“We cannot be dysregulated adults. Once we understand that a calm adult represents safety, it begins to be the platform for that relationship to start developing, it motivates us to drop our mirror and to seek the story behind the behavior rather than punish the behavior.”
Sporleder routinely shares his insights on implementing trauma-informed practices in schools. One of the 5 critical tenets of implementation is based on the concept that “it’s a brain issue, not a behavior issue” in regard to highly escalated students. Sporleder says the educator’s mantra should be “my job is to help this student regulate, not simply behave.”
Understanding student reactions to be a brain issue and not just a behavioral one, Sporleder went on to implement a breakthrough trauma-informed model that was captured in the 2015 documentary Paper Tigers. Jim is co-author of The Trauma-Informed School and will present a keynote session at the Wired Differently Conference in San Antonio.