Homework Challenges for Children with a History of Trauma

Adopted children with a history of childhood trauma from challenging childhood experiences can find day-to-day tasks, such as school and homework, harder than those without trauma. Discover how you can assist your child with their homework and nurture their educational needs so they can reach their full potential. 

Homework Challenges and School

Homework challenges for children with trauma go hand in hand with challenges within a school setting. For children with trauma, educational settings can be triggering for several reasons, including:

Children with trauma may have had some awful experiences with adults that they were supposed to be able to trust. They may not have received respect, having their thoughts, feelings and emotions neglected. These experiences can impact a child’s ability to trust their teachers, making establishing a positive and mutually respectful relationship with their teachers difficult. 
Some schools still use harsh disciplinary practices to control behaviour in the classroom. If a teacher isn’t trauma-informed, they may believe your child is misbehaving, resulting in giving them detention or excluding them, rather than understanding that their behaviour is a result of childhood trauma. These disciplinary procedures could lead to a further loss of self-esteem and shame. They could also end up disheartened and disinterested in their education. 
Trauma can impact a child’s cognitive abilities; this could lead to them being behind other children their age at school and can mean they struggle with managing their schoolwork. It could make them feel insignificant or ashamed because they aren’t at the same level as their peers. 
A child with trauma may have used dissociation to protect themselves from an awful experience or a collection of these experiences. It means their mind is elsewhere, in another room or another place, and they may continue this in a school setting, missing critical information, impacting their learning. 
Classrooms often have upwards of 27 pupils, which for someone with trauma could be overwhelming because they may have sensory issues due to hyper vigilance. They may struggle to absorb vital information because their senses are overloaded, skip classes or avoid attending school to prevent sensory overload.
Trauma can impact a child’s ability to regulate their emotions, which means they may show big emotions in response to criticism or other adversities.  It could mean they disrupt the class, leading to punishment for behaviour out of their control. 
Trauma can make it difficult for children to make friends with their peers at school. Their peers may not understand their behaviour, or they may avoid interaction with others to avoid feelings of rejection.

These challenges at school can spill over into homework challenges, but with your help, you can address these homework challenges, therapeutically assist and guide your child through. 

Addressing Homework Challenges

Not many children get home from school and say, “Yay, I get to do my homework now”, and as we’ve already explored, for children with trauma, educational settings can be more complex, and so can completing homework. 

Inform the School about a History of Childhood Trauma

Before we address homework stress, it’s crucial to ensure that your child’s school is informed about your child’s complex needs and history of childhood trauma. By communicating with them, you can:

Mutually agree on the expectations for your child; they may need homework reduced, gradually increased over time or given longer to complete their homework.
Find out if there is a homework club they can attend. Homework clubs usually have fewer students in attendance and can allow your child to receive additional help with subjects you may lack the knowledge to help them with.
Ask for updates on your child’s progress on a time scale that suits you. You could ask the teachers to provide daily, weekly or monthly updates so you can keep track of how they are managing their homework.
Know who to contact if your child needs a deadline extended.
Know who to contact to raise concerns about your child’s education or homework load.

At Adopters for Adoption, you will receive support from an Adoption Support Therapist who will offer psychotherapy and counselling for children with trauma. Adoptive parents can also access The Adoption Support Fund, a fund from your local authority that can help you pay for therapeutic and specialist services for your child. By accessing therapy, you can help your child recover from trauma and the survival strategies that negatively impact their education. Therapy types available under the fund include art therapy, play therapy, psychotherapy and more. 

Reducing Homework Stress

Homework can be stressful for children with a history of trauma. Having been in an environment that may have triggered them throughout the day, coming home and doing homework is unlikely to appeal to them. Here are our tips to help reduce homework stress:

Create a routine – Encourage your child to complete their homework at a specific time every day in a quiet, distraction-free area of your home.
Ensure the work area is clear, with distractions or stimuli removed so your child doesn’t become overwhelmed.
Allow your child to have some control. If your child would prefer not to complete their homework at a particular time, you could ask them to complete it by a specific time instead, so they have a sense of control over when, in that timeframe, they complete their homework. Sticking to the routine, for example, they could complete their homework by dinner every day.
Ensure your child has plenty of time to complete their homework; they may need to take breaks or require your help to work through some of it, so allow time for this.
If they are overwhelmed by their homework, help them to divide it into more manageable sections. You could suggest they do as much as possible, then return to difficult questions later or ask for your help.
Work alongside them. If you have work to do, e-mails to send or need to do some home admin, work alongside them. You’ll be at hand if they get stuck, and it will help prevent them from feeling like they are missing out on something more interesting elsewhere.
Encourage breaks. If your child is getting anxious or distracted, suggest they take a break to go outside for fresh air or practice grounding exercises, such as taking deep breaths or focussing on objects around them.
Use play to help them understand questions; for example, if they are stuck on a maths question, you could use objects to recreate it, helping them visualise the question and its uses outside their homework book.
If their homework elicits big emotions, take them away from their homework and wait for them to be calm before resuming it; you could explain the benefits of homework and praise them for how well they are doing. If they aren’t in the right headspace and can’t complete it by the deadline, you could talk to the school, explain the situation and ask for an extended deadline.
Remember that although homework is essential, so is the mental well-being of you and your child. If your child is struggling, talk to the school about any extra support they could give you and your child to help them with their homework. Your child may have an undiagnosed learning difficulty, special educational need or disability, and their school can offer advice and signpost you to extra support.

At AFA, you will receive extensive training, including courses such as Nurturing Academic Success, Trauma Awareness, Attachment and Mindfulness to equip you on your parenting journey. 

If you’re considering adoption and want to know more about the training and support we offer, get in touch. 