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A change is coming to the school system, one that is changing the focus on children’s behavior for the better. The new focus will be on a more holistic approach to combating trauma and disruptive behavior.
Trust-Based Relational Intervention, or TBRI, is a fairly new practice that is being implemented in the educational system in the NS School District. Faculty and parents will now have the opportunity to learn and apply informed practice.
A few teachers at Mount Pleasant Elementary have already been able to receive the training and have begun to apply the principles in their classrooms. The teachers involved in the small-scale testing have promoted the program for any and all teachers and parents. This summer, training will be offered to all NSSD staff and select families. The TBRI Family Connection Day Camp will be held June 26-28 at NS High School. The school will be working with Raise the Future, a non-profit organization with a focus on healthy adoption.
“We had the opportunity to participate in a similar camp last fall that Raise the Future put together,” social worker Cindy Lund said. “This is what our families need. My job is parent engagement and trying to connect parents with resources; this is information I want our families to have. So just right off the bat, I knew that this was what would benefit our families.”
TBRI began as a program started by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross at Texas Christian University. In 2005, the TCU established the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development to help fund the program. With their research, Cross and Purvis found ways to help children and their development after suffering from trauma. Together they also wrote a book titled “The Connected Child” that teaches their principles in the form of a parenting guide.
The key ideas of TBRI stem from the idea that anyone and everyone has the need for connection. Specifically, they focus on the complex needs of children who have experienced any form of trauma or neglect and how this presents in their behavior. The trauma factors are referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and are crucial in recognizing behavioral patterns in children.
“Recent data from the School Counselor Association has suggested that 73 percent of our students have at least one ACE score,” school psychologist Candice Walker said. “We know that this affects their ability to learn. We want to come in to support them with those physiological things, ecological things, to give them a better chance so that we can help their brain to get corrected and get back on so that they can learn better and enjoy school more.”
While the program began as a way to help parents who were taking care of children who have gone through the foster care system, the same teachings have been worked into lessons for educators and caretakers of all kinds to help them better understand what is happening to these children mentally and how to best handle those situations.
“There’s the saying, ‘You never know what somebody else is going through,’” Mount Pleasant elementary school teacher Kenzie Larsen said, “And as teachers, we have these kids that come in here, and we have no idea what their history has been. We have no idea. They talk about ACEs, and ACEs were some type of trauma or something that has affected the way that they handle stress.”
The NS school district has become one of the first districts in central Utah to begin implementing these principles into the school system and that all begins with training and informing teachers on the foundation and the pillars of TBRI. So far only a handful of teachers have had the opportunity to attend training.
“It’s a trauma informed practice,” Walker said, “and all trauma informed practices have to have these three pillars which are connection, felt safety, and self-regulation. The foundation of that is three other pillars, and that’s connection, empowering, and correcting. So, what we do is we teach them how to do those things.”
Although the program is only just beginning to be applied in schools, the basics are simple key aspects that have been in practice for teachers already, such as connecting with students in the classroom.
“Connection is the biggest,” Mount Pleasant elementary school teacher Tim Syme said, “and that’s probably another main thing we did differently this year than I’ve done in the past is that I made an effort to make connections with kids. You know, as a teacher, you’re naturally supposed to do that. But for certain kids, it’s hard to connect with everybody. But we’ve made that conscious effort to connect with everybody.”
Once the connections have been made, teachers can start to observe the student’s behavioral patterns and become better aware when issues arise.
“It kind of changed at least how I want to respond to those problems,” Larsen said. “We all have bad days and sometimes you just need somebody to not get in your face about it, like okay, I can tell you’re on a bad day. Why don’t you go get a drink or go for a walk? Come back. Let’s reset.”
When problems are noticed, the program provides intervention techniques that can help the student have time to process their emotions and improve their state of mind.
“I mean, it’s going to be simple things like a drink of water or some bubble gum,” Lund said. “Sometimes there’s so much more we would go into or behind that, but oftentimes it really is just simple, simple little interventions that you can do that help establish the felt safety, establish that interaction and build that connection.”
Another way that teachers have been able to help their students is to be an advocate for their situations. Few students have the type of support that they need and as an adult in their lives, teachers have become aware of their responsibilities.
“There’s been times we’ve even had to step back and go, this isn’t the right way,” Larsen said. “You advocate for your kids, you know, going into meetings or this or that, and you want others to see your kids in the new light that you see them as. And so, you advocate even harder for these kids that do have to struggle with it because sometimes they don’t have that.”
Despite the idea that the TBRI practices would be quick and simple changes, the application has been a learning experience for teachers and faculty. The changes require effort and perseverance.
“It’s a practice,” Mount Pleasant elementary school teacher Burgundy Butler said, “you practice it every day. To look at a situation in a different light, and then you have to just keep practicing because it’s hard. It’s a trial, trial by fire and you fail more than you don’t in the beginning.”
As the training is offered, it will continue being an unique opportunity for the local area while the state of Utah works on expanding it further.
“It’s worldwide,” Walker said. “But DCFS [Division of Child and Family Services] has adopted it as a model and that they’re trying to teach and to get into homes as well. So, it’s just, it’s kind of on fire. Like the courts are just adopting it nationwide. But as in terms of who does it right now in Central Utah, we’re kind of it right now for a minute. We’re hoping that it will grow and expand, but we’re pretty limited.”
In spite of TBRI starting as a way to acknowledge the needs of children facing trauma, the same factors and principles benefit anyone willing to apply the practice.
“Though this was originally created for trauma kiddos,” Walker said, “we know that what works for trauma works for all of us, so it’s helpful for adults, it’s helpful for our autism population, the ones that were born with brain chemistry difficulties, ADHD, you know, impulse control, all of that. But really it’s for everybody, the neurotypical, as well as those that have other struggles. So, that’s why we were able to open it up to everybody. It’s not just for trauma.”
