Trauma Triggers

The ministry team at our church asked me to share a list of things I observe as trauma triggers in The Princess and Youngest Son, and to also list things I’ve observed as trauma triggers in other adopted children.  Below is the list I gave them.  (I didn’t want to overwhelm them with too many things all at once.)

I'm posting the list here so others can refer to it.  You may want to share this with a teacher friend, or youth ministry team leader you know.  Perhaps, you’ll add some things of your own to this list in the comment section for this post.  I will add some myself with an (*) after the list I gave our ministry team.

Universal Trauma Triggers (things I’ve seen most internationally adopted kids, and many foster/adopt kids react to on some level)

Blood, gore, dead babies, dead animals, dying people, people starving in Africa (pretty much any topic you THINK they SHOULD know about should really be discussed with the parents of traumatized kids first).

Orphan care ministry (triggers survivor’s guilt).

Talk about the “blessing” of adoption (triggers guilt for caring about bio family).

Movies about adoption, movies where adoptive parents are portrayed as evil or mean, movies about orphanages, child trafficking, sex trafficking, child abandonment.  (Parent permission before showing movies might be a good standard practice in children’s and youth ministry.)

Talk about a child being adopted – even if everyone already knows it.  Adopted kids don’t want to be the topic of discussion; they just want to fit in

Loud noises, alarms, sudden changes, changes in routine, new teachers/leadership can also be triggers for many adopted kids.

Do not assume adopted kids, especially older, internationally adopted kids that lived in orphanages, know what you’re talking about.  Their world knowledge is VERY limited and it will take significant time to “catch up” on things most people would think “everyone” knows.

*Holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas.  Birthdays, pretty much any celebration, especially if it isn’t all about them.

*Too much “stuff.”  Our kids are overwhelmed with too many choices – everything from a full menu at a restaurant, to too many clothing choices, and too many toys.

*Affection from people other than family members.

*Gifts – even little gifts like a piece of candy.

*Rewards – especially if they’re for doing something any well-behaved kid SHOULD be doing anyway.

Triggers more specific to Youngest Son and The Princess (but can also be triggers for other adopted kids, too):

Talk about suicide, especially suicide by hanging.

Talk about alcoholism, prostitution, divorce.

Talk about their birth country.

When people ask them what their “actual name” is – yes, this has happened in youth group.  Their “actual” names are the names they have now.

Questions about their orphanage or their life in Eastern Europe, including questions about their birth family.  (Youth group members need to learn this is inappropriate conversation.)

Certain smells can be triggers, including fish, fried potatoes, and anything burned.

Questions about therapy or medications.

People assuming they know what is being talked about – for example, The Princess became very upset about hearing one of the youth leaders had a miscarriage – not because she understood what that was, but because she felt stupid, and like “everyone was talking in jibberish.” 

*When one of our older boys comes home to visit.  (It messes with routine, territory, and attention issues.)

*Any new recipes Mama T tries for supper.

*Painting the house, or moving the furniture.

*Other kids not having coats on when it’s cold outside.

*People leaving their animals outdoors.

*When a child is being publicly disrespectful – like in a store.

Other ideas?  Please do share below.  I love on-topic comments!

Dear Teacher: Six Dreaded Assignments

Every year, without fail, one of my kids will come home from school upset because they've been given one of six, always-upsetting, school assignments.  The assignments are usually given by language arts, social studies, and science teachers.  Each of the six assignments can vary, depending upon the grade level to which they’re assigned.  However, all six involve painful topics for a lot of adopted children (not to mention kids in foster care, kids who’ve experienced a traumatic event such as a fire or tornado that destroyed their home and all their possessions, children being cared for by someone other than their parent, etc.)

Dear teacher, if you absolutely MUST incorporate the following projects into your curriculum, would you take the time to read why these assignments are a challenge for my children, and so many other children in your classroom now, or in the years to come?  I’ll start with the one our family has most recently worked through together, and conclude with the most dreaded assignment of them all.

DNA – Genetic Traits:  This is the assignment usually given by middle school science teachers and high school biology teachers.  The student’s task is to chart or write about a genetic trait or traits that run in that students’ family.  The assignment is designed to give the student personal experience in studying how genetic traits are passed through generations.  The challenge with this assignment for kids who were adopted is it often raises questions which cannot be answered for the adoptee.  Some teachers mistakenly think by framing the assignment so students can chart a genetic trait in their adoptive families, it makes the assignment okay.  The fact is, this can make it much more painful, and can be a very real trauma trigger for the child. 

