Session 2 | Bridging Voices: Trauma-Informed Practices

Hello, everyone.

Welcome and thank you for joining us this evening. Bienvenidos y gracias por acompañarnos esta tarde. My name is Karin Hartunian-Kukean, and I will be your moderator this evening. I am a bilingual SLP with a passion for telepractice across the lifespan, as well as a professional development enthusiast. As the current CE content consultant here at Parallel, I am especially excited to present the next installment in our spring series in partnership with Hispanic Caucus, Bridging Voices, Building Comunidad in Multilingual Practice. Thank you for spending the next hour with us. At Parallel, we take pride in nurturing our professional community as well as the broader community by offering innovative, high-quality programming for clinicians and educators alike. Rooted in the Hispanic Caucus's mission, this series emphasizes bridging languages, systems, and professional roles to promote equity, foster collaboration, and strengthen comunidad through reflective and equitable practice. Here's a few housekeeping items to highlight before we, we begin our presentation. This course is being offered for 0.1 ASHA CEUs and 1 NASP-approved CPD credit. If you wish to have us report CEUs to ASHA and/or receive a certificate of completion to obtain a record for your NASP CPD, please be sure to do the following: attend the entire live webinar. Your attendance will be tracked through Zoom reports. And no partial credit will be awarded. Be sure that you have joined with the email address attached to your registration. Complete and submit a self-assessment evaluation within 3 business days of today's presentation, and that will be Wednesday, April 29th. For ASHA CEUs, be sure to indicate that you want to receive ASHA CEUs and provide your ASHA ID number in the post-webinar survey. We love and encourage questions from our participants. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them in the Q&A. We do expect our educational content tonight to last an hour and would love for you to stay for the Q&A afterwards. And now please join me in welcoming Leslie Guzman from Hispanic Caucus, who will speak about their mission and then introduce us to our speaker. Liliana Diaz.

Welcome everyone to session 2 of our learning series with— in partnership with Parallel Learning. My name is Leslie Guzman and I'm speaking on behalf of the Hispanic Caucus and as Vice President for Professional Practice. Before we begin tonight, we want to take a moment to share who we are. And Liliana, will you please put the slide where we have our Hispanic Caucus? Team, there we go. Thank you so much. And so we are a diverse comunidad of professionals, students, and advocates committed to representation, connection, and better support for multilingual and multicultural communities we serve. Our roots are in stories span across Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world, and our mission is to increase resources, research, and Spanish-speaking professionals in our field so that our communities can feel seen, heard, and supported. As we engage in conversation about equity, trauma, and the safety of belonging of Latina students, recognize this may bring some discomfort, and that is okay. We invite you to stay curious, listen deeply, reflect honestly, and notice what you may be called to rethink or do differently, while also remembering that it is okay to pause, step away, and take care of yourself as needed. We are grateful to be in partnership with Parallel Learning for this series and are grateful that you're here with us tonight. If you'd like to stay connected with the Hispanic Caucus, please scan the QR code, visit our website, follow us on Instagram, or email us. We'd love to continue building comunidad with you. And now it is my honor to introduce tonight's presenter, Liliana Diaz-Vazquez. She is a bilingual speech-language pathologist. Native English-Spanish speaker, bilingual parent, and as you all know her, the owner of Bilingual Speechie, LLC. She works in the school settings and specializes in AAC, bilingual language development, and language delays and disorders in multilingual populations. We are incredibly grateful for this partnership, for her hard work, and for her commitment to continue educating our community. So Liliana, I'll pass it on to you.

