Category: Trauma
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Trauma, Healing, and Positive Identity Development
We have come to realize that bullying is trauma. And many who are bullied or have been bullied have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Bullying can come from peers, but it can also come from a number of other sources, such as aids, teachers, and even the parents of peers. There are countless stories of…
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The Impact of Punitive Discipline on Students with Cerebral Palsy
Students with cerebral palsy (CP) face unique challenges in the educational environment. Unfortunately, these challenges often extend beyond their physical and cognitive limitations to include disproportionate disciplinary measures. Punitive discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, can have lasting adverse effects on these students. Understanding the impact and advocating for more inclusive approaches is crucial.
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Like A Dog: From Child Abuse to Involuntary Hospitalization
When I push deeper, however, as to why I would have had this positive association with restraint and institutional abuse, I realize it’s because I was abused as a child. I’m reminded of my favorite Franz Kafka quotation from The Trial: “‘Like a dog!’ he said, it was as if the shame of it should…
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Interpersonal Safety in the Age of Behaviorism
What do reasonable behavior expectations look like? Different types of behavior are appropriate in different circumstances. The circumstances include externally observable elements as well as things that can only be internally observed by the person exhibiting the behavior.
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Supporting Someone Who Has Survived Seclusion or Restraint
I first started experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder around a month after being restrained for the first time. I was at a long-term residential treatment center (i.e., a “troubled teen” facility) in Utah at the time. I noticed feeling anxious around the staff who had restrained me. I started avoiding the places where a restraint…
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Comment to the FDA: Proposal To Ban Electrical Stimulation Devices for Self-Injurious or Aggressive Behavior
The Alliance Against Seclusion & Restraint strongly supports the proposed ban on electrical stimulation devices (ESDs), including the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) used at The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Caton, Massachusetts. The JRC is the only facility in the United States that uses these harmful devices to deliver painful electrical shocks to the skin…
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A Time for Understanding and Support: Emotional Regulation and the Holidays
I don’t remember when it began to annoy me. Perhaps it was seeing one too many videos of a child opening a present only to be disappointed by its contents while the adults in the room laughed. Or maybe it was going to the comment section of those videos and seeing a slew of comments…
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Seclusion Prevented My Son from Reaching His Potential
Every child deserves to be treated with dignity and deserves to be safe regardless of their race, socio-economic status, or cognitive/physical abilities. All children need love and kindness to thrive in the world. Abraham Maslow created the following hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation.” In order to move up…
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A Trauma-informed Lens on Behavior
Students who have experienced trauma may not always display behaviors that immediately evoke empathy. Managing and expressing emotions can be challenging for these children due to the impact of trauma on their brains. The trauma alters their brain’s instinctual response to “fight, flight, or freeze,” making emotional regulation difficult.
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What About the “Other” Children?
What about the other children? The very problem with this question is that it is coming from a place that only holds space for neurotypical children who don’t appear to need more support. I say appear because there are so many children who are simply better at masking but would absolutely benefit from the same…