Suggested Alternatives for the ENTIRE Class:  Study genetic traits in various people groups.  For example, why do people of Celtic heritage often have red hair and/or green eyes?  Or look at historical examples such as inherited diseases in the royal families of Europe?  (I suggest alternative projects be given to the entire class so as not to single out the child unable to trace their genetic heritage, or for whom it would be painful to do so.)

The Family Tree:  My kids HATE this assignment.  It sends each of them reeling whenever they get it, no matter how benignly the teacher believes they’ve framed the project.  This assignment usually involves either drawing a tree with branches (and sometime roots if the teacher is trying to accommodate kids) or drawing a chart with family names and relationships defined as they relate to the student.  The assignment is designed to illustrate family relationships.  Sometimes, it can be part of a “getting to know you” assignment, as it was in my son's 9^th grade English class this year.  This assignment is a challenge because even when it does accommodate birth and adoptive or step families, it can involve very painful memories for the student and make him feel as though he’s being forced to reveal parts of his history he would rather not share.  Even when the teacher tells him he need not share all of his history, he is conflicted because he feels he is denying a part of who he is – or is being unfaithful to a part of his family.  As my children have gotten older, the feelings associated with this assignment become more complicated and more painful.

Suggested Alternatives for the ENTIRE Class:  Have students create a forest of trees or a neighborhood of houses, showing all the close relationships in their lives.  The trees could include friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, clergy, and family.  If the assignment is geared more toward biology, trace the tree of a historical figure, or even of the teacher, and make it a classroom assignment.  There are plenty of genealogical resources available online.  Most public libraries also have a genealogy room.

Student of the Week:  This assignment is usually only given to elementary school students.  However, my daughter’s 6^th grade English teacher did a variation of this assignment with her class.  The assignment involves students taking turns each week to be the “star” student of the week.  They design a poster (in my daughter’s English class, they used paper bags), and then add things to the poster such as pictures of the student growing up, family pictures, and the student’s story.  The goal of the assignment is to help students know one another and give each child a leadership opportunity in the classroom.  This is a challenge for many adopted kids, and especially traumatized adopted kids, because the subject of their adoption is often brought up when they would rather it not be.  Not all kids are comfortable sharing their adoption with fellow students.  For traumatized kids, the classroom is not a safe place to process the big feelings surrounding their adoption and they cannot separate their past trauma from their adoption story.

Suggested Alternative for the ENITRE Class:  Have students use current pictures of themselves and of their favorite things, such as pets and activities.  Let the star of the week write about their favorite color, food, subject in school, favorite activity, etc.  Focus on the present.  Students are interested in their classmates and what they’re about NOW.

Exploring Our Heritage:  This assignment usually involves making a map, drawing a flag, or doing a presentation on the student’s country or culture of origin.  This assignment happens throughout grades K-12.  The goal of the assignment is to have students learn about various cultures.  This assignment can be a challenge for adopted students in several ways.  For my kids, the only “culture” they remember experiencing in their birth country was a culture of alcoholism and abuse.  While they are curious about their birth country, its history, its government, and its people, they do not want to process that curiosity in the classroom.  They are much more comfortable processing it in pieces, as they direct, at home.  Other students may want to share their country’s culture, but because they do not share that culture with their adoptive family, they are uncomfortable with the inevitable questions about the differences between themselves and their adoptive family.  Others may rather talk about their adoptive family’s culture.  There’s just not an easy answer.  Each student will react differently to this assignment.

Suggested Alternative for the ENTIRE Class:  Have students choose a culture of interest to them to research, rather than one related to their family.

The Life Timeline:  This is another assignment my children hate.  The assignment involves having the student create a timeline of events from their birth to the present.  Timelines incorporate both personal life events and historical events.  The goal of the assignment is to chart historical events on a timeline and show the student’s relationship to history.  This assignment is a challenge for adopted kids because they may be unsure of the time, location, or even the date of their actual birth.  My daughter wondered if she needed to include painful details such as when she entered the orphanage, when she last saw her birth mother, etc.  Adopted children are often confused about what personal information they should and should not include in their timelines. 

