This is your brain on poverty

The topic of the TRC Volunteer Seminar held on October 30, 2013 was "This is your brain on poverty." Lib Gillam, a therapist at the Center for Alexandria’s Children, addressed the effect of being homeless on growing children.    

Ms. Gillam began her presentation by describing the Circle of Security. This behavioral model and corresponding graphic provide the best ways of interacting with a child while attending to his needs.  

As the responsible adult at a Read-Aloud, a volunteer is essentially a child’s caregiver for that period of time. Kids need the volunteers to provide a safe haven and secure base where they can feel safe, comfortable and appreciated. The Circle of Security graphic above shows some specific ways in which volunteers can help kids feel safe and secure so the kids can eventually explore and learn new things. Over time, with such support, kids can work through their feelings.

Next, Ms. Gillam described the physiological effects of homelessness and poverty on developing children and the ways in which children's behavior can be affected. When under stress, the body floods the brain with adrenalin and the body and brain go into fight-or-flight mode. Kids growing up in stressful conditions find their bodies persistently in crisis mode. 

Lacking a sense of control and safety in their everyday lives, children living in homelessness and poverty may exhibit changes in their behavior. Ms. Gillam pointed out various triggers and common responses from children under stress. Some examples are:

• loss of security: she may become hyper-vigilant or emotional
• loss of control: he may try to take control or act out for a limit to be set
• loss of attachment from someone: she may become clingy or avoid contact
• shaken self-concept: he may become withdrawn or look for a role in a group
• anxiety from adults: she will carefully assess adult enthusiasm versus tension

Because the bodies and brains of Read-Aloud kids are likely in an emotionally-charged fight-or-flight mode, it is important to connect with them emotionally and help them feel safe. Volunteers first need to build a relationship with the child before directing or correcting their behavior. According to Ms. Gillam, the best method is to "Connect, then correct.”

While working with kids under stress may seem daunting, the good news is that positive experiences make a difference in the brain. Experiences that strengthen connections

• are frequent, regular and predictable,
• occur in the context of a warm, supportive relationship,
• are associated with positive emotions (fun, excitement, humor, comfort),
• involve several senses and
• are responsive to the child’s interests or initiative.

Creating a TRC Read-Aloud that is fun, predictable and safe helps kids switch out of fight-or-flight mode and create new, positive connections in the brain. 

When asked what elements of this talk they would use at their Read-Alouds, TRC volunteers said, "Now we understand where kids are coming from." Realizing how consistency supports kids under stress and that the kids need to have fun with them gives the volunteers an informed perspective to planning and conducting Read-Alouds.

To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Resilience

What is that special something that enables a person to survive and sometimes even excel under challenging circumstances? What factors or resources strengthen or bolster a child? The September 2013 issue of Educational Leadership explored the concept of resilience and its role in learning.
     
A study described in the issue, Resilience and At-risk Children and Youth, explains that resilience has two parts: "1) An exposure to great risk; and 2) Corresponding factors that help promote positive outcomes or reduce negative outcomes." (p. 3) At-risk children, like the kids TRC serves, often experience multiple risk factors. When these factors occur together, they multiply the behavior problem. For example, "children in families that had accumulated two risk factors showed a more than fourfold increase in behavior problems" when compared to families with one stress factor. (p.4)

In the same issue of Educational Leadership, Nan Henderson’s article, Havens of Resilience, describes protective factors that help kids develop their resilience. The author created a graphic, the Resiliency Wheel, that represents the resiliency-building conditions that have been identified through research.

 Nan Henderson's Resiliency Wheel
from Educational Leadership, September 2013

According to Henderson, the most important environmental protective factor is providing caring and support. The other five factors grow out of it.

The structure and content of TRC's Read-Aloud program provide several protective factors that help kids weather challenging situations. 

At the beginning of each Read-Aloud, volunteers set and communicate high expectations and also set clear and consistent boundaries when they remind kids about TRC’s Promises (Listen, Respect, Cooperate and Have Fun). Consistently reminding the kids about the Promises and enforcing them every week helps the kids know what to expect and reduces their stress.

Every time a volunteer asks a child for his opinion about a story or encourages her to choose a book to take home, the volunteer is expressing his perception of the child as a reader, another high expectation.

By taking the time to ask questions, listening to what kids say about the books being read aloud and providing engaging activities, volunteers create opportunities for meaningful participation and teach life skills.

Getting to know the children and encouraging positive interaction with their Read-Aloud peers increases prosocial bonding. Meeting weekly throughout the year creates a community of readers that cares for and supports each other. This social aspect of the Read-Aloud experience helps kids feel connected to other readers in their neighborhood and to the reading community at large.

The hour each week that TRC kids spend at a Read-Aloud supports their growth as readers and provides them with a positive, consistent, engaging environment that fosters their resilience. Reading with volunteers provides a healthy escape from stress and creates a supportive, caring community that the kids can count on. TRC's Read-Aloud program helps kids become frequent and passionate readers, but it also does so much more in the process.

