School crisis events may include suicide or self-injury behaviors, accidental death, serious injury, or violent accidents and natural disasters , etc. These accidents will bring chaos to the school, weaken the safety and stability of the school, and make teachers and students feel threatened, helpless, lost, and lost their sense of security.
Crisis threatens people's ability to adapt, making it impossible for people to deal with special situations at that time with conventional solutions. Faced with the adverse effects of crisis events on students, parents, teachers and schools need to respond to varying degrees to minimize the negative impact of the incident.
Therefore, for teachers, it is particularly important to identify students who have been emotionally disturbed by crisis events, and provide timely psychological intervention service resources for students with special needs.
The Child Trauma Intervention Group of the School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University has specially launched the "Crisis Intervention Emergency Manual (Teacher Chapter)" for teachers. In order to start from the actual situation, teachers can understand the impact of crisis events on students, quickly identify students in need, and provide teachers with more practical and effective ways to intervene crisis in .
I hope that through popular science, we can let parents and teachers understand how to do it together to help students plagued by crisis events get out of the haze and regain the sunshine.
The impact of crisis events on teachers and students on students:
Various natural disasters and man-made disasters, especially life-threatening events, may cause strong emotional out-of-control reactions and psychological harm. This kind of harm can bring psychological pain, mixed with strong worry, fear and helplessness, and sometimes beyond the normal range of human beings. When a sudden catastrophic event exceeds the limit of the individual's psychological , the individual's psychological reaction will be too strong, and psychological trauma may occur.
Human-made disasters (such as violent behavior, emotional/psychological abuse, sexual assault, etc.) can easily cause type I (acute) trauma, (Terr, 1991).
The characteristics of this type of trauma are: the time for the formation of trauma is short or one-time; it can occur at different stages in children and adults; the duration after the formation of trauma is not long, usually within three months; some can heal naturally, some benefit through treatment, and some may be converted into type II (chronic) psychological trauma.
After a catastrophic event, people will have higher alertness, strong fear and persistent anxiety. Within nearly a month after trauma, individuals will spend a lot of time and energy to consider or find threat information in the environment due to worry and fear, and are in a highly sensitive and emotionally irritable state, and will become too frightened once they encounter relevant information.
Violences that have a significant impact (especially those that occur in schools) can make students feel confused and fearful. They may feel in danger or worry about the danger of their friends or relatives. They will seek help and guidance from adults. Parents and school teachers can help students better cope with the impact of crisis events by maintaining a normal state, building a sense of security, and talking to students about their fears.
impact on teachers:
Crisis events may not only have a negative impact on students, but also have experienced a disaster for teachers.
On the one hand, teachers need to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring the physical and mental health of students and maintaining school order; on the other hand, teachers themselves are also deeply affected by the crisis events, and at the same time they also need to communicate with students’ parents, experience complex emotional feelings and bear great pressure.
At this time, the common emotions of teachers are anger at the initiator of the crisis, self-blame and frustration of not protecting children, and unreasonable response to the suppression and grievances of the media and parents.
While understanding that students will have different emotional reactions to crisis events, teachers also need to accept and understand their various reactions to events. In the face of negative emotions caused by crisis events, avoiding these emotions will cause greater harm to one's physical and mental health.
The support and help of school teachers is a necessary and important part of students' response to crisis events.
Only after dealing with their emotions can teachers help students more effectively.
The following will provide some methods to help teachers better regulate and process their emotions.
Teachers’ own emotional regulation
Seeking social support is an effective way to help teachers relieve their emotions.
Social support can come from family, friends, and people who have also experienced crisis events. Don’t stop talking because you are afraid of trouble for others, or worry that your emotions will affect others, and don’t worry about becoming a burden to others. After experiencing a crisis, people need support from their peers and families to regulate their emotions and overcome the crisis.
When you want to chat and talk with others, you can better achieve the purpose of dealing with emotions through the following preparations:
Think carefully about who to chat and talk with
Think in advance what you might want to talk about
Choose the right time and place
Talking about the actual and specific events
Let others know that you need to talk with them, or just want to stay with them
When you are ready, you can start talking about your painful views and feelings
Tell others that you are grateful for their company and listening
Tell others what you need now and how they can help you - say something specific to them that they can help you now.
Relaxation exercises can help people relieve tension and anxiety after a crisis.
The following introduces a simple breathing exercise method. You can use it when you need to relax:
1. Inhale slowly, let the air slowly enter your nose or mouth, and then slowly fill your lungs;
2. Slowly and gently say to yourself, "I feel my body is calming";
3. Exhale slowly with your mouth and feel your lungs slowly empty;
4. Slowly and gently say to yourself, "I feel nervous and slowly walking away";
5. Repeat 5 times.
After a crisis event occurs, teachers can also try to deal with and regulate emotions through the following methods:
Exercise moderately, maintain normal work and rest, maintain healthy diet, and arrange positive activities, such as reading, activities related to interests and hobbies. If the above methods cannot effectively help you regulate and handle emotions, you can choose to help yourself out of the impact of the crisis event through psychological counseling.