Suggested Alternative for the ENTIRE Class:  Do not specify that the timeline begin with the child’s birth.  Allow for open ended time frames such as, “past and present.”  Create a timeline for a historic figure, or perhaps, for the teacher.

The (Dreaded) Baby Picture Assignment:  This assignment is by far the most painful for my kids, and one I find the most cruel.  Teachers ask students to bring in baby pictures, which are usually posted anonymously, and students are challenged to guess who is who.  This assignment is also part of a lot of graduation programs and celebrations.  (Do I really need to say why this is a challenge?)  My kids came home at ages nine and twelve.  We have no baby pictures.  We have very few pictures of them before their adoption, and those pictures are of them in situations we do not share publicly.  My “baby” pictures of my two youngest kids are of them at the age of their adoption.   Not all adopted kids were adopted at birth.  Most are adopted as "older" children.  For some kids, the race or physical feature of a child may make them stand out from most of the other children. 

Suggested Alternative for the ENTIRE Class:  Have children bring in pictures of “when they were younger,” or perhaps a current picture of themselves, disguised by a costume.  Younger children can draw pictures of themselves “when they were younger.”  (Again, my most honest suggested alternative would be to ban this assignment all together.)

Dear teacher, you can find additional resources regarding school assignments and the adopted child in your classroom by visiting two of my favorite websites:    

http://adoptivefamilies.com/school

or

http://www.adoptionarticlesdirectory.com/Category/School-issues/89

Black & White Thinking

Riding in the car on the way to school this morning, my daughter asked, “Mom, what is human trafficking?”  Talk about a sucker punch. 

My daughter is processing SO MUCH lately.  Hard topics such as human trafficking are not something I was prepared to deal with today, alongside known trauma triggers such as bio-family stuff like I wrote about on Friday, bad dreams like I wrote about HERE recently, or acting out behaviors like at the zoo over the holidays.  Heck, I wasn’t even fully awake yet.  I am NOT a morning person.  So, what did I do?  I took a big breath.  I let it out.  Then, I answered her with a question of my own.  “Honey, were you talking about human trafficking in youth group last night?” 

Well, yes.  It was THE topic of discussion last night.

Another deep breath in.  Another deep breath out.

I kept driving.  I gave her a broad definition of what human trafficking meant.  She asked a few more questions.  She told me some more things her small group leader told her about the topic.  I told her that yes, those things were sadly true.  Then I said I wished the youth leaders told parents when they were going to be dealing with such hard topics.  She said, “Me, too.” 

Then she asked, “What about alcoholics?”  I asked in return, “What about them?”  She rolled her eyes and told me that she is probably going to be an alcoholic, as well as poor, when she grows up.  I asked her why she thought that and she said it was because they discussed it in Sunday School yesterday.  She said that “people who grow up with alcoholic parents become alcoholics, and people who grow up poor stay poor.”  Whether it was discussed QUITE that way or not, I don’t know, but I do know she was triggered by the discussion.  So was Youngest Son.  He confirmed that this was the discussion.

Unfortunately, not enough people working with traumatized kids know enough about them or their needs.  More training is needed – really needed – for anyone working with children.  This education should be part of any teacher training, youth & children’s ministry training, or sports/recreation training.  We trauma mamas need to figure out a way to make this happen!

Traumatized kids tend to see things as black and white.  There are no gray areas.  It doesn’t matter if they’re 6 or 16.  Something either is, or it isn’t.  They think, “If I had alcoholic parents, I will be an alcoholic.”  That’s a traumatized brain.  There are no gray areas that say, “I HAD alcoholic parents, but now I’m being raised in a safe, functional family and I can overcome my past.  I can learn skills that will help me navigate life in a more healthy way.”  Likewise, even though they’ve been told many times, there is no ability to remember that God is in the business of redemption when our kids are triggered.

Black and white, or “all or nothing” thinking, is tied to the most primitive of human responses:  flight or fight.  Kids dealing with complex trauma, when triggered, are transported back to that primitive state of being in flight or fight mode, just as they were when the trauma first occurred.  It is an automatic response on a very basic level.  There is no rationalization.  The brain in flight or fight mode cannot rationalize.  It reacts.  Because traumatized kids are triggered to believe their lives are in danger – that they may actually DIE -- there is no time for “if this” or “maybe that.”  There is no room for gray.  While a youth worker discussing social problems with the youth group may also discuss the redemption of God, or the ability to overcome hard beginnings with good nurturing, the brain of a traumatized kid already in flight or fight mode simply will not process this.  There is no time for uncertainty when your life is threatened.  You need to decide whether to run, or to stay and fight.

