My ACE score helps me to connect with my students

Four.

This is my score for the undesirable survey of childhood experiences or ACE. Four are also a relatively frequent number of points. Every sixth adult has an ACE value of four.

The original ACE questionnaire asks 10 questions about childhood trauma. The questions measure the experiences of a person with such traumatic events as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect of parents and the mental illness or detention of a member of their household. The ACE values ​​range from 0 to 10, and each supported question is considered one.

A score of four or more correlates with an increased probability of facing mental health problems, financial instability and negative health results, and increases a person's opportunities in adulthood in risky behaviors. There is no ACE points that necessarily lead to certain results, poorly or well. The higher the ACE score, the greater the negative effect on adult life.

Sometimes my ACE score makes me angry and wonder how my life would be different if my upbringing had been different. At the same time, there is an insight into my role as a public school psychologist and offers me better to support students with trauma. (Three out of four students have an ACE point number of at least one, and one of five reports a score of four or more. Today's pedagogues will probably not surprise.) In addition, I am not sure whether I would have been in this field if my upbringing would have been different.

Pedagogues know that when they step into schools, children not only teach them to teach them the core of academic subjects. It is about creating a safe, supportive environment and sometimes those who need to pay this little attention. In addition, supportive, committed classrooms can help the students work through adversities.

As a school psychologist, I often have the privilege of hardly paying attention to the students. I often learn something about the traumatic experiences of a student.

In individual environments, school psychologists help the students to complete self-assessments of their social-emotional/behavior-related well-being, and these experiences really open the conversation. I could ask: “Would you say that sometimes, sometimes, often, often or almost always happy, you are at school?”

I remember a student's answer: “I think I would rather be here than at home. But I still don't like to read.”

“Would you like to talk about what's going on at home?”

His mother worked a lot, he told me, and he had to take care of his younger sister if he preferred to be on his scooter with friends. He would talk about how his mother had a new friend, and it only ran “ok”. His father was in prison, but he was supposed to make calls to him the following week. Then he asked: “Do you have any snacks? I starved.”

And another student's answer: “I hate it here, I have the feeling that I can't take a break.”

“Tell me more about what you want for a break.”

This student announced how the pressure of the school and the fight against good grades and at the same time most nights at home were hungry for a good food and most nights were hungry.

If I could change traumatic experiences for these children, I would do it. I think we would all. But I'm not sure if I would change my own ACE points because it made me become a school psychologist.

When I think about my own experiences in schools, I can be grateful to see how far things have come. I am grateful that more public schools acknowledge how important mental health is and that what is available as part of the roof of special education. At the same time, I am afraid of students without access to these types of services. The opportunity to support young people at a time when so many problems have, feels like a gift and of which I hope that they will develop with the needs of our students.

Brittany Lewno-Dumdie, Ph.D., NCSP, is a school psychologist in the state of Washington. If she doesn't work with students, she likes to write about school experiences, school psychology and strategies to help students.