Family Learning Center

Teaching and Learning Impact:

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)

and

Traumatic Stress

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma occur before the age of 18 and can have lasting impacts on the child’s mental health, physical health, and general well-being. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), About 64% of adults in the United States reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE before age 18. One in six (17.3%) adults reported having had experienced four or more types of ACEs.

The CDC reports that ACEs are costly. ACEs related health consequences cost an estimated economic burden of $748 billion annually in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States.

ACE/Trauma include:

• Experiencing physical or emotional abuse
• Abandonment or neglect
• Losing a family member to suicide
• Growing up in a household with substance abuse or alcoholism
• Having a mentally ill, physically disabled, learning disabled, or emotionally unstable parent
• Parentized
• Having an incarcerated parent
• Being a child of divorce or parental separation
• Residing in group/foster care, juvenile imprisonment, experiencing homelessness and/or unstable housing
•  Not having enough food to eat, clothes that fit
• Discrimination.

Children who experience ACEs and toxic stress may experience:

• difficulty forming friends or close relationships with others.
• trouble remaining on task or with organization skills.
• difficulty with academics
• experience depression or loneliness.
• increased involvement in violence
• more likely to be suspended from school.
• as an adult, more likely to experience higher levels of unemployment.
• more likely to expose their children to ACE/Traumatic Stress
• increased incidents of alcohol or substance abuse
• higher risk of suicide attempts
• higher risk of health issues such as anxiety disorders, PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorders, personality disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, lung disease, liver disease and/or learning disabilities, etc.

ACE/Trauma Environmental factors that may make a child more likely to experience an ACE/Trauma:

• Parent with a learning disability
• Living with elevated levels of family stress
• Growing up with economic stress, low family income or poor community
• Growing up in a family that is not close and does not speak openly about feelings.
• Having parents who used spanking, humiliation or corporal punishment.
• Parents who themselves had been abused or neglected.
• Growing up in a community with high rates of violence or substance abuse
• Living in a community with few to no resources for youth

Trauma-informed, evidence-based, teaching strategies recognize one of the most challenging factors of working with the traumatized child is an overwhelming sensation that a past event causing significant harm or extreme threat of harm is going to occur again, also in the present moment. Create a calm, respectful, approachable, and supportive classroom environment.

Being a trauma-informed teacher means starting with classroom climate/culture, and then responding to student behaviors with curiosity and problem solving not discipline focused. Classroom climate/culture refers to the atmosphere of a classroom including social, emotional, and physical aspects of the learning space. The moods, attitudes, and tone of instructor-student and student-student interactions in a classroom culminates in the overall classroom climate.

Focus on building a nurturing, safe classroom environment by gaining student trust, being consistent, being fair, listening effectively, making modifications/accommodations, showing that you do care.

Strengthen the student’s interpersonal relationships and social and emotional skills.

Create a positive, non-judgmental, supportive relationship with the student(s) is of primary importance. Children who have experienced adversities can demonstrate adaptive behaviors, such as the ability to manage their emotions or current situation knowing that they are supported and understood. Students that are struggling with adjustment disorders, PTSD, requires more supports.

Support students’ physical and mental health needs.

Utilize the school supports to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all students; school counselor, school psychologist, learning consultant, school social worker, school nurse, teaching peers.

With positive, non-judgmental supports, children can cultivate resilience through guidance, encouragement, and positive assistance; for example, guided self-care routines, strengthening social and emotional skills, development of self-regulation skills, and guided self-efficacy skills.

Reduce practices that can cause traumatic stress or retraumatize students.

A key principle of trauma-informed care is to avoid practices that have the potential to cause, or reactivate, trauma, i.e., yelling, threatening, singling out a student, not listening, etc. A traumatized student behaviors may reflect an underlying unmet need, such as bullying and truancy. Utilizing a punitive practice may be counterproductive. Positive behavior modifications or practices are more effective and result producing when working with a student experiencing or have experienced traumatic stress.

Good News!

There are ways to cope with and/or Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences

The good news is that not every child is fated to experience multiple ACEs/Traumatic Experiences.

Parents, community members, physicians, policy makers, and anyone working with children have an obligation to recognize and work to prevent ACEs.

According to the CDC, preventing ACEs in children is a group effort. Here are ways to help to prevent ACEs in children:

• Policy makers can work toward increasing financial security for families and preventing food and housing insecurity
• Workplaces and schools can make their institutions more family friendly by establishing easy to access family support and leave policies.
• Communities and policy makers can protect against violence by promoting more accessible education and anti-violence programs.
• Professionals working with families can teach positive parenting and socio-emotional coping skills.
• Policy makers can promote a strong start for children by expanding affordable childcare programs, preschool programs, and early childhood education options for families.
• Communities must be urged to increase funding, and prioritize youth services, mentors for youth, and ACE/Trauma recovery programs.

Many educators have experienced an ACE/Trauma and understand the struggles of the student. ACE is common. If you are someone who experienced an ACE/Trauma in life, you are not alone. You are also not alone in feeling the impacts of that trauma even years later.

If you are experiencing anxiety, physical aches and pains, depression, or PTSD related to ACEs, a trauma-focused therapist or social worker can help you work through your trauma and to know that there is recovery when you put the work in to recover.

If you are experiencing physical effects linked to trauma, speaking to a healthcare provider is another crucial step.

Lifestyle changes can also help you cope with and work through your trauma. Consider adding natural mediation/vitamins, breathing exercises, physical activity, exercise, or journaling; effective tools that can help you work through your feelings.

If you are recovering from a trauma like abuse, parentization, abandonment, displacement, homelessness, growing up with mentally or physically ill parents, or parents who abused alcohol or drugs, you may want to join a support group specific to that experience. Speaking with others who have experienced similar ACEs/Trauma as you, can be invaluable to your recovery.