The amygdala, which is in the middle part of the brain, and the center for the fight/flight/freeze response, is fully functional at birth.  That means that even a tiny baby is capable of a full blown trauma response.  Even children who do not cognitively remember a traumatic event can still have that full blown trauma response stored in their amygdala.  It “rewires” the brain for life.  It does not go away with love and time.  It can be triggered by events, actions, discussions, sights, smells, touches, and sensory experiences in the future.

The hippocampuses, where the brain assesses stimuli and tells us whether or not it is threatening, is not fully functional until a child is about five years old.  The cortex – the front part of the brain where we can think and figure things out and rationalize -- is not fully mature until around age 12, sometimes even older. This means that when a baby or young child is hurt and frightened, they have no way of understanding what is going on around them. The front part of their brain can’t rationalize what’s happening, so the middle part of their brain simply stores the trauma.  That trauma causes black and white thinking (a flight or fight response), because they do not have the developmental capability to process levels of threat, nor the cognitive capability to even understand what’s happening.

Kids dealing with complex trauma CANNOT simply “get over it.”

The result of trauma triggers such as hearing, “people who grew up with alcoholic parents become alcoholics” is too often a self-fulfilling prophecy.  In traumatized kids’ all or nothing thinking, they believe they are doomed to repeat their biological parents mistakes.  They believe they are destined to BE their biological parents.  Their already too well-established sense of being “damaged goods” is reinforced.  In their black and white thinking, their beliefs about themselves are affirmed.  The instruction of a well-meaning teacher or youth worker is twisted to a belief that is exactly opposite of what any caring adult would intend.

In addition to education for people working with youth and children, parent notification is also essential when hard topics will be presented in the classroom or the youth meeting.  Youth leaders and teachers should notify parents IN ADVANCE that they will be discussing hard topics with youth.  Parents raising hurt children can then decide how best to prepare their child for the topic – or even whether or not to allow their child to participate in that discussion at all.  Some parents may decide to prepare their child and also attend the session with the child.  Still, the decision on how to best approach these topics with a traumatized child should be left up to the parent.  Communication is the key.  Teachers and youth workers should not depend upon children to communicate to parents that a hard topic is to be discussed, or that a documentary on a hard topic will be shown.  One of the greatest challenges for parents of traumatized children is getting them to tell us anything!  Adults need to communicate with adults.  As parents, we are the ones who need to take the initiative.

As parents, we need to be the ones talking to our kids’ teachers, youth leaders, and coaches.  We need to be proactive, and not reactive (often the “fight” of flight or fight response) ourselves.  Communicate with the adults in your child’s life.  Perhaps offer some training.  The FACT SHEETS I posted on this blog are a good tool and can be adjusted to help youth leaders outside the classroom as well as for teachers.  There are also some good resources posted HERE.  Feel free to share in the comments section additional resources or links to sites you have found helpful.

Scholarly Education on Complex Trauma

When I was a teenager, I spent as little time as possible studying.  I did what I had to do to get by in school.  I was a lazy scholar.  Deep down, I still am.  My thirst for learning is only fueled by my desperation.  When I feel I NEED to know something and do not, it is then I am most ready to study and to learn.  There is much I have needed to know these last several years.  If you also need to know, below are some scholarly papers and websites with resources for higher learning about complex trauma:

     *Neuroscience & Behavior - a free undergraduate level course on MIT's open learning website.  There are over 700 courses on this site - both undergraduate and graduate level courses - in a wide range for fields of study.

     *Articles by Dr. Bruce Perry (one of my favorites):
          Anxiety Disorders
          Bonding & Attachment in Maltreated Children
          The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics
          and FOR TEACHERS
          Children and Loss (on Scholastic's website)
          What Childhood Neglect Tells Us About Nature and Nurture

     *Treatment of Complex Trauma in Young Children:  Developmental and Cultural Consideration in Application of the ARC Intervention Model.  Arvidson, Kinniburgh, Howard, Spinazzola, Strothers, Evans, Andres, Cohen, Blaustein, 2011.  Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma, 4:34-51

     *The Amygdala, Fear, and Memory.  Fanselow & Gale discuss the role of the frontotemporal amygdala in classical fear conditioning, 2003.

