What are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and why is it important for trauma-informed training?
Adverse childhood experiences can cause trauma. Trauma affects brain development and the ability to effectively learn. To address the negative impact of trauma on learning, The Relationship Foundation introduces the Trauma-Informed School Approach for schools and social service organizations nationwide. The Relationship Foundation offers workshops and training sessions for teachers and social service workers.
One of the main elements of a Trauma-Responsive Approach is its focus on enhancing adult/child relationships. The first step to mitigating troublesome behavior is to understand the history behind it, rather than judging, blaming, and shaming. Informing teachers, social service workers, psychologists and parents about the effect of childhood trauma allows for a broader perspective as to the root cause of problematic behavior.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) were originally measured in a study conducted by Dr. Vincent Felitti and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) at Kaiser Permanente, a health maintenance organization in San Diego, CA. The ACEs study began in 1995 and surveyed 17,337 participants. The study identified ten specific ACEs, which are:
- Emotional abuse
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Emotional neglect
- Physical neglect
- Parental Abandonment (divorce, death, etc.)
- Domestic violence
- An incarcerated family member
- A parent with a substance addiction
- A parent with depression or another mental illness.
The study revealed that two out of three people had at least one ACE, and the prevalence of them proved to be a strong predictor of difficulties with learning, social functioning, health, and well-being, even into a person’s adult years. Put simply, ACEs create long-lasting mental and physical health issues.
Awareness of the ACEs in schools is leading to the emergence of the Trauma-Informed School Approach. A Trauma-Informed school works to create an atmosphere of emotional and physical safety for their students, which has been shown to positively impact both their personal and academic lives. Trauma results in toxic stress to brain architecture. This puts a student in either fight, flight or freeze further giving educators a broader perspective on student behavior. Given the pressure brought on by the ACEs, it is clear that disruptive behavior is actually a coping mechanism. When disruptive behavior is recognized as something out of the student’s control, educators gain a new perspective which has them ask not, “what is wrong with you?”, but rather, “what happened to you?”
We begin to see students don’t have a behavioral problem, they have a brain problem.
In 2009, Lincoln High School, a school for suspended students in Walla Walla Washington, became the first Trauma-Informed school. Their approach was so successful that over a three year period, suspensions went from 796 to 135 and graduation rates increased five times. An element at play in the major shifts that occurred at Lincoln High School was the staff’s understanding and implementation of a Trauma-Informed approach, which emphasizes how the presence of even one caring, consistent, supportive adult in a child’s life can help build resilience. The film “Paper Tigers” illustrates the transformation at Lincoln High, rated 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In an unstable home environment, repeated exposure to ACEs results in toxic stress to a child’s brain chemistry. To understand how toxic stress affects brain development, we must first delve a bit into neuroscience. In a healthy brain, the limbic system, the brain’s emotional center, responds to stressful situations with what’s known as the “fight, flight or freeze” response. In a brain that repeatedly experiences trauma, it often remains in an agitated state, whether the threat of danger is real or imaginary.
The difference between being able to overcome and not being able to overcome a traumatic childhood is simple. It’s a trusting relationship — someone who believes in the child.
In addition to the 10 ACEs, researchers, educators, social workers, and counselors are acknowledging the impact of what has become known as the Adverse Community Experiences. These include poverty, racism, street violence, exploitation, unemployment, homelessness, and discrimination. Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Experiences are key factors of present and future difficulties with learning, social engagement, mental and physical health, and well-being throughout childhood and into adulthood.
Change happens at the speed of trust.
For more information on our Trauma-Informed Training and Trauma-Responsive program, please call (212) 477-2323 or email info@trf.net