Various reports have found that many children and teens are experiencing significant stress, anxiety, and mental health issues.  More than 1 in 20 children ages 6-17 (and 1 in 3 teens) suffer from anxiety disorders, according to a June 2018 study in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.   In addition, according to a 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), almost forty-five percent of all children in the US have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). 

Discover how toxic stress, anxiety, and trauma negatively affect developing brains, student behavior, and academic success and ways to help students cope with these challenges. 

Image: Dr. Bruce Perry; Beaconhouse.org.uk

Four key overarching areas:

-- Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)

-- Neglect (physical and emotional) 

-- Household dysfunction (Mental illness, incarcerated parents, divorce, substance abuse, domestic violence)

-- Environmental (Poor housing quality, affordability, lack of economic mobility, discrimination)

Most common ACEs: 

1. Alcohol/drug exposure

2. Ending infant bonding too soon

3. Overt exposure to trauma

4. Marginalization

Children who have experienced trauma are often triggered by verbal redirection and stern tones.

When we are regulated and calm, we will have access to the higher levels of thinking in our brain through our neocortex. We can think, make decisions, and carry out our day to day activities, and have learned strategies to help us to self-regulate when stressors come our way.  Below, you will see Dr. Bruce Perry's neurosequential diagram of an upside-down triangle showing that when we are regulated, we have access to our neocortex and can make well thought out decisions.

What’s happening in a dysregulated brain is that so many new stressors are coming its way that it takes away access to our higher-level thinking and becomes more reactive.   Students who are under constant stress cannot access their neocortex, where all their academic information is stored and higher-order thinking happens.   

There is also an inverse relationship between anxiety and working memory.  We've all experienced this at one point or another when we forget the simplest things because we are stressed or nervous about something.  When students are feeling high anxiety or stress, they cannot access their working memory to retrieve the strategies we've given to them to help with their stress or anxiety.

If a student thinks he or she cannot learn from a teacher, they won't; no matter what strategies a teacher uses.  Therefore, since learning is relational for humans, creating positive integrated experiences and integrated relationships for and with students stimulates brain integration.   Integrating experiences and relationships means promoting students’ academic success by utilizing supports that target academic and non-academic barriers to learning and achievement. There are many ways to incorporate non-academic integrations into the academic setting.  As described by neurologist and author Dr. Daniel Siegel, here are the 5 Ss of creating integrated relationships:

1. Safety - The "attachment figure" protects me from danger and is not a source of danger

> Creating safe spaces:

- Denning: traumatized children need space to den

- Often, kids with trauma, anxiety, or depression need a break from their own minds, so a "break" in their own head is not often a successful break.   If students have thought-based/mood-based dysregulation you don't want to leave them alone in their own heads.

- Consider cognitive thought breaks.   Include resources like Mad Libs, Where's Waldo books, trivia cards, or even a tablet with biofeedback apps (Ex. Mightier, Emwave, Unyte), etc. and a timer in the den.

- Keep items from hanging overhead

- Doors left open or out of view can cause distress - Who's coming in?/How do I get out?

2. Seen - Ensuring that students feel seen by exercising empathy and recognizing the mental state of the student in front of us.  Assume the best.

> *Proven positive Intervention Strategy: "2 for 10" - Take 2 minutes a day for 10 days to talk to your student about something that interests them

> Interesting fact: In a doctor's office, patients who received an empathetic comment from their doctor healed faster than patients who only got the remedy for their cold.

3. Soothe - An isolated individual becomes "we" with positive physical contact and teacher presence.   approach with soft eyes and a soft voice.

> Muted colors are more soothing to traumatized children

> Soft natural light is more soothing to traumatized children

4. Security - Creating a sense of belonging : Greeting at door, morning meetings, family lunches, etc.

5. Sensemaking - when people tell you that something isn't true, it violates "epistemic" trust. 

[Epistemology - the science of knowing]

In an age of distraction, children no longer know how to simply study.  We not only need to give them skills to help them self-regulate, but we also need to give them the skills for what to do next.   Sociologist Christine Carter identified three causes of anxiety and distraction and ways to overcome these challenges.

1. Cause 1: Exhaustion

> Kids today have less downtime than any other generation.  They don't take time to daydream.  There is no measurable difference in the general amount of homework, work for pay, or participation in extracurriculars for this generation compared to past generations.  The difference is the technology and time spent on devices. 

Skill needed: Rest.  Taking time to simply rest is a skill that students need to learn..  "Nonproductive" time is the foundation for fostering creativity, productivity, and problem-solving.  Rest time can be as simple as staring into space or can include getting more restful sleep.  

My favorite quote: "When people asking me what I'm doing and I say nothing, that doesn't mean I'm not busy.  It means I'm busy doing nothing."

