Lead with Confidence—Earn Your Trauma Certification Now

Starr’s Trauma and Resilience Specialist Certification is a comprehensive program that advances the expertise of professionals who work with children across settings. Certified Trauma and Resilience Specialists acquire knowledge and practical tools to effectively foster resilience and healing in children who experience stress and trauma. A curious mindset is essential for trauma-informed and resilience-focused care. Participants learn to observe children through a lens of curiosity, wondering not only about adverse experiences but also about strengths and resources.

Focusing on brain development, science, and research about the nervous system provides a greater understanding of how new resilience-building interactions and experiences – not fear or punishment – resolve challenging symptoms, reactions, and behavior in children.  Certification supports confidence and motivates professionals to implement strength-based best practices to reduce challenging behavior, decrease anxiety, aggression, and rule-breaking behavior, increase academic performance, and enhance overall well-being.


This makes so much sense. Yes, we have to address the child’s pain before behavior will ever improve. I can’t believe I never learned these concepts before taking this certification.”
– Elementary educator


There are three distinct Trauma and Resilience Specialist Certifications for competence and proficiency in particular fields: Clinical, Education, and Early Childhood. Clinical professionals such as social workers, counselors, and therapists master the SITCAP® model, a sensory-based approach to working with traumatized youth. Educators learn detailed and concrete actions to create supportive and restorative classrooms and school climates. Early childhood professionals like preschool teachers, childcare specialists, early childhood center directors, and staff learn how to make every interaction with children an opportunity to provide protective factors to promote optimal development.


“I feel so much more confident now. I know I am an excellent practitioner, but I have been desperate for concrete tools to use with the children in my practice.”
– Social Worker


Certification provides professional credibility and recognition for those who desire to learn and participate in a solution to address the national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. Your role in this is significant and impactful. Starr’s theory of change states that when trauma-informed, resilience-focused adults work within trauma-informed, resilience-focused systems, the overall well-being of all children will increase.

Check out our Certified Trauma and Resilience Specialist Certification and get 20% off during our Back to School Sale!

How Co-Regulation Supports Early Childhood Growth

Summary:

  • Engaging strategies like “Rainbow Breathing” and “Be a Tree” can help preschoolers learn self-awareness and regulation.
  • Co-regulation is crucial for early childhood development, as it helps children manage emotions and behaviors.
  • Predictable and nurturing caregiving helps children learn self-regulation, while inconsistent caregiving can hinder this development.

Importance of Co-Regulation

Experiences in early life set the stage for a child’s ability to notice and regulate emotions and behavior. During early childhood, children’s brains continue to develop rapidly, which is closely linked to their capacity for self-awareness and regulation. Infants and toddlers who receive predictable, consistent, and nurturing caregiving develop brain connections and memories that help them recognize their needs and how they are met. This fosters trust in their caregivers, as their experiences demonstrate that someone will help them meet their needs. As they become preschoolers, children begin to connect how they have been cared for with what they can do to meet their needs themselves. Conversely, those who experience unpredictable or inconsistent caregiving might recognize their needs but struggle to start meeting them independently. They might display behaviors to attract adult attention or attempt to meet their needs but fall short.

Role of Co-Regulation

Co-regulation is essential for all ages, especially during early childhood. It involves regulating alongside the child rather than expecting them to manage their needs and emotions independently. In co-regulation, adults help children notice overwhelming emotions, bodily sensations, and needs and then work together to manage these experiences. For example, an adult might say, “Oh, you are feeling really angry; maybe that is why your hands and legs feel like they need to move. Let’s walk down the hall so they can move.” Alternatively, an adult might kneel to the child’s level and help them pick up fallen blocks, taking intentional deep breaths for the child to observe.

Engaging Strategies for Self-Awareness and Regulation

Let’s explore some engaging strategies for self-awareness and regulation that you can share with preschoolers. The effectiveness of these strategies lies in their interactive engagement between a calm, caring adult and the child. Children need to see, hear, and feel the strategy in action. They must first witness the strategy, then learn and practice it repetitively to integrate it into their memory for future use.

