burke. "This will probably not happen and, therefore, we must dramatically improve the treatment of the effects of adverse experiences in childhood."
Pediatricians can screen for CEAs, but schools can also play an important role if they train their staff to be sensitive to trauma. Burke Harris, a proponent of teaching children the techniques of mindfulness and relaxation, believes that schools should move away from disciplinary policies of exclusion, such as evictions.
Jamie Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute in New York and director of the Center's Trauma and Resilience department, said educating teachers about trauma signs could help them see student behavior. a different angle. .
"Children who may feel that they are suffering from ADHD because they are very spacious may actually be distracted by the trauma. And then, children who avoid certain things or who have an exaggerated reaction of surprise may seem opposed, "she said. "Some of our children refuse to go to the front of the room and write on the whiteboard because they are afraid of turning their backs on something that they think is dangerous."
"What we always say to teachers is instead of saying," What's wrong with this kid? It's so difficult, "try to think of what happened to her to do so," she continued. "This can help you develop a new strategy," for example, working with the child individually or encouraging them to take breaks so as not to over-stimulate them.
Proof of success
Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, Washington, would be the first public high school in the country to adopt trauma-informed practices in 2010, according to Jim Sporleder, then school principal. At the time, students who had been expelled from other programs were sent to Lincoln, invaded by gangs and counting 220 students, "the most uncontrollable environment I've ever seen Sporleder, who started working there in 2007, said. Emergency evictions were common. The most common reaction to "any authority was usually a kind of" eff-you, "said Sporleder.
Sporleder decided to change his approach after hearing a speech at a conference on toxic stress – the effects on health, learning and behavior of a child as a result of the child's repeated stress response .
"When children are in this brain state, psychologically, they can not learn or acquire new knowledge," he said. "By the time I left this conference room, I was on a mission to find out how to change my habits."
Sporleder told the teachers that they had to understand that when students were acting, they did not necessarily react to teachers; it could be in response to something else going on in their life. When Sporleder returned from the conference, a teacher sent him a student who had answered. Instead of imposing the usual three-day suspension, Sporleder asked the boy what was going on. To Sporleder's surprise, the teenager spoke about a recent disappointment at home: at his 16th birthday, his father, an alcoholic who had let him down several times, had not given him a car that he had promised her a long time ago.
"He goes to a safe place and says," The teacher did not deserve that. I should go to excuse myself, "Sporleder said. "What is strongest in this story is that it was not unique. It's become the norm. I started asking the children and my God, they started talking.
Sporleder encouraged school teachers to have the same discussions with their students, focusing on building relationships before automatically sending them to his office. It worked: the number of references to the director's office went from 600 to 320 in one year. Several years later, a case study of the school revealed that this approach had improved the resilience of 70% of students, based on their responses to a questionnaire.
Their notes have also increased. Those with the most gains in resilience had the greatest improvements in reading performance and standardized mathematics exams compared to their grade 8 scores before they entered school.
The school and its success have been described in a documentary, "Paper Tigers", which is often part of the training given in other schools.
There is no data on the number of US schools that have started using this philosophy, although experts say the interest in it is increasing. The conference on the creation of trauma-sensitive schools, chaired by Attachment and Trauma Network, Inc., has grown from 550 participants in 2018 to 1,200 in 2019, with each state represented at this year's meeting. Cole's group, the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, is sending e-mail tips to help traumatized children learn more than 35,000 teachers and parents across the country and as far away as Pakistan.
"It's really good that my mother is proud of me"
Thomas, the 11-year-old Yakima student, has learned the coping skills of his school counselor Clark, including taking deep breaths to calm his emotions when he feels uncontrollable. Her mother, Breanne Smith, says Thomas's transformation can be attributed to the work he did in the quiet room, as well as to a behavioral health program to which he is eligible through Medicaid.
Not only is he less aggressive – he said Thomas used to break the walls at home when he got angry – but his scores have improved dramatically. His favorite subjects are now mathematics and science.
"His change has been so incredible," Smith said. "He always had that potential, and I think he just needed people to see it and help him to make it happen."
Clark has strengthened Thomas's confidence by assigning him leadership roles, such as room supervisor and "big brother" for lower class students who have trouble listening to their teachers.
In recent weeks, Thomas has trusted himself to spend his holidays outdoors with his classmates, venturing onto the playground. Instead of feeling like a bad boy, he sees himself in a new light.
"It's really good that my mother is proud of me, my father is proud of me, everyone is proud of me because of everything that I've changed since I was in this school," he said. said Thomas. "It's really very good not to have trouble."
Marshall Crook reported from Yakima, Washington, and Elizabeth Chuck from New York.
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