Episode Details

Teri Barila, director of the Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, Washington, explains trauma informed teaching in plain terms. Toxic stress sends a child to the brainstem, where the language centers disconnect and learning stops. Her answer is to regulate the child first, then teach, and to see behavior as a call for help.

Barila gives classroom moves you can copy tomorrow. Students drop a name stick in a happy cup or a not-so-happy cup when they walk in, a kangaroo pouch invites an escalating child to regulate, and a welcome slip replaces the tardy slip. Her community-wide work appears in the film Paper Tigers.

What you'll learn

• Ask what has this student experienced and what in the environment is triggering him, instead of asking what is wrong with him.
• Give a dysregulated student a calm spot and a couple of minutes before you expect any learning.
• Skip the lecture and the consequence in the moment, because the child's language centers are offline.
• Replace the tardy slip with a welcome slip, since young children are not responsible for being late.
• Teach students how their brains work, starting in preschool, and help them name and manage feelings.

Chapters

• 0:00 Preview of helping students who have experienced trauma
• 2:43 What ACEs and toxic stress do to behavior
• 8:07 Managing the environment instead of fixing the student
• 10:19 Calm-down zones and why regulation comes first
• 11:29 Safety before learning and moving past punishment
• 13:20 Teaching students how their brains work
• 19:01 Noticing, naming and validating feelings in the moment
• 22:57 Welcome slips and the three core concepts

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Questions this episode answers

Why can't a student listen to me when they are upset?
Barila says a threatened child's brain goes to the brainstem, shutting down other functions. The language centers disconnect, so the child can't even recognize the teacher's words. Lecturing then only triggers the child more, and calming comes before learning.

How do you help a child who is escalating?
Barila describes being present with the child, noticing the escalation, naming and validating the feeling, and then helping manage it in a pro-social way by asking, where are your words? A teacher can also offer a calm spot and a few breaths.

What can a teacher do instead of sending a student to the office?
Barila says sending a child out further escalates the response. She recommends a calm space in the room, a class that understands anyone can be triggered, a morning check-in such as the happy cup, and a welcome slip instead of a tardy slip.

About Teri Barila

Director of the Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, Washington.

Links and resources

• Create your ideal week
• Join the group coaching program
• Transformative Principal on Apple Podcasts
• Stitcher
• @jethrojones on Twitter
• @TrnFrmPrincipal on Twitter
• Buy Communication Cards
• TransformativePrincipal.org
• Paperless Principal book