The children filling classrooms today are very different from those who occupied their seats 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. Educational norms have shifted and highlighted the need for differentiated instruction that allows the needs and preferences of individual children to be accounted for. More research has been done into the effects that adverse childhood experiences have on children, and more specifically into how those effects manifest themselves in the behaviors displayed by the child who has experienced trauma. As a result, specific strategies have been created to help classroom teachers address these behaviors and the underlying issues children are trying to communicate through them. When I began my work in a first grade classroom in an urban Catholic school in St. Louis, I noticed a child in the room who exhibited behaviors consistent with those of a child who has experienced trauma. Upon learning more about the child, I was able to gather more information about their adverse childhood experiences. My project looks at how the implementation of three trauma-informed teaching practices effected this particular child. In order to document how they affected the child, I used anecdotal notes of the incidents in which I used the techniques. After evaluating the data I collected, I found that using the islands of competence strategy was the most effective in helping this child stay engaged in what was going on in the classroom.

Gwen would like to thank her faculty sponsor Dr. Jessica Leonard for their support of this project.