Using TBRI in the

Classroom
CSUF FOTIP
Atalie Hammontree
April 20th, 2022
Country Hills Staff

Today I will be talking about using tbri in the classroom. This is a project for my Cal
State Fullerton induction program to clear my credential. The topics something I was
trained on when my husband and I became foster parents. Talking with the director
who is also a teacher she informed me how it will be great for me to use in the
classroom as well. After doing more research I found that there are many schools that
are implementing TBRI principles into their behavior plans. This topic is something
that I have found so helpful not only in the classroom but even at home with children
who have come from hard places. it is something that I wanted to share with all of
you.
 Objective/Standards
NBPTS Proposition 1: Teachers are
committed to their students and their
learning.
1. Teachers recognize individual
How does trauma differences in their students
and adjust their practice
affect my students and accordingly.
4. Teachers know their mission
how can I use TBRI transcends the cognitive
development of their students.
principles to support CSTP 2.6 Employing classroom
routines, procedures, norms, and
them? supports for positive behavior to
ensure a climate in which all students
can learn

Here is some objectives and standards that align with this presentation.
 Video Introduction

Hook video- This is a video that gives a little overview on TBRI in schools. This
teacher has used TBRI in her classroom and has been able to attend the training at
TCU.
 Your Text

Credit Karyn Purvis 2005

This is the main motto for TBRI. It is important for us to remember.

 TBRI
Trust
Based
Relational
Intervention

What TBRI stands for.

 Why TBRI?
● Difficult Pregnancy (Anxiety
Depression)
● Difficult Birth
● Early Hospitalization
● Abuse (physical, sexual etc.)
● Neglect
● Trauma (surgery, disasters, etc.)

Difficult pregnancy- Not women who were malnourished. These are women who were
just anxious or depressed. It affected their child’s brain development before birth.
They tested the children a year later and they had the same stress hormone as the
mother.
Difficult births cause trauma as well.
Early hospitalization children are not able to always be comforted.
Neglect abuse and trauma are all the typical things we think about when we think of
children from hard places.
 Your Text

Credit: tpt-wholehearted school counseling

Trauma affects Brain development and the way children process things. You can see
the physical damage trauma does to a children’s developing brain. They think and
process things in a different way due to this. They cannot help it. When they have this
much of the stress hormone they only are able to respond with either fight, flight or
freeze. They have a very difficult time trusting and forming relationships.
 Your Text

Credit: tpt-wholehearted school counseling

Children who have experienced trauma will respond with either fight, flight or freeze
response. Here are lists of some of those behaviors below each possible
response.These children will respond in a way that is familiar to them. They only know
how to respond this way because they were never taught how to deal with it and their
brains are not developed enough to have an appropriate response. If we have time
share if they have seen any of this behavior in their classroom.
 ● How are many of our students
affected by Trauma?
○ What are we already doing for
them?

Have them share with a partner and then have some people share things that were
said in their group.
 What is TBRI
● Empowering/body
○ Transitions (multiple time warning)
○ Bodies and brains (food, hydration)
● Connecting/spirit
○ Engagement ( eye contact, their level)
○ Mindfulness (always mindful where they come from,
what has happened today)
● Correcting/emotions
○ life values (respect)
○ behavioral scripts (behavior redos, voice to ask for
compromise)

These are the 3 principles of TBRI. The three principles of tbri are empowering
connecting and correcting.
In empowering we are looking at the body. Transitions we need to give multiple time
warnings. Bodies and brains which includes food and hydration. Food and hydration
are so important for kids from hard places since that is something they could have
lacked at home.
In Connecting we are looking at the Spirit. Engagement includes eye contact and
being at their level. In mindfulness it is important for us to always be mindful of where
they come from and what has happened that day specifically.
In correcting we're looking at emotions. Some important aspects of correcting
principles are life values in which they value respect. They use familiar sayings and
terms to help the children remember appropriate behavior. Some examples of
Behavioral scripts is Behavior redos where the child gets a second chance and giving
them a voice to ask for compromise
 Aces
● Child Adverse Experiences
● Used to measure Trauma
● Very common
● More aces you have the
greater chance for chronic
disease
● Usually have more than one

ACEs stands for adverse childhood experiences. It is used to measure trauma. They
use a survey that you fill out about your life before age 18. It asks things about what
happened with you and with members in your family. They are very common and if
you have one it is very likely that you have more than one. THe more aces you have
the more likely you are to have a chronic disease.
 Can cause…

Aces can cause these things and more. with everything the more aces you have the
more likely you are to have one or more of these things.
 Study in San Diego

This is from a study they did in a kaiser in San Diego about Aces. They did a survey
with 17,000 people who were mostly upper or middle class. Which iw what majority of
our families are at. They found that 64%of people had at least one ace. which is a lot
higher than they expected. Then they found 26% had one ace 16% had 2 and 9.5%
had 3 and lastly 12.4% had 4 or more aces. It shows that there are a lot more people
than we thought about who have had trauma in their life.
 Credit Daren Jones

This is a graph showing what they saw about each chronic disease or problem. the
more aces you have the more likely you where to have that disease or problem. In the
next slide we can look at some specific graphs that were made.
 What’s your ACE Score?