Thank you so much, Leslie, for that introduction. It truly means a lot, and I'm really excited to be here with all of you tonight. My journey as a bilingual SLP is truly both professional and very personal. I've been in this field for over 20— 12 years, sorry, working across early intervention in public schools, and the majority of my work has been with bilingual and Spanish-speaking families. I'm also a first-generation Mexican American Latina. Spanish was actually my first language growing up, And then I learned English once I entered the school system. So in many ways, my beginnings mirrors the experiences of the students and families I serve every day. And that lived experience has really shaped how I approach my work. Over the years, I've developed a strong passion for supporting multilingual children through approaches that honor their languages and identities. And in addition to my work in the schools, as Leslie mentioned, I do run Bilingual Speechie, LLC, where I create resources designed to make therapy more accessible, culturally relevant, and engaging for bilingual communities. And probably my most important role, I'm also a bilingual parent raising 2 little ones at home. So I'm navigating many of these same decisions and experiences alongside the families I support. So everything tonight that I'll be sharing really comes from a combination of clinical experiences, cultural perspective and personal connection. A few financial disclosures before we begin. I am receiving an honorarium from Parallel Learning for this presentation. I'm the owner of Bilingual Speechy, LLC, and I receive income from the sales of my bilingual resources and digital activities that may be mentioned during the presentation. And then I have no non-financial disclosures to disclose. Okay, so what will we be learning today? My goal for you is to identify key trauma factors affecting Latinx students, distinguish cultural from trauma-related behaviors in team assessment, and equip school staff to advocate effectively for children and families. My hope too is that you will be able to demonstrate at least 2 trauma-informed culturally and linguistically responsive strategies to support Latinx learners in partnership with families, schools, and community organizations. And also apply clear collaborative communication by explaining FERPA and HIPAA in family-friendly language, engaging in safety planning, and connecting families to resources in ways that respect their autonomy while positioning professionals as allies in their children's well-being. So we have a lot to cover today. We are going to go through all of these points to— from today's agenda. And a quick content note, I know Leslie also mentioned this, but before we begin, I want to set the tone for our time together. This space is meant to be one of reflection, learning, and respect. And some of the topics we will discuss particularly around trauma and immigration-related experiences, can feel heavy and personal. So just please know that you are always welcome to step, step out, take a pause, or just engage at the level that feels right for you. As we move through today's content, I want to ground us in an important reminder, and that is that not all stress is trauma, and not all differences are deficits, especially when working with Latinx and multilingual students. We have to be very intentional about not misinterpreting cultural and linguistic or lived experiences as something that is inherently disordered. Our role is not to pathologize, but to support, to understand, and to show up in a safe, consistent manner in our students' lives. Now, you may hear me use the terms Latinx and Hispanic throughout this presentation. So I want to just briefly clarify, because oftentimes there's a lot of, a lot of questions around these terms. So Hispanic typically refers to individuals from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, including Spain, while Latinx or Latino/Latina refer more broadly to people from Latin American origins, including Brazil, but excluding Spain. Now, the term Latinx is a gender-inclusive alternative that some individuals prefer, but not everyone uses or identifies with it. So the most important takeaway here is that identity is deeply personal, and as professionals, our role is not to assume but to ask, listen, and honor how families choose to identify. We're going to be talking a lot about trauma, and we're— I want to make it clear that we're not just talking about something that's difficult or stressful. Trauma is defined as an emotionally painful or distressing event where the experience of that event triggers an intense and prolonged stress response in the body. And that we can remember the definition by the 3 E's, which are an event that occurs, an experience, and then there is an effect. And what makes something traumatic is not just what happened, but how the child's body or, and/or brain responds to it. In these cases, the impact does not end when the event is over. It can lead to lasting physical and mental effects. Including how a child regulates, how they learn, how they communicate and build relationships. It is also important to remember that trauma is shaped by several factors, like whether the child felt safe, whether they had support, and their prior experiences. This is why 2 children can go through the same similar event, but only one may experience it as traumatic. So before we move forward, let us take a moment to reflect on what we already know. So I am going to share a few statements, and I want you to think, is this true or false? And feel free to use the chat, but we do have a true and false poll. So we are going to start with the first one. 1 out of every 4 children attending school has been exposed to a traumatic event that can affect Learning. True or false?

Apologize, for some reason it's, it's not sharing, but everybody said true.

Okay, thank you. And it's okay, you can let me know. So True. So this is true. That means that, you know, in a typical classroom, multiple students may be carrying experiences that we may not immediately see. Here's another one. Trauma can impact school performance. True or false? And let me know when everyone's done voting.

Yeah, I believe we're having a little bit of technical issues. But yeah, I think, let's see, I know people are going to try to vote in the Q&A. Maybe if you can just quietly let us know what you think, I will let people know. I will let Liliana know.

Yeah, so feel free to put it in the chat. All right.

A lot of people are saying true. True.

So yes, trauma doesn't stay in one area. It shows up across academic, behavioral, and social domains. Trauma can increase rates of school absences, increase dropout, lead to more suspensions and expulsions, and decrease reading ability in children. How about this one? Trauma can impair learning. Feel free to put it in the chat.

A lot of trues.

True. Yes, so true. Um, you know, chronic exposure to traumatic events, especially during a child's early years, can Adversely affect attention, memory, and cognition, reduce a child's ability to focus, organize, and process information, interfere with effective problem solving and/or planning, and result in overwhelming feelings of frustration and anxiety. And we'll discuss more on resources later in this presentation. Okay, one more. You can help a child who has been traumatized. True or false?

Looks like people are saying true as well here.

