The ChildTrauma Academy
www.ChildTrama.org
The Neurosequential Model in Education
Introduction
The human brain is a remarkable and complex organ. It mediates all of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It is the organ that allows us to form and maintain relationships, read, write, dance and sing. There is not a single aspect of human life that doesn’t involve the brain. And, the brain is the target of our educational efforts. Whether the focus of the lesson is to learn to shape clay, skip rope, grasp long division, compose a paragraph, share, work in a team, or master the history of North Dakota, the teacher is trying to provide the patterned, repetitive experiences that will change the specific neural networks in the child’s brain that mediate those functions.
The purpose of the Neurosequential Model in Education (NME) is to help educators, caregiversand students better understand some of the most important – and most easily mastered – concepts related to how the brain develops and changes. Understanding and acting on these concepts will lead to more effective and pleasurable learning experiences. The core concepts that the NME introduces have broad relevance for teaching typical as well as at-risk children.
There are several ways that the ChildTrauma Academy brings the NME to educators and educational settings; some of these are didactic (e.g., a day long seminar using a lecture format), some are more consultation based (e.g., the CTA’s web-based Case-based NME teaching series) and some are relational, interactive and involve an ongoing learning process.
- Teacher: Cheryl Glad
- Teacher: Lori Nystrom