Miss Amal Al Saab at Future Experts Kindergarten shares the story of a somewhat traumatized child…

There was once a boy named *Abdul Rahman in my KG 2 class. He was always sitting in isolation, away from the rest of the class. He seemed very comfortable in complete solitude and didn’t interact with anyone. The minute someone approached him, it was almost like his radar went off and he would instantly be upset and just switch off.

After monitoring his behavior in class, I decided to speak to his mother as I couldn’t figure out what the issue was. But I knew one thing – there was some form of trauma that was holding Abdul Rahman back from being a normal child.

His mother told me he was supremely reserved and this all started in KG 1 when he was first enrolled in a school near his house. She said she wasn’t sure what happened in school, but one day, and the days that followed, he simply refused to go to school. The school teachers or principal didn’t know what the cause was either.

Abdul Rahman was then put in two different schools but his behavior persisted. It was too late to find out what happened because the only person who knew, was Abdul Rahman and he was too young to communicate. He was monitored in both schools but the underlying cause could not be determined.

He was then enrolled in my class where his aloof attitude continued. I’m not going to lie – it was challenging dealing with him. I didn’t know how to approach him without him getting upset and going deeper into his shell. I tried different methods and activities with him, spent extra time with him and gave him more attention than the rest of the class to make sure he was comfortable.

The only way to make a child open up is to create an environment where the child feels comfortable and at ease – only then will he or she open up and be themselves. The fear needs to be eliminated from the equation and I tried my best to do that.

Over time, Abdul Rahman started opening up and interacting with everyone. It was a gradual process and didn’t happen over night. My conclusion was that he faced some trauma in his first school and he wasn’t able to get it out of his mind.

While post-traumatic stress disorder usually occurs when a person deals with a major trauma like a car accident or a death of a close one, mild forms of this disorder can also easily occur, especially with children. Maybe they get bullied in school which leaves them scarred, or experience something less severe but still get affected. 

What I learnt from this experience is that every child is different and it’s important we don’t label them and differentiate them from the crowd. In a lot of cases, a shy kid is seen and the teacher would just neglect him because she feels nothing she does is allowing him to open up.

But with the right amount of attention and care, children open up – and it applies to adults as well! So we, as teachers, need to ensure we fulfill our responsibilities and act as and when needed in the right manner as we may not always know the cause of their behavior. It’s important to focus on resolving their issues and helping them grow and develop into stable human beings.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the children.