2.  Cause 2: Overstimulation

> Overstimulation is the excessive pursuit of pleasurable experiences.  Often, pleasure and happiness are confused to be one and the same.  But, pleasure and happiness are not the same.  Physiologically, pleasure and happiness activate different neural circuits.  Additionally, pleasure can have negative side-effects and happiness does not.

The problem with "pleasure" or overstimulation - When you feel a sense of pleasure, it triggers the "reward" center of your brain and causes it to release dopamine.  When the brain releases too much dopamine, the brain shuts down some of its dopamine receptors .  This causes the need for more of the pleasure activity to gain the same "reward" - dopamine.  Additionally, increased dopamine causes a decrease in serotonin.  Serotonin plays a role in regulating appetite, emotions, and motor, cognitive, and nervous system functions.

Skill needed: Focus. Students need to learn how to sit and study or simply do the deep work of thinking.  Kids often use stress and adrenaline to force focus.  This is called tunneling.  Tunneling is a type of focus that is driven by the same responses as flight/fight/freeze and has negative effects on the body.

3. Cause 3: Disconnection

> On average, teens see their friends an hour less than their parents did at their age. (Pre-COVID).  According to research, there is a measurable negative inverse relationship between screen time and face-to-face interactions.  The more time kids spend on screens, the less time they are spending interacting with their friends in person.  Compounding this issue is the fact that this generation also has to deal with the pain of social media rejection - seeing others post pictures of events to which they were not invited. 

Social exclusion causes profound distress in the body.  When looking at the brain affected by social exclusion or rejection, the results are the same as those who have been physically attacked.

Skill needed: Connecting in real ways.  Helping others reduces loneliness, evokes positive emotions, and helps regulate the brain by reducing the flight/fight/freeze responses in the brain.  Socially, the focus needs to shift from self-survival to species survival.

Food for thought:  The Rat Socialization Experiment

Dr. Marion Diamond's Research Study About Play and the Brain

In Dr. Diamond's study there were two groups of rats.   The first group was able to interact with each other and were existing in a stimulating, engaging environment with objects to play with and tunnels to explore.  The second group of rats were raised in poor, diminished environments and were subjected to boring, solitary confinement. 

In the first part of the experiment, the results unambiguously showed that the rats who were able to play and socialize had bigger brains and were measurably smarter than the rats who were isolated in diminished environments.   The isolated rats had thinner and smaller cerebral cortexes than their enriched counterparts.

In the second half of the experiment, the isolated rats were removed from their diminished environments and were placed in a space where they could see the first group of socialized rats, but could not directly interact with them.   What do you think happened to their brains?

The rats' brains in the second group continued to shrink.  Observing socialization is not the same as active engagement.  The second half of the experiment can be applied to many human situations including situations where someone is, or feels, isolated and see others having fun on social media.

Establishing Positive  Relationships:

• Positive greetings at the door - saying the student's name and incorporating positive touch

  • Give the students options - handshake, high five, hug, fist bump, something that doesn't involve touch if the student is needing the space.

•  Talk students up to others - indirect compliments delivered through others are more powerful than direct compliments 

• Positive note or phone call home

• Positive note to administrators

• Initiate predictable positive attention

  • "I can't wait to see what you think about this assignment.   I am going to check on you in 8 minutes at 10:15.  If I forget, come tap me on the shoulder" - Let's the student know when they will get attention again.

  • The "spin class" example - "I know this is hard, we'll be done in 5... keep going.. 4... You got this... 3..."

Maintaining Positive Relationships:

• Ongoing positive interactions - 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions shows a significant reduction in negative/challenging behaviors

  • Note: This doesn't mean 5 praise statements.  Positive interactions can be anything that shows that you see/hear this student - Ie. checking-in with him or her, laughing together, hello/good morning/good-bye greetings, etc.

• Working to prevent negative interactions 

  • Self-regulation

  • Disproving strategy - How hard to you think this is going to be? / How long do you think it is going to take? - Put a student's fears/anxieties into words and then work through it with them, instead of dismissing their fear/anxiety.

  • Giving students with high anxiety a chance to start the assignment that may cause them anxiety for morning work - 

    • Ex. For a student with writing anxiety, introduce the general topic for the day and for their morning work they can start writing a sentence that they can finish later during writing block.  Saying "...continue with that..." is much more effective/comforting than saying "Get started..."

Restoring Positive Relationships:

• Have letting go conversations - Helpful for students who are afraid the adult will hold a grudge

• Taking ownership of problems - Helpful for students who can benefit from hearing that adults make mistakes too

• Empathy statements - Helpful for students who need to hear their perspective/feelings recognized

• State of care: Separating the deed from the doer - Helpful for the student who thinks the adult does not care for or want them in class because of their behavior.  Remember that students with trauma are often processing their interactions with the world through their "emergency express lane."

• Collaborative problem solving: solving to identify a win-win scenario - Helpful for those students who like to have input on the solution moving forward. 

  • • *See the next section for effective collaborative solutions strategies.*