Rewriting the Blueprint: Healing Trauma, Unlocking Learning | Nicci Glanville | TEDxStellenbosch ED

Key Concepts:

• Neurossequential Model in Education (NME): A neuroscience-based approach emphasizing regulation, relating, and reasoning in that order.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Traumatic events in a child's life (abuse, neglect, household dysfunction) that have long-lasting negative effects.
• Regulation: Achieving a calm, balanced state necessary for accessing higher-level cognitive functions.
• Relating: Establishing connection and trust with others.
• Reasoning: Engaging in cognitive processes like abstract thinking, problem-solving, and learning.
• Trauma: An event, experience, or effect that has a negative impact long after the event has passed.
• Disregulation: A state of emotional or physiological imbalance, hindering access to the cortex.
• Resilience: The ability to recover quickly from difficulties.
• Co-regulation: The process of helping someone else regulate their emotions.

1. Introduction and the Neurossequential Model in Education (NME)

• The speaker contrasts naturally gifted teachers with those who may struggle with classroom management and student engagement.
• The NME is presented as a potential solution to bridge this gap, particularly in addressing the impact of childhood trauma on learning.
• The speaker initially skeptical, found the NME helpful in understanding why some teaching strategies worked and others failed.
• Example: Playing music helped students' productivity, while scaring them into working did not.

2. Defining Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

• Trauma is defined using the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) definition: an event, the experience of the event, and the long-lasting negative effect.
• The speaker shares a personal anecdote of being hijacked at gunpoint with her daughters to illustrate how the same event can have different experiences and effects on different individuals.
• The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study by Felitti and Anda (1998) is introduced as a seminal work.
  • The study investigated the impact of childhood abuse and household dysfunction on adult health outcomes.
  • ACEs included physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, exposure to violence, criminal behavior, substance abuse, and mental illness in the household.
  • The study's title highlights the effect of childhood abuse and household dysfunction on the causes of death in adults.
• Later studies expanded the definition of ACEs to include chronic illness or death of a caregiver, the AIDS pandemic, unemployment, and community violence.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website is mentioned as a resource for ACEs statistics and information.

3. Impact of ACEs on Learning and Development

• South African longitudinal study (started in 1990 in Soweto, initially "Birth to 10," now "Birth to 30") demonstrates the effect of ACEs in the South African context.
  • Manma and Raa found that 88% of the cohort experienced at least one ACE, and 35% experienced four or more.
• Bethol's American study showed that children with two or more ACEs were 2.67 times more likely to repeat a grade.
• ACEs affect both physical and mental health, as well as classroom performance.

4. The Neurossequential Model Explained: Regulate, Relate, Reason

• The NME, based on Dr. Bruce Perry's work, simplifies the brain's processing of internal and external stimuli.
• Information is processed sequentially: brainstem, diencephalon, limbic area, and cortex.
• A child with multiple ACEs is more likely to be disregulated and unable to access their cortex, leading to misdiagnosis as attention deficit disorder.
• The NME emphasizes a three-step approach:
  • Regulate: Achieving a calm, balanced state.
  • Relate: Establishing connection and trust with others.
  • Reason: Engaging in cognitive processes.
• The speaker humorously acknowledges her own occasional lack of regulation.
• Telling someone to "be calm" is ineffective if they are not feeling calm.
• The question "What happened to you?" is more important than "What is wrong with you?" when addressing emotional or behavioral issues.

5. Stress, Resilience, and Regulation Strategies

• A moderate amount of predictable and controllable stress is necessary for learning and growth.
• Unpredictable and extreme stress, common in children with ACEs, leads to sensitization rather than resilience.
• Practical strategies for regulation:
  • Adults must be regulated to help children regulate.
  • Rhythmic activities (walking, swinging, jumping, bouncing) are effective for regulation.
• Relating strategies:
  • Avoid taking things personally.
  • Co-regulate the person.
  • Minimize power differentials (sit down, move closer).
  • Provide structure and predictability (agendas, time frames, assessment schedules, bedtime routines).

6. Applying the Model in Practice

• When someone is having a meltdown, focus on helping them calm down (regulate) before attempting to reason with them.
• The regulate, relate, reason approach should be applied to all interactions.

7. Recommended Resources

• What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.
• The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz.
• Dr. Bruce Perry's website for additional information.

8. Conclusion

• The core idea of the NME is that regulation and relating are prerequisites for reasoning and effective learning.
• Education is about changing the brain, which requires access to the cortex.
• Reducing the effects of ACEs in one child can have a positive impact on future generations, breaking the cycle of trauma.