Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FierceCuriosity
Most recents (11)
How @ScotGovEdu announcement of a Behaviour Summit is turning into a #DramaTriangle that scapegoats children - and what we can each do to stay out of that mindset, thereby helping both teachers AND children (and their parents). A THREAD.
bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
2. Yestrday I was quite vocal on Twitter, talking abt what I am watchng unfold as talk of ‘Youth Violence’ in Scotland unfurls across t media, Parliament, school staff rooms & third sector support organisations. By day’s end I was offerng analyses of absent words like “distress”.
3. Earlier in t day, I spent time at @BannermanHigh , deliverng an inservice ssn where I tried to help staff think abt trauma & stress. Many staff said they found it helpful. Some said I hadn’t offered enough practical ideas abt what teachers can DO to manage yng ppl’s behaviour. 
There is a long forgotten story in Britain's history which shows how class & privilege intersect w/ the push for trauma-informed policies. It helps us understand resistance to change. It starts in 1945 in children's hospitals. A THREAD.
Warning: You will need #FierceCuriosity.
Warning: You will need #FierceCuriosity.
2. There was a mum. Her name ws Patricia. She had a little boy she loved a lot. His name ws Conrad. One day, whn he was 7, he got a high fever & needed to be admitted to hospital. Here's a picture of her - although on t night he ws so sick, she probably looked a lot more frantic.
3. When she turned up at hospital, she had a fight with the staff (probably the nurses), because she refused to leave, as they asked her to. She held out for 12 hours, until the doctors arrived. She was eventually forced to leave her little boy for the night.
My thread of yestrdy on neoliberalism has had lots of engagement. So I thought I wd create a second one. My aim is to help us be able to SEE ths insidious, invisible ideology that we & our children all live in. We are like fish, swimming in water we can't make sense of. A THREAD.
2. If you missed yestrdy's thread, here it is. I tried to help us make sense of the current extreme proposals for economic growth. Why do they seem so disconnected from the needs of 'real people'? Answer: That decoupling is the aim of neoliberalism.
3. Many of you may have heard of t speaker named @simonsinek . If you follow @TIGERS_UK , they talk about Sinek's concept of t #GoldenCircle alot. It differentiates between the Why, the How & the What. They use his Circle to stay in conscious touch w/ their purpose, their values.
The Queen's funeral provides valuable insights into why a trauma-informed approach is so counter-cultural for Britain. Bottom line: We esteem suffering. Duty, denial, transcendence, connection. It's all there, mixed together. A THREAD.
2. At its core, a trauma-informed, relational, ACE-aware, attachment-led approach (call it what you wish) asks us to 1) listen to emotions and 2) respond to them with soothing when they are sore. If we don't, then we become unhealthy & disconnected from ourselves & others.
3.The Queen's funeral, with its emphasis on formality &duty, is t exact opposite of that. All t grief of t family, their loss? The point of t exercise is to repress that emotion, make it private, drive it inward. And here's my key point: The public ESTEEMS that.They marvel at it.
Today I spoke w/ @hackneycouncil Early Years Staff about how to help young children self-regulate. I did that by sharing w/ them what settings have been doing over Covid. A brief THREAD to share this info more widely.
2. @PitteucharE, led by @JKnussen, have been sure to use the language of 'distressed behaviour', rather than the conventional language of 'challenging behaviour'. Simple change. Free. No forms required to be completed. 🙂
3. And LOOK at the difference it makes - simply telling the story of what one school @PitteucharE is doing to support children's emotions. This is the feedback from attendees in London. "So simple, but I can see how transformative it could be for staff and for children."
A THREAD on Emotional Containment.
I've just spotted ths post on @jebrittan2 FB page for Boarding School Survivors. I've realised most ppl may not recognise the CONTAINMENT happening in this moment. Mum Diana is helping her child cope with his anxiety by singing together.
I've just spotted ths post on @jebrittan2 FB page for Boarding School Survivors. I've realised most ppl may not recognise the CONTAINMENT happening in this moment. Mum Diana is helping her child cope with his anxiety by singing together.
2. CONTAINMENT is a physiological process. Whn another person helps you w/ yr worries, it has a biological impact. You feel safer. It isn't as scary. Your body doesn't slip so quickly into overwhelm. After overwhelm comes dissociation. It's too uncomfortable to 'stay' in yr body.
