(Describer) A 3-D model of a human brain appears. A title: Stress, Trauma, and the Brain: Insights for Educators -- with Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. Words appear: Dr. Bruce Perry is a pioneer in the field of neuroscience research. He was one of the first to study the effects of trauma on the brain. We asked Dr. Perry how understanding brain science can help teachers in the classroom. Episode 3: The Power of Connection.
[bright music]
♪
Educators,
when they have a child
who's sort of out of control
or hard to manage
in a classroom,
it's really hard
not to personalize
that behavior.
It's hard
not to get frustrated.
It's hard to, in your mind,
not say,
"God, what is wrong with you?
Why are you doing this?"
But what'll happen, we believe,
is that when you have
an opportunity
to help educators understand
the impact
of developmental trauma
or other adversities
on the development
of the child,
particularly the development
of the brain,
they begin to reframe this
to, really, "What happened
in your past
"that has led
to this dysregulated behavior
that is now being manifest
in my classroom?"
And what that does is,
it makes a huge shift,
in the teacher feels
more comfortable
because, you know,
he or she understands
that this isn't a "badness."
This is a struggle.
You know,
this kid's struggling.
And so if you can maintain
what we call
this empathic bond,
it means
the teacher's then gonna be
in a much better position
to interact with the child
in a way that will lead
to de-escalation
and decreased,
you know, difficult behaviors.
The challenge for an educator,
of course, is that
you're in the classroom,
and how are you
going to address,
you know, equity
in the community?
It's a tough--you really can't.
I mean, you,
in that moment, as you teach,
are not gonna be able to change
poverty in your neighborhood
or change, you know,
income inequality
or other things that contribute
to the broader conditions
that dysregulate the families
and the kids
that you work with.
But what you can do
in a classroom
is create a community
of respect,
a community of regulation.
You know, there's all kinds
of really simple
regulatory things
that you can do
to make everybody
kind of perform at their best.
And then you can always focus
on celebrating diversity,
helping children learn
how to not be afraid
of differences,
but to celebrate differences,
and so you can work
on these problems
where you are
without feeling the burden
of solving, you know,
the global problems,
which I think,
for many educators,
becomes sort of paralyzing,
you know?
You know, here we are,
you're given this crap
about standards
and about testing
and about this,
and now you want us
to be experts in trauma
and social/emotional learning,
and so part of what we try
to do in this model
is help educators understand
that, listen,
you have a lot of power
in the little moments
that you have with these kids,
and that power can have
transforming impact
for many of these kids.
You can help them
feel rewarded,
you can help them
feel regulated,
you can help them
feel respected,
you can help them,
essentially, physiologically
become healthier,
and it doesn't take--
it's really not what you know.
It's how you are.
It's the way you interact
with them.
If you listen,
if you calm yourself down
and let all that stuff go
and let these moments
with these kids
be true moments
where you're right there
with them--
they only have to be
seconds long--
they'll feel it,
you'll feel it,
you'll both feel
rewarded and regulated,
and then you can get back
to whatever else you're doing.
One of the things
that a lot of people,
when they hear this,
are kind of wondering about it
and almost afraid of is, like,
"Well, how do I connect
with 40 kids in a classroom?"
And I just want to
reassure people
that the "timeline"
for connecting with a person
is literally milliseconds.
That if you, as the teacher,
feel regulated and confident,
you can,
with the tiniest little glance,
make a child feel like
you're paying attention to them
because the reality is,
you are.
If you really--if you,
as the teacher, are regulated
and you're really,
in that moment,
listening to a student
as they talk,
they'll feel that.
You don't need to be
relationally in
a personal relationship
with every single kid,
but you need to be
relationally present
and relationally respectful,
and that only takes a moment.
Now, the other thing
that's really a powerful tool
for educators
is that children see
how a teacher treats
another student.
And so if they see you
treat another student
that's struggling
with respect and kindness,
they're able to generalize that
to how they will treat you.
And so the challenge
of being connected
with kids in your classroom
is not as great
as somebody might
otherwise think.
It really--these little moments
are powerful.
And so in the hallway,
if you see a kid
that you know is
in your classroom
and you just take a moment
and say, "Hey,"
you know,
"what class are you going to?"
And that's--
"Wow, you noticed me."
And if you say their name,
you know,
little things like that
literally can create
a relational connection,
and furthermore,
those interactions
are regulated.
So it makes the child feel
connected and safer,
which means that even though
you don't realize it,
you doing that
for that ten seconds
in the hallway
makes this student
better capable of learning
in the next classroom
'cause his cortex will be
more available for business.
♪
(Describer) The Neurosequential Model Network. Neurosequential.com BDPerry (P-E-R-R-Y) .com Additional materials: www.BDPerry.com/handouts Research: www.BDPerry.com/research On Twitter: @BDPerry @Neurosequential Copyright 2020 Public Media Connect. Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
Accessibility provided by the
U.S. Department of Education.
