There are many things that can stress children and each stressor comes with its own affect of the child's development. As teachers and early childhood professionals, we may have encounter with a child who is dealing with some sort of stress. It's important that we understand the type of stressors that impact our children. We can not teach the child with out meeting the child's basic needs a safety and security.
When I think back I can remember a child who was struggling and endangered of failing. As a concerned teacher I contacted his mother and asked her to come in for a parent teacher conference. During the conference I expressed my concerns about the child having missed more then half of the first quarter of school, his inability to build effective relationships with peers, and being apart of the classroom community. Before meeting with mom I had made my own preconceptions about what was wrong. I thought that if only he came to school of time and everyday it would fix all the issues he was having in school. I was so wrong...
During the parent teacher conference I found out that the mother was pregnant with her third child and that she was extremely sick and had been on bed rest for most of the pregnancy. Recently, she had broke her pelvis and was not able to get out of the bed for two months. The family had just moved to a new home and she moved in with her current baby father. Unfortunately, that has been a difficult transition because her and her child's father was arguing and getting in to physical altercations, in which my student would try to protect his mother during these situations. Finally, she also informed that his father was just locked up and he was not able to see his father. I was shocked to learn that my struggling student was dealing with chaos. This chaos was a stressor that was impacting his ability to successfully build relationships, obtain academic success, and be apart of a community.
I knew that in order for my student to be able to be successful and I had to develop a plan that would meet the needs of the family. I referred my student to the school counselor who meet with him weekly. I restructure my social studies unit to include diversity in family structure, and spent two minutes of child-directed engagement with him everyday. I asked the mom to ensure that he comes to school on time and everyday. To try not to argue or fight in front of him and seek counseling for the family and I provided her with some additional resources to find a family counselor.
My student is doing well, he has improved academically and has established positive relationships with his peers and teachers. Mom is doing well and the baby is healthy. Family counseling has help to provide emotional support for the family as they go through this transitional time period. The stressor of chaos in this child life has gone.
In many different countries around the world also deal with stress in another way through war. War is a stressor that impacts millions of children around the world. Recently, I saw a video on YouTube entitled The Effects of War on Children by Human Appeal International organization, about a little boy who was going to the market with his brother and two cousins when they were struck by a bomb killing the littles boy's brother and cousin. The little boy and his cousin was left critically injured. Situations like this is happening all over Syria right now and children are the most impacted. Some are left with no to no family at all, abducted, and greatly injured. There are many organizations that are helping children all over world who are victims of war. Like War Child International which is an organization dedicated to shed light on the issues children of war face. UNICEF has also dedicated many of its efforts to support children of war and their families.
All of this made me wonder...What are our roles as teachers when it comes to stressors that impact children? What rescoures do we have available to assist children who are impacted from these stressors? What are the long terms effects these stressor can have on young children?
Here are some additional resources you can use to explore this topic more:
http://www.unicef.org/graca/
http://www.warchild.org/links_resources/childsoldiers/childsoldiers.html#articles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpCpUUdUkUI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-kawjo5lPM