Identify students who are more affected by events
The impact of traumatic events on individuals is generally caused by the mutual influence of multiple factors, mainly including (a) the traumatic events and (b) personal risk factors. We need to assess the impact of the incident on it by understanding students’ responses to crisis events.
The characteristics of traumatic events can include: predictability, persistence, scale and consequences of the events. Generally speaking, sudden, unexpected, serious casualties and long-term events will have a great impact on the individual.
Personal risk factors may include: whether you are at the scene of a crisis event, your relationship with the parties and your individual vulnerability. Generally speaking, students who are closer to the scene, more closely related to the parties, suffer from mental health problems, lack social support, or have weak ability to cope on weekdays will be more susceptible to traumatic events (Brock et al., 2011).
It can be seen that the first thing that needs to be paid attention to is the parties involved in the crisis event, that is, the students who are directly injured.
In addition, the number of students who witnessed the incident and those who were closely related to the injured students is even larger, and teachers also need to pay attention to it.
In addition, teachers can enhance their understanding of other students’ responses to traumatized students and the information they share. Protect traumatized students from their peers’ curiosity and protect classmates from other students asking about the details of the trauma.
When the teacher observes or receives feedback from others and knows that some students have the following symptoms after the incident, he or she needs to pay attention and provide appropriate intervention in a timely manner.
- Anxiety, fear, and concerns about self and others' safety (increased dependence on teachers);
- Increased anxiety (extraordinary irritability and moodiness);
- Decreased attention during class or homework in class, making it difficult to concentrate;
- Absent/shirk school, unwilling to go to school;
- Show distrust of others, affecting interactions and getting along with others;
- Increased complaints about physical condition (e.g., headache, stomachache , overreacting to minor bumps and scratches);
- Repeated mentions or experiences of traumatic events (e.g., repeated discussion of traumatic events, “playing” or drawing “games” or drawings about traumatic events, and having related nightmares);
- Overreact or underreact to physical contact, bright lighting, sudden movement or loud noises (such as ringtones, door shutdowns or alarms);
- Refer to questions related to death or asking questions;
- Avoiding behavior (e.g., resisting to go to the toilet, playground, or other places that remind children of crisis events);
- Emotional numbness (e.g., seemingly not feeling much about traumatic events).
What can teachers do in the face of students who may be traumatized?
After a crisis, students need to obtain timely support to rebuild their sense of security. At this time, the attitude of listening, understanding and reminding becomes particularly important.
Listen to : Teachers need to listen to students’ feelings, give them the opportunity to express their emotions, be empathetic, and accept students’ different feelings and ideas.
Understanding : Understand students' feelings of shock, guilt, anger or sadness towards unusual accidents; understand that these feelings are common reactions.
Reminder: reminds yourself and your students that unpleasant things will always pass; take good care of yourself and cherish yourself in difficult times; seek help if you encounter troubles or problems.
The following will introduce the different reactions teachers may have to face the events of students. Corresponding suggestions for reference:
Disbelief, confusing, and confusion
"I really didn't expect that he would suffer such a thing."
"Would you make a mistake? Did you recognize the wrong person?"
"I don't know what to say, and I don't know what I am thinking."
[Suggestions]
It is difficult for everyone to understand meaningless violence. Faced with the disbelief, confusion and confusion shown by students, teachers must first agree that the incident is indeed unbelievable and students need to take time to accept the facts. It is normal to point out that people do have complex feelings and feel confused or even at a loss.
It can be recommended that students try to do what they like, maintain a normal routine, and be with family and friends after a crisis event. These behaviors can help maintain a good mood and no longer worry about events that have already happened. And inform students that if they feel extremely troubled, they should ask teachers or parents for help.
Fear
After a crisis incident, students are often afraid that similar events will happen to themselves, and may have reactions such as difficulty concentrating, insomnia, and having nightmares.
[Suggestions]
Tell such students that fear and panic are normal reactions.
Teachers should ensure the safety of the school and home to students and let them know that adults will protect them. Give some simple examples of maintaining school safety. For example, remind children that the doors outside the school building are locked, there are adult custody students on the playground, and emergency drills conducted during school hours.
You can work with fearful students to come up with ways to relieve your emotions through class meetings, group activities, etc.
informs students that if these emotions seriously affect daily life, they need to seek help from teachers or parents in time.
Sad
Some students may express sadness through crying; some students may not want to discuss topics related to events or their own emotions; and some students may not express their sadness through language, but changes in their behavior, appetite and sleep patterns can indicate their sadness, anxiety or anxiety.
