Timers, Trauma-Informed Teaching, and Tiny Steps

December is "the silly season," when kids get silly for two reasons: 1) excitement for the holiday break and 2) dread of the holiday break.

Our students who have experienced or continue to experience trauma often have a different set of feelings about the holidays. The break is often unpredictable, lacking the routines, resources, and other safety found in school. Students experience more stress and in anticipation of the break, they are more likely to show the 4 Fs of stress response: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn--the last term implying the student clings tightly to the teacher and is overly dependent upon that praise. 

On a recent Melissa and Lori Love Literacy podcast, Dr. Melissa Sadin spoke in praise of timers as a strategy to help students who are being extra dependent or needy. In the example, the hypothetical student, Doug, can't/won't start his assignment because he perceives that he NEEDS the teacher by his side. The teacher then deploys a timer, starting small (i.e. 2 minutes) and asks Doug to take a small step, like writing his name on the paper and reading the directions, promising to return when the 2 minutes is up to check in. When the 2 minutes is up, the teacher returns and praises the progress. This timely behavior-specific praise (another proven strategy) gives the student the reassurance they need in a small dosage, while allowing the teacher to work with others. Then the teacher asks Doug to take another step, and sets the timer for 2 more minutes. This chunked process builds trust, as it reassures the student that the teacher will come back. This helps develop student executive skills, and eventually, will allow more time to be planned between check-ins.

This "predictable positive attention" strategy (Minahan, 2014) to create safety and discourage students from seeking attention through less desirable behaviors is reinforced in the research, as shared in the 2019 ASCD article on Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies [Warning, clicking this link will cost you one of your free articles for the month! You can ask TLI for a PDF if you want to save up]:

During independent work time, if a teacher says to a student "Great work! I'll be back to check on you," the student has no way of predicting how long they need to wait—and from past experience they know that the teacher may forget to return altogether. Using predictable positive attention, however, the teacher can say, "I am going to check on you in 10 minutes," put a timer on the student's desk, and add, "Come tap me on the shoulder when the timer goes off." If the teacher has many students in the class that could benefit from this, she could transfer the strategy to small groups: "I will check on this desk group at X time."

Research shows that using timers, agendas, and other predictable structures helps all students. Not knowing what is coming next can put anyone on high alert, so providing visuals (as with slides or ClassroomScreen displays that allow for multiple timers) and previewing any changes to the normal routine can help.

As you navigate the middle of the year, think about how you might use timers to help structure your class and support individual students. Sharing in the comments and with your colleagues is a great holiday gift!

For more background on Trauma-Informed Practices, check out this Edutopia video: