Help for Billy by Heather T. Forbes, (03) Anatomy of Learning, Notes

Post date: Dec 17, 2019 12:52:20 PM

Help for Billy by Heather T. Forbes

(03) Anatomy of Learning

• • The Brain

    1. Neocortex - Involved in the higher functions of human existences such as spatial reasoning, conscious thought, self-awareness, imagination, logic, planning, reasoning, higher-order thinking, language, and abstract thought. It is the center for foresight, hindsight, and insight. It is also involved in executive control, delayed gratification , and long-term planning, all important characteristics of a ‘good’ student in the classroom. This is the part of the brain where morals and ethics reside along with decision-making judgements between right and wrong. The neocortex is flexible, malleable, and has the capacity for infinite learning.

    2. Limbic System (amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus) - Regulates mood, memory, attention and hormone control. It is the main emotional center of the brain, the hub for what we feel and what feels good to us. It is the pleasure-seeking part of the brain. It records memories of behaviors and experiences that produce both agreeable and disagreeable experiences. The limbic system is also concerned with self-preservation, fear, and the protective responses related to defense such as fight or flight. Emotions relating to attachment and relationship reside in the limbic system.

    3. Reptilian Brain is the oldest and most primitive part of the brain. It includes the brain stem and cerebellum. Vital life functions like heart rate, digestion, body temperature, balance, circulation, breathing, stress responses, social dominance and reproduction are controlled in this lower area of the brain. The reptilian brain is mostly concerned with self preservation, thus is rigid, resistant to change and obsessive.

    4. Who’s in charge? Normally, the neocortex is in charge, keeping the limbic system and reptilian brain in check. It exerts a top-down control over the survival impulses of the lower two parts of the brain. This is what creates the capacity to live together in communities and to relate to one another in a kind, compassionate and understanding way. Impulses of anger and frustration may be felt from the limbic system, but when the neocortex is ‘in charge,’ decisions such as talking to someone rationally or letting it go and taking the higher road are made. The consequences of the actions in the future are considered, so a decision is made that is best for all involved, not just the self. However, when in survival mode, this top-down control fails and the limbic system becomes more powerful in guiding behavior than the neocortex. At this point, it is not about morals, personality or choice. Decisions are made at the level of instinct, emotionality and survival. Consequences do not register in the limbic system or reptilian brain. The solution resides in settling the system back down from a heightened fear and stressed state to a calm and balanced state. Focus on addressing the ability to regulate back to a calm state.

    5. Left and Right Hemispheres - The neocortex is divided into left and right hemispheres. The two sides think differently, care about things differently and prioritize differently. This affects how children learn. It’s important to teach according to a child’s dominant hemisphere.

• • The Issue is Not Behavioral; It is Regulatory - Traditional disciplinary techniques focus on altering the left hemisphere through language and cognitive thinking. These traditional approaches are ineffective with the child of traumatic background, because the issue is not in this area of the brain. The problem lies in the limbic system.

    1. Traditional methods work here…

• • 1. The brain is growing at a rapid pace the first two years. An estimated 40,000 synapses are formed every second in the infant's brain. This growth and maturation is experience dependent on the social interaction from right brain to right brain between the caregiver and the child. The right brain is dominant for all children during the first two years of life to fully receive and interact with these nonverbal (visual, tactile) and verbal communications from the caregiver.

    2. Relationships that offer emotional availability from the caregiver provide the child with the opportunity to develop healthy and responsive regulatory systems. This dyadic interaction is socially stimulating, dynamic, multisensory (auditory, verbal, tactile, and visual, including facial expression) and reciprocal. Relationship-based interactions are a driving factor in development well beyond primary years. Engaging and safe interactions in infancy provide the foundation needed to later communicate with, understand and successfully read future caregivers. Interpersonal neurobiology craves connection and relationship throughout childhood. However, when much of a child’s early life experiences have activated the fear response system, the child develops a negative and hopeless blueprint rather than a positive blueprint. Dominant experiences of fear, loss, abandonment, terror, distress, rage and indifference from the caregiver create ill-formed neurological pathways. Stress in childhood creates a student who is limited in the window of stress tolerance and the ability to modulate emotions and affective states.

    3. The nervous system and neurological pathways have plasticity: the ability to change, adapt, acquire, and create new and improved neurological pathways. Fear and overwhelm cause the damage. Safety and love repair and heal it. Interactive repair, a safe relationship, is the most important and effective ‘behavioral technique’ needed to move a child back within the behavioral boundaries of the classroom

       • Typically, when the technique is used and works, credit is given to the technique itself. Rather, the credit should be given to the relationship. It is the relationship that is at the heart of the child's experience. Techniques are merely layered on top of the relationship. It is the relationship--right brain to right brain--that is actually the driving force behind change and helping the child to get back on course.

• • The Body

    1. The body is a powerful force in driving behavior. Like all animals, humans go through a fight or flight response when danger is perceived. When threat is perceived even in a normally safe school situation, bodily response can typically be in the range of survival. This response originates from the limbic system. The limbic system releases hormones that prepare the body to take defensive action. The adrenal glands release epinephrine and norepinephrine to mobilize the body for fight or flight. The heart rate increases, allowing for more oxygen and more blood into the muscles for quick movement. All systems are on alert and ready to protect. In this state, the limbic system will make a quick determination as to either fight or flee.

    2. If it is determined that there is adequate strength, time and position for flight, the child will run and make an exit. If it is determined there is not enough time or space to flee, yet there's adequate strength to defend, the child will fight. There's also a third response available to the limbic system the freeze response. If the limbic system determines there's a lack of time, strength, and positioning and death is in the realm of possibilities the body will freeze. This is a state of complete helplessness, it is also a state designed to lessen the pain from the attack of the predator by dissociating from the body and increasing the release of endorphins. It is a valuable state of survival because it decreases the chances of death. When the body becomes limp and lifeless the predator, who responds to the movement of the prey, will most likely lose interest and leave the prey alone.

    3. They are all automatic responses and are not determined by mindful considerations at the level of the neocortex. Excitatory neurotransmitters and hormones are fueling these negative behavioral responses. The solution is not to ignite more of these responses by implementing a consequence, which will only be perceived as more of a threat. The solution lies in calming the brain in order to move back to a state of peace and safety at the body level.

    4. Connect to the child at the limbic brain. Using the power of relationship, connect to their “fear.”:

Teacher: “Billy, this is going to be hard but you are not going to be able to go out to recess today because of what happened.”

Billy: “But that's not fair.”

Teacher: “I know it can't feel good for you.”

Billy: “But it wasn't my fault.”

Teacher: “Why don't you and I sit here and talk more about this so I can understand your perspective better.

• • • • The teacher can then spend ten minutes with the child to help him have a voice and feel connected and understood. This is a “time in” with the teacher, used to regulate the limbic system and show the child how to move back into top-down control. Additionally, giving the child this emotionally attuned conversation is giving him the experience of what it feels like to be in a positive and connected relationship. The more he has these types of interactions, the more he becomes equipped to handle stress in the future on his own, thus increasing both the aptitude and time available for academic achievement.