{"id":2840,"date":"2015-04-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stonebridge-blog.positive-dedicated.net2\/teaching-assistants-and-education\/what-keeps-you-awake-at-night-2"},"modified":"2020-11-26T13:08:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T13:08:47","slug":"what-keeps-you-awake-at-night-too-many-troubled-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/teaching-assistant\/what-keeps-you-awake-at-night-too-many-troubled-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Are too many troubled children keeping you awake?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>A sensitive article about troubled children in this week\u2019s TES struck deep into the heart.<\/h2>\n<p>It was entitled \u201c<em>What keeps me awake at night<\/em>?<em> Too many troubled children, too little time<\/em>\u201d and was written by an English teacher in south-east England.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Troubled pupils from every social background are becoming more and more common, claims our concerned teacher.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge \u2013 How to claw back time from less important tasks to give these kids the time and attention they crave.<\/p>\n<p>Researching further into this subject of concern revealed&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/psychcentral.com\/blog\/archives\/2013\/11\/10\/helping-kids-with-trauma-succeed-at-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">some of the reasons for the challenging behaviour patterns that these pupils display.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>1) Step Change<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The transition from a care giving environment to an educational environment is challenging enough for children from supportive backgrounds, it\u2019s a total nightmare for those coming from dysfunctional families.<\/p>\n<p>School is a place of learning, socialization, structure and rules. It is a place run by adults other than their own parents. Life at school is very different to life at home.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s here in the classroom that pupils begin to encounter diversity, differences in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Race<\/li>\n<li>Ethnicity<\/li>\n<li>Gender<\/li>\n<li>Physical abilities<\/li>\n<li>Culture and upbringing<\/li>\n<li>Values<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Self-esteem grows with academic and social successes but shrinks when failure is encountered.<\/p>\n<p>Most kids make the transition relatively easily, quickly getting into alignment with learning and expected behaviour with the usual minor hitches along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Troubled children react differently. The imposed changeover is difficult for them and their teachers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/category\/teaching-assistant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">teaching assistants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><strong>2) Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Troubled children and children of trauma usually come from families of intergenerational abuse involving:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alcoholism<\/li>\n<li>Drug addiction<\/li>\n<li>Neglect<\/li>\n<li>Physical and sexual abuse<\/li>\n<li>Frequent housing moves<\/li>\n<li>Absent parents<\/li>\n<li>Depressed parents<\/li>\n<li>Parents working in 2 or 3 jobs<\/li>\n<li>Poverty<\/li>\n<li>Emotionally absent caregivers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This often results in aggressive behaviour. These children are defiant and hostile to teachers and their classroom assistants.<\/p>\n<p>They refuse to read or do any work. It\u2019s difficult for the caregivers to view life from their perspective.<\/p>\n<p>The teaching staff cannot relate to the number of stressors the trauma&nbsp;children experience every single day at home and in school.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3) Parents<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Does the blame rest with the parents? The immediate answer that comes to mind is yes, that\u2019s where the problem originated. But research shows that the parents of these troubled children:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Loved them<\/li>\n<li>Were traumatized themselves<\/li>\n<li>Didn\u2019t know how to give the children what they had never got<\/li>\n<li>Couldn\u2019t meet basic attachment or emotional needs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"\/userFilesD\/iStock_000060601112_Small.jpg\" alt=\"girl with pony tails with hand on face\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\">How do these facts make the children feel and act?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Therefore their offspring have major difficulties with social and emotional needs. They feel that no one understands them, they are not loved and that they are failures.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine repeatedly returning to the place that reflects and amplifies your feelings of failure. It shouts that you have failed, it tells you that all you do is wrong and that there is a massive difference between you and the others. You just do not fit in! Well that\u2019s how these troubled children feel.<\/p>\n<p>Is it any wonder that the author of the TES article stays awake at night?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>So what can be done? That\u2019s the subject of next week\u2019s blog.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Troubled pupils from every social background are becoming more and more common. The challenge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":6499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[380,379,266,168,261],"class_list":["post-2840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching-assistant","tag-behaviour","tag-children","tag-teacher","tag-teaching-assistant","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24601,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions\/24601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}