True. So yes, you can help a child who has been traumatized. You can follow your school's reporting procedures if you suspect abuse, work with the child's caregiver to share and address school problems, refer to community resources when a child shows signs of being unable to cope with traumatic stress, and share trauma facts for educators with other teachers and/or school personnel. So great job, everyone. Thank you so much for participating. We are now going to dive a little more into how we can support Latinx students in the schools. So we begin with why should we address trauma in the schools? As school-based professionals, we are already working with incredibly diverse students linguistically, culturally, and experientially. And for many of our students, the stressors they are navigating don't necessarily stay out of school. They walk into our classrooms and therapy rooms with, you know, whatever's going on in their background. Trauma directly impacts the exact areas we support, and that is learning, communication, and behavior. So even if we're not mental health providers, trauma is still showing up every— up in our work environment every single day. And keep in mind that in many cases, we may be one of the first, or if not the only, consistent, safe adult in that child's routine. And if we are not viewing student behaviors through a trauma-informed lens, then there is a real risk of mislabeling students. And ultimately misserving them. So we definitely need to be addressing it. Now, there is a big risk that we take if we ignore the signs of trauma. When trauma is not recognized, behaviors can often be misinterpreted. So students may be labeled as defiant, unmotivated, or noncompliant, when in reality they may be dysregulated, overwhelmed, or simply trying to feel safe. And this can lead to increased discipline, inappropriate referrals, or even just missing the support a child truly needs. It can also impact how we engage with families, especially if there is already fear or mistrust of the systems. And at the end of the day, students that do not feel supported will be misunderstood and once again run the risk of being mislabeled. Now, 100% of our focus today will be on Latinx students. However, however, many of the foundational concepts can be applied across students from a variety of backgrounds, such as when we do not take trauma or context into account, there can always be a high risk of misinterpretation. And ultimately, we risk making referrals that don't actually match the student's needs or missing what they truly all need altogether. Latinx students may navigate multiple layers of stressors, and these stressors can play out as a student who is dysregulated who may be seen as defiant, or a student who is withdrawn may be seen as unmotivated, or even just language differences can easily be mistaken for deficits. And this can lead to overdisciplining students and at the same time undersupporting them. So to better understand how trauma shows up in our students, it is important to recognize the types of experiences that may be impacting them. Many of our Latinx students have experienced migration or displacement, which can Involve leaving behind familiar environments, extended family, and routines. Some have experienced family separation, whether temporary or long-term, and this can have a deep emotional impact. Others may be exposed to community violence or face ongoing stress related to poverty or housing instability. And then there can also be medical trauma, especially if a child has had difficult experiences with the healthcare experiences that they have had or a lack of healthcare experiences. In addition, we have to consider system-based trauma, so negative or stressful experiences within institutions like schools or even, like I mentioned, the healthcare system. And just as an example, let us say a Spanish-speaking student is placed in a special education in special education because they're struggling in English but not because of an actual disability, the evaluation, let's say, was conducted in English only, and the family perhaps wasn't provided with an interpreter or fully informed of their rights. Over time, the student can internalize that they are behind or less capable, and the family may feel excluded or miss— or just overall mistrust the school system. And for some students, there is ongoing stress related to you know, immigration enforcement, including fear connected to agencies like ICE. It is important to note that not every student will experience all of these, but many are navigating one or more of these stressors and often at the same time. And again, it is not the experience itself, it is how the child experiences and processes that shape its impact. And as mentioned earlier, these stressors can affect their learning and communication. So it is our job to be able to identify any red flags to ensure we can provide adequate support. Now, as we move into what trauma can look like in Latinx children, I want to pause on something really important. And keep in mind that not every behavior that looks concerning is trauma, and not every difference we notice is a deficit. For Latinx students in particular, we have to consider culture, bilingual language development, school context, and possible trauma exposure at the same time. Otherwise, we risk pathologizing culturally expected behaviors, misreading bilingual language patterns, or even just overlooking very real signs of distress. So the question is not, is this culture or trauma? The better question is, what do I know about the child's cultural and linguistic context, and what seems to go beyond that in a way that suggests stress? Fear, or even just dysregulation. Our task is to be able to differentiate and become informed on the student's background and be, instead of being quick to assume. So when trauma shows up in the schools, it often shows up as across multiple domains. The first one being communication. Students may talk less, have more difficulty organizing their thoughts, or seem to lose language when overwhelmed. Um, in bilingual students, code-switching may become more noticeable when the task is demanding or the child is stressed, and that alone is not a disorder. Um, you know, we know code-switching is typical bilingual behavior, and, um, it's very high level of a high-level skill. Um, and an evaluation, um, should be kept in mind so that we can check for all variables. when it comes to the student's cultural and linguistic background to ensure every, all, all of our information is valid. In the area of behavior and regulation, trauma may look like hypervigilance, irritability, shutting down, or seem emotionally unpredictable. In learning, students may show inconsistent performance, especially with attention, working memory, and planning. And taking in new information as well too. And you may notice reduced attention, difficulty, you know, retaining new information, or even slower processing speed during tasks that require more like language-heavy demands. And for bilingual students, this can further impact the way they're navigating instruction, especially in the non-dominant language. So it makes it essential to be able to differentiate between language difference and trauma-related learning needs. It also impacts relationships. So trauma may present in ways that can be misunderstood without a trauma-informed lens. Some Latinx students may appear overly compliant, maybe rarely speaking up or even just avoiding, avoiding eye contact or consistently trying to do the right thing. In order to avoid negative attention, and while others may just seem more withdrawn or avoid interaction altogether. And while some behaviors may indicate a disorder, other behaviors we observe