Compassion in the classroom: Trauma-informed attitudes and practices of special educators working with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Abstract

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more likely to experience trauma than their peers without disabilities, and therefore strongly benefit from the implementation of trauma-informed practices. The present study used a web-based survey to investigate attitudes towards, knowledge and use of trauma-informed practices of special education teachers who worked with students with IDD. Scores were found via the use of the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) scale and a sum score of researcher-created trauma-informed practices. Findings revealed that the 217 special education teachers had moderately high, yet variable, attitudes towards trauma-informed practices. Elementary school teachers scored higher in three out of the five core ARTIC subscales, as well as the ARTIC 35 sum score, than secondary school teachers. Special education teachers reported a strong knowledge and fairly high use of the list of trauma-informed practices. This research provides encouraging insight into the readiness of special education teachers to receive further training on trauma-informed practices and the opportunity for system-wide capacity-building and change regarding trauma-informed practices.