Posted January 14, 2018 06:24 am - Updated January 14, 2018 05:44 pm
By ALEX McCARTHY
Those running CLEAR hope to help students who have suffered from trauma to perform better in school and society.
As Natalie Turner walked into a fourth-grade classroom at Glacier Valley Elementary on Friday, the fingers started wiggling.
The fourth-graders greeted her silently, holding up their index fingers and bending them up and down. Turner returned the gesture, which they call the “one-finger wave,” and the class carried on uninterrupted.
Turner is the assistant director of the Child and Family Research Unit at Washington State University, but the students at Glacier Valley know her as “the brain lady.”
Starting this school year, Turner has made monthly trips to Glacier Valley as part of CLEAR (Collaborative Learning for Educational Achievement and Resilience). Through monthly sessions, this program aims to increase understanding of the effects of childhood trauma in the learning process.
Through developing an understanding in both teachers and students, those running CLEAR hope to help students who have suffered from trauma to perform better in school and society. Studies have shown that children with more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than others usually don’t perform as well in school and often end up in more legal trouble as adults.
Glacier Valley, Harborview and Riverbend elementary schools have been involved in the program since the beginning of this school year. One of the main components is teaching students and teachers similar vocabulary so they can communicate clearer about their emotions and why some students act out. Turner, who also visits schools in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, visits Glacier Valley once a month, and said she could see the students starting to learn quickly after her first visit.
“It gives them an opportunity to realize that they’re not the only one who feels this way or experiences these things,” Turner said. “It gives them a language, whether it be verbal with vocabulary or nonverbal with hand signals, to communicate that they have a need. …It gives them a way to be seen and heard.”
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