may actually reflect cultural values, bilingual language development, or simply the school context itself and not trauma. So for example, a child that may be quieter with unfamiliar adults, more like deferential to authority, or take time to, let's say, say what they want to say, this might be taken as, oh, the student can possibly be, you know, maybe selectively mute, um, but it, it might not also just like reflect their current, uh, levels. And then these can be differences, right? And we know that differences are not, uh, deficits. So, um, these are kind of the lens that we have to put on when evaluating our students, um, and keeping in mind that cultural and linguistic differences, um, are not disordered And this is not a trauma response, right? So what raises concern is not the behavior alone, but the pattern and the intensity and the functional impact that we have to, you know, really take into consideration. For example, let us say a child, they have a sudden change from baseline, and that might look like a student who typically comes in, participates, you know, talks a lot, engages, but then suddenly stops speaking or avoids eye contact or refuses to come to therapy. You know, an intense fear response might look like that, a child who is freezing when called on, becoming visibly anxious after making a mistake, or saying things like, you know, am I in trouble? Do not tell my teacher. And, you know, these are the, the types of characteristics that we need to look out for that actually, you know, may suggest trauma-related distress. Now, as related service providers, we are really in a unique position. For many of our students, we may be one of the few adults that they consistently interact with in a smaller, more personalized setting. And because of that, you know, our therapy spaces can become places of safety or places of stress, depending on how we show up, right? So everything we just talked about, you know, understanding trauma and recognizing those patterns and not being able or not misinterpreting, you know, cultural or linguistic differences directly impacts how we respond in those moments. Because even just like the smallest things in our sessions matter, our tone, the way, you know, we're pacing or talking to our students and how we respond when a student actually shuts down or even makes a mistake or struggles to engage, for example. And those small interactions can either increase a child's sense of safety or can kind of make it worse and reinforce stress. So I want to be just really clear. I know we are not here to fix trauma, but we are in a position to build trust, reduce harm, and advocate for our students within systems that do not always feel safe or accessible. And, you know, sometimes that advocacy can look like reframing a student's behavior in a team meeting, slowing down expectations in a session, Or recognizing when a student needs support beyond what we can provide alone. At the end of the day, trauma-informed care in our role starts with this shift, and not just reacting based on any assumptions that we may have, but instead responding with awareness of what a student might be carrying into the space. And that awareness is what allows us To create environments where the students can feel safe enough to communicate and participate and learn. As we also think about our role in trauma-informed care, I want to pause and take and make something very clear. We are not mental health professionals, at least I am not, right? I am a speech-language pathologist. But, you know, being trauma-informed does not mean that we are not responsible for treating trauma. You know, it is important that we stay grounded in our scope of practice. Our role is to support students within our setting, you know, create that safe space, responsive environment, and recognize when something may be impacting our students' ability to access learning and communication. And this is where collaboration becomes essential. So you are not doing this work alone. We should be partnering with professionals who are specifically trained to support emotional and mental health, such as school social workers, maybe perhaps school psychologists, counselors, behavioral specialists, and even nurses or, you know, outside medical providers when appropriate. In some cases, that, you know, also includes connecting with community-based mental health providers, especially when students need support beyond the school, the school system. So when we notice patterns of concern, whether it is persistent shutdown, intense fear responses, or even significant changes in behavior, our role is not to take that on alone. It is to really just recognize and respond and then refer when needed, you know, while continuing to support the student in our sessions. And that collaboration is what allows us to provide more comprehensive, ethical, and effective support for our students. So as providers, many of these experiences may already feel familiar. You might have students who frequently miss sessions or whose attendance is inconsistent. You might see a child who appears unmotivated, disengaged, or even dysregulated during therapy. And sometimes, you know, students, student shutdowns may be very common, right, in the sessions. And other times they might want to avoid the task or refuse to participate. And I know it can make it really frustrating. But once again, you know, it's, it's our job to kind of recognize these signs and make those appropriate referrals. You know, and it's very, easy to kind of miss, you know, what's going on when we are managing large caseloads. But, you know, key things to look out for is just, you know, lack of motivation. They may seem distracted, or even sometimes they may open up and talk to you about the topic. You know, keep in mind that what we often label as resistance may actually be self-protection, and what looks like non-compliance may actually refer reflect a lack of feeling safe. So instead of, you know, asking, why aren't they following through? Why aren't they participating? Why does the student always seem to, you know, throw this big response in my session? We need to start asking, like, what might be getting in the way of this feeling, you know, or of maybe perhaps feeling safe or feeling like clear or accessible? You know, we just have to reframe the way that we are thinking of our students and how we interpret behavior as well, too. I also want to acknowledge that sometimes, despite our role, students may actually open up to us in very real and unexpected ways. I remember a specific session where I was working with a student and In the background, we could hear whistles and yelling coming from the outside of the school. And at the time, ICE was present in the neighborhood. And during that session, my student shared with me that a friend from his apartment had been taken. In that moment, I really had to pause, not just as an SLP, but as a safe, adult in that child's space. And this is where it's really important to think about what we say and what we don't or shouldn't say. So I did not, you know, ask a lot of probing questions. I didn't try to investigate or gather details. I didn't make promises. For example, like often we say, you know, everything's going to be okay. You know, we, we don't know that, right? So what I did focus on instead was just being present and validating that student. So I acknowledged what he shared in a simple, supportive way, right? That sounds really scary. You know, I'm really glad you told me. Um, you're safe here and you're with me right now. And I allowed space for him to share. But I did not pressure him to continue. And I know it is a really hard topic, right? You know, because this is just so recent. But I just want to recognize