Educators are beginning to get answers to questions they have always asked: Am I doing something wrong? Why does a student react violently to a simple request? Why does another student retreat and sleep in class? And why, even after repeated disciplinary consequences, do some students continue with inappropriate behavior?
The answer is that it is not “why” but rather “what” that is causing the actions of some students. And, the “what” can be identified through the research known as ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences.
ACEs was first identified in 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through a survey of over 17,000 people, asking about experiences they had faced up to the age of 18. The CDC discovered a stunning link between adult health issues (such as diabetes, heart conditions, depression, and cancer) and the adverse childhood experiences these adults had faced.
The adverse experiences identified include physical, sexual and verbal abuse, physical and emotional neglect, mental illness, death or incarceration of a family member, losing a parent to separation, divorce or another reason, and witnessing abuse of one’s mother.
Persistent exposure to ACEs causes a person to go into toxic stress, trauma which affects the brain. With the brain in toxic stress, a person is incapable of coping and reacts with a “flight, fight or freeze” response. A student facing this trauma cannot learn because the brain has shut down in reaction to the stress.
[For more of this article written by Cinda Ackerman Klickna, visit http://illinoistimes.com/artic...d-bad-behavior-.html].
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