Importance of Sensitive Schools in Early Childhood Education Richard L. Gaskill Ed.D. Sumner Mental...

Importance of Sensitive Schools in Early Childhood Education

Richard L. Gaskill Ed.D.

Sumner Mental Health Center

Wellington, Ks

[email protected]

Brain Development and Early Childhood Education

Most rapid 1st 2000 days

700 neural connections second

Major neural networks formed in first 4 to 5 years

Use the existing networks for life

Can modify existing networks C2

Synaptic Development

3

The Window of Opportunity is Early not Later

4

Growth of Language

5

High Quality Prekindergarten Improves School Readiness

Provides Skills to Be Successful in Elementary School: Cognitive Academic Social Emotional

6


More likely to experience academic success

More likely to graduate from high school

More likely to be a productive citizen

Less likely to be a juvenile offender7

Gilliam, 2005


But Getting them in the door is just the beginning

Research shows vulnerable children profit the

most from early intervention: But

Within this population of vulnerable children are also behavior disordered children Likely to exhibit continued learning problems Likely to exhibit continued behavioral problems Most likely to drop out of school

8

Gilliam, 2005

Classroom Behavior Problems Increasing

In a (2009) survey 10,000 teachers in all 50 States

62% Teachers Reported: Behavioral that issues interfere with teaching and learning have

notably worsened

65% Teachers Reported: Low income areas have behavior issues

56% Teachers Reported: High income area children had behavioral issues

9

Primary Sources: Americas Teachers on the Teaching Profession

Classroom Behavioral Problems Increasing

64% of Teachers Reported:

Needing more professional development and training to meet the needs of the students with behavioral problems

72% of Teachers Reported:Needing more tangible school resources

(Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists and other mental health services)

10

Gilliam, 2005

Classroom Behavior Problems Increasing

The unspoken reality for many classrooms:

Many teachers are teaching in a setting more reminiscent of a

psychiatric unit than a school in the traditional sense.

Educators have little training in trauma/psychiatric issues or how to promote social and emotional competence

Teachers, Administrators, and Families report this as their greatest challenge to effective practice.

80% of teachers report that behavior problems effect their job satisfaction 11

Challenging Behavior and Expulsions

When kindergarten teachers report That a child is not entering school ready to learn, they are most often referring to deficits in social and emotional skills

12Perry, Holland, Darling-Kuria, & Nadiv,2011


Left untreated early behavioral problems become more serious mental health conditions that affect learning and achievement

Half will eventually be placed in Special Ed. by 4th grade.

Many fail to graduate from HS.

Social and Emotional Competencies in young children are more predictive of academic success in 1st grade, than cognitive skills or family background

13

Joseph & Strain, 2003; Raver & Knitzer, 2002; Fox & Smith, 2007


10.4% of prekindergarten teachers reported expelling at least 1 child in the past year.

Nationally 6.67 per 1000 preschoolers were expelled. (Texas: 5.99)

This is 3.2 times higher than K-12 children.

Rates were higher for older preschoolers and African American Children

Boys were 4.5 times more likely to be expelled than girls 14

Gilliam, 2005 (Yale University Child Study Center)

Expulsion Rates Vary

15Gilliam, 2005 (Yale University Child Study Center)


Expulsion rates are lowest for: Public Schools Head Start

Expulsions rates are highest for; Faith-affiliated centers For-profit child care

Risk of expulsion decreases with access to classroom-based mental health consultation

Gilliam, 2005 (Yale University Child Study Center)16

Expulsion Rate By Setting

17

Gilliam, 2005 (Yale University Child Study Center)

Challenging Behaviors

Challenging behaviors become a problem when they interfere with a child’s cognitive, social, or emotional development.

When the behavior puts the child at high risk of later social problems or school failure

18Klass, Guskin, & Thomas, 1995; McCabe & Frede, 2007

Top 15 Behavioral Problems

1. Biting

2. Tantrums

3. Screaming

4. Yelling

5. Destruction of property

6. Throwing objects

7. Kicking

8. Pushing

9. Pinching

10. Frequent Crying

11. Grabbing toys/ materials from others

12. Needs frequent assistance

13. Spitting

14. Disobeying instructions

15. Threatening 19

Klass, Guskin, & Thomas, 1995; McCabe & Frede, 2007

Challenging Family Situations Children’s schedules are inconsistent

Multiple caregivers picking the child up or dropping the child off

Parents spending time with a child in a complex or irregular schedule

Parents inconsistently involved in child care20


Challenging Family Situations Parental failure to develop effective child

management skills

Communication with parents is infrequent or inconsistent

Children have had significant changes in their lives divorce, death, moves, family crisis 21


Risk Factors

Poverty Criminal Activity of Parent Genetic disposition Prenatal alcohol or drug

exposure Difficult temperament Cold unresponsive mother Poor impulse control Low harm avoidance Aggressiveness Deviant peer group

Anxiety Depression ADHD PTSD/RAD Mental Illness of Parent Parent-child conflict Inadequate supervision Child maltreatment Attachment problems Substance abuse Peer rejection

22

Maltreatment and Brain Development

23

Extreme Maltreatment

24

Trauma’s Impact on Academic Performance, Behavior, and Relationships

The inability to process information/to distinguish: Threatening from non-threatening Trusting from non-trusting relationships Regulation of oneself

