By Beth Tyson, Psychreg, February 27, 2020
Are you struggling to help a child who has been through hard times? Does the child seem unreachable, unmanageable, and unwilling to try? Are you at your at the end of your rope with explosive behavior? If so, I have a concept to share with you that might help the two of you connect and increase positive interactions within your family or classroom.
I want to start by saying that it can be incredibly frustrating and anxiety-provoking to witness a child who is suffering emotionally without the tools to help them. You are not alone in this experience. If you can relate with this, you are likely caring for a child exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). They may also be experiencing symptoms of trauma, leaving them in a constant state of too low or too high arousal. One way we understand the impact trauma makes on a child’s behaviour is by observing the relationship between arousal and performance, also known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law.
In the Yerkes-Dodson model, levels of arousal are conceptualised on a spectrum as it relates to performance, which means that as arousal increases, performance increases, to a peak level, after which it declines, exponentially. On the continuum of arousal, there is a low arousal, optimal arousal, and high arousal.
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