Over the last few years, the Laconia School District has been actively working to understand what childhood trauma is, how it impacts our students, and what we, as an educational institution can do to mitigate the effects of this. We have also learned about secondary, or vicarious, trauma. This type of trauma is experienced by our staff as a result of supporting our students who are living with ongoing and pervasive trauma. Our teachers and support staff are serving in pseudo social worker or caregiver roles for many students, which falls outside of the typical academic instruction.
We have learned that many children experience a traumatic or adverse event, such as living through a natural disaster or serious car accident. Other children experience trauma that is considered ongoing, pervasive and sustained over time. That includes things such as living in a home with domestic violence, experiencing homelessness, or living with a parent or family member who is struggling with drug addiction or mental illness. Children are vulnerable to traumatic or adverse experiences and researchers have spent decades working to better understand the fallout of childhood trauma on brain development and their physical and mental health.
In the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente conducted the first study to determine the long-term physical and mental health affects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Examples of ACEs are physical and sexual abuse, parental neglect, violence within the home, parental separation, divorce or incarceration and the death of a parent. They found that many adult physical health conditions – including alcoholism, drug use, heart disease, obesity, and other serious illnesses – are directly related to the adversity experienced during childhood and that there is a higher rate of ACEs for individuals living in poverty. They also found that an adult’s quality of life, including levels of risk taking and psychological issues, are directly correlated to their level of ACEs. Essentially, trauma impedes students’ ability to learn and express positive social and emotional behaviors in school.
[For more on this story by McKenzie Harrington-Bacote, go to https://www.laconiadailysun.co...4c-83f573d9b297.html]
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