TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN  |  VOL. 5 NO. 4                 Download PDF
INTERVIEW BY LAURA J. COLKER

Teaching Young Children is pleased to present the second in a series of profiles of researchers whose work is of interest to preschool educators. Here, Dr. Travis Wright—a scholar-activist, assistant professor of educational research at the George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C., and director of the GWU Resilience Project—discusses research on children who experience trauma and best practices for supporting such children in preschool settings.

Laura J. Colker: Can you tell us a bit about your current research?

Travis Wright: I study resilience—the ability to succeed in the face of hardship. Many young children have messy lives. We know that poverty, family conflict, unsafe neighborhoods, maltreatment, and other forms of “toxic stress” may have major consequences for children’s development. Far less is understood about how children persevere in the midst of such challenges. It is not clear why some children thrive and others do not. I am interested in better understanding resilience and how teachers may better support children in overcoming daily challenges.

Much of my past research focused on teaching young children affected by trauma. Trauma, by definition, overwhelms one’s capacity to cope. It forces people to confront just how fragile they are and may lead them to view the world as a menacing, dangerous place. Such feelings are especially terrifying for young children, who are completely dependent on others to care for them. If you know that you cannot take care of yourself and you think that the world is out to get you, growing up is very scary indeed! Likewise, if all you have ever known in your short life is fear, stress, and struggle, the seeds of hope may never have been planted in you. Growing up without hope is a recipe for disaster—for the child and the world.

The natural response to trauma is to protect oneself in one of three ways—fighting, freezing, or fleeing. All three are signs of resilience, reflecting a desire to live and be safe. However, it is difficult to learn, grow, and make friends if you are running for your life! Many children come to school every day fighting to survive—watching their backs, ready to run out the door at the first sign of danger, or sitting quietly in
the corner trying to remain invisible. My aim is to develop approaches and understandings that allow teachers and schools to engage and educate such children and families more responsively and effectively.

LC: Why do you think it is important for preschool teachers to be aware of this research?

TW: For many children the demands of the classroom and home may require very different skills and understandings. For example, children who learn about life through the perspective of a parent struggling with depression or addiction may never “feel” the typical emotions of childhood. They learn not to waste energy crying if no one is going to answer!

Consequently, children in these circumstances may question the world’s ability and desire to respond to their needs. They become self-reliant, skeptical of others, and withdrawn. Unfortunately, the survival strategies that keep a child safe at home are frequently viewed as behavior problems or as developmental deficits in the classroom.

When teachers do not honor young children’s survival strategies, children’s fears that the world is out to get them are confi rmed. Preschool becomes one more scary place. This dynamic has important implications for the ways we support children and families navigating difficult circumstances.

LC: In what ways can preschool teachers apply your research to their work?

TW: To help children overcome the challenges of messy lives, early childhood settings must be safe places. Teachers must apply a strength-based perspective—seeing children as fighting to live, rather than on the risky road to failure.

Especially for children who have experienced trauma, classrooms must be safe, predictable, structured, and caring. Raising one’s voice, abrupt transitions, or an unpredictable schedule, for example, may trigger the traumatized child to fight, flee, or freeze. Each of these responses interrupts learning and social-emotional development.

Teachers must be vigilant about responding not only to children’s behavior, but to their needs as well. Sometimes traumatized children are too anxious to sit quietly during circle time, too afraid of who might walk in the room to take their eyes off the classroom door, or too deprived to share a doll or toy. Rather than criticizing children for these behaviors, it is important for teachers to recognize the underlying causes and help the child to feel more calm, safe, and content.

LC: How might preschool teachers incorporate these strategies in their classrooms?

TW: Here are a few suggestions. If a child is too anxious to sit, allow him to stand quietly by the teacher’s side or give him a Koosh ball to roll in his hands to self-soothe. Seat a child afraid of who might walk through the door in a part of the classroom that feels less exposed. Throughout the day, gently remind children, “This is a safe place. No one will hurt you here.” Let a child who is too deprived to share take her favorite toy home overnight or for the weekend if she agrees to share it with others during the day. Assign her special jobs like passing out snacks, so she can give things to other children without having to give anything up. At the same time, these actions will help her experience the pleasure of sharing and feeling special for doing nice things for others.

LC: What fi rst got you interested in working with traumatized children?

TW: As a public school teacher and school-based mental health counselor, I witnessed firsthand the challenges many children face. Two children especially—“Jorge” and “Goddess”—helped me to see that even in the midst of very messy lives, there is much beauty and strength. They challenged me to recognize them as individuals who were fi ghting to live. They taught me that my role was to support their own inherent strengths, rather than trying to “save” or change them. As I began to see these things more clearly in Jorge and Goddess, they and those around them began to see them more clearly as well.

Through this work, I observed that as children become more trusting, they frequently become more outwardly focused, less temperamental, and able to share more positive emotions. Soon, they receive more positive attention from teachers and peers and build social-emotional skills through interactions with others. Similarly, as teachers begin to see these children in a more positive light, I have noticed that the teachers often begin to enjoy the children more. Teachers feel hopeful that they might make a positive difference in the child’s life and gain energy from their love and affection. The mutual transformation that occurs between such children and the important people in their lives inspires and sustains a supportive network—greatly improving their future prospects.

LC: What are your future research plans?

TW: Building on the profound influence of trauma on children’s view of the world, I am designing a study to better understand how maltreated preschoolers make decisions about the safety and quality of their classroom environments and their relationships with teachers and peers. This information will be critical in developing interventions that allow these children to feel safer in their classrooms and to develop more constructive relationships with teachers and other children.

Other projects under way include an exploration of how teachers’ fears for children influence their teaching practices, and a test of the effectiveness of a school-based obesity-prevention program for urban preschoolers. My long-term goal is to develop applied interventions and social policies that are more effective and relevant to children and families navigating challenging circumstances.

LC: Please explain your view of the relationship between researchers and teachers. How can teachers apply theory to practice? How can the work of researchers be informed by the work of teachers?

TW: I think it’s critically important that practice inform what and how we research, and that research be used to strengthen practice. I work very hard to spend time in classrooms, to maintain a small clinical practice, and to be engaged in research, because I recognize that my involvement in all strengthens my ability in each.

LC: What else would you like our readers to know?

TW: As a teacher, counselor, and researcher, I have observed that the children most diffi cult to like almost always receive the worst treatment from peers and adults. Frequently, these children are the ones who are fighting to live—watching their backs and keeping others at a “safe distance.” Perhaps this is the most devastating consequence of maltreatment or an otherwise messy life: If one is poorly loved, it is difficult to know how to be lovable. If one is raised by a depressed or absent caregiver or in a violent neighborhood, one may never have learned to manufacture or recognize laughter. These children who would most benefi t from drawing others close to them have only learned to keep them away.

In my own life, I have found these children are my most important teachers. They have helped me find room in my heart that I did not know existed. Reflection, coaching, support, and grace (for ourselves and the child) have always been effective. Sometimes it can be helpful to have an outsider observe my interactions with particular children and help me imagine different ways of responding to them. By the time we are struggling to feel close to a child, we may be too close to the situation to see what is really going on. Another set of eyes can be useful. Being honest with myself about challenging feelings and refl ecting about them on my own and with respected, trusted colleagues has helped me to fi nd ways to treat these children the way they deserve to be treated—rather than how they are expecting to be treated.