The Bullied Brain by Ph. D Fraser

Author:Ph. D Fraser [Fraser, Ph. D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633887787
Publisher: Prometheus
Published: 2021-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Step 6: Train Your Brain

Haigh clarifies that traumatized kids cannot simply do the online programs at Stronger Brains in the same way that adults can independently work on Merzenich’s BrainHQ site. She and her colleagues have learned that the kids’ trauma all too often blocks them from being able to focus and settle enough to begin the brain exercises. The program “doesn’t work, unless you apply it properly. It’s not a quick fix. There’s a process involved. When you’re injured in your body, you need professional help, same with the brain. These are injured kids.” Any adult who externalizes their trauma from abuse, putting their relationships, reputation, and career at risk, is just like these injured kids. Any adult who internalizes their trauma from abuse and puts their health, body, and brain at risk (think substance abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, suicide) is just like these injured kids. What Haigh and her team have designed at Stronger Brains doesn’t just apply to children. It is something traumatized adults can also put in place to recover from adversity in childhood.

At Stronger Brains, they don’t just look at children’s health and well-being by assessing their bodies; in a revolutionary way, they also factor in their brains. Even though the injuries to the brain are invisible to the naked eye, Stronger Brains opts to foreground them. Children need a great deal of support before they even begin working on the Stronger Brains program, and I think many traumatized adults do too. As Haigh outlines: “The traumatized kids we work with are trapped and going in circles. Stronger Brains helps them build a ladder out of the well of the emotional brain into the rational brain. We put them on a journey to a stronger, brighter place. Right now they are in survival mode.”

Stronger Brains uses a train-the-trainer model as they’ve found it’s more effective to have the kids work with adults with whom they’re familiar. Haigh describes the impact of these mentors: “Makes it faster and better for kids. The adult acts as a mentor who motivates, recognizes the child’s work, rewards effort and achievement.” She emphasizes that with these traumatized kids, they’ve “been trying their hardest and yet they’re constantly lambasted for being defiant, distracted, acting out etc.” You can quickly recognize the labels of the bullying paradigm. As Haigh says, “Kids can’t just do Stronger Brains on their own, especially when they’ve been traumatized. They are so easily distracted. After trauma, they can’t focus. So we involve adult mentors each step of the way.” I know lots of people who have worked with personal trainers who want a healthy, strong, flexible set of muscles, but I have never heard of someone hiring a “brain trainer,” even though it is just as important if you want a healthy, strong, flexible set of neural networks.

Haigh stresses that in the train-the-trainer program, Stronger Brains ensures that the mentors—whether they’re parents or teachers—learn about how the executive function of these children’s brains is so traumatized that they struggle to process and that will slow them down.

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