 More links are available at:  Tip Sheets for Psychology Majors.  Additionally, even more links -- more than you will ever read or need, but may want to browse for some gems -- are available at www.trauma-pages.com

UPDATED! - Fact Sheets for the Classroom

Educating teachers about PTSD, RAD, ADHD/ADD, FASD/FAE, PDD, anxiety, depression, and even Aspergers is a chore each year for me.  It is a necessary chore, however.  Unfortunately, our teachers are overworked and underpaid and frankly, clueless about what it REALLY means to deal with all these things, or how to best educate a child with complex trauma.  (Let's face it, we were all clueless, too until we had to deal with it face-to-face ourselves.)

I wish I'd found these Fact Sheets back in 2007.  They are posted on the Kansas State Department of Education website and are designed to give teachers an overview of the challenges our kids face every single day.  They are not comprehensive, but they provide the basics.  (Besides, I've learned most teachers don't bother reading much of the information given to them even by their own administrators.  Even if they WANTED to, there just aren't enough hours in the day to read everything they're told is "essential.")  

I've developed a lot of presentations and materials of my own through the years and I promise to share more of those over time on the blog.  But my best piece of advice for communicating your child's needs to his or her teachers is to develop a relationship with them.  Be prepared to advocate (a.k.a. "fight") when you need to, but work with your child's teacher to show them you appreciate their professionalism.  Hopefully, they in turn will respect your expertise as a therapeutic parent, raising a hurt child.  

Do not expect a teacher to work like a therapist.  Their job is to educate your child.  Give them tools that support them in their job, even as you ask them to support your job as a therapeutic parent.  Hopefully, they'll appreciate your efforts to make their job easier, and thus make your job easier by avoiding those triggers which set your kids off on behaviors most teachers never get to see.

     *Attention Deficit/Hyper-activity Disorder - ADHD/ADD

     *Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD

     *Reactive Attachment Disorder - RAD

     *Anxiety

     *Depression

     *Pervasive Development Disorders - PDD

     *Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder - FASD/FAE

     *Asperger Syndrome

Additional resources for the classroom here:  Child Mental Health Resources

Sample ELL Plan for Post-Institutionalized, Internationally Adopted Student

I thought it might be helpful to add some tools for parents to use when working with their child's school, youth organization, or health care provider.  I'll work on getting things posted over the next few weeks or so.  For now, here is a sample ELL plan I used last year at the request of our school district's English Language Learner's coordinator to educate ELL teachers about the (VERY SIGNIFICANT) difference between a post-institutionalized, internationally-adopted student and a bi-lingual immigrant student living with their biological family.  These students do not learn English in the same way, or at the same rate.

If you've recently come home with your IA child, or if you're planning to bring your child home soon, you may find this document helpful.

--------------------------------------------------------------

**Example**

ELL Plan for Post-Institutionalized, Internationally Adopted Student

References: 

Kansas State Department of Education, English Proficiency Level Descriptions, Spring 2000. Version 2.5 

United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Department.  Discrimination Against English Language Learner Students (Settlement with Boston Schools documents)  http://www.justice.gov/crt/edo/ellpage.php

Resources: 

Melanie Manares, ESOL Education Program Consultant, Kansas State Department of Education.  Phone:  (785) 296-7929, Email: mmanares@ksde.org 

Office for Civil Rights, Kansas City Office, U.S. Department of Education - 8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2037 - Kansas City, MO 64114-3302 - Telephone: (816) 268-0550
Fax: (816) 823-1404 – email:  OCR.KansasCity@ed.gov 

Dr. Boris Gindis, Director, Center for Cognitive Developmental Assessment and Remediation.  150 Airport Executive Park, Suite 152, Nanuet, NY 10954, Tel.: (845)694-8496 – http://www.bgcenter.org

   

FIRST OF ALL – IMPORTANT FACTS

1.   It is against the law to place or hold back a child because of language learner status.  No child, not even an internationally adopted child with little or no prior education, can be legally placed at a grade level below his or her age-level peers without the prior and explicit written request of the parents.  The school may not recommend it, nor require it.  Schools MUST place internationally adopted kids according to the age.  Additionally, the school can NOT hold back a student because she or he is not “up to grade level” with their age peers.  Additionally, placing or holding a child, without parental request, due to a lack of prior education is AGAINST THE LAW!

