Key ideas
Abstract
- Reliable relationships and predictable lessons give students support for managing distress and returning to learning.
- Behaviour alone does not establish trauma or neglect. Agree support around the student’s observed needs.
- Calm responses can coexist with clear expectations and proportionate consequences.
- Classroom practices support access and wellbeing; they are not established treatments for trauma.
Students can find it easier to ask for help when adults follow through, explain changes and respond respectfully. Attachment theory offers a developmental account of caregiving and regulation, while classroom guidance recommends predictable relationships and routines (Bowlby, 1988; Sroufe, 2005; NSW Department of Education, 2020).
Connected to
Attachment | Emotions | Boundaries | Validation | Emotional Regulation | Supporting Students Experiencing Emotional Neglect
Developmental explanations
Developmental accounts examine how caregiving and adverse experiences may influence a child’s responses to stress. Clinical frameworks discuss differences in emotional regulation, attention and experiences of safety, while theories of autonomic regulation concern bodily responses to demands (Perry, 2006; Porges, 2011; Siegel, 2012; van der Kolk, 2014). These accounts provide possible explanations to consider, but cannot identify the cause of an individual pupil’s behaviour from classroom observation alone.
Hyperarousal describes heightened alertness or readiness to respond to threat. In a classroom, a student may seem watchful or react strongly to an unexpected event. Dissociation concerns a sense of disconnection from experience; a student may appear withdrawn or describe feeling detached. These terms occur in trauma literature, but an outwardly similar classroom response may have other explanations (Perry, 2006; van der Kolk, 2014).
Describe what you observe before choosing an explanation. “The student stopped responding during the discussion” gives the support team information without assuming a diagnosis. Continuing episodes of disconnection or memory gaps warrant appropriate assessment.
Predictability before distress
Make the lesson sequence visible, explain transitions and communicate changes. Practise routines with clear cues and consistent responses. Invite student input about what helps and avoid assumptions based on culture, background or disability. Instruction and relationships both deserve attention; recognising adversity does not justify lower expectations or dismissing a student’s account (NSW Department of Education, 2020).
A quieter area, movement option or agreed sensory support may make an individual plan more usable. Decide how the student will access it, who will supervise and how they will return to teaching. A short activity such as stretching or a familiar game can be considered according to the student’s preferences and circumstances (Greene, 2014). A compulsory partner activity may add discomfort for some students, so the response needs to fit the person rather than follow a generic list.
A simple metaphor can help explain the experience of becoming overwhelmed. The hand model sometimes described as “flipping their lid” represents difficulty regulating with an easy-to-remember gesture, but simplifies brain function (Siegel, 2012). The teaching task is to connect the explanation with a practical response, such as recognising a feeling, using an agreed help signal or requesting a pause.
Responding during distress
Check safety, reduce unnecessary verbal demands and speak calmly. Offer a feasible choice or familiar task, keeping access to support and the other students’ learning in view. An agreed break or time near a trusted adult may help, but neither proximity nor distraction is suitable for everyone. Sending a student to open a window or walk should have a clear purpose, suitable supervision and a return point.
Check practical needs such as water, hunger, discomfort or fatigue alongside the immediate classroom issue. Once the student can participate, discuss what happened privately, identify the next action and restore the usual relationship. Readiness for that conversation depends on the student and the situation, rather than a fixed number of minutes after the event (NSW Department of Education, 2020).
Strong distress can make a detailed discussion difficult to follow. Keep immediate directions brief and return to explanation when the student can engage. Expectations about safety and conduct still apply, with proportionate consequences and support considered together (NSW Department of Education, 2020). This lets follow-up address the behaviour without making access to care conditional on an immediate calm response.
Use specific acknowledgement and ordinary warmth throughout lessons. Recognise a student’s return to work or a clear request for help so that they know what you noticed. Research on marital interactions does not establish a required classroom ratio of positive to negative exchanges (Gottman, 1994). Counting interactions towards such a target would give less information than observing whether the student experiences support and can participate in learning.
Practice and coordinated support
During calm periods, agree early signs, a help signal, preferred coping options and a plan for returning to work. Practise the chosen response and review whether it helps. Emotional vocabulary, respectful peer interactions and adult modelling can be taught through fictional examples without asking students to disclose personal experiences.
Keep commitments, acknowledge your own mistakes and repair misunderstandings. A student’s difficulty does not prove an inconsistent home history. Monitor their experience, participation and learning rather than defining them by their worst moment. Review with wellbeing or learning-support staff when needs persist.
Supporting Students Experiencing Emotional Neglect gives classroom examples, evidence limits, disclosure guidance and coordinated support arrangements. Emotional Regulation covers adult practices. Any classroom adaptation should fit the student’s support plan and developmental needs.
Evidence for school programmes
Whole-school trauma-informed approaches vary in content and evaluation. Maynard et al. (2019) found no eligible rigorous evaluations in their systematic review. Later studies provide some favourable findings with uneven results and design limitations. This supports careful evaluation of programmes and individual outcomes, not a claim that every recommended classroom practice treats trauma.
References
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Basic Books.
Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Greene, R. W. (2014). Lost at school: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them. Scribner.
Perry, B. D. (2006). Applying principles of neurodevelopment to clinical work with maltreated and traumatized children: The neurosequential model of therapeutics. In N. B. Webb (Ed.), Working with traumatized youth in child welfare (pp. 27-52). Guilford Press.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton.
Siegel, D. J. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment & Human Development, 7(4), 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500365928
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
NSW Department of Education. (2020). Trauma-informed practice in schools: An explainer. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/about-us/educational-data/cese/2020-trauma-informed-practice-in-schools.pdf
Maynard, B. R., Farina, A., Dell, N. A., & Kelly, M. S. (2019). Effects of trauma-informed approaches in schools: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 15(1-2), e1018. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1018