that this was something beyond my role, right, to carry alone. So after the session, I did follow up with appropriate team members to make sure that he had the support that he needed. Because, you know, these moments can feel heavy. But they also remind us of the role that we have to play. And I know we are not there to fix the situation, and oftentimes we do not always have the perfect words, but we can be present, respond in a way that supports safety, and make sure that the student is connected to the right supports. Because like I said, sometimes what a child needs in that moment is just to feel heard and to feel safe. So, you know, after moments like the, the one I just shared, a common question, you know, that I often get is, you know, what do I actually say in that moment? And I kind of mentioned this a little, but, you know, when a child is overwhelmed, dysregulated, or sharing something difficult, our goal once again is not to fix the situation but to create a sense of safety. So instead of trying to correct or minimize what they're feeling, we want to validate And support regulation first. So you can say things like, you are safe here. You do not have to talk until you are ready. Your body looks like it is having a hard time. Let us, you know, help it feel calm. And I want you to also notice that these statements do not force language. They do not dismiss the child's experience, and they do not require the child to explain everything. And on the other hand, you know, there are phrases that sometimes we say with good intentions but can actually increase stress in the moment. So you want to avoid things saying like, you're fine, you know, that can feel very dismissive, or that's not a big deal, you know, um, let's focus on this right now, can also invalidate their experience. And even just like things that oftentimes we say like, use your words, which, you know, all SLPs sometimes say at some point, they can be really unrealistic when a child is dysregulated and not in the state to access language. And this is where we have to really remember that regulation comes before communication. You know, if a child's nervous system is overwhelmed, they cannot access the skills that we're trying to target. So once again, our role is to, you know, in these moments, is to really slow things down, support regulation, and create enough safety for communication to happen. You know, later. And I also want to take a moment to talk about language, not just what we say to students, but how we talk about students and families more broadly. So language does carry weight. It can either build trust or unintentionally cause harm. In conversations about immigration, certain terms can feel very stigmatizing or even dehumanizing. Dehumanizing. For example, terms like illegal, aliens are often used to, you know, talk about this topic, but in school settings, you know, these terms can be harmful. They can create distance between us and the families that we're trying to support. So instead, we want to use more respectful, person-centered language, like undocumented immigrant families. And, you know, keep the focus on the person, not the label. So once again, you know, the language we use can really impact whether someone can feel safe, respected, and willing to engage with us. So now let us bring So how do we take this into our actual therapy practice? What does it look like to be both trauma-informed and culturally linguistically responsive in our sessions? And this is where we start to move from awareness now into like action. So I want to focus on a few strategies that you can realistically implement tomorrow, for example, especially when you're working with Lannanese students and their families. So the first strategy is the one we already touched on, and, but it's it's foundational, and that is regulation before communication. You know, as mentioned earlier, if a student is dysregulated, overwhelmed, or feeling unsafe, they, they cannot access language in the way we expect. So instead of pushing a goal in the session, we can shift to co-regulation. And once again, that might look like slowing down the session, offering choices, You know, using visuals. Oh, sorry. Incorporating calming or familiar activities, for example. And sometimes it means adjusting our expectations in that moment. You know, when, if you did not get through the goal that day, and that is okay. You know, you spent the time, you know, helping the student feel regulated because Once the student feels regulated, that is when, once again, communication becomes more accessible again. The second strategy is shifting to strength-based and culturally relevant therapy. For Latinx students, this means incorporating what is familiar to them and meaningful to them. That can include talking about family routines, using culturally relevant stories or themes, You know, Día del Niño, Children's Day, is next week, and I will be using that theme in my sessions because it's something that brings, you know, familiarization to my students. So using relevant themes, culturally relevant themes, are important, and allowing students to share experiences in either language, validating, you know, their bilingualism, is really important. We always want to honor that. If a student uses both languages in a session, once again, that's not something that you should be correcting. That's a strength if they're mixing, you know, languages. And when students, you know, see themselves reflected in therapy, you know, we can build their engagement, we build their trust, and their communication will increase. And of course, narrative work is especially powerful in trauma-informed practice. Through storytelling, students can, you know, organize their thoughts, express emotions, and make sense of some experiences. You know, and once again, this has to be done carefully. We do not always want to force a child to share personal experiences, but instead we want to create opportunities through books, visuals, or even just open-ended prompts And allow the student to engage at their own pace. So highly recommend checking out some like wordless picture books, that always really helps. Now, an essential part of this work is also family collaboration, but in a way that doesn't add pressure. So many of our families are already navigating multiple responsibilities and stressors in their everyday life. So instead of assigning more tasks, we focus on keeping communication clear and simple, offering options instead of expectations, and making sure that we are communicating in the family's preferred language. Oftentimes we might use language that at the time we don't think builds pressure on the family, especially when, when all we want is for our students to make progress. I used to find myself telling parents that they needed to read to their children to work on building their child's language skills. But after a while, I started to reframe that and, you know, just choose the type of language that I was, you know, using because I was working with families of low SES and A lot of the times they didn't have the opportunity to go to school to learn how to read. So instead, I became focused on what families can build in their everyday, you know, routines during that time. And I would share like recommendations that they can use like during lunch, during dinner, while they were doing daily tasks such as going to the grocery store. So we can say things like, if this fits in your routine, here's a simple way, or here's what I recommend, you know, that you can do to support this skill, as opposed to you have to do this or your child's not going to make progress. So changing, you know, the language that we use is very important. And once again, this work doesn't happen