De-Escalation & Mindfulness Strategies for Students

Stress and traumatic experiences profoundly impact the brain and, as a result, learning and behavior. Unfortunately, more and more students are entering classrooms with the added baggage of at least one adverse childhood experience (or ACE). These experiences often manifest themselves as attention-seeking behaviors, poor focus, inattention or low academic growth. Oftentimes, educators mistake these characteristics for ADD, ADHD, ODD or simply a poorly-behaved student and refer them to administrators for disciplinary issues. These students are often sent out of the classroom, or worse, out of the school on a regular basis, but nothing changes in their behavior.

Students who have experienced trauma and chronic stress cannot learn in the moment because their brain is stressed. Educators must learn ways to accommodate for this and help students feel safe, secure and loved. They must provide students with the tools to build self-awareness and self-management skills. Fortunately, there are hundreds of de-escalation and mindfulness skills that can be explicitly taught to students to help them eventually achieve emotional regulation.

These strategies are simple to teach. They are common sense strategies to help ALL students learn to regulate their emotions. They can be implemented the first day of school or the hundredth day of school. It doesn’t matter how or when. What matters is that these strategies will help students, teachers and staff members learn the tools to create a safe, calm and welcoming environment in the building so that all students can learn.