3 Steps To Help Kids Process Traumatic Events | Kristen Nguyen | TED Talks

(3) 3 Steps To Help Kids Process Traumatic Events | Kristen Nguyen | TED - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJKi4eWO8s

Transcript:

(00:00) foreign where were you in May of 2020 like many other Educators I Was preparing to close out the most unique school year in my time as a teacher after spending the past couple months trying to figure out how to teach online from my kitchen table while also navigating the uncertainty and Trauma of a global Health pandemic and then on May 25th 2020.

(00:32) George Floyd was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis in the wake of this tragedy and the days of civil unrest that followed my colleagues and I realized we couldn't just keep showing up to our virtual classes to teach Math and Science and reading and writing as if everything was fine and so we gathered on Zoom one morning to face an urgent question what do we say to the kids since that day I've started reflecting on more moments like this growing up in the 80s and 90s I remember my parents telling me about two specific

(01:05) dates where they remember exactly where they were and exactly what they were doing these were the dates that President John F Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King Jr were assassinated generation later these memorable events for me were the Columbine school shooting on September 11 2001. the more I reflected on these where were you when moments both as a teacher and then later as a social and emotional learning specialist I realized that they share distinct characteristics they're collectively experienced they're

(01:40) disruptive to daily life and often they cause a shift in beliefs behaviors or even policies and today's young people perhaps due to globalization or social media may be faced with even more of them and so Educators like me I assumed must be faced with even more of these what do we say to the kids moments too so I've actually done quite a bit of study of this question and I'm going to tell you what we say to the kids and not just for educators but for parents and caregivers and anyone who interacts with or supports young people

(02:16) in my doctoral research I came to call these moments Consciousness shifting current events which are occurrences that have a profound Collective impact on the Community State or Nation where they take place and usually cause a change in Awareness attitude or behavior among those impacted by it I'm going to share the insights from my research with you today but I have to first offer a disclaimer that since it's not yet published hope to do that this spring I am going to focus on General broad conclusions and leave out any

(02:50) personal details that could be used to identify my participants and so with that in mind the first broad conclusion I want to share with you is that silence is not an option the Educators I spoke to told me that it was a moral imperative to address these events with students if it wasn't clear before the era of kova 19 has made it clear now that education is an essential industry and as Frontline workers educators are tasked with more than teaching they're responsible for supporting the physical and emotional well-being of

(03:25) students amidst a wide variety of social crises and Collective traumas natural disasters civil unrest racial Injustice Community violence of course a global pandemic all of the Educators in my study expressed some degree of self-doubt and a lack of confidence addressing these topics with students yet in the stories they shared and the strategies that they shared with one another I discovered that actually most Educators actually do have an implicit understanding of what needs to happen in those moments to get students

(04:02) back to a place of learning and so today I'm going to share with you the three cue moves that I saw Educators making the steps they took to facilitate Community healing in their schools and classrooms first they sought to restore a sense of safety now here's what this looks like in one classroom it meant facilitating breathing and mindfulness exercises to help students self-regulate to soothe the fight-or-flight regions of their brain that have been activated after a tornado swept through their region and destroyed a nearby town

(04:38) another educator told me about a student who was a refugee from a country in political upheaval and on the day of the U.S capital Insurrection this student was particularly distraught and inconsolable in comparison to her peers because her belief that the turmoil she had left behind in her home country could not and would not happen here had been shattered she was worried that her parents were unsafe and she wasn't going to be reunited with them at the end of the school day so the teacher reassured the student that she and her family were not

(05:11) in any physical Danger and then took out a map of the United States to demonstrate that although yes what was happening in DC was in the same country it was nearly 3 000 miles away by focusing on Safety and Security these Educators prioritize what Maslow tells us are our basic human needs the lesson I learned here is that when bad things happen we don't jump right to analyzing the root causes that got us here we don't try to figure out who's to blame or even how to fix it yet we simply try to hold it together and

(05:47) make sure our people are protected but of course we don't and we can't stop there after restoring physical or psychological safety Educators engage in hard work that is they tend to emotions both their own and those of their students this often involves with Educators modeling their own vulnerability admitting they're scared or uncertain or don't have all the answers and feel anxious about that it also involves creating space for students to do the same many of the Educators in my study talked about using

(06:25) talking circles as a way for students to process what they're going through without judgment one told me about using a virtual talking Circle for both adults and young people to navigate feelings of grief and loss and fear associated with Coronavirus a theater arts teacher shared with me how she helps students process the death of a classmate realizing that students didn't feel comfortable talking openly she led them in a silent activity to create artistic representations of their thoughts and emotions now

(07:01) hard work can be hard work but here's why it matters when we navigate our emotions it moves us from that survival part of our brain to a more emotionally regulated State and do you know what else is possible when we're operating from that calmer state connection love belonging community so it's by reinforcing and strengthening the relationships that we have with one another that we get through the hard times it's how we develop positive coping strategies and ultimately resilience and this connection this sense of We're

(07:43) All in This Together is what cultivates hope and leads us to the final step empowering action now we've seen this many times in various social movements but powerful and inspiring action is happening on smaller scales and without social media coverage in classrooms and schools all over in the days after 9 11 a teacher took a page from the Mr Rogers Playbook by looking for and honoring the helpers the teacher talked about firefighters and First Responders Faith leaders from a variety of religions Everyday People providing food shelter

(08:22) and support to their neighbors the day after the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump students whose families were primarily undocumented expressed rage and Terror fearing that their families and that it would soon be deported recognizing their sense of helplessness and hopelessness their teacher went to work creating opportunities for students to learn about how to get involved in political advocacy and activism and when Community violence took away students outdoor recess because it was deemed too unsafe

(08:56) they started a podcast and they used that platform to raise awareness build support among Community leaders and plan a peace March what's key here is that we don't let ourselves or our people get stuck in the yuck rather than dwelling in despair we mobilize we reject helplessness and deficit-based thinking and harness our individual and Community assets to Advocate and agitate for change gin Wright calls this healing centered engagement and tells us that this approach to addressing trauma requires a different

(09:36) question that moves beyond what happened to you to what's right with you and it looks at those affected by trauma as agents in the creation of their own well-being the idea here is that it's by finding what's right with all of us our Collective strengths that we can begin to heal and transform ourselves and our communities and so I return once more to the question what do we say to the kids we say to the kids that it's okay to feel scared and vulnerable we say to the kids that our safety was taken from us but we will together

(10:15) create safety once again we say to the kids that it's time to start the hard work and we will show them how to do it we tell them to keep feeling because our feelings are what makes us human and what will help heal us and finally we say to the kids that we must rebuild together through action each and every one of us today I hope you will feel empowered I hope we will all feel empowered to support our communities our Educators and our young people in healing and so the next time a Consciousness shifting event happens we'll not only

(10:53) know what to say we'll know what to do and we'll know how to be thank you foreign [Applause]