WOW! Honestly, I am still speechless and it has been over a week since a chatted with Matt. 

Unfortunately, for many young Australian's Matt's story sounds familiar. 

Just the other day for one of my Uni subjects we had a guest lecturer come in and talk to my cohort about childhood trauma and the impacts it can have on children, adolescents and adults. 1 in 33 children had an investigation, care and protection order and/or was placed in out-of-home care as a result of childhood abuse and substantiated child abuse and neglect have risen by 31% from 2013 (AIHW 2020). Matt speaks about his early days in primary school when he bullied. From the ages of 0 to 6/7 we are essentially programmed by the outer world. We learn everything from the people around us and the experiences we have. For Matt, the bullying he experienced resulted in learning difficulties because psychologically he was affected. He started to armour up. Come his time in high school he just wanted to belong. 

Children who experience some form of trauma are: 

3 times more likely to fail school 

5 times more likely to have severe attendance problems 

6 times more likely to have severe behaviour problems (Blodgett et al., 2015)

This is alarming!! 

This stuff is not spoken about enough!!

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