Trauma-Informed Practice as an Equitable Practice in Early Childhood Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The systemic inequities propagated by child-serving institutions, such as schools, must be addressed given their centrality in children’s lives. This is especially true for children experiencing complex trauma: exposure to prolonged traumatic events, including concommitant risk factors (poverty, racial discrimination, inherent biases). Such experiences often negatively impact brain structures and functioning with cascading effects on learning processes. Through the lenses of development, education, psychology and social work, we will address the developmental impact of trauma, caregiver responses to expulsion of children with disabilities, teacher biases in the context of children’s challenging behaviors/expulsion, and the results of an Improvement-Science framed, year-long Trauma-Sensitive Pedagogy curriculum/project. Brief presentations will be followed by small-group discussions focused on implementing Trauma-Informed Practice as an Equitable Practice.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Early Education and Child Development

Chair

• Christy Tirrell-Corbin, University of Maryland - College Park

Papers

• Examining the Effects of Early Adversity: From Infancy to Early Adulthood - Kathryn Humphreys, Vanderbilt University

• "Just Not a Good Fit...": Expulsion and Young Children With Disabilities - Catherine Corr, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Examining Equity in Trauma-Informed Care: Associations Between Teacher Stress, Trauma-Informed Attitudes, and Child Expulsion Risk - Alysse Loomis, University of Utah

• Implementation of the Trauma-Sensitive Pedagogy Curriculum: A Pilot Study - Carlomagno Panlilio, The Pennsylvania State University; Christy Tirrell-Corbin, University of Maryland - College Park

Discussant

• Carlomagno Panlilio, The Pennsylvania State University