Dr. Edward L. Schor, MD, talks about the
importance of consistency and individual attention for children.
“Because,” he says, “learning takes
place within the context of relationships.” He
talks about the primary relationship of parent and child,
but also includes the relationship between the child and persons
other than parents – caregivers. Those relationships
must be good ones, too.*
Extending this view Dr. Ron Lally, EdD, Director
of the Center for Child and Family Studies at WestEd, in San
Francisco, says that a good relationship must have certain
key ingredients. He believes that, “The most important
thing caregivers can do for children is to provide nurturance,
support, security, and predictability.
Those four things can decrease the secretion
of cortisol (a chemical in the brain that is released during
traumatic events and keeps the brain from developing normally)
and can even compensate for abuse and neglect.” *
With the above information in mind the Focus
on Education pages have lists of things educators
can do to help children heal in the context of these four
key ingredients.
There are things teachers can
do to help children recover:
Because children who have
experienced traumatic events frequently become stuck in patterns
of behavior that are either ineffective or they can’t
seem to take independent action, devise activities for them
to become active on their own behalf or for others. For instance:
If children can still remain safe, work with them on cleaning
up around the child care building or in the neighborhood
(like picking up paper to make the neighborhood more attractive).
Have discussions with the children about things they can
do to make their child care/school more safe and then put
those plans into action – letting them help when possible.
An idea might be to work with children around keeping their
coats and other belongs in their proper places so they can
be gotten quickly if there is an emergency. Maybe there
needs to be a little different arrangement for coats and
boots, etc. to make it easier for young children to store
their things. Or maybe a new routine needs to be started
where children check to make sure they have stored their
things safely. You can think of more ideas.
Put together a safety plan for when something might happen
and then practice it frequently.
Find an older person or someone else in the neighborhood
who can’t get out and make cards for that person to
cheer them up – and take the cards to the shut-in
person.
With the children, write and produce a puppet show about
the event, ending with people being safe – that’s
very important - and present the show for another class,
the school, for the parents, the community.
Meet with the parents and children together and talk about
what each family can do to be more safe.
You can think of more ideas!
Encourage
children who have been through a traumatic event to be creative
and use their imaginations when playing.
Sometimes questions from the
teacher can start new thinking and refocus an activity. Soon
after 9/11 in New York City a group of preschool children
were playing with blocks. Stacking them up and knocking them
down with another block. This happened time and time again.
The teacher came over to the block area and asked what the
children were building. They said the block structures were
the towers. When the teacher asked what was happening to the
people inside, the children said many people couldn’t
get out and were dying. The teacher then asked the children
if they could think of ways that the people could get out
safely. She stayed a few minutes longer while the children
started thinking about that challenge; then walked away. A
few minutes later she came back to see how the children were
doing and saw a stack of blocks with one end of a long block
resting on the outside of the structure near the top of the
blocks with the other end on the floor. When she asked about
it, the children said "oh, that's so the people can
get out safely." She commented on what a good idea
that was and what good thinking they had done. The children
were really pleased because they had thought of a way to save
people, they were helping someone, and that always makes kids
(and adults) feel good.
A sequel to the story is that a few days
later the New York Times published several designs developed
by architects as to how tall buildings could be designed for
greater safety of the occupants. Interestingly, one of the
designs was of a tall building with what looked like a slide
or a long stairway connecting near the top and ending on the
ground!
Children’s ideas may not be
ones that other people think of, of course, but using ones
imagination can help in healing whether others recognize the
product they produce or not. With practice, creative thinking
can give children opportunities to think of new ways of behaving,
new ways to approach a difficult problem, new ways to work
through a tragedy that may have just happened.
Books, helpful websites and other resources for teachers:
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