3. The concept of Containment was introduced by psychologists Bion & Winnicott. It is really valuable in understanding what children (people!) need when they are struggling. The responsiveness of another person helps make big feelings more 'tolerable'. c-f-g.co.uk/blog/10-the-co…
A THREAD on t emotional impact of Early Boarding Schools. They've been such an institutn w/in British culture that its been hard to contmplate t emotional damage they might leave. But what if that's possible - and t damage ripples to others? How do we TALK abt it? Some videos...
2. Here's @nickduffell incredibly powerful & uncomfortable 1994 documentary 'The Making of Them', which followed young boys heading off to boarding school. Look out for the repressed emotional distress.
3. Here's the incredibly powerful & uncomfortable 2019 animation from @tony2gammidge 'Norton Grim and Me'. He explores the feelings of being sent off to school age 7. I feature Tony's work in my book #TigersAndTeddies.
tonygammidge.com/my-films
tonygammidge.com/my-films
In today’s @ObserverUK :
“Professionals can sometimes underestimate children’s suppressed feelings. From ages 4-11, Ella’s behavioural problems had been interpreted as a conduct issue, not a sign that at home she & her mother were under duress.” #ACES
“Professionals can sometimes underestimate children’s suppressed feelings. From ages 4-11, Ella’s behavioural problems had been interpreted as a conduct issue, not a sign that at home she & her mother were under duress.” #ACES
2. “The recommendatns address how patchy many professionals’ understanding of coercive control is.” #FierceCuriosity is needed to help our children, not defensive egos. This is why I proudly tell stories of professional journeys of insight, like @bainsfordht & @KeeganSmith_Law .
3. “Why didn’t the school, social workers & police join up the dots?” Well, one reason is that we often aren’t curious enough, or we don’t pay attention to children’s FEELINGS. We’re often too tired & overwhelmed ourselves to manage that. So - that’s a place to start. #Curiosity
THREAD. This is crucial for us to understand. This is what James Robertson wrote about in the 1970s. This is what I wrote about in 2014. This is what @childinmind wrote about last week. CHILDREN’S PAIN BECOMES TOO MUCH FOR US ADULTS TO BEAR. So we leave them alone with it.
2. Here is James Robertson in 1970 on Professional Anxiety. "The worker’s defence agnst pain may cause him unwittingly to avert from the child whose extreme distress is painful to see. Young childrn tend to be seen en masse, only fleetingly as people." robertsonfilms.info
3. Here is me in 2014: "Children’s distress is too sharp for us, as adults, to risk feeling ourselves. So we tell ourselves, consciously and unconsciously, that it’s not ‘that bad’, that a child will get over it."
suzannezeedyk.com/why-profession…
suzannezeedyk.com/why-profession…
Why is it sometimes hard for members of professional groups to see how ordinary practices can be harmful to children?
A THREAD that looks back on history for some help.
Why did I want to write it? Well, t @BPSOfficial call for a ban on isolation rooms has sparked disagreement.
A THREAD that looks back on history for some help.
Why did I want to write it? Well, t @BPSOfficial call for a ban on isolation rooms has sparked disagreement.
2. Many of you will have heard me talk about James Robertson's work in hospitals in 1950s. He was concerned about t common, ordinary policies that separated young children frm parents. He was so concerned, he made a film to help ppl see. Here's t trailer.
3. It was ordinary, accepted practice to restrict children from seeing parents until 'visiting times', which were often only on a Saturday. Children cried intensely for their parents. Eventually they would stop. The staff saw 'settling'. Robertson saw 'emotional deterioration'.
Why are some police officers coping with the horrific news of #SarahEverard by rejecting Couzens' membership in the police force? This is an ordinary, common human response to stressful times. It is also dangerous.
A THREAD on DENIAL.
A THREAD on DENIAL.
2. Wayne Couzens murdered #SarahEverard. Horrifically. It is now public knowldge that he (mis)used his authority as a police officer (uniform, handcuffs, arrest powers) to achieve that. Other police officers who wear t same uniform&title hv to come to terms w/ ths sickening news.
3. How does a person cope with t idea that someone else in 'your group' does something sickening? This is a question about belonging, about identity, about group membership, about attachment. The immediate answer is easy: Deny their membership. Revoke it."They aren't one of us."
