Basic Needs

• Consider how you will begin the class. First impressions count! Limit new information, review of classroom procedures, and introductions to just a few minutes to avoid overload. Setting up daily patterns and procedures will create a routine and promote a feeling of consistency. • Include simple student-to-student interactions to build students’ confidence and reduce encounter stress. Clear procedures for social interactions will encourage polite conversations and discussions. • Use daily agendas to help students know the goals and game plan for the day. Teacher clarity about the schedule for the class and the expectations gives students a clear vision of what they need to do and complete. • Create and use clear procedures to reduce anticipatory anxiety and promote student self-regulation. Students will benefit when teachers take the time to develop procedures for routine tasks and maintain consistent patterns of behaviors. • Take five minutes to sit in a student desk after the class leaves and look around the classroom. It might give you a new perspective and inspire some cleanup and organization. We often get oblivious to the clutter build up. • Integrate organizational skills into every lesson. Help students develop strategies to save and file assignments, manage books, and review research materials. Teachers who teach organizational strategies really are providing valuable life skills for their students.

• Make sure you review testing goals, expectations, and procedures during the days leading up to testing events. Anticipate student questions and worries. The added anxiety that high-stakes tests bring means that students may need to be reminded more often and instructions may need to be especially clear.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow first developed the hierarchy of basic needs and described how people are driven to get these needs met (Maslow, 1968). These basic needs are biological and can be overwhelming. Students cannot help but seek to meet their needs because “the brain is wired to maintain homeostasis. Hungry, thirsty, and tired brains will set aside opportunities to learn, seeking out food, water, and rest in order to feel satisfied and calm” (Kaufeldt, 2010, p. 67). In classrooms that have tight restrictions,

students may be in a constant reflex response. During stressful events such as testing, these basic needs may be exacerbated.

The following sections will further discuss how factors related to basic needs may trigger stress for students: (1) hunger and thirst, (2) restricted movement and physical activity, (3) lack of downtime or playtime, and (4) language fluency. I will also offer body- and brain-friendly strategies to reduce stress related to basic needs.

Hunger and Thirst

Our brains always monitor our survival needs of food, water, sleep, and shelter. We must first meet these needs before we can really pay attention to learning or have fun. In classrooms, there are often strict rules about eating, drinking, and using the restroom. Students who arrive to school hungry will think about their hunger until they can get something to eat. A feeling of thirst can happen at any time, yet at school, students are often not allowed to hydrate as needed. The stress of being hungry or thirsty can be a huge factor in a student’s ability to have success.

Another basic need—getting rid of bodily waste—can be a huge stressor for many students. Many students may have anxiety associated with bathroom access, possible accidents, menstrual issues, and gastrointestinal upsets.

Restricted Movement and Physical Activity

For many students, having to sit still in an uncomfortable chair and having their movement restricted for up to an hour at a time can be very stressful. Unfortunately, many classrooms still rely on an inordinate amount of sitting. The time schools have dedicated to physical education and recess has steadily decreased. In the era of increased rigorous instruction, many teachers have been pushed into thinking that movement and play are frivolous and a waste of time (Abdelbary, 2017). Students who frequently feel the need to get up and move may become frustrated and anxious, and that may lead to behavioral issues and disciplinary actions. Some students report feeling dread when they must go to a classroom that severely restricts movement of any kind.

Even with curriculum that includes more project-based and hands-on learning, movement in the classroom is often quite restricted. Students spend much more time in a passive learning setting. In “Promoting Physical Activity in Schools,” the World Health Organization (2007) states, “Public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned that young people in both developed and developing countries are becoming increasingly inactive” (p. 1). The report cites benefits of physical activity, including helping students stay alert in class, which improves their academic achievements, as

well as helping to relieve tension, restlessness, and lack of concentration resulting from continuous sitting, which leads to high academic achievement.

The lack of physical activity among people of all ages is so critical that it is considered to be a major health risk. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that children and adolescents ages six to seventeen years do sixty minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). For many students, the idea of having to participate in physical education creates lots of anxiety and stress. Many students worry and experience stress over the reactions the other students might have about their physical skill abilities (or lack of skills). Also, in grades 4–8, students’ attitude about physical education participation can change significantly and cause psychological and emotional stress. So many biological, psychological, and social changes occur during adolescence and are often associated with a decline in their self-esteem. This transition time has much to do with physical changes and body image for teens, and participating in physical education makes these new changes apparent to the other students.

Lack of Downtime or Playtime

The absence of downtime can be a stressor for many students. The need for constant engagement and focused attention can create overload in the brain and body. When teachers don’t find ways to orchestrate opportunities for a little rest and relaxation within the class, they may find a number of students begin to have meltdowns and behavioral issues. Downtime may be a simple, quiet activity of reading or drawing. For some students, downtime is having a chance to play vigorously outside. Even brief opportunities to play can help the brain get ready for more serious learning activities (Brown, 2009).

