Epilogue
Discussion Points
In the epilogue we discuss the seven actions that schools, in today’s world should undertake in order to consider themselves “trauma informed schools.” These should be emphasized by the facilitator during both the first and last in-service sessions, as a general blueprint for the school faculty. These actions include:
- Preparing teachers to understand the warning signs for various types of childhood trauma,
- Ensuring that teachers are informed about the impact of childhood trauma on behavior,
- Helping teachers teach kids about traumatized brains, with great care and sensitivity,
- Assisting teachers to set up their classrooms with students exposed to ACEs in mind,
- Ensuring that teachers teach these kids that they can control their moods and emotions,
- Implementing school wide practices to foster success, and
- Requiring teachers to implement specific intervention strategies proven to work with children exposed to trauma. These will require individual data collection to show efficacy to the child, other professionals, and parents or caregivers of the child.
In particular, the last item above, implementation of individual data driven interventions is critical. When successful interventions are shared with students exposed to trauma, those students begin to understand that they can control their own moods, emotions, and behaviors. Few things assist self-regulation more than seeing actual proof that one's behaviors can be changed, so sharing successful intervention charts with students and their caregivers is a critical function of the trauma informed school.
In some ways, this list of actions is a bit more extensive than “trauma planning” recommendations previously, but only by implementing all of these actions can schools hope to actually address the extensive needs of children and teens exposed to trauma. As professionals, we all tend to hold ourselves to the highest standards of preparedness, and undertaking these things can offer hope and a bright, positive future to the students we all serve.
In some ways, this list of actions is a bit more extensive than “trauma planning” recommendations previously, but only by implementing all of these actions can schools hope to actually address the extensive needs of children and teens exposed to trauma. As professionals, we all tend to hold ourselves to the highest standards of preparedness, and undertaking these things can offer hope and a bright, positive future to the students we all serve.