Turning your space into a trauma-informed classroom helps your students build their feelings of safety, their self-confidence, and their ability to focus. Trauma-informed classes try to take the students' needs into account, meeting Maslow's Needs before trying Bloom's Taxonomy. Students feel comfortable and safe; therefore, they're more prepared and willing to learn and participate during instruction.
Trouble forming relationships with teachers
Poor self-regulation
Negative thinking
Hypervigilance
Executive function challenges
Low levels of academic success
13%-17% of girls and 3%-5% of boys had experienced sexual abuse.
69%-71% of students had experienced assault or physical abuse.
70% had witnessed violence.
18% had lost a loved one due to crime or vehicular homicide.
29% had experienced bullying.
22% had experienced disasters.
There is evidence that supports the effectiveness of trauma-informed teaching and the positive outcomes from building a trauma-sensitive school. This article by Christine Perkins (2020), published by Harvard Law Today, discusses the current research on these practices and the implications of the findings.
It is impossible to know for certain one way or another. You should always refrain from making judgements or evaluations of what a student has experienced in their life. That being said, it is still important to know what signs to look for.
Jennifer De Lapp (2022) outlines the following "characteristics of students coping with trauma," pulled from from interdisciplinary research:
Low frustration tolerance
Lack of cognitive flexibility
Deficits in expressive and receptive language skills
Inability to access working and long-term memory
Lack of, or inconsistent, executive functioning skills:
Problem-solving and decision-making skills
Organization and information processing skills
Planning and sequential thinking
Reasoning and higher-order thinking
Difficulty connecting extrinsic rewards and conceived consequences to behaviors
Increased impulsivity and risk-taking behaviors
Substance abuse
Anxiety and worry about safety & wellbeing of self and loved ones
Somatic symptoms and illness
Inconsistent engagement, performance, and effort
Inconsistent ability to attend, focus, and concentrate
Difficulty with perspective-taking
Hyperarousal, hypersensitivity, hypervigilance, or hyperactivity
Shut-down, noncompliance, dissociation
Lack of motivation
Inability to shift attention from distressing emotions to other tasks
Tardiness and increased absences
Inability to connect long-term goals to current actions
Bonding too easily; clinging
Repetitive thoughts about death
Emotional dysregulation
Disproportionate responses to present events
Aggressive, violent, or disruptive behavior
Defiant, irritable, or resistant behavior
Start small!! Choose one practice of trauma-informed teaching, or one element of a trauma-informed environment, to incorporate into your classroom at a time. Build up from there. Smaller changes happen throughout the year, try to focus on implementing one big change each year.