[Suggestions]
Tell students that they feel sad is a normal reaction and allow students to express sadness without stopping them from crying.
Children express emotions in different ways, and there is no right or wrong way to express sadness.
But you need to pay attention to whether the students are overly sad and need further support and help from teachers.
anger
Some students may become angry about crisis events and blame others, such as parents, teachers, etc., who have not prevented the incident from happening.
[Suggestions]
Teachers need to understand students' anger and do not need to argue about who needs to be responsible.
Teachers need to pay attention to the content of their conversations in front of students and limit their exposure to retaliatory, hateful and angry conversations, because these conversations may be misunderstood by children.
You can tell students: If you feel angry or angry, you can ask for help by telling the teacher and parents about their own emotions.
Guilt
Some students who have acts such as ridicule, bullying, or students who feel that they are unable to protect or help the injured at that time may feel guilty, self-blame and other emotions.
[Suggestions]
points out that in the face of such incidents, the friends and some classmates of the parties feel that they have done inadequately or badly, and/or feel that they are responsible, is a common emotional reaction. Teachers need to appreciate their care for the parties involved and relieve their guilt and self-blame.
can tell students: Sometimes, people will do something bad to hurt others. They may not be able to control their anger, be affected by drugs or alcohol, or suffer from mental illness. Adults (parents, teachers, policemen, doctors) will work hard to help these people and stop them from hurting others.
shows disrespect for
There may be students who show impatient, unscrupulous and laughing towards crisis events. Students with such behaviors may fail to accept the facts, do not know how to deal with feelings seriously or face inner confusion, or unconsciously use these methods to conceal their fear.
[Suggestions]
Teachers do not need to be entangled in similar manifestations at this time. Understand the reasons for this reaction. However, when a student performs excessive behavior, such as insulting the person involved, the teacher should not tolerate it. Through ideological education, students need to be aware of the inappropriate aspects of their behavior, listen to students' thoughts and feelings, and inform them of their appropriate handling methods.
Confusion about the incident itself
Some students may be confused about the crisis incident itself, not knowing why these students were hurt and why they were unable to protect them.
[Suggestions]
Teachers need to inform students that the occurrence of events is usually not caused by a single reason, and most events have complex and long-term factors that affect each other.
Tell students about the facts related to the incident and do not pretend that the incident did not occur or the incident is not serious. Children are very smart. If they think that the teacher is too scared and dare not tell them what happened, they will be even more worried.
No special reaction
Not every student has a special reaction or change to a crisis event. Some students may say, "I haven't seen it, it's not my business." "I don't feel it!"
It may be because I haven't reacted to sudden events for the time being, or because some students do not know the person involved, they have no reaction.
[Suggestions]
Teachers should not misunderstand that such students are indifferent or lack of compassion; do not require students to show certain emotions or attitudes.
Tell students that some reactions may appear later and you can ask the teacher for help if needed.
Teachers can also provide students with "timely support" to help students better deal with traumatic events:
General principles of timely support:
Sense of security: Ensure that students are safe enough and stay away from dangerous places and environments; stay honest, if the environment is not safe, tell students sincerely; find students' families.
Calm down: can use distraction methods to keep yourself calm (make eye contact, discuss something without danger, discuss something that is of interest to you), and do not ask for details about the event.
sense of effectiveness: improve students' sense of self-efficacy as much as possible, inform students of the latest news, service status, etc.; let them know how to take better care of themselves; let students think of some examples of their previous sense of effectiveness.
Hope: enhances students' sense of hope, lets them know that good results will appear, and share their experience with students.
Contact: Keep students in touch with their peers, get support from others, and provide students with psychological, physical and practical support as much as possible.
Teachers can make full use of the classroom to provide support to students experiencing traumatic events:
provides students with some opportunities to express themselves (but don’t force students to express themselves), and can use verbal or non-verbal behaviors (drawing, music, etc.).
Don’t avoid talking about trauma : Provide students with opportunities to ask questions, don’t overprotect students, and leave them with regular stress treatment methods.
promotes positive experiences: lets students know that they can laugh and play.
Continuous observation: Continuous observation of students' performance, will there be psychological changes, and will there be too many or too few talk about traumatic events.
In addition, teachers and school workers can consider adjusting school teaching work in the short term, such as:
reduces homework and reduces stress.
Allow extra time for students to complete their homework.
If the student is in an overly intense mood, he can ask the designated adult to help (such as the head teacher or parent).
No matter what kind of crisis happens, it will be deeply regretful. I believe that as gardeners, teachers will do their best to minimize the damage.
I hope the teachers can better deal with the crisis and let a sunny smile bloom on the students’ tender faces again.