2.  Nearly 100% of all internationally adopted children under the age of 12 will lose their first language within 6 months of coming home to live with their English-only speaking family.  English will become their new first language.  They will not be 2^nd language learners.  They will be learning an entirely new first language.  Post-institutionalized, internationally adopted (PIAI) students will, for the most part, not have sufficient language skills in their native first language due to institutionalization.  Translating English into their old language to “help them understand” actually hurts their English language acquisition.  More importantly, it is DETREMENTAL to their attachment to their English-only speaking, new families.  Even IF someone can speak to a child in his native language at school, THEY SHOULD NOT DO IT!  The child will learn more quickly – not only English, but all academics – and will attach more quickly to their new family.

Within 4 months of being home, most PIAI kids under 12 are doing quite well in their new classroom setting.  While there are still often challenges to re-learning expected behaviors, catching up developmentally and academically, most teachers see a marked difference after a child has been in their classroom by the fourth month.

3.  Teachers CAN NOT expect a PIAI child to “do the work” of their classmates.  Do not expect a child to be “taught to the test.”  Deal with it.  Your PIAI child WILL MESS UP your state test scores, especially during the first 1-2 years home.  Sorry.  But that’s not your student’s problem.  It’s not their parents’ problem either.  YOU MUST MODIFY work for your PIAI student.  The older the student is when they arrive home, the more modification needed, and the longer it will take for your student to perform at grade level.  For example, a boy home at age 12 and in school three years (now 15) still needs considerable modifications on much of his work.  Yet, when he came home, he could not add two digit numbers together.  Today, he is getting A’s in 8^th grade level math.  He is of average intelligence.  His sister, home at age 9 just skipped from 4^th grade into 6^th grade.  She had no more schooling than the average pre-school child in America when she came home.  She is a now a straight “A” student.  Both students were placed in grade levels requested by the parents.

5.  You MUST HAVE a written ELL plan for your PIAI student.  Document all progress!  MOST PIAI students will test out of ELL after their third or fourth full year home.  Their English language acquisition is amazing!  The first few months home can be rough.  The first few years of healing from “Lord of the Flies” behaviors learned in order to survive their very tough start in life can be challenging.  However, most teachers will be amazed at how well their PIAI students are doing with language acquisition as compared to their other ELL students.

