Childhood poverty and Adverse Childhood Experiences

 

Having recently read, ‘Poverty Safari’ and then going along to Darren McGarvey’s Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name, where he related his experiences to the film ‘Resilience – the biology of stress and the science of hope’ which I saw earlier this year; this post offers some reflective questions to help teachers to start thinking about and addressing the impact of childhood poverty and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in their own context.

 

Living in poverty is often not a choice but created and perpetuated by a complex set of circumstances which leave some feeling bleached out of society and done to, rather than done with. I really like this description of poverty from McGarvey’s book, Poverty Safari;

 “Poverty is more like a gravitational field comprising social, economic, emotional, physiological, political and cultural forces. Each person’s escape velocity is different, relative to their specific circumstances.” (p139)

 

Children growing up in poverty often feel a deep sense of shame and live in constant fear. This shame can manifest in any number of ways, some children will become aggressive or confrontational, appear lazy, or appear to not care about anything. The fear response often stems from feelings of inadequacy or vulnerability, where their core belief is that ‘they aren’t smart or good enough’.

 

Who in your class/context displays these behaviour?

What support is being offered to them, both in your class and beyond?

What can you do to ensure they feel included?

 

Living with extreme stress, changes people in all aspects of their lives; mentally, emotionally and physiologically, being hypervigilant changes how you think, feel and behave. Research into Adverse Childhood Experiences makes links between chronic stress and social issues such as chronic illness in adults, addictive behaviours and violence. Chronic stress can result in communications being expressed through negative behaviours, or as McGarvey puts it “in the midst of so many potential threats, it’s no easy to express yourself “(p34). McGarvey describes the chronic stress that people in disadvantaged communities are living with day in, day out as “the soup everyone is swimming in all the time.”(p80), an apt description of just keeping your head above the water to survive.

 

Do you have enough information about each child in your class to help you to be effective in supporting their learning?

In what ways can you use the resources you have in your context to support children who are conveying a stress response?

 

In schools, the effect of poverty and ACE’s can be seen through the lens of poor attendance, under-achievement and attainment, and challenging behaviours. Schools and education systems must strive to counter balance the effects of poverty by making the curriculum and learning experiences more relevant to the lives of children in poverty.  By taking cognisance of where children are in their lives and how they are presenting, and their readiness to learn would be the starting point for this.  Some schools and learning communities are excellent in this area and offer fabulous support for all learners.

 

In what ways is your school/learning community addressing childhood poverty and the impact of ACE’s?

How are you addressing childhood poverty and ACE’s in your classroom?

 

Curriculum content and learning experiences and opportunities also need to be considered in light of children in poverty. Being presented with curricular content that children cannot relate to can be challenging, as they have no schema or reference point to build this onto and this can lead to feelings of disenfranchisement. McGarvey talks about this disenfranchisement as “I couldn’t read a book because the curriculum was full of pretentious, upper class nonsense that said nothing about my community or experience.”(p17).

 

So how is the curriculum structured to support all children to achieve and in your class how do you ensure the learning experiences are relevant and support the building of knowledge, skills and dispositions?

 

Building a relationship with each learner is crucial. Everyone is looking for a human connection which nurtures and supports them. McGarvey talks about people in his life that he felt he could trust, was energised by, felt supported and heard by, and most importantly who understood him. They made him feel valued and were a positive force.

 

Thinking about the children you work with, who needs you to be that nurturing positive force?

How are you going to address this?

What support do you need to do this?

 

The impact of childhood poverty and ACE’s is very complex which will only be addressed through multi-agency working. Improving teachers understanding of childhood poverty and ACE’s can be a step towards being part of the multi-agency working that is needed to improve the life chances of the young people of Scotland.

 

 

References

McGarvey, D (2017) Poverty safari. Luath press ltd. Edinburgh

http://connectedbaby.net/dr-suzanne-zeedyk/

http://www.healthscotland.scot/population-groups/children/adverse-childhood-experiences

http://www.adversechildhoodexperiences.co.uk/

 

Leadership for Resilience – Putting ACE’s awareness into action

At the third attempt, I managed to secure a place and attend the ‘Leadership for Resilience – Putting ACE’s awareness into action’ in Kelty this weekend. This event like many similar events across Scotland, more information here, was hosted by Suzanne Zeedyk (@suzannezeedyk) and David Cameron (@realdcameron). The morning started with a hushed hall full of trepidation as Suzanne invited us to consider the effect of over stimulation of ‘fight or flight’ responses and the resultant constant yo-yoing of cortisol levels in our blood streams.

