This information is designed to help teachers respond to students who may need support. It is not intended to be used as a diagnostic tool or to replace the use of formal assessments employed by mental health professionals. Additionally, it is important to consider the context of the situation, individual differences, and cultural and linguistic factors.
Teachers play an important role in establishing and maintaining healthy environments for students to learn and grow. For students who have been exposed to traumatic experiences, the first step is to ensure that classrooms feel safe for the child. Only after a student feels safe, can teachers work toward building supportive relationships and academic gains.
Unfortunately, trauma exposure is common. When students require additional support, teachers play a critical role in guiding students suffering from trauma to professionals in the building who can be of assistance.
What is Trauma?
A traumatic event is a frightening, dangerous, or violent event that poses bodily or psychological harm or is a threat to a student’s life or a loved one. Students may or may not experience a situation as traumatic. The manifestation of trauma may differ based on cultural perspectives. For example, in some cultures people express their experiences of trauma more publicly and with their community whereas in others the expression is more individualistic and private.
Some traumatic events could be, but are not limited to:
- Gun violence
- Sexual abuse
- Domestic abuse
- Addiction
- Suicide/death
- Familial illness
- Car accidents
- Natural disasters/catastrophic events
Traumatic experiences often initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Notably, a student does not need to have experienced a traumatic event directly.
- A child may witness a traumatic event or see it through the media.
- A child may be told about a trauma, often with gruesome details.
Traumatic events during one’s childhood can impact a student’s development throughout the rest of their life.
How Might Trauma Be Expressed by Students in School?
Left unaddressed, the negative impacts of stress and trauma can disrupt a student’s behavior, and emotional wellbeing, academic success and health. Witnesses and bystanders of traumatic events might be disruptive or inattentive in school, or demonstrate unacceptable or defiant behavior. They might also demonstrate more fear-based behaviors (e.g., not wanting a door closed; being disturbed by a normal occurrence, like a bell ringing).
Students who have been exposed to trauma might also show a disruption in cognitive skills (e.g., memory, attention). This might result in decreased academic performance and school engagement. In the virtual learning environment (VLE), students who have experienced or witnessed trauma might withdraw from video or text/chat engagement or appear to have difficulty focusing.
In both learning environments, students exposed to trauma may also exhibit truancy, repeated tardiness, decreased attention to personal hygiene and grooming, and behaviors they have not demonstrated before, such as unreasonable fears or repetitive speech and behavior patterns.
What Can Teachers Do?
Do: Consider the possible role of trauma in students’ lives.
Don’t tell the student to “get over it” or assume that a trauma from the past isn’t still traumatic.
Do: Make students feel physically and psychologically safe enough to share. Know that establishing a sense of safety this may be more challenging in VLEs. Structure and consistency in lesson schedules, instructions, and communications, whether in person or in the VLE, go a long way to making students feel safe.
Don’t assume students feel safe just because you are welcoming and friendly.
Do: Empathize and show sensitivity to students.
Don’t treat trauma responses as discipline problems.
Do: Validate student experiences.
Don’t dismiss, diminish, or deny students' emotions or responses.
Do: Recognize that each student experience is individualized. Consider each student’s trauma experience and recovery journey independently, remaining mindful of the myriad variables that could affect a student’s reaction, response, and recovery journey differently.
Don’t compare trauma severity, reactions, responses, or potential impacts between individuals or historical experiences, even if the events seem very similar. The significance of traumatic events is unique to each individual.
Do: Be aware that some topics or conversations may remind students of traumatic events and experiences (e.g., talking about COVID when students have lost a family member). Students’ reactions can be more difficult to identify in VLE than in person.
Don’t forget to check in with students one on one to gauge their responses and feelings.
Do: Continue to monitor students’ emotional “temperature” and behaviors and have patience with their process.
Don’t assume students are fully recovered or healed just because time has passed. Traumatic reac-tions can persist or suddenly appear long after the original event(s) occurred.
Do: Be mindful of any potential signs of trauma (physical or environmental) that students express during VLE engagement, including but not limited to: signs of poor sleep hygiene (e.g., dark circles under eyes, struggling to remain alert/ awake), abnormal or abrupt weight changes, or inappropriate off-camera verbal cues indicative of a potentially unsafe environment.
Don’t neglect symptomatic trauma clues that children may express in VLEs, including but not limited to: uncharacteristic paleness, lethargy or fatigue; poor concentration or edginess; frequent un-scheduled breaks; or unusually flat affect.
Do: Be sensitive to the potential lack of privacy as students navigate through VLE engagement and consider that possibility into any assessment of a student’s emotional state, reactions, responses, and behaviors.
Don’t forget that a student engaging in the VLE may be doing so in a shared space, which could significantly influence each of those variables.
Do: Become knowledgeable about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs; see link in resources below).
Don’t assume common experiences are not traumatic.
Do: Become knowledgeable about trauma-sensitive schools (see link in resources).
Don’t rely on traditional approaches to address students exposed to trauma.
Refer Students to Further Help if Needed
- Review your school policy for seeking student supports.
- Contact your school counselor, psychologist, social worker, and other personnel.
Resources
Empirical Research
Berson, I. R., & Baggerly, J. (2009). Building resilience to trauma: Creating a safe and supportive early childhood classroom. Childhood Education, 85(6), 375-379.
Blitz, L. V., Anderson, E. M., & Saastamoinen, M. (2016). Assessing perceptions of culture and trauma in an elementary school: Informing a model for culturally responsive trauma-informed schools. The Urban Review, 48(4), 520-542.
Dods, J. (2013). Enhancing understanding of the nature of supportive school-based relationships for youth who have experienced trauma. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 36(1), 71-95.
Hudson, C. C., Adams, S., & Lauderdale, J. (2016). Cultural expressions of intergenerational trauma and mental health nursing implications for US health care delivery following refugee resettlement: An integrative review of the literature. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 27(3), 286-301. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659615587591
Figge, C. J., Martinez-Torteya, C., Taing, S., Chhim, S., & Hinton, D. E. (2020). Key expressions of trauma-related distress in Cambodian children: a step toward culturally sensitive trauma assessment and intervention. Transcultural psychiatry, 1363461520906008. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461520906008
Terrasi, S., & De Galarce, P. C. (2017). Trauma and learning in America’s classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(6), 35-41.
The Mental Health Primers are developed by the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. This resource was updated in October 2021 with support from cooperative agreement NU87PS004366 funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views or endorsement of the CDC or the Department of Health and Human Services.