ELL Plan Suggestions

for

Student Name

Grade __ - School Name

Submitted by Your Name (Your Role), Date 

Qualifying Need	English as (student’s name) new first language, replacing his original first language of (Spanish/Russian/Mandarin/etc).  Residence in the USA since (date) with no prior English language abilities before adoption into an American family. Listening: Speaking: Reading Comprehension: Writing: *See English Language Proficiency Descriptions above.
Language Arts	Modify written assignments to include projects.  Allow for appropriate reading level materials.  Do not expect student to read at levels of age peers.    Correct spelling and sentence structure but avoid substantial grading on these.  Weight any reading logs lower for grading purposes than most other students due to mental energy exerted and stress related to required reading.  Provide support for academic language.  Make sure directions for assignments are understood. Allow for shorter tests and modified assignments.  Possibly allow take-home tests or modified tests.  Provide easy access to a safe person or safe place to which (student) may retreat if feeling stressed.  Provide for teacher's awareness to signs (student) is shutting down or withdrawing. NOTE:  PIAI children go into a “Language Limbo” between losing their first language and gaining English as their new first language.  They are unable to translate “in their heads” like other ELL students from bi-lingual backgrounds.  The way they learn is NOT THE SAME!  See articles by Dr. Boris Gindis – resource website above.
Social Studies	Provide professional or peer guidance for understanding academic language.  Establish take-home academic vocabulary within context of material covered in class. Allow for shorter tests and modified assignments.  Possibly allow take-home tests or modified tests.  Provide easy access to a safe person or safe place to which (student) may retreat if feeling stressed.  Provide for teacher's awareness to signs (student) is shutting down or withdrawing.  Do not take basic world knowledge for granted.  Avoid surprise assignments including out-of-ordinary homework assignments or pop quizzes.  Give clear, simple directions for assignments.  Break directives into simple steps, simply worded.  Encourage shared note-taking.  Substitute or supplement textbook reading assignments and classroom discussions with direct experience through film, CD's, recordings or internet links.
Science	Provide academic vocabulary within context of material covered.  Modify tests to include clear multiple-choice questions.  If fill-in-the blank tests are used, make the blank the size of the correct answer.  Use a word bank. Allow for peer interaction and cooperative learning activities based on kinesthetic techniques.  Allow for modified test arrangements.  Be aware of student’s limited world knowledge and explain concepts in very simple terms, using one or two syllable words.    Encourage shared note-taking.  Substitute or supplement textbook reading assignments and classroom discussions with direct experience and audio/visual materials, CD's, recordings or computer programs/links.  Reinforce verbally anything presented in a traditional format.
Math	Allow extra time for student to work on concepts not previously learned.  Assign student fewer problems for homework – only enough practice to ensure understanding or to assess knowledge (or lack of knowledge).  Allow extended time to complete calculations.  Allow student to “skip” problems she/he is unable to complete within a given time.  Provide adequate examples (for student's sake as well as parents'). Work with student to space problems far enough apart to allow room for calculations and reduce distractions.  Group similar problems.  Consider using graph paper to aid student in lining up place value accurately.  Limit word problems.  Understand student  concepts like the passage of time, charted schedules, etc. are things which student has no prior concept of before coming to America due to institutionalization/orphanage living.  While the student will learn much quickly, he/she will be overwhelmed with information and will not be capable of retaining it all.
Art/Music	View art as therapy for (student).  Place very few, if any requirements on work.  Break instructions down into simple steps, using simple vocabulary.  Ask student to repeat instructions back to teacher or class.
Physical Education/Gym	Present directions in clear, easy-to-understand vocabulary. Allow for rest if student complains of chest pain or a headache.  Be aware of signs of distress and modify activity or allow retrieval to a safe person or safe place if student is feeling inadequate or overwhelmed. BE VERY AWARE of post-institutionalized behavior.  Your student will likely be quite competitive and will even make themselves ill trying to be “first” in any sort of physical contest.
General Academic Considerations for ALL SUBJECTS And ALL Teachers	-IMPORTANT:  -DO NOT EXPECT GRADE LEVEL WORK until the third or fourth year home for students under 8.  (For students between the ages of 8-12+, do not expect grade level work with age peers until even later.) -OMIT ANY BIOGRAPHICAL ASSIGNEMENTS!  Do not even ask.  Do not ask your student about their background.  Period.  (Read Boris Gindis articles for more education on why not.) -Introduce key vocabulary before an assignment. -Give student opportunity to read aloud or verbalize assignments to peers, ELL teacher or a para familiar with the child. -Provide assistance for answering text-based questions. -Provide tests that are typed and neatly printed, clearly legible, with ample space for responses. -Avoid “trick” questions, slang, jargon and idioms. -Allow student break or rest time. -Allow easy access to a safe persons (This might be the ELL teacher or counselor.) -Preview assignments to orient student to a topic. -Develop a study guide or outline for material covered. -Allow student to use graphic aids such as maps, charts, posters, videos, computer, etc. -Allow for open book or take home tests. -Allow for memory aids, cues and references. -Provide opportunity to retest if necessary.  Be aware of the trauma experienced by any sense of failure due to any PIAI child’s past. -Provide experience & discussion before and after reading or introducing new concepts as a frame of reference and reinforcement. -Ask “WHAT” a student understands vs. “IF” they understand.   Have the student tell you specifically what it is they believe the assignment to be. -Directly and specifically point out relationships, as students are often confused about what is “real” and what is “imaginary” or fiction because of limited world knowledge.  (Again, this is true for ANY PIAI child.) -Omit assignments requiring rote copying.  A brain in “language limbo” does not absorb material by copying material.  -Omit scrambled word assignments. -Use demonstration to teach whenever possible. -Provide manipulative objects whenever possible. -Provide self-correcting materials, if available. -Pay special attention to trauma triggers.  ALL PIAI children are traumatized.  Just being adopted and brought to a new country is a significant traumatic experience.  (See more about trauma and attachment in adoption at www.attach.org, http://blogspot.traumamamat.org , and other web sites.)

©Trauma Mama T 2011 – All Rights Reserved

Please contact Trauma Mama T for permission to reprint.