Stress Response And Learning

Stress Response and Learning

The Stress response affects all of us. Evolutionary throughout the millions of years we have been around it has in fact been essential to our survival. Now however maybe not so. And how does it affect our learning and development? It will have quite a big effect actually.

Why do we get Stressed?

A simple way to look at the stress response is when thinking about the fight/flight/freeze response that we share will all living creatures. I will often explain this response to children who maybe anxious about being in class, a certain teacher, performing in school etc.

Let s think about Tom and Jerry and the fight/flight/freeze response.

Fight - A mouse is cornered by a cat, with nowhere to run it is forced to do something, fight in order to escape and survive.

Flee -A mouse is being tracked down by a cat. It notices an escape route and makes a quick dash for the nearest mouse hole.

Freeze -A mouse is hiding from a cat, all it can do is try to slow down all bodily functions and freeze so it doesn t get noticed by the cat.

These three reactions can produce very different reactions in the oldest part of the brain known as the reptilian brain. Hormones such as cortisol (known as the stress hormone) flood the body. This allows the body to use as much energy as possible in a short space of time to fight or flight. Our heart rate increases and the body is ready.

Ever heard of miraculous stories of mothers performing and outrage feat of strength in the order to save their children this is no doubt due to this fight-flight-flee response system that we have evolutionary produced. It s perfectly designed for if you are in any kind of serious danger.

Is it Still Useful?

For other parts of everyday life that the 21^stcentury person is accustomed to it s not so perfect. And for children, education and learning it is important that we are not only aware of this, but that we teach children what is happening to their bodies. Just remember what school can be like for children. Weekly times table tests, picking teams in the playground, presentations, putting your hand up, separating from mum on first day of school, etc. These are just some of the events likely to induce a small stress response in children.

And what about learning. Some kids may experience this stress response throughout school far more often than others. Some may experience it more in a particular subject, or be more susceptible to experiencing it in a particular subject. Most teachers may experience the stress response throughout the school day. How important is it to understand, be aware, deal and nurture children through this response? This can help so many children achieve mastery over there subject level as they work out what this is. In my experience quite often these responses can be built up in certain subjects, or in school in general overtime. It is absolutely impossible to focus and remember things when our body is being flooded by this response. And in fact they could come out quite negatively for some children

Take your child through this evolutionary response. How useful it has been for animals in the past. Watch some videos, share some stories where you may have experienced this yourself. What did you do? How did you react?

Maybe this is particularly noticeable for a child in their weekly spelling or times table test. Are they reluctant to go into school that day. Maybe they know that this stress response is coming and they will do anything to avoid it. Furthermore If you are in danger and have to run away, then this extra energy is released from the body and it the body can naturally regulate itself afterwards. If this is happening because of a test, then there is nothing for the body to do and no-where for this extra glucose to go and it will sit in your system.

How can we explore ways to cope with this response?

A great way that I have found that regulates the body both in myself and when working with other children is through, relaxing, breathing or as many children work through their problems playing. Even talking about the event could see them shut down. So try talking to them over a playful activity like catch where the body is naturally using up some of this energy. Try puppets and games. Get creative. Maybe make up a story about a child that got stressed in school and ask them what they think may be going on for that child. Quite often children will relate what they have experienced themselves to this character and you might find out something about them and what they are experiencing. These activities could help your child to understand more about what could be going on in their bodies as they react to different situations. It might not be that they are bad at a particular subject, or a weekly spelling test. It may be that the stress response is hampering them from being there usual childlike, creative, enthusiastic self that has helped them learn so many things already in the first stages of their life. This resource was uploaded by: Joseph