Transcript A Discussion of Kate Cairn’s ‘The behaviour tells the story’

Dr. Amelia Roberts MA MEd PhD
[email protected]
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Kate Cairns: using article as inspiration and
springboard, including key quotes from the
passage, then expanding into practical
strategies in school.
Using behaviour as an investigative tool
Structure of talk: understanding physiological
responses to stress and trauma; linking
trauma to behaviour; case studies; strategies
and school approaches
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Flight versus Fight – crucial survival
mechanism, but problematic in today’s world
Adrenaline and Cortisol – when not processed
through muscular activity cause problems
when they decay
These lead to long term emotional and health
problems
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Linking to Flight v Fight, a massive surge of
chemicals is released, to enable the individual to
achieve extraordinary feats of stamina and
strength
Senses are heightened to take in all available
information in a split second
Crucial survival mechanism
One off events ‘sear’ themselves into memory
and imprint themselves on the brain
Causes problems: panic attacks, sleep problems,
nightmares, phobias, flashbacks and inability to
feel safe
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When unregulated stress occurs over lengthy
periods of time (attachment theory), what
impact does this have on the brain?
On learning?
Behaviour?
Physiology?
Ability to form relationships?
Ability to make sense of the world?
Ability to find happiness?
On vulnerable children?
‘Children may be constantly on the go, and
constantly seeking a high stimulus environment,
quickly becoming bored. Their attention will be
limited, and carers learn to speak in short
sentences.
Concentration will also be difficult, as perceptual
fields are attuned to threat, and both vision and
hearing tune out from tasks which are not
threatening. It is hard for traumatised children to
see a page of print, when their peripheral vision
is scanning the environment for threats.
And they will lose the natural human preference
for the human voice, as their hearing
automatically tunes out non-threatening sounds.’
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60,000 children in care at any given time
who, compared to children outside local
authority care, are:
five times less likely to achieve five good
GCSEs
eight times more likely to be excluded from
school
five times more likely to move schools in
years 10 and 11
three times more likely to be unemployed
after leaving school.
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Racial abuse
Bullying
Physical assault
Verbal abuse
Theft
Damage to the property of others
Sexual impropriety
Disruptive behaviour
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Traumatised people invariably develop
temporary or permanent identity beliefs
which are trauma-based. The resulting
cognitive schemas have a pervasive effect on
all other personal constructs. The victim of
post-traumatic stress disorder may state and
live out such beliefs as: ‘I have no control
over my life’, ‘I am the sort of person to
whom bad things happen’, ‘people who love
me always hurt me’, and ‘I don’t deserve
anything good to happen’.
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Appalling levels of literacy problems
Many had communication levels equivalent to
a five year old
80% of Magistrates are influenced when
sentencing by demeanour and body language
‘Remorse’
Well over 50% have some sort of diagnosis of
ADD/ADHD/Dyspraxia/ASD
Looked-after children are more likely to
offend than other children (Nacro)
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‘One type of memory disturbance after trauma arises from
the reduced oxygen supply to areas of the brain, and
particularly to part of the brain called Broca’s area. Ordinary
memory relies on the formation of links and narrative, and
without Broca’s area we are unable to create the narrative.
The result is a distressing disturbance of short-term memory.
Children whose short-term memory is poor are frustrating to
live with. Ask them to go upstairs and perform a simple task,
and by the time they have climbed to the top they have
forgotten what it was you asked them to do. These are
children who never have the right kit for school, cannot
remember changes to routine timetables, forget
appointments, and always fail to bring home the vital letter
seeking permission for them to go on that school trip they
have been looking forward to’.
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JG and FACE Youth
Literacy difficulties
Had been given a complex text book
Shut down and non-cooperative
Crowded in by people
School Policeman called
Safe space – problem resolved
Thinking Skills Activity
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Constantly changing caregivers
Anger, swearing, fixed-term exclusions
‘Unlikeable’
Disliked talking about issues – painful
Connect Four
Highlighting strengths
Building relationship
Enabled him to attend anger-management
classes
Becoming gentler in language and demeanour
Very likeable
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A child can start to experience failure in
comparison to his/her peers
Previous behavioural tendencies can be
magnified in the school environment
Are schools as ‘secure a base’ as they should
be?
Teaching methods can reinforce diversity,
learning difficulties and low self-esteem
Vicious cycle: Maths anxiety, literacy
problems, behavioural difficulties
‘Traumatised children may be diminished in their
capacity to learn physically, finding co-ordination
and balance difficult and possibly having
problems with spatial awareness and laterality.
They are likely to have difficulties with cognitive
skill development in the areas of language, the
creation of meaning, making sense of numbers
and so on. They are almost certain to have
difficulties with socially based learning, whether
it is co-operating in classroom groups or
undertaking learning which relies on empathy
and an understanding of the inner world of
others, such as understanding literature.’
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All people are fundamentally good
Unconditional positive regard is the most powerful
mechanism for change
All people are doing the best they can to be the best
they can within their own frame of reference
Does this tie-in with the statistics on criminal
behaviour?
The most consistent background of persistent and nonremorseful offenders is...
Regular violence/physical punishment in childhood:
trauma
Constantly changing care-givers: problems with
attachment
‘For instance, a substitute carer who is able to
think that an infant is crying because he/she is
upset, hungry or frightened is likely to react
more benignly than if she thinks that the infant is
crying because he/she is deliberately attacking or
persecuting him. It is particularly important that
carers of traumatised children have the capacity
to think what might lie behind a child’s behaviour
(such as fear and anxiety) rather than responding
to the overt behaviour in itself’.
Jim Walker: The Use of Attachment Theory in
Adoption and Fostering p.9 (online resource)
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Get support
Parallel listening (during a rewarding activity)
Receptivity more than output
Reduce Stress
Create Safe Environment: room, friendships,
activity, favourite foods
Nourishing activities: animals, music, outdoors,
art, cooking, gardening, team sports, the ‘golden
key’
Giving choice
Words, tone, body language
Verbalising emotion or experience
Congruence
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Person-centred approach in schools: childcentred
Emphasis on relationship-building, congruence
and ‘whole-person’ approach
Feuerstein: Instrumental Enrichment used
successfully to help traumatised children postholocaust and also children with Down Syndrome
Did not believe in a fixed IQ, but in mediated
learning that can raise cognitive achievement and
in doing so, alleviate some effects of trauma and
emotional deprivation.
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Cognitive Dissonance and Higher-Order
Thinking
Multi-sensory learning
Element of play: creativity and spontaneity
Peer dialogue: linking learning to own
experiences
Judicious use of ICT
Rich, stimulating starter activities
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Thinking Skills
Build on strengths, plan for success
Multi-sensory teaching
Small groups
Collaborative Learning
Warm teachers
Good relationships
Safe Space in School
Good communication and record-keeping: Storykeeper
Keep at same school if possible: maintaining
friendships
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Odd-one-out
Maps from Memory
Group work eg Numbered Heads
Think-Pair-Share
Opinion lines/list ranking
Fortune-Line Graphs
Sequencing cut-up text/matching words to
definitions
Piecing together diagrams
Jigsaw reading
Spelling Game
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http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/primary_strate
gy/research/research/thinking_skills.shtml#Incorp
orating_Thinking_Skills
http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/10475
The ‘Thinking through...’ series, edited by David
Leat