Turnaround’s Building Blocks featured on Common Dreams website

Cristine Mason and Maud Schaafsma’s article on Common Dreams discusses the impact of poverty and trauma on children’s learning and the importance of incorporating it into our education policy. In their discussion they cite Turnaround for Children and Building Blocks for Learning.

Here is an excerpt:

“The foundation for executive functions rests with three developmental milestones— forming attachments with others, handling stress, and self-regulating emotions. Children who form a positive attachment with a caring adult are often able to cope more effectively with stress. A caring adult can be a buffer, reducing the negative impact of stress and aiding children as they learn to self-regulate their emotions. (see Building Blocks for Learning, Turnaround for Children, 2016.) Without that buffer, children directly experience trauma and live with greater anxiety. Their fears and anxieties are likely to also impede their learning in school. It’s not that they do not want to learn – but that their impulsive behavior and experiences of stress, fears and insecurities inhibit their readiness to learn. Essentially their brains may not be fully available to them for the tasks of learning.”

The full article can be found here.