Nan Henderson, Havens of Resilience, Educational Leadership September 2013, Vol. 71 No. 1, pp. 23-27.

Jan Moore,  Resilience and At-Risk Children and Youth, National Center for Homeless Education, April 2013.

To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

PBS Frontline on kids in poverty

Living in a homeless or domestic violence shelter is not an easy experience for a child, or for anyone. Your life is thrown into disarray. Things you used to take for granted become unknowns. Since the recession began, our nation has seen an uptick in formerly middle-income familieswho have lost jobs and ended up in shelters. The shelters TRC works with are helping families get back on their feet.

TRC also works with families living in affordable housing apartment complexes.  Affordable housing provides housing at a subsidized rate and accepts Housing Choice Vouchers so lower-income families can afford apartments for their families. Housing authorities must give 75 percent of all vouchers to families who earn no more than 30 percent of the area median income and the remainder to those who earn less than 50 percent of that figure. In Arlington County, as of 2012, 30 percent of the area median income for a family of four is $32,250.  

Life is not easy for kids whose families are in these economic straits. There is sometimes not enough money to pay bills; having enough money to buy special things -- like books -- or have fun experiences can be a distant dream. In 2012,  PBS Frontline profiled several impoverished children from different regions of the country and in situations ranging from rural to big city. The children featured in the video talk candidly about their experiences being hungry and their dread of moving back to a homeless shelter. 

Frontline's complete feature can be found here. To watch a shorter feature about Sera, an  11-year-old whose family loses its home, see below.   

Watch Sera's Story on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

For more information about Housing Choice Vouchers visit the Housing and Urban Development Fact Sheet and the Arlington County website.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

To Snack or Not to Snack

That seems to be the question.

Some TRC sites always include a snack in their Read-Aloud. Others never do, and yet there are some that include a snack now and again as a special treat. When carefully planned, snacks can add a wonderful component to your Read-Aloud.

Why? 

• Kids always seem to be hungry, and feeding them is a good way to avert low blood sugar grumpiness. Our Read-Alouds take place in the evening, a prime tummy-rumbling time of day. Some teams even provide snacks at the beginning of their Read-Aloud to settle the kids and quiet growling tummies. Volunteers pass out the snack and start reading to the kids as they nibble.

• Cooking with the kids allows for hands-on fun, so assembling a snack can sometimes serve as your activity.
• Snacks related to your Read-Aloud theme can add an extra-special dimension to the experience.

How? 

• Be sure to make sure your site allows you to serve a snack. Check with site staff before bringing food to a Read-Aloud. Also ask about rules regarding where food may be served. Some sites allow kids to eat at the Read-Aloud, but they may not allow food to be removed from that room.
• Ask site staff about food allergies and sensitivites, and just to be sure, avoid nuts of all kinds and anything sesame. (Use sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter.)  
• Never use snacks as a behavior management tool -- do not offer it as a bribe or withhold it as punishment. Many of the kids we serve may have experienced anxiety about not having enough to eat. If you bring a snack, everyone at the Read-Aloud gets to enjoy it.
• Try to make snacks healthy as well as fun. Keep in mind that our Read-Alouds happen either right before or right after dinner. 
• Many sites have access to a sink and sometimes a microwave. You can also bring an electric skillet or kettle, toaster oven, popcorn maker or electric grill with you.
• Clean up very carefully after yourselves.

What?

Snacks don't have to be related to the Read-Aloud, but it sure is fun when they are! Here are some ideas from your fellow volunteers and TRC staff:

• Fruit kabobs for a caterpillar theme (thread grapes, melon balls and berries on a skewer or piece of uncooked spaghetti to make a caterpillar). Other caterpillar examples can be found here. 
• English muffin pizzas for a pizza theme
• Ants on a log (celery, raisins and sunflower seed butter or cream cheese) for a picnic or bug theme
• Bird-seed trail mix for a bird theme (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, cheerios)
• Fruits and veggies of many different colors for a rainbow theme
• Air-popped popcorn for a popcorn, native American or movie Read-Aloud (TRC has an air popper you can borrow)
• Pretzels as the in-flight snack for a flying or travel Read-Aloud
• Cocoa and ginger bread for winter themes
• Sugar snap peas, sprouts or hard boiled eggs for spring themes
• Fruit smoothies for summertime themes
• Apples and pumpkin seeds for fall themes

You get the idea. Let the books inspire you. Get the kids involved and add taste to the senses you engage at your next Read-Aloud!


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Hard times generation: Homeless kids

This story from the TV show "60 Minutes," Hard times generation: Homeless kids, gives a kid's perspective on the experience of being homeless. It was recognized by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth with a President's Award for Outstanding Media Representation of Homeless Education.

The experiences our kids have prior to getting into a shelter and how they feel about what their families are going through are likely to be very similar to those of the kids profiled in this video.

Watch the video below and think about how the kids you work with might be feeling on a night you come to read with them.

You might want to check out the extras too. There are some interesting insights.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.