Children with Trauma History

02/27/2019

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Cissy White, writing on the ACES Connection website, discusses an interview with Dr. Ross Green, author of The Explosive Child and Lost and Found: Helping Behaviorally Challenging Students (and While You’re at it, All the Others) on his ideas about educating children who have experienced trauma. Here is a selection of direct quotes from Dr. Green, and paraphrases from Cissy White on Green’s thinking:

“Kids with trauma history don’t need more punishment, and frankly, they don’t need more stickers.” – Ross Green

“For a very long time, we’ve thought that children’s misbehavior was the result of poor motivation. What the research (over 40-50 years) shows is that ‘kids with chronic behavior problems are lacking skills, not motivation and need interventions that are not oriented towards improving motivation (time outs, stickers, detentions, paddling). These don't help, he said, because kids need help solving the problems causing their challenging behavior. He said behavior problems are the result of a kid facing expectations that outstrip abilities.” –Cissy White, paraphrasing Ross Green

“It’s the same 10 to 20 kids who are on the receiving end of detentions, suspensions. They keep getting it over and over, which is proof that it’s not working.” – Ross Green

“What they need, he said is ‘to be heard’ and for their concerns to be ‘clarified, understood, validated and addressed.’ A kid with a trauma history needs ‘their voices to be heard more than any of the rest of us do,’ he said. – Cissy White, paraphrasing Ross Green

Source: “Dr. Ross Green, Educating Kids Who Have Been Traumatized,” by Cissy White, acesconnection.com, May 5, 2017

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