in isolation. We collaborate with teachers, social workers, psychologists when appropriate, and community organizations. Our role is to share what we're observing and that it aligns with the supports and that we advocate for our student needs while staying within our scope of practice, right? So that collaboration is what really creates consistency and supports learning across all environments. Now, as we start to notice patterns, whether it is like, as I had mentioned, maybe persistent shutdowns, fear responses, or behaviors that are impacting learning, there may be times where we need to look for additional support, right? And this is where we step into referral and advocacy. But once again, we have to do this in a way that stays within our role That respects families and does not create fear or overwhelm. So, you know, our goal is always to not alarm but to support. So we can consider or should consider referrals when we are seeing patterns that are persistent or intense and are interfering with the student's ability to function. This might include ongoing dysregulation, sudden changes in behavior, or when a student shares something really concerning And again, it is not about diagnosing, it is about recognizing when a student may benefit from additional support and making sure that they are connected to the right people. We, when we communicate with families, how we say things matters just as much as, you know, what we say. So we want to lead with what we are noticing. And not labels. So, for example, instead of saying, I think your child is traumatized, or I think there is something going on, you know, we might say, I have noticed that it has been hard for them to stay engaged, and sometimes they may seem, you know, overwhelmed, or I want to make sure that we are supporting them in the best way possible. You know, we also want to normalize support. So, You know, students can always just benefit from the additional support and making sure that, you know, they have access to those team members who can help with that. And that always kind of keeps the conversation going and supportive when you are talking to families. Now, for many families, especially those navigating fear around systems, it's critical that We clearly explain privacy, right? And that we do not use technical language because sometimes that technical language just does not make sense, right? So we can say things like, your information is protected. We do not share information without your permission. Our goal is to support your child and not to report anything about you. We have to remember that Schools follow privacy laws like FERPA and HIPAA, and we absolutely have to explain that to families as well because we just need to ensure that they know their rights, right? So once again, we have to explain what is kept private, who has access to that student's information, when we can share that information, and we have to emphasize that your— that their information is protected and we do not share anything without their permission. We also have to be very transparent. And, you know, these simple statements can go a long way in building trust. But once again, there is always procedures for everything. I know, you know, personally in my school district, we have documents that the parent has to sign to give consent for when talking to other related health professionals. So once again, just ensuring that you know about the procedures in your workplace is really important as well too. Now, when we talk about safety planning, it is important to reframe what that means. This is not, once again, about monitoring or even just controlling families. It is about collaborating to support the child. And that might include identifying, like, who the child can go to when they feel overwhelmed, what spaces feel safe to them. What strategies help them regulate, and when appropriate, you know, involving the student in that process as well. So it's important that you meet with your school team to discuss safety planning and what protocols are in place. Perhaps your school has a behavioral health team, and if not, perhaps that is something that you can take back, you know, to your school to discuss ways that you can create one. The key here is once again to be proactive and, and know the supports available in your work environment. Now, when connecting families to resources, we want to be mindful and not overwhelm. Instead of giving multiple referrals at once, we can offer 1 or 2 options and explain them clearly. We also want to make sure that communication is in the family's preferred language, once again, whenever possible. And instead of pressure, we always want to follow up with care. So, you know, we can say things like, let me know if you would like help, you know, connecting with this resource, or, you know, let me know if you want me to break this down for you or explain further or answer any questions. Once again, just avoiding overwhelming the families and just not building pressure. I also want to make sure that we are thinking about what we can actually offer families, especially in ways that feel accessible. There are several trusted organizations that provide family-friendly resources, many of which are in Spanish. For example, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network has caregiver guides that explain trauma in very clear, simple ways. The Child Mind Institute, that one also offers parent-friendly information about stress, anxiety, and emotional health. And then for younger, younger children, Sesame Street and Communities has excellent videos and tools that help explain big emotions in ways that feel developmentally appropriate. So that is a really great resource too. And then when thinking specifically about immigration-related stress, organizations like the National Immigration Law Center, And Immigrant Legal Resource Center provides resources such as like knowing your rights and just family preparedness plans. And these can be especially important for families navigating uncertainty or fear. And then, of course, we have, you know, resources for educators too. So while all these resources, you know, we can share with families, these are really great tools available for us. Right, as educators, so that we can build our understanding. So I highly recommend checking out Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators. That one is really great. It has a lot of great definitions, kind of breaks down a lot of the kind of signs that we look for when a child is experiencing trauma. There is also Oops, sorry. Let me go back. Okay, there we go. There is also a guide at the end, Calmer Classrooms: A Guide to Working with Traumatized Children. Once again, really great resource that I highly recommend checking out. And as we wrap up today, I want to leave you with one important thing to remember, and that is that safety is the foundation for everything that we do. So keep in mind that if a student does not feel safe, they cannot fully access communication, learning, or make connections, right? So the goal here is not to leave and change everything overnight, because we know that is, you know, sometimes physically impossible to do. But the goal is to make one small intentional shift. So I want to leave you with this reflection, and that is, what is one thing that you can shift in your practice tomorrow to better support your students? So think about that, or if you want to share any thoughts in the chat, you know, I'm open to discuss. But overall— Thank you so much for being here and for the work that you guys do every day, and for your commitment to supporting students in ways that are just not effective, but affirming, responsive, and human-centered as well too. So thank you, everyone.

