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You
are listening to Supporting Supporters, a ChangetoChill podcast. This is a free
mental well-being resource offered by Allina Health. My name is Tonya Freeman.
I’m a licensed psychologist and regional lead psychologist with Allina Health.   

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Hello and thank you so much for having me. 

In this episode, I want to briefly talk about creating a trauma informed classroom environment for all age ranges. Before we get started, I think it is important to note, that this episode will not be an exhaustive list of trauma informed practices or even cover everything there is to know about setting up a trauma informed environment. However, I am hoping to provide some tangible information that may help develop a place of safety for students of all ages. Whether you are a teacher of college students or elementary school students, creating a safe and consistent learning environment will not only improve learning and retention, but foster social emotional learning. I want to add that these recommendations are not a substitute for larger systematic challenges and the need for larger systemic changes but can hopefully make a small contribution to creating a more calm and healing classroom environment and building a more trusting student-teacher relationship. 

First, I think it is important to ask the question: Why is establishing a trauma sensitive classroom so important?

Many people are familiar with the ACE's study. ACE stands for adverse childhood experiences that occur to children under the age of 18. These experiences may include abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, or experiencing community violence to name a few. The Center for Disease Control states that “about 61% of adults surveyed across 25 states reported that they had experienced at least one type of ACE throughout their development, and nearly 1 in 6 reported they had experienced four or more types of ACEs” (CDC, 2021). Across the board, research indicates that adverse childhood experiences can lead to poor health outcomes, challenges with social emotional functioning, academic problems, and other cognitive and relational impairments. That being said, coming across a child or adolescent in the school setting who have experienced at least one adverse childhood event is very common. Therefore, the impact of small classroom changes and thoughtful consideration of a learning environment can have a wide reaching impact. 

As teachers and educators, you are not expected to predict or know what events or situations contribute to a specific child’s trauma response. However, there are things that we can do to set the child up for success in adapting and regulating in the school environment when needed. When I think about the physical space of a classroom, I think about seating, calm down spaces, and the general feeling of the classroom environment and how these can all impact emotion regulation. 

Seating

When considering classroom seating, there are a couple things to consider. First, it can be very helpful to have flexible seating options that allow for small and/or gentle movement. Trauma responses or nervous system dysregulation can sometimes present physically or somatically. This may look like physical outbursts, restlessness, and/or difficulty sitting still. Trauma responses can also look like a hypo-arousal presentation or feelings of being “frozen,” “stuck,” or “numb.” Gentle movement can be a great state changer, meaning that physical movement can directly impact our emotional state. Allowing for flexible seating choices can allow the child to independently self-regulate without having to leave the classroom environment.  Flexible seating choices may include options for bolster use, rocking chairs, exercise balls, standing desks, sensory bands around desk leg chairs, or even allowing the student to select where they sit. I realize these options may not always be available. Other options could include allowing older students to take a walk, run an errand, or allowing any student to stand at their desk or towards the back of the room.

 In addition, children who present as more hyper vigilant, easily distracted, or on high alert, may be very attuned or sensitive to people passing in hallways. Therefore, it may be helpful to consider placement of seating and/or having desks and chairs turned away from entryways, from the doorways, or even from the windows.

Calm Down Space

Another tool that can be very successful is having some sort of calm down corner or space in the classroom for students to freely visit to self-regulate when feeling nervous, mad, or having a difficult time controlling their body or emotions. It is important to introduce this space to students as 1. a quiet corner and 2. that the sensory and emotion regulation tools are not toys. It can also be helpful to introduce this space to the whole class and have each child take a turn visiting the space independently to explore self-regulating tools. Some of these tools could include noise canceling headphones, putty, stress balls, glitter jars, cards with affirmations or safety statements, quiet fidget toys, to name a few. Another unique tool that could be useful is to have a physical or tangible source for containment of emotions. This may include a box, suitcase, or someplace where children can place stressors that feel too big to carry with them. They may be able to write the stressors down or have physical objects that represent stressors to place in the suitcase and contain for the time being. 

I think it’s important to mention that you can still have a trauma sensitive and trauma informed classroom environment while still holding boundaries and having consequences for misuse of the space or these items. Consistent and predictable boundaries are essential in the development of self-regulation. Thus, offering these tools allow the student the opportunity to build this skill of self-regulation independently and advocate for their emotional needs.

Classroom Environment

Finally, it is also important to consider the overall classroom environment and level of sensory stimulation, such as noise level and brightness. Whenever possible, is important to be mindful of noise, particularly unpredictable or startling noises. It may be useful to be able to dim lighting or use natural light when possible. On a side note, it can also be helpful to let students know ahead of time when changing level of stimulation. For example, talking through a possible fire drill, change in video, or providing a heads up when dimming the lights.

Additionally, it can be helpful to be mindful of the posters or images that are on the wall. Do they represent the identities of the students in the room? Do they suggest a safe place for all? It may be useful to have inspirational quotes, greenery in the classroom, or even images of serene or calm spaces that can be used for grounding purposes. 

I hope you have found this topic useful and have some simple modifications you can incorporate into your own classroom environment. Here are 3 things I would suggest trying out in the next few weeks to see how they feel: 

1. Consider flexible seating options for your specific classroom. 

2. Consider introducing a calm down space equipped with self-regulation tools.   

3. Look at your classroom space and consider adding or supplementing calming décor. 

Thank you so much for having me and I so appreciate all the work you do! Thank you. 

---Outro---  

On
behalf of Allina Health and Change to Chill, we thank you for taking the time
to listen to our podcast. We do hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope that you join us in
other episodes covering even more interesting topics with mental health
providers. As always, you can find the show notes and any accompanying research
and tools at the change to chill website at www.changetochill.org. In health
and wellness, take care and see you next time!