Taking a Whole School Trauma Informed Approach

The child who lashes out gets noticed. The one who says yes to everything, never puts a foot wrong and is biting her nails at night often doesn't. Both can be showing a trauma response.

Regulate, relate, model is a three-point plan every adult in school can share, so a child gets the same steady response wherever they are. Steady your own breathing before you walk in, use fewer words, offer a way out instead of an ultimatum, and be honest about how you feel. Picture the amygdala as a bouncer called Dave, turning things away before the child can think, and it all makes sense.

You'll be able to adjust your approach for fight, flight, freeze or fawn, and you'll know why a reward chart can backfire for a child in trauma. The ideas come from a play therapist and the clinical director of a children's therapy service.