Thank you so much. This was amazing, very informative. I think somebody did put a reflection in the chat which I'd like to share. Foster my connections with my students to create a comfortable environment where they could feel free to share their emotions and feelings.

Amazing, thank you.

And then we have a lot of gratitude for what you shared today. I also would like to just remind folks that Please continue if you'd like to put some questions in the chat. We have a few, and I think they're going to probably put a few more, I would assume. We're going to go ahead and speak a little bit. We're going to make a few announcements, and then we're going to invite whoever would like to stay for the Q&A to please go ahead and do so. We have concluded our educational portion, but would love for you to continue to stay on for these announcements.

Thank you.

And so with that, Parallel is always looking for providers, and we'd love to connect with you. So we're hiring for the 2026-27 school year. Please go ahead and scan the code to connect if you'd like to learn more. I'd also like to share— Liliana, if you wouldn't mind advancing to the next slide. We're thrilled to officially launch our Every Student Supported initiative, a commitment from Parallel to make sure no student falls through the cracks, even when staffing and resources are stretched thin. Every week we hear from clinicians and educators who are doing heroic work but feel stretched thin. Caseloads are climbing, evaluations are piling up, and districts are struggling to find the specialists They need, and you've probably felt this too. And that's exactly the gap this initiative is built to close. Through Every Student Supported, we're committed to 3 things: giving district leaders free tools to pinpoint their support gaps, closing staffing and service gaps with our provider network, and rebuilding family trust by making support consistent and reliable. And the best part, you don't have to solve this alone. The next slide shows you how you can help us get these resources into your district's hands in just under 30— under 60 seconds. So as you can see, there's a QR code right here. So Meet Loop, our way of connecting the dots between providers like you who see the gaps every day and the district leaders who can actually do something about them. And here's how it works. You can scan the QR code on your screen, fill out a quick form with your district leader's name and email, And Loop will generate a forwardable email that you can pass along to your special ed director, principal, or district administrator. That email invites them to complete our District Snapshot Tool, a short diagnostic that gives our partnerships team a clear picture of where their biggest needs are, so you can come to the conversation ready with a plan for the next school year. Whether your district needs direct services, We have speech-language pathology assessments, specially designed instruction, or behavioral mental health counseling, or just free professional development like today's session. We want to help. Take 30 seconds right now, please, to scan the code, and one referral from you could mean dozens of students getting the support they've been waiting for. All right, and I will also share A link in the chat. And with that, as we're scanning that QR code for another few seconds, we're gonna briefly transition now to our Q&A. But I did put a link in the chat as well. Amazing. Our Q&A has quite a few comments. And a few questions as well. I just also wanted to share, so we can transition now to the Q&A, we will be sharing these resources in the post-webinar email and survey, so do look out for that. So Liliana, if you're ready, I have a question here, and I think others might have a similar question. Could you walk us through what a typical session looks like with a bilingual student on your case? What are some strategies, activities, materials, etc., etc., that you might use?

Yeah, of course. So I kind of mentioned this in the presentation earlier. So next week, Thursday, is El Día del Niño. So it's Children's Day. And this is a holiday that's celebrated not only in Mexico, but in many other Latin American countries. And it's a pretty big deal. Um, I would say in a lot of countries, you know, schools will do all sorts of like activities and festivals and carnivals and, um, you name it, just to feel that— make that child feel extra special. So I plan a lot around themes, familiar themes, um, for my students, usually culturally relevant. This is one that I'm going to do next week. So I have books about El Día del Niño. There's, you know, one that I had made called El Día del Niño that's available on my website, and it's like an adaptive book. So although I'm using culturally relevant themes, I am still sticking to my students' targets, right, their goals. Um, so with the activity, like, I'm able to work on WH questions, I'm able to work on MOU, um, and just like a variety of things. But we'll be doing that next week, and that's typically how my sessions are. Like, I try to make them interactive with my bilingual students, whether that's in English and Spanish and both, um, and then, and just use themes that, you know, they can relate to. Because when they, when you're using familiar themes, you will be so surprised on how much language you can get out of your kiddo. I've seen it myself in sessions where like, oh my God, I do that, or my mom does that, or, you know, I know what that is, and They get so excited and you see the excitement on their faces and you make more connections that way. Like, they really can apply their targets a lot better when they're just motivated and excited about the activity that you're doing.

I love that. And, um, I myself being bilingual in Armenian, I can completely relate because if I walk in and I share something that my students relate with, they definitely open up and I hear so much more language come through. So thank you for that. We have another question here specifically on trauma-informed care. What can trauma-informed care look like during the evaluation process?

You know, during the evaluation process, once again, I think it is important to be able to collaborate with the team. So if you are working with with your psychologist, your social worker, you know, and you are gathering a case history. You know, oftentimes we are, part of our role is to really make sure that we are getting that background history, language history, medical history, sometimes either collaborating with your team to gather that information in a very valid, safe manner. Because a lot of times we want to make sure that we are not Sounding like we're questioning or being interrogative. Interrogative is the word. And we want to do that in the most approachable manner because oftentimes when we are asking these interview questions, it can sound very demanding. And we just want to make sure that we're doing it in a respectable manner. So I'll give you an example. When I ask questions like, you know, what's your cultural background? Where are you from? Where were you born? You know, questions like that, I always explain to families why I'm asking those questions. A lot of families at times may be hesitant to provide that information for various reasons, right? So once again, explaining the Privacy Act, explaining that, you know, their information is safe with me, I'm not disclosing this with anyone else, and that the reason why I'm asking these questions is because I want to know, you know, how your— the student's language impacts their production or the way they're saying, let's say, their sounds. For example, I'm looking for patterns. So I try to explain that in a family-friendly manner to them so that they can feel, you know, safe disclosing that information with me.