The event, in two parts, this first of which was to watch ‘Resilience – the biology of stress and the science of hope’, this was followed with a discussion about the impact of the film, personal storytelling and contributions.

The film made by James Redford carries the tag line ‘the child may not remember, but the body remembers’ and outlines that “toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death” as it demonstrates how altered responses to stress can lead to physical changes in the way the brain develops.

These claims are backed up by a report published in 2016 entitled “‘Polishing the Diamonds' - Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences in Scotland”, here, which discusses how adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) can effect children’s life-long well-being. The report outlines the categories of ACE’s as: emotional, physical or sexual abuse; emotional or physical neglect; domestic abuse; substance misuse; mental ill health; criminality; separation or living in care.

The report states that “Individuals who have experienced four or more ACE’s are;

·         Almost 4 times more likely to smoke

·         Almost 4 times more likely to drink heavily

·         Almost 9 times more likely to experience incarceration

·         Almost 3 times more likely to be morbidly obese.”

If these statistics are not startling enough, those who have experienced more than 4 ACE’s are also at greater risk of poor educational and employment outcomes, low mental well-being and life satisfaction and recent violent involvement or inpatient hospital care, chronic health conditions and having caused/been unintentionally pregnant before the age of eighteen.

So how can we tackle ACE’s? In the report (2016) “Bellis outlines how ACEs should be a consideration across the life course with a focus on prevention, resilience and enquiry” and considering family context, parental and family risk and household adversities.

So what does this mean for teachers, teachers learning and support for teachers across Scotland?

GIRFEC, as a policy, should pervade all education in Scotland but perhaps we have lost focus as other ’priorities’ have come to the fore and have taken our attention away from GIRFEC or as David Cameron puts it “when did GIRFEC stop being a policy and become a slogan”. In Scotland we may need to ask tough questions about policy priorities. Does current policy express and privilege the holistic child and the wrap around a child needs or does it privilege attainment? This dichotomy of policy priority may miss the child who is ‘human and wants to succeed’. The drive for attainment can sometimes not see the obvious that “care is a strategy for attainment” and attainment is supported by a caring learning environment where children feel safe; safe to be, safe to fail and safe to continue to learn. This is where PEF funding can be invaluable for schools, it can be spent on resources and interventions that support better holistic HWB outcomes for all children and avoid targeting, labelling and limiting children e.g. improve the attainment of SIMD 2 children.

Teacher professionalism and the value of social justice in the Professionals Standards means that teachers should take into consideration, and action the ways adversity in childhood affects children receptiveness and ability to learn on a daily basis. Within the current review of the Professional Standards, do we need to go as far as the Professionals Standards in China where ‘love’ and ‘care’ are mentioned explicitly?

As the basis of teaching is in relationships, the breakdown of relationships cause ACE’s, relationships can also be the solution for ACE’s. So, how do we as an education system support teachers at all stages of their careers to build positive relationships with children? For ITE, this would mean ensuring the selection procedures do not solely rely on academic qualifications but also take into consideration personal attributes and disposition. ITE institutions should support teachers to develop their identity and skills in supporting children and seeing this film may provide an excellent stimulus for discussion around these areas.

Teachers can make small changes to their practice, for example, a quick ‘temperature check’ and ‘hello’ as children arrive to class and using the child’s name “can change a child’s biology”.

Teachers and schools can also change their perspective by changing the language they use in describing children’s behaviours, one Fife primary school changed their language from “challenging behaviour” to “distressed behaviour”. This changed their outlook on managing and supporting their pupils by changing the conversation from behaviours to the causes of the behaviours. This change in language could go some way changing views on how we support vulnerable children before they become damaged children.

Parents are the crucial third partner in a child’s education. Supporting children but neglecting the family rarely leads to long term change. Schools can make a difference but not all the difference, family involvement and family learning are a key element in reducing ACE’s.

Finally we were asked to “In ONE word, how has today left you feeling?” My word was curious. These preventions to reduce ACE’s all seems so evident and fundamental to teaching, I am curious to know why this is not taking place, not just in Scotland but all over the world. Is it not obvious that all of our experiences shape us and influence our choices and behaviours, so why are we just beginning to talk about this, in these terms, now? Why only now are we being explicit? Our question to children needs to change from “what’s wrong with you?” to “what’s happened to you?” to support all children to be the best they can be.

P.S. Suzanne briefly flashed a book by Carol Craig called “Hiding in Plain Sight” which asks the question “If Scotland had an ACE’s score, what would it be?” so guess what has just been added to my collection?