Cognition Emotion Social Physical

25All rights reserved © 2011 Rick Gaskill and The Child Trauma Academy


1. Language and Communication Skills Difficulty learning and processing verbal information

Trauma impedes the ability to connect words to experience Broca area becomes less active with threat

Inability to use language to communicate Undermines social skills Undermines social-emotional development Undermines behavioral self-regulation

Easily overstimulated

Sense of threat precludes ability to focus on new information

26

All rights reserved © 2011 Rick Gaskill and The Child Trauma Academy


2. Social and Emotional Communication Traumatized children relate to

language differently

Remember language is learned in a social context Controlling/Directive communication results in

an instructional understanding of language (a tool)

Communication as a medium of social/affective exchange results in an understanding of thought and feelings (an affective expressive medium)

27



Children who see language as a directive tool Have difficulty articulating needs and feelings Impedes

Understanding Abstractions Coherent narrative and dialogue

More oriented toward gestural communication Use gestures to define relationships Less to convey meaning Focus in on the nonverbal message not

content

28



3. Problem Solving and Analysis Traumatized children have minimal experience with verbal

problem solving They often experience deficits in both receptive and

expressive language They have difficulty gaining meaning from lengthy narratives

4. Inability to Organize Sequentially, Results in Difficulty

Reading Writing Communicating verbally Organizing and processing information for later retrieval

29



4. Con’t Early memory is episodic as a collection of random

events The development of sequential memory requires

Predictable routine Reliable caregivers Consistent rules

30



5. Cause-Effect Relationships When cognitive skills are developed in an inconsistent and

unpredictable environment comprehension of cause and effect is compromised

Understanding their own ability to affect the surrounding world is also hindered

“Agency” is normally established during the sensorimotor stage

Compromising Motivation Promoting fatalism and passivity Delay of gratification Object consistency (predictability of the environment)

31



6. Taking Another’s PerspectiveChildren have difficulty with academic and social tasks requiring taking the perspective of another person

To take the role of anotherAppreciating the view point of anotherThey struggle to define the boundaries Making independent choices/finding solutions to problemsArticulating preferencesGain perspectiveInfer ideas from textParticipate in social conversationDevelop empathy 32



7. Attentiveness to Tasks Often distracted and lack focus due to hypervigilance Misinterpret innocuous stimuli as traumatic Or may ignore sensory stimuli Easily threatened by the unexpected Anxiety, hypervigilance to danger, language processing

problems are misdiagnosed as ADHD

8. Regulation of Emotion (Most striking feature) Self-regulation is critical to academic and social success Inability to modulate behavior, attention, and emotion Experience anxiety, shame, depression, fear, anger, guilt,

irritability but may lack the ability to identify and express these feelings 33



9. Executive FunctionsGoal setting, anticipating, initiating, & planning are critical to

academic and social functioning Traumatized children have a bleak perspective,

expectation of failure, poor self-esteem, foreshortened view of the future Results in no internal map to guide They react rather than plan

Common deficits Abstract reasoning Impulse control Understanding the consequences of actions

34



10. Engaging in the Curriculum Trauma depletes motivation and internal resources

for engagement Traumatized children display

excessive dependency social wariness reduced exploration poor affect regulation impaired autonomous mastery

35All rights reserved © 2011 Rick Gaskill and The Child Trauma Academy

Building Trauma Sensitive Schools

Neuroscience provides us the opportunity to ensure children exposed to abuse and neglect can still be educationally successful

Research tells us competent children display three

key factors A strong adult-child relationship Good cognitive skills Regulation of attention, emotions, behavior

Cook et. al., 2003

All rights reserved © 2011 Rick Gaskill and The Child Trauma Academy36

A Neurobiological View

Rather than advocating for a “one size fits all” approach, Neurobiology offers tools for infusing trauma sensitive perspectives and approaches throughout the school community and ensuring that mental health, academic and nonacademic individualized supports are sensitive to the unique needs of traumatize children.


Remember

Traumatized children cannot go between home and school, from dangerous place to safe place.

They will likely anticipate that the school environment will be threatening, just as has been historically experienced.

They will constantly scrutinize the people and environment for any signs of danger.


Moving Beyond the Point and Level System

Originally seen as a fair and equitable to all students, but studies show:Lack of effectiveness over long termDo not take individual differences into accountCan be counter productiveMay not teach adaptive skillsRarely delivered consistently across staffThe complexity of the child’s dynamics are lost by focusing on the behaviors, not causesPoint systems tend to be punitiveStaff are rarely trained sufficiently to administer

39

Mohr, Martin, Olson, Pumariega, & Branca, 2009

The Most Effective Means of Treating Trauma in Preschool Populations

Building Secure Attachments Between Child and Caregivers

Enhancing Self-Regulatory Capacities

Increase Competencies across multiple domains

(Holmes et al, 2014)


40

Expulsion Rate By Availability of Mental Health Consultation

41

Thank You

Remember that children need love the most when the deserve it the least.

Adel Faber 42

Date post:	27-Dec-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	ezra-neal
View:	246 times
Download:	11 times

Importance of Sensitive Schools in Early Childhood Education Richard L. Gaskill Ed.D. Sumner Mental...

Documents