And definitely sharing the why definitely helps in so many scenarios. for people to open up and just feel safe and trust, trust you. So we have another question here. How do you help administrators to be open to and have a deeper understanding of trauma to help related service providers provide the needed support for students? So I think this is a question regarding administrators.

Yeah, I think I have been really lucky at the schools that I have worked at because admin has been and so supportive. And usually when the team, and by the team, I mean like the speech path, the psychologist, you know, the counselor, the social worker, when we all kind of think or want to make a change, let's say in the community, or think of, or we want a specific resource or, you know, for families, a lot of the times if we suggest things to admin and why it is that we're doing it or why we think it's important. My, you know, experience has been that they've been understanding and that usually they're, you know, willing to provide that resource or help us or, you know, create that, you know, team or extra team if we need to, right, in the school. You know, I think in situations where it may be tricky, where maybe admin kind of, they're not as cooperative or collaborative, I think leading with evidence base is probably your best bet, you know, in providing the why this is important to them, whether that's in a form of a mini presentation or you get together with your team members to collaborate so that you guys can all talk to admin. I think, though, you know, those are ways to kind of get by when, you know, admin may be a little hard to convince.

I love that. Thank you. Also, somebody asking specifically about how to kind of do this in a telehealth modality because, again, Parallel, we do mostly telehealth and I assume we have a lot of teletherapists online. Do you have any specific suggestions on how to kind of apply these strategies in a remote environment?

That's a great question. So I myself am not a telehealth therapist. You know, I did do telehealth when we were back in COVID times, and I'll be honest, I did not like it very much because of that rapport piece, right? For me, I find it challenging at times to build that rapport via screen. But I would say The best you could do is just, you know, talk, engage in discourse, and, you know, with your clients. And, and, um, maybe, maybe you guys have like a post-session discussion, um, and that's maybe where you build more of the rapport building and, um, talking about maybe things that are, um, happening, you know. Um, also kind of doing, uh, pre-checks in the beginning, you know, not just automatically like jumping into the goal of the session, right? But in the beginning, just have being more personable and asking like, oh, how's it going? How was your weekend? You know, um, you know, just have building that rapport in the, in the friendliest manner, I would say, um, via telehealth. But I will say it's, it's a challenge. Um, I tried it and I personally did not like it, but props to everyone that is doing it and loves doing And I have to just add that there's also—

it's a similar thing when you're in person. I do hybrid now. I do a little bit of in person. And there's times when it's just not the right time to bring things up. It's, you know, that's why we say there's a time to speak and a time to pause. So I loved your suggestion on perhaps doing— bringing something up afterwards. in a post-session. I think sometimes that's very valuable. All right, so, and then we have a couple of more questions here. Um, I think we've mentioned these before, but maybe if you could kind of summarize again, what are some trauma-informed practices and interventions that you have found to be most effective?

Yeah, you know, um, I think that was part of the last few slides that I was talking about One, I had mentioned, you know, regulation before communication, right? Sometimes you get students that they come in and they're just not having the greatest day. And once again, we don't want to assume why, right? But kind of taking in our observations and just pausing to get the student regulated again. And that can look different, you know, session to session, child to child, and whatever helps that child feel more calm. Whether that is, you know, we're offering other choices, like, you know, I noticed that your body seems to be moving a lot, you know, how about we try sitting on this, you know, beanbag chair perhaps, or let's try sitting over here. Or incorporating, you know, familiar activities like, hey, I know you really like Um, I don't know, Pop Pig last time, you know, let's use that again, you know. Can you come help me and grab it so that we can, you know, play really quick? Um, so, you know, once again, just pausing for a moment to get them regulated, uh, whether that might be a walk out in the hallway, um, you know, quick going up and down the stairs, uh, maybe, you know, like I said, it just depends on the student and what helps them. But that is usually a strategy as well as once again using materials that they are very familiar with, that they feel safe with, that they are comfortable with. That, you know, always helps. And then I talked about narrative and connection-based therapy. And so, you know, being able to use things that are a little bit more open-ended. Can help as well too, to help our students kind of learn how to organize their thoughts and, you know, express, you know, their emotions during, let's say, a wordless picture book, or maybe it's a picture of another child or a character expressing a certain emotion, and then having the student kind of reflect on how, you know, they feel in that particular situation and in the image, right? So, you know, these are all different things that I try to incorporate. Um, and once again, this is from a speech-language pathologist's point of view. Um, I know when I'm working with my students and maybe everything that I'm trying is not necessarily working, that's when I dial up the social worker or, you know, my, my colleague, and I'm like, hey, right? Send them a quick email like, hey, you know, I've tried this, Can you pop in or can we discuss, you know, at a later time to really help support this kiddo?

It is amazing to have a great network of colleagues and friends too, to have that support. Well, thank you so much for an incredibly informative presentation on a very, very sensitive topic, and we really, really appreciate your knowledge Um, I did want to just remind everybody that you will be receiving a survey with an email, um, that will come to you probably tomorrow. Please fill it out within 3 business days and, um, be sure to complete all of that, and you should be able to then get your ASHA CEUs as well as your certificate of completion. And that concludes our presentation for this evening. Thank you so much.

Thank you, everyone.