  • Rainbow Breathing
    Do you know the colors of the rainbow? If you do, tell me some of them. If you don’t, I can start for you. Each time we name a color, we will take a deep breath in and then a deep breath out. For example, if we start with red, we breathe in red (deep breath through the nose) and then breathe out red (exhale through the mouth). Repeat with all the colors.
  • Be a Tree
    Let’s pretend we are trees. Stand up very straight, as if your body is the trunk of a tree. Feel your feet on the ground and imagine roots growing down from them. Now, stretch your arms out wide and then up high and out wide again. These are your tree branches. Wiggle your fingers, which are the leaves on the branches. For your face, blink your eyes, wiggle your nose, and smile. These can be apples or acorns on your tree. Feel your feet, legs, and body strong like a tree trunk and your arms stretching like branches. Wiggle your fingers, blink your eyes, wiggle your nose, and smile once more. Look at you, a calm, confident, and beautiful tree!

Benefits of Breathwork and Movement

Breathwork and movement are quick ways to regulate emotions. Both naturally calm the body’s nervous system, making them beneficial for children. If a child is tired or reluctant to participate, these techniques can also help with engagement.

Read more: 5 Reasons for Teachers to Co-Regulate Emotions.

teacher helping stressed student

Behavior as Communication in Early Childhood

Many early childhood practitioners report that managing problematic behaviors is their main challenge. What can you do when sticker charts, rewards, and punishments, such as taking away toys or play, don’t work?

A vital component of a trauma-informed, resilience-focused approach to working in early childhood is understanding that behavior is the way children communicate. This mindset puts professionals in the role of curious detectives, trying to determine what kinds of support children need most by using their behavior as a clue. Instead of rewarding or punishing behavior, observe it without trying to change it. Get curious. What do you think the behavior you are observing is trying to communicate to you? When words are difficult to access, preschool-aged children will “show” you what they need. Children exhibit many behaviors, but it often comes down to three primary needs: connection, support, and co-regulation. Here is a simple guide to some of the most commonly observed behaviors that can tell you the primary need a child requires most from caring adults.

Connection

All children need connection and nurturing, but those who need it most will show you through the following observable behaviors:

  • Attention-seeking (they are connection-seeking)
  • Clingy
  • Defiance and refusal to follow directions
  • Constantly craving approval

Tools you can use: Notice children often by saying their names, making eye contact, and making other nonverbal gestures like smiles, especially when they are on task.

Support

All children need adequate support to meet developmentally appropriate expectations for learning emotional and behavioral regulation. Children who need the most support will show you when they display the following behaviors:

  • Gives up easily
  • Afraid to try new things
  • Easily frustrated
  • Will not ask for help
  • Crying and whining

Tools you can use: Provide scaffolding for the task the child is trying to accomplish. Let them know you are there to help them by modeling and practicing with them and then allowing them to try it themselves.

Co-regulation

All preschool-aged children need help regulating their emotions and behavior. Children who require additional co-regulation support are children who behave in the following ways:

  • Can’t sit still
  • Runs from classroom/caregiver
  • Difficult to calm down when upset
  • Aggressive; hits, bites, throws toys

Tools you can use: Ensure your body is calm and your tone of voice is even and balanced. Lean in. Take a walk, practice some simple breathwork with children, and offer them a drink of water or a small snack.

When we view behavior as communication to an underlying unmet need, professionals can focus on supporting the child and understanding the function of what the behavior is trying to accomplish. When a child’s needs are met, there is less need to address problematic behavior.

Enhance your students’ well-being with our essential Mind Body Skills: Activities for Emotional Regulation resource. This resource features age-appropriate activities in mindfulness, breath work, guided imagery, expressive arts, and more. Perfect for quick sessions or existing programs, this guide is a must-have for educators and professionals. Get your copy today!

Mind Body Skills Workbook

Resilience I Spy

Finding the Circle of Courage in Action

Start the New Year with a focus on resilience by teaching your students about the Circle of Courage. Then, challenge them to eye-spy the resilience model’s components in action. 

Circle of Courage: A Model of Resilience

This resilience model is easy to teach students of all ages.

We all have four universal needs. When these needs are met, we feel our best. But we will not feel our best if even one of the four universal needs is unmet. When even one is missing, we might feel sad, frustrated, worried, or angry. Let me tell you about the four universal needs. 

The first one is Belonging – we feel good when we feel like we belong. This can be at school with friends or at home with our families. We feel connected to other people when we feel a sense of belonging. 