To check your ACE score

http://acestoohigh.com/g
ot-your-ace-score/

Have the teacher click on the link and look at the ace score questions. THey can
calculate their ace score later if they want since it is a very personal thing to share.
We will also look at some of the graphs that were made after the study about aces
and chances of haveing a certain problem or disease.
 Felt Safety
in order to feel safe children
need…
● Predictability
● Routines
● Rituals
● Transitions
○ 1. Attention 2. Mention 3.
Distract 4. Act

In order for our kids to feel safe we can incorporate felt safety. this includes
predictability, routines, rituals, and transitions. A method they use for routines is
attention, mention, distract and last act. So you get their attention first get down to
their level make sure they are looking. Then Mention what they are going to have to
do like clean up in 5 minutes. Then distract mention something else to get their mind
off the task they are on and lastly have them do what you’ve asked. Kids form hard
place have a hard time with transition sbecasue in that activity they feel safe. Tough
things usually happen during transition times and that makes it harder for them to just
change and activity right away. Then we will watch the video that talks about how to
do transitions.
 Empowering-Meeting physical needs
● Hydration
● Blood Sugar
○ eat every 2 hours
● Healthy Touch
● Physical Activity
○ every 2 hours
● Sensory
○ calming (sweet, chewing, firm, warm)
○ or alerting (sour, light, cold, activity)

The empowering principal looks at meeting a child’s physical needs. They need to be
hydrated and eat every 2 hours to keep blood sugar up. Being dehydrated or hungry
can really affect their mood and they have a hard time knowing how to communicate
what is wrong and sometimes they may not even know. They also need healthy touch
which can be a hand on the shoulder or under the chin when talking. Physical activity
every 2 hours is also important to help keep them focused. lastly a sensory diet is
important. It can be either calming or alerting based on what the child needs. There
are some examples of a few things for calming and alerting.
 Credit Daren Jones

This is a graphic organizer about what kids with sensory processing issues may have
trouble with. Go through and read each one.
 Sensory Seeking vs. Sensory Defensive

Seeking Defensive
● Frequently spins, ● Won’t eat certain
jumps swings food
● likes bear hugs ● Won’t wear certain
● Loud environments clothes (ex. tags)
● Fidgets/wiggles ● Doesn’t like getting
dirty
● Does not like loud
noises or bright
lights

This is a table to show what some of the differences are between sensory seeking
and sensory defensive behavior. I sometimes would have a hard time figuring out
which one a student was so I made this table with a few common behaviors to help
determine the difference. There are more behaviors you may see as well. For seeking
kids like to move and being held tight loud environments and they like to fidget and
wiggle. A student who is defensive can be picky with clothes and or food. THey do not
like to get dirty and they do not like loud noises or bright lights.
 ● What is a calming
engagement plan?
○ List 5 things
students can do in
your classroom to
calm themselves.

Have the teachers share with a partner and then have a few share what students do
in their classroom.
 Connecting- Relationships That Matter
● Engagement
○ Eye contact, healthy touch, voice quality,
behavior matching, playful engagement
● Mindfulness
● Nurture

For connecting principles we are really working on building the relationships that
matter. We are looking to be engaging which means using a lot of eye contact,
healthy touch, the quality of your voice which includes tone and cadence. behavior
matching which could look like sitting if the child is sitting or picking the same color
craft as them. playful engagement reminds us to have fun and be silly sometimes with
them and relate to things they like. Mindfulness means alway being aware of where
are students are from and what may have happened today. and lastly to be nurturing
which I feel like all of us are very nurturing with our students since it comes so natural
for all of us.
This isa diagram of what behavior problems look like when we view it as willful
disobedience. We will continue to heat the oppositional behaviors and increase
resistance which puts us in a continuous downward spiral.
If we see it as survival behavior we will see more awareness, and ability to recognize
fear and use words. This helps us have less frustration more understanding and gives
a voice. When this starts to happen we see decreased manipulation, triangulation,
aggression, control and violence.
 Life Value Terms
● Accept no
● Actions have consequences
● Use words
● Focus and complete task
● permission and supervision
● gentle and kind Free
P
● listen and mind https: rintable
//chi P
tent/ ld.tcu osters
● u
make wise choices rinta loads/2 du/wp-
p . e
bles_ 0 c
● no hurts Engli 21/09/LV on
sh.pd T-P
f
● show respect.

These are some terms that they like to use so the kids have familiar saying and rules.
This gives them more of a routine to follow and is easy for them to remember. I also
have a link to free posters for these sayings that you can use to put up in your
classroom or use in a morning meeting as a repeat after me.
 TBRI animated
videos
https://www.youtube.
com/playlist?list=PL9W
CXSvAXd6M9mHsdzO6
rO2m9YgfHy0Pp

Here are some additional videos that go into more TBRI concepts and ideas.
 List of TBRI Children’s Books
https://child.tcu.edu/resources/tbri-
childrens-books/#sthash.hPgr0KCx.d
pbs

These are some great books that introduce the concepts of TBRI to the younger
kiddos. I have all of the books if there is ever one you would like to borrow just let me
know.
 15 Mindfulness apps for kids

https://parentingchaos.com/an
xiety-apps-kids/

Here is a list of the 2022 best mindfulness apps for kids.

 TBRI in
Schools
youtube
Playlist
https://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=_fW
LOITIrKU&list=PL9W
CXSvAXd6N_xZampT
IofRri1K-9ar6a&inde
x=2

This is a youtube playlist of TBRI in schools. They talk about how it has been helpful
in their schools.
 Mindsight: Brain Basics Lesson plan
By Sarah Whittaker
5 day lesson plan
Free
https://www.teacherspayteachers.c
om/Product/Mindsight-Brain-Basics-
5094332

This is a free TPT five day lesson plan with crafts that you can use to teach the
concepts of TBRI to your students.
 Documentary to rent or buy
Trailor:

This is a trailer to a documentary about a school that was considered the worst school
in america. They implemented the same concepts of TBRI and saw drastic changes in
their student population.
 What was most
helpful for your
classroom?

Have teachers share what in the presentation was most helpful for them and if there
is anything they might use in their own classroom.
Questions?
If you have time please fill out this
survey to help me complete my
project for CSUF.

Thank you!