Chapter 5: Neurosequential Learning Strategies and the Impact of Societal Racism

The most revolutionary thing a Black parent can do as an act of cultural resistance is to develop a loving relationship with their child. The chronic aggressions of societal racism are toxic influences on the loving interactions between parents and children. Toxic stresses like societal racism also interrupt the organized activity of the brain and can interrupt a child’s ability to learn. This chapter discusses how stress interrupts learning and how parents can help their child’s brain re-organize so he/she can learn again. Parents can adopt many simple tools to turn down the worried, anxious, foggy, distracted, or disruptive parts of their children’s brains and reawaken the joyful, curious parts that love to learn, even during turbulent times. To do this, parents and teachers must understand the orderly pattern in which the brain develops. Complex states like curiosity and imagination, necessary for learning, are shut off in the traumatized brain. One must speak to the lower, simple areas of the brain before moving on to higher, complex areas of learning. This is called a neurosequential approach to learning and will be discussed in this chapter through the lens of the author’s personal experience.