Why Teacher Training Must Include Trauma, Attachment, and ACEs.
Let’s look at how unmet needs hurt new professionals – and the children and families they serve.
The Expectation Without Preparation
We tell new teachers to “adapt to meet every child’s needs.” But we don’t always show them how.
In the UK, every teacher is expected to recognise and respond to a vast range of needs. From neurodiversity and special educational needs to trauma, attachment, and adversity. Yet most enter the classroom without any meaningful training in these areas.
They learn how to plan lessons, manage classrooms, and track progress, but not how to recognise a trauma response or understand the silent impact of chronic stress. When behaviour becomes communication, new teachers are often left trying to decode distress with the wrong map.
This isn’t their fault. It’s the system’s.
Neurodiversity and Special Needs. A Separate, Ongoing Discussion
Neurodiversity and special educational needs deserve dedicated discussion. That conversation – about differentiation, understanding, and equity – continues elsewhere in The Neurodiversity Wise blog, and in our wider work.
But we cannot talk about trauma and attachment without acknowledging neurodiversity. Being different, in itself, is a risk factor for adversity.
Neurodivergent children are statistically more likely to experience misunderstanding, exclusion, and even trauma within educational systems not designed with them in mind. For many, school becomes the place where adversity accumulates rather than heals.
Trauma, Attachment, and ACEs: The Missing Foundations
The concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has reshaped our understanding of how early adversity affects lifelong health, learning, and behaviour (Felitti et al., 1998). These experiences, from neglect and loss to family instability, can profoundly affect a child’s ability to regulate emotions, trust adults, or feel safe in a classroom.
We know this. The research is not new.
And yet, in the UK and much of the world, trauma informed practice remains optional in initial teacher training (ITE).
A small number of universities, like Sheffield Hallam, have begun to embed trauma informed modules for beginning teachers (Barratt, 2022). In Australia, a six-week elective unit for pre-service teachers led to measurable improvements in knowledge, self-efficacy, and resilience (McLean et al., 2022).
But these are the exceptions, not the norm.
Most trainee teachers still graduate without ever being explicitly taught what trauma looks like, or how attachment insecurity or chronic stress manifest in children’s behaviour.
We prepare them to ‘manage’ behaviour, but not to recognise distress.
The Human Cost? Unmet Needs All Around.
This gap has real consequences.
For new professionals, it’s an impossible task. They enter classrooms filled with complexity, armed with theory but little understanding of emotional regulation or trauma responses. They feel overwhelmed and often blame themselves when strategies fail.
For children and families, it’s a familiar pattern of misunderstanding. Distress is seen as defiance; anxiety as avoidance; emotional dysregulation as poor behaviour. When needs go unmet, relationships fracture, and exclusion looms.
And for schools, the absence of trauma and attachment awareness keeps the system reactive rather than preventative. Forever firefighting, or trying to ‘control’, but never addressing root causes.
It’s unfair on everyone: new professionals, children, and families alike.
What the Research Tells Us (and What It Doesn’t)
The research base is growing, but the message is clear: training matters.
In a recent Australian study, pre service teachers who completed a trauma informed unit showed significant gains in confidence and understanding (McLean et al., 2022). In New South Wales, teachers with higher trauma literacy and access to professional learning, were more likely to use trauma informed practices (Miller et al., 2025).
A UK evaluation found that whole-school trauma informed programmes improved staff confidence, wellbeing, and relationships (Maynard et al., 2022).
Yet a systematic review by Stevens et al. (2021) found no high-quality, controlled studies of trauma informed school interventions, highlighting a striking gap between practice and evidence.
In other words: we know it helps, but we haven’t yet proved it as rigorously as we should. That’s because it’s rarely embedded long enough or deeply enough to study its full impact.
A Better Way Forward. Building Foundations, Not just Add Ons
We can do better.
If we truly believe in inclusion, then trauma informed, attachment aware, and neuro affirming education must become foundational, not optional.
That means:
- Embedding these principles in initial teacher education, not as a bolt-on or optional extra.
- Integrating neurodiversity literacy throughout, so teachers understand regulation, sensory needs, and executive function as part of learning.
- Recognising emotional safety as a prerequisite for learning.
- Supporting teacher wellbeing and reflection alongside student wellbeing.
When teachers are given the tools to understand human need – not just ‘manage’ behaviour – everyone wins.
The child feels seen.
The teacher feels capable.
The system finally starts to work better.
References:
Barratt, A. (2022). Developing trauma-informed teacher education in England. London Review of Education, 20(1), 29–45. https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/lre/article/pubid/LRE-21-29/
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258.
Maynard, B. R., Farina, A., Dell, N. A., & Kelly, M. S. (2022). Effects of trauma-informed approaches in schools: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 17(3), e1198.
McLean, S., Price-Robertson, R., & Robinson, R. (2022). Trauma-informed initial teacher education training: A necessary step. Frontiers in Education, 7, 929582. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.929582
Miller, L., O’Connor, E., & Jorm, A. (2025). Teacher use of trauma-informed practice in the classroom: Associations with trauma literacy and professional learning. Australian Educational Researcher, 52(1), 1–23.
Stevens, C., Murphy, L., & Roberts, M. (2021). The effects of trauma-informed approaches in schools: A systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMC Psychology, 9(1), 1–19.