The next universal need is Mastery. We feel good when we can accomplish and are good at something – this can be like solving a math problem, learning a new skill while playing a sport, or drawing a picture that makes us proud. 

Independence is the third universal need. This need is met when we control our emotions and behavior. This doesn’t mean we don’t get upset – it just means if we get upset, we know what to do to help ourselves feel better, so we don’t lose our temper or misbehave. 

The last universal need is generosity. We get this need met when we feel helpful and valuable to others. 

To review, we all need to feel like we belong or are connected to others, are good at something, can stay in control of our emotions and behavior even when we are upset, and feel like we are valuable to other people.

Offer your students an I Spy Challenge

As a fun way to start the new year, I am challenging you to a game of eye-spy. In this game, I want you to try to notice your classmates and me when we are getting any one or more of our universal needs met or helping another person obtain one of their needs.  

Whenever you notice the Circle of Courage in action, you can raise your hand and say, “Eye-Spy”. Then, you can tell us what you saw. For example, when a classmate greets another student when they enter the room by saying, hello, they are making that person feel like they belong. If a student helps another student learn how to solve a tricky math problem, they demonstrate mastery. When a student asks for a break instead of yelling or getting angry, they are showing us independence. And, lastly, if I ask a student to bring something down to the office for me, they are being generous. 

Ask students to give you more examples. You can add the examples to a whiteboard, so they are easy for students to reference. Then, start the challenge. You might want to have one or two students keep track of how many universal needs in action are spotted by using a tally for each.  You can play along too. Set a goal for the class for a total number of universal needs spotted during the day. Reinforce the importance of all students getting their universal needs met to feel their best. When all students are aware of others and strive to help meet their needs, the overall classroom culture and climate will improve. 

Dysregulation and Behavior: The Roots of Teacher Burnout

In the demanding world of education, teacher burnout has become a critical issue, often rooted in the complex interplay of dysregulation and challenging student behavior. By understanding the underlying factors of these challenges, we aim to offer insights and strategies to support educators in navigating daily life in their classrooms, ultimately fostering a more sustainable and fulfilling teaching environment.

Teacher Burnout Epidemic

More than 70% of educators in a national survey report that students are misbehaving more now than ever. The most common unwanted student behaviors they observe in their classrooms include emotional and behavioral outbursts, constant fidgeting, nonstop chatter, inattention, getting out of seats to leave the classroom and defiance. The National Center for Education Statistics cites worsening student behavior as a reason for teacher burnout. More than four in 10 K-12 school professionals in the U.S. (44%) say they “always” or “very often” feel stressed at work, outpacing all other industries nationally making educators among the most burned-out groups in the U.S. workforce. 

Student Mental Health Crisis

Managing a classroom of students has always been a challenge but over the past few years, this job has become increasingly more difficult. The number of youths experiencing mental health symptoms and reactions such as anxiety, depression, attention problems and behavior dysregulation has increased. Mental health disorders since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic have continued to rise among children as well as adults.  Stressful and traumatic experiences related to the pandemic along with constant exposure to racial tension and political conflict have remained constant. Child maltreatment, domestic violence, and the overuse of substances such as alcohol and drugs have also increased. In 2021 a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health was declared by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This declaration comes with reports of a severe shortage in the number of mental health practitioners available to meet the demand.

Emotional Dysregulation in Kids: The driver of misbehavior

Often, what is observed as defiance, deliberate or intentional misbehavior may not be what it appears. It is a student’s best attempt to regulate their nervous systems. When students experience a significant amount of stress over a prolonged period, their bodies become dysregulated, thus over-active nervous systems. At times the need for movement can appear disrespectful and not aligned with classroom norms and rules. A dysregulated body cannot sit still as it demands a discharge of energy and activation from the stress overload. A dysregulated body, in survival mode, will do everything it can to regain balance even if that involves a fight or flight response.

  • An overwhelmed student can seem inattentive but really be worried about what happened at home the night before.  
  • An angry student appears to start unnecessary conflict with a teacher or another student however, they couldn’t control their body’s response to a threatening look or tone of voice. 
  • A student elopes from the classroom – they seem not to care but really it is their way of avoiding what they perceive as intimidating and scary.  
  • A student refuses to complete an assignment then you learn they were afraid of looking dumb in front of their classmates.  

