Let’s talk about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). I first started studying ACEs when I began work on my advanced research project for my master’s degree program. I wanted to develop a program that would combat the effects of childhood trauma that I was seeing everyday in the classroom, by building resiliency. But I wanted to focus on a school wide approach because many of the older siblings of students in my class would spend their mornings or afternoons in the room playing with play-doh, creating a craft, or playing with other toys we had available. As I observed them I noticed one thing: they just wanted to be kids.
The reality was for many of these third or fourth grade students, they were more than older siblings, they were often the caregiver as parents in the house worked multiple jobs and weren’t around in the afternoon or evening. The siblings were responsible for providing snacks or dinner, making sure their younger sibling went to bed on time, and got up in time to catch the bus for school. Their childhood was slipping away for no fault of their own.
The Center for Disease Control has identified 10 Adverse Childhood Experiences, which is defined as a potentially traumatic event that occurs in childhood (0-17 years).
Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)
Neglect (physical, emotional)
Household Dysfunction (mental illness, mother treated violently, divorce, incarcerated parent, substance abuse)
When I was first studying ACEs and teaching in the Head Start classroom, all of the 18 students had experienced at least one ACE. Half of the class had experienced 2-3 ACEs and approximately 4 of the students had experienced 4 or more ACEs, all by the age of 4 years old. My heart broke and grew in empathy all in the same beat.
I learned that the approach I brought to the classroom had to change because the students didn’t have the skills to emotionally regulate. They weren't screaming, hitting, or biting because they hated me, they were reacting out of survival mode. Their brain couldn’t differentiate that I had their safety in mind when telling them to stop running in the hallway, because they were used to an adult raising their voice and angry words coming out.
It was then that I knew myself as an educator needed to bring a trauma informed lens to the classroom and I want other educators to know how to do the same. The good news is that adverse childhood experiences and their effects (negative behavior, health problems, chronic absenteeism) can be overcome with positive childhood experiences (PCEs), but we’ll dive more into that soon.
