Attention deficit disorder, defiance, bullying — a multitude of issues that stand between children and their ability to learn may actually be behaviors they learned in self-defense.
“For a lot of these children, when we look under a bigger microscope, issues like poverty, chaotic lifestyles, domestic violence, maybe mental illness or substance abuse in the home, have caused them to develop problematic coping strategies that are keeping them from learning,” said Joe King, Crittenton TIES (trauma-informed elementary schools) director and therapist.
“Inattentiveness, such as in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a coping strategy,” King said. “A young child may not be able to sit still because there may be a level of unpredictability in their care giving system. They live just on the verge of slipping into a danger response. These are issues that often get misdiagnosed.”
[For more of this story, written by Cathy Bonnstetter, go to http://www.statejournal.com/st...rned-in-self-defense]
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