3.3.8 Survival Mode: Trauma-Informed Practices for Gifted Students

For students to be successful and reach their potential in the classroom, their needs must be met on all levels - not just academically, but physically and emotionally. Trauma has a widespread effect on a student in all facets of their life. For students who are gifted, the effects of trauma could be even more complex. Increased sensitivity, wider existential awareness, and academic pressures all are risk factors facing high-ability children that their same-age peers may not face in the same way. Taking a strengths-based approach including integrating critical thinking and problem solving into the interventions to help these children recover from trauma and build resilience for trauma that may occur in the future fits the needs of high-ability learners.

Participants in this session will: 1. Develop skills to recognize, understand, and respond to the signs and symptoms of trauma in our students. 2. Understand the differences of “Big-T” and “Little-t” trauma and sources of each. 3. Recognize that trauma can be caused by situations high-ability learners may be exposed to frequently, such as high-stakes coursework, bullying, and perfectionism.- 4. Explore how the complex intellectual and emotional characteristics of gifted students play a role in their ability to cope with trauma.

The presenter will integrate experiences from clinical work with gifted children dealing with trauma and research from professionals at the forefront of trauma-based care (research base listed below) to help participants learn how educators, parents, and mental health professionals can support help our students make it out of survival mode and reach their potential.

Sources:

Forbes, H. T. (2013). Help for Billy: A Beyond Consequences Approach to Helping Children in the Classroom. Cork: BookBaby.

Greene, R. W. (2014). Lost at school: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them. New York: Scribner.

Steele, W., & Malchiodi, C. A. (2015). Trauma-informed practices with children and adolescents. New York: Routledge.

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