Childhood trauma can impact the way a child's brain develops, but teachers in one East Tennessee school district are learning how to reach students who have been negatively affected.
Trauma can be either emotional, physical or stem from household dysfunction. In Tennessee, the Department of Children's Services is funding projects that transform the way adverse childhood experiences are handled.
Harmony Family Center received a grant to train approximately 900 staff and community members in Maryville City Schools on the causes of childhood trauma and how to implement effective solutions.
"When we think about trauma we think about things that happen to children that are really challenging for them to process," said Allison Douglas, education and training coordinator at Harmony Family Center. "So things that are really easy for a child who does not have a trauma history just become incredibly challenging for kids who do."
The "Regulate, Relate, and Reason" pilot program uses sensory-rich tools like music, yoga and animal-based therapies.
"Regulating children so they're not so hyperactive, so they're not so distractible, so they don't daydream as much," Douglas said. "We know that these children need a lot of physical activity and sensory activity and we're going to show teachers how to do that in a way that helps all the kids in the classroom, not just those who have been traumatized."
Teachers at Maryville's Coulter Grove Intermediate School and Maryville Junior High School have completed training at Harmony Family Center's Camp Montvale in Blount County on in-service days.
"I was familiar with some of the adverse childhood experiences, but I didn't realize how it impacted students in Tennessee or how they might be holding that trauma in their body and the ways that we can ground them so that we can then access and teach them," Maryville Junior High School Assistant Principal Brandee Easterly said.
In addition to training teachers to better reach students with adverse childhood experiences, the program will also ensure at least 30 children and their families have access to a specialized family counselor and trauma-informed animal-assisted therapies.
"Of course we would love for them to do well and learn and to succeed academically, but to succeed in life and be productive citizens and to cope with stress - all three different types - is really our goal," Easterly said.
The Harmony Family Center partnership with Maryville City Schools is one of 27 programs in 15 counties included in the DCS "Building Strong Brains" initiative.
You can read more about other initiatives here.