Helping Students and Families Deal with Distress and Trauma

Objective Increase educators’ understandings of the range of possible effects of traumatic displacement on students and their families.

Recognizing the Symptoms Listen to the story On a piece of paper, note key words or ideas about the symptoms and reactions of children in the story who have experienced a traumatic event

Symptoms of Distress and Trauma What were some of the feelings and reactions you noted? How did Sherman get help?

Symptoms of Distress and Trauma Review the Handout: What is Trauma? What are some of the symptoms of distress and trauma? What might you add to our list?

Four Phases of Reaction to Disasters Anticipation and preparation Disaster impact Immediate post-disaster impact Long-term post-disaster impact

How Long Will This Last?

Tips for Helping Students Parents - Give children choices about food, clothes, what games to play, or any appropriate choices helps them feel some control when their environment has felt out of control. Teachers - Provide flexibility such as extra time to do work, extra support for challenging subjects and different ways of showing competence. Counselors - try to keep red tape to a minimum whenever possible, realizing that school will be the place many families gain access to social services.

Making it Real Select a partner and choose two or three of the tips from the guidebook Tips for Helping Students Recovering from Traumatic Events that fit your role. In the context of your role, such as the grade level and content area you teach if you are a teacher, develop some concrete examples of ways you can implement the tips from the guidebook.

After the Storm Activities