Play, as described by affective neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp (1998), is a primary emotion. His research indicates that opportunities for play set in motion many brain systems that not only facilitate learning but also promote happiness (Davis & Panksepp, 2018; Panksepp, 1998; Panksepp & Biven, 2012). In his foreword for The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance (Gregory & Kaufeldt, 2015), Panksepp explains:

The many benefits of play should alert educators to the problems that may emerge when children are deprived of this vital resource for mental health. Without a regular diet of fun social engagements, children become hungry for play and begin to “act out,” potentially disrupting the flow of classroom instructional activities. (p. xi)

Research indicates that, in the 21st century, many children never get sufficient amounts of natural, self-generated play. This may be a reason that children develop hyperactivity and attention disorders and lack impulse control—all issues that have a connection to anxiety and stress (Panksepp & Biven, 2012). Several researchers have gathered data suggesting that kids are being overdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other attention disorders because 6.4 million children in the United States (over 9 percent), ranging from age six to age seventeen, are diagnosed with ADHD each year (Hamed, Kauer, & Stevens, 2015); see also www .cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html for more data. Many of the referrals come from teachers with students who have difficulty sitting still and paying attention. According to a 2003 report, ADHD is not purely a U.S. disorder. The rate of identification in many countries is in the same range as that in the United States (Faraone, Sergeant, Gillberg, & Biederman, 2003), with a global rate of 5.29 percent, or 116 million children being diagnosed worldwide (Smith, 2017).

Language Fluency

Language is an instinct that is driven by evolutionary adaptations. Being able to use language to ask for help, get food, and express wants and needs is an important basic need. One’s ability to communicate involves both receptive and productive language skills. Receptive language allows us to comprehend and understand others. Productive language allows us to generate ideas and use words to ask questions (MacWhinney, n.d.). Not being able to communicate in your native language can generate a lot of stress.

Diverse 21st century classrooms commonly include English learners at various levels of fluency. For some English learners, it is very stressful to begin speaking English in class. They have thoughts like these: What will the other students think? What if I make a huge flub? My thoughts are much faster than I can express them verbally. Foreign-language anxiety is a real thing. Translator Huong Tran (2016) explains that xenoglossophobia, as it’s also known, is an extreme “feeling of unease, worry, nervousness, and apprehension experienced when learning or using a second or foreign language.”

Learning English within the regular classroom can be inherently stressful. When learning a new language that operates with different grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, students can have extreme anxiety about trying to speak out loud. Students who are not yet fluent in the new language may be in a constant state of stress about written and oral communication. For those who are deemed ready to take exams in English, there may be a lot of test anxiety, which can trigger the reflex response. The levels of foreign-language anxiety can be so extreme that the anxiety can hamper

performance and productive learning. Teachers who understand their ELs’ anxieties will be able to adjust tasks to minimize stress:

Three closely related cognitive factors are said to cause [foreign-language anxiety]. First is communication apprehension, which is the fear of speaking, whether in front of the class, to the teacher or with a native speaker. Second is test anxiety, which is the fear of being tested and being put on the spot. And last, which is very much related to the second one, is the fear of negative evaluation—the fear of the judgment of others, including us teachers. Nobody wants to look stupid, but in [foreign-language anxiety], that fear reaches feverish heights. These three are self-sustaining and can easily snowball to the point of the student not being able to acquire the target language. (FluentU, n.d.)

Some students experiencing foreign-language anxiety might try to become invisible and avoid having to participate, and others might appear shy and even try to avoid coming to class.

Strategies to Meet Students’ Basic Needs

Consider the following strategies to reduce stress related to students’ basic needs.

• Determine whether students are getting their basic nutritional needs met.

Create ways to provide simple healthy snacks for those students who come to school without a morning meal. School meal programs may be able to supply individually packaged snacks such as granola bars or dried fruit snacks. Parent support groups might also help provide these handy snacks that can be given to students as needed in the classroom. • Work with the school’s food services, the administration, and your colleagues to address hunger issues if they are impacting student learning.

Investigate the success of the current food program at your school. Are all students who qualify able to get the meals they deserve? If hunger is an ongoing issue that is keeping students from engaging and being successful, this basic need must be addressed.

• Provide students with opportunities for hydrating and using the restroom as needed. Allow students to bring a water bottle with them to class, and have scheduled bathroom breaks, for example. • Integrate opportunities for students to get up and move during class.

Regularly take a few minutes for stretching and simple exercises. In the classroom, brain breaks are quick, structured breaks using physical