by Elise White Diaz
For years, the 7 Steps framework had been my Bible—my gospel for teaching language to some of the most challenging students: timid newcomers and discouraged multilingual learners struggling with disabilities.
But one day, I was sitting beside a newcomer of 2.5 years who refused to participate. She was well past the silent period, so expecting her to verbalize “repeat, please,” didn’t seem unreasonable. We were on Step 1: What to Say Instead of I Don’t Know. I had broken down each phrase and ensured understanding, and now it was her turn to repeat after me. She opened her mouth, paused, and simply said, “No.”
The finality in that single syllable said everything. Her eyes narrowed in defiance. I knew there was nothing I could do to coax her into speaking. My mind jumped back to other students who refused to speak (although they most certainly could), and to students who resisted walking into a classroom.
Something deeper was happening with these students—something I couldn’t reach with strategies alone. The crisis team, the administrators, even the parents were at a loss. The special education department called it culture shock, but decades of experience told me that wasn’t the whole story.
Asking the Hard Question: What About Trauma?
At a conference years ago, before I even knew him personally, I approached John Seidlitz—someone I deeply admired for his groundbreaking work supporting multilingual learners—and asked, “What about trauma? What if a multilingual learner comes from a trauma-affected background and is showing behaviors or language delays that seem to block learning?”
John listened thoughtfully. At that time, even with his tremendous expertise, the field simply didn’t yet have a clear framework for addressing the intersection of adverse childhood experiences and language development in our linguistically and culturally diverse students. His openness to that question—and his honesty about the gap—stuck with me. It became the seed for what would later grow into Discover, Connect, Respond.
Years later, when John wrote in the foreword to my book that it was “the resource I had been waiting for…a roadmap for how to reach and teach students who carry the invisible weight of trauma,” I knew the journey had come full circle.
The Growing Mental Health Crisis in Our Classrooms
Today, that invisible weight has become a national crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024), in 2023 40% of high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless—so much so that it interferes with daily life. Girls and minoritized populations are most affected, and more than half of those struggling haven’t received support.
Now imagine navigating that kind of pain while learning a new language, in a new culture. For many multilingual learners, access to mental health services is limited or inaccessible. That’s where a trauma-informed approach becomes essential—not to replace the services of a qualified mental health provider, but to complement it by providing emotionally safe, connection-rich spaces that support learning, healing and language growth.
Discover, Connect, Respond: A Framework for Trauma-Informed Language Development
After years of serving these students from hard places, my own treacherous experiences working in Honduras, and time devoted to crafting this routine to fill in the gap where other strategies didn’t quite fit, the Discover, Connect, Respond (DCR) routine was born. I would try techniques with students in the heat of the moment when they were dysregulated, and then when they worked, I would go into deep study of neurobiology to understand why. Discover, Connect, Respond offers a practical framework for educators who want to look beyond behavior and see what students are trying to communicate when they don’t yet have the words. It provides trauma-informed strategies for fostering connection, belonging, and academic growth—all while supporting language development.
DCR helps educators:
- Discover what students’ behaviors may be communicating beneath the surface.
- Connect through culturally informed and emotionally safe relationships, such as the “4 S’s” routine or emotional attunement.
- Respond with strategies that prevent escalation, build trust, and promote learning.
The framework is especially powerful for multilingual learners affected by adverse childhood experiences, who often need both language scaffolds and emotional safety to thrive.
It’s been a joy to coach teachers in this approach and hear them say, “It’s working!” Watching students light up because, perhaps for the first time, they feel seen and understood—that’s what keeps me going.
What Educators Are Saying
“The depth of content and practical approach of Discover, Connect, Respond has the potential to transform the field of education. Elise articulates a meaningful instructional approach that transcends subsets of student groups to help all students succeed.”
— Alice Collins, Colorado DOE, CLD
“I was amazed at the simple and easy breakdown of how our brains work. It doesn’t just apply to trauma but to all humans. We all have rough days and respond with our amygdala. I loved how you gave tangible ways to move a student out of that.”
— Robi Heath, M.Ed, LPC-S, RPT, Director of Kid-Talk Frisco
Are You Ready to Bring DCR to Your District?
Our students need more than strategies—they need connection, understanding, and educators who know how to respond.
If you’re ready to bring Discover, Connect, Respond to your district, let’s start the conversation. Together, we can build classrooms where every student feels seen, supported, and capable of success.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024, November). Metal health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-youth/mental-health/index.html
Siegel, D. J., & Bryson, T. P. (2021). The power of showing up: How parental presence shapes who our kids become and how their brains get wired. Ballantine Books.
Seidlitz Education 