Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE's)

1. Classroom Strategies

1.1. Teach specific social and emotional skills, to encourage students to practice self-regulation

1.2. Maintain a predictable environment with calm transitions

1.3. Have clear boundaries and explicit behavioral expectations

1.4. Provide quiet areas for students

1.5. Use calming techniques (such as yoga, or breathing and mindfulness activities)

1.6. Provide sensory materials, such as fidget toys or weighted blankets

2. Effect on Learning

2.1. Fear and hypervigilance become a chronic condition, and it leads in turn to academic struggles, absenteeism, social challenges, various kinds of anxiety, withdrawal and/or serious acting-out behaviors.

2.2. Children with complex drama often have difficulty forming relationships, interpreting verbal and nonverbal cues, and understanding other people's perspectives.

2.3. When stress hormones repeatedly flood the brain, they have a negative effect on a range of executive functions, weakening children's concentration, language processing, sequencing of information, decision making, and memory.

3. Different Types of ACE's

3.1. Childhood exposure to emotional abuse, physical abuse, or sexual abuse

3.2. Emotional or physical neglect

3.3. Domestic violence

3.4. Household substance abuse

3.5. Household mental illness

3.6. A criminal household member

3.7. Extreme poverty

4. ACE's are thought to be increasing during the pandemic, Covid-19

4.1. Once students are fully back in classrooms, it will be imperative for teachers to identify children who may be experiencing trauma for treatment.

5. Effect on the Brain

5.1. Traumatic exposures that are abusive, neglectful, or unpredictable can result in toxic stress so the HPA axis remains activated, resulting in cortisol spikes.

5.2. The chronic activation of the HPA axis results in the modification of brain structures, synapses, receptors, and neuro-hormones.

5.3. Dendrite complexity is diminished.

5.4. Maturation of auditory and visual potentials are delayed.

5.5. The volume of the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory storage and retrieval is decreased.

6. Complex Trauma

6.1. Complex trauma is the cumulative effect of ACE's that are repeated over a long period of time.

6.2. Complex trauma can occur to children who live in a consistently dysfunctional familial or social environment.

7. Frequency

7.1. More than half of the students enrolled in public schools have experienced adverse experiences and one in six struggles with complex trauma.