Session 3B
Tracks
Track 2
| Friday, October 30, 2026 |
| 2:00 PM - 3:35 PM |
| Plaza Auditorium, Plaza Level |
Overview
Plaza Auditorium
Speaker
Prof Judith Howard
Queensland University of Technology
The neuroscience of complex trauma: A deeper dive
2:00 PM - 3:35 PMAbstract
Join Professor Judith Howard to take a (deeper than usual) dive into the neuroscience that explains the difficulties trauma-impacted children and young people in education settings experience with perceiving safety, with engaging well with relationships, with their emotional self-regulation, and therefore with learning. These understandings help us to grasp why these young learners behave in the way they do and face the challenges that they face. These understands also inform what we can do in response, to enhance the education and life trajectories of this often quite vulnerable group of learners.
Biography
Professor Judith Howard is a nationally and internationally recognised leader in Trauma-Aware Education and the founder of the Trauma-Aware Education Conference. Her work focuses on improving educational outcomes for learners affected by trauma and supporting the educators who work with them. At QUT, she leads pre-service and postgraduate programs in Trauma-Aware Education and supervises doctoral research in the field. Judith is the author of Distressed or Deliberately Defiant (2013 ) and Trauma-Aware Education (2022). For decades, her work has had a strong focus on growing the capacities of educators and education sites and systems to understand, value, and implement Trauma-Aware Education.
Session chair
Beck Thompson
Trauma Informed Teachers Australia