How to Heal a Dysregulated Nervous System to Return to Learning

When educators view unwanted behaviors through a lens of being trauma-informed they can see that the real problem is rooted in a student who is dysregulated rather than a student who is “bad” and needs punishment. Dysregulated students need to feel safe by experiencing a sense of connection with a caring adult who is curious about what they need most. Reframing behaviors from what is observed to what the behavior is communicating can make all the difference. Behavior can be a clue to help understand unmet needs such as dysregulation – difficulty with emotional and or behavioral control. Giving up a need to know exactly what to do when unable to control classroom behavior and shifting to a mindset of curiosity can help.

Starr’s Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Focused Behavior Support Plan will help you become curious about the function of the behavior you observe, assess potential unmet needs for students and develop a support plan to help meet their needs. 


References:

American Academy of Pediatrics (2021). A declaration from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association: Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://www.aap.org/en/advocacy/child-and-adolescent-healthy-mental-development/aap-aacap-cha-declaration-of-a-national-emergency-in-child-and-adolescent-mental-health/

Marken, S. & Agrawal, S. (2023). K-12 workers have highest burnout rate in the U.S. Gallup Poll Education. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate

National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Teachers’ Reports of Disruptive Student Behaviors and Staff Rule Enforcement. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved [date], from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a11

pillars of intervention

The Core Pillars of Intervention

There are three inter-related core needs or pillars of intervention as referred to by Bath & Seita (2018) for successful intervention with children affected by adversity. These pillars include: safety, connection, coping ability. A felt sense of safety in the physical, emotional, relational, and cultural realms is established when educators and practitioners remain in a place of curiosity with children. This also supports connection and alignment to promote healing and build resilience, buffering or protecting against future experiences. Connection-building through meaningful interactions establishes a caring and healing environment where learning how to cope adaptively with stress can occur. Empathy and a nonjudgmental approach is necessary for children to feel supported in being honest and open in exploring how what has happened is impacting the way that person experiences themselves, others and the world around them.

Unfortunately, each of us only has limited opportunities to establish safety and connection throughout children's days or weeks. So how can we make the most of the time we do have? I spoke about this topic in an episode of Resilient Educators. Watch the excerpt below.

Earn your trauma certification with 10 Steps to Create a Trauma-Informed Resilient School

focus article by dr Caelan soma about universal needs

Understanding Private Logic and Behavior

Imagine an eleven-year-old student who, their entire life, has experienced that when adults in their home yell, someone gets hit or hurt. And then this student is in your classroom and you, in a well-intentioned and benign manner, raise your voice to get the attention of the class. When this happens, he is immediately triggered based on his past experiences. And then his best friend sitting next to him pokes him in the shoulder. The student reacts, possibly hitting his best friend. On the surface this looks like an irrational, unstable, and aggressive behavior. But underneath, based on the what is called the student’s private logic, there is some level of rationality to what has occurred, but his body is still scared. We have to be curious rather than certain when observing behavior that seems to not make sense on the outside.

There is a distinct link between a student’s private logic and their behavior. Private logic can be described as how a person views themselves, others, and the world around them. Private logic is created as a result of experiences. Based on that logic, they act accordingly. Think of private logic as an invisible backpack. In the backpack, a student carries around beliefs about themselves, beliefs about the adults that take care of them, and lastly, beliefs about other people they interact with in their lives and beliefs about the world. This logic is a result of experiences – both good and bad – over the course of development and life. If their lives have been filled with fear, abandonment, and anger, their private logic will be consistent with those experiences. They will view themselves as scared and powerless, others will not be trusted, and the world to them is seen as a scary place. If their lives have been filled with comfort, connection, and love, their logic will be consistent with those experiences. They will view themselves as capable and valued. They will see others as consistent and approachable, and will view the world as filled with opportunities of goodness and hope.

FOCUSED FOLLOW-THROUGH

So, the next time a child you work with makes a comment about themselves or others, or acts in a particular way—either positive or negative, remain curious! Based on what I just witnessed:

“How might this child view themself? How might this child view others? How might this child view the world?” Then, approach your care with their world-view in mind!

FOCUS FURTHER

Learn more about Private Logic in
the eLearning course Children of Trauma & Resilience:

To learn more about private logic, or to incorporate private logic-focused resources into your profession, consider these offerings
from Starr Commonwealth.