We often underestimate the impact of trauma on a child’s development. Unpredictable,  unstructured, and emotionally or physically hurtful experiences can create heightened  states of autonomic arousal, anxiety, depression, mood changes, irritability, agitation,  non-reality thinking, and a general pattern of disorganized behaviors. Tokens and other  non-effective behavioral strategies not only do not work, they often make it worse for  these students as this is a developmental trauma issue, not a behavioral issue. A social emotional approach is needed to help these students excel to their highest academic  potential. Explanations of how to do this from a scientific brain-based perspective will  be explained and demonstrated in this presentation.