Research on Palestinian children uncovered that those who exhibited high mental flexibility scores actually became less traumatized with each subsequent traumatic event (Qouta et.al., 2003). This phenomenon is shown in figure one below.
Figure 1
Children were able to reformulate their interpretation of what happened and incorporate it into their lives in the same way that they were able to reinterpret pictures that changed gradually from looking more like a cat to more like a dog (Qouta et.al., 2003). Because of this, teachers in disaster prone areas might wish to attempt to develop and use classroom activities that help students to learn to reinterpret their first impressions of objects and lessons. One way language education can help with this is through using words that have different meanings in one use than they do in another use. It could be helpful for teachers to introduce a word in one specific context and allow students to get used to the word to the point where they rapidly recognize it where ever they see it. Then, after the students think they know what that word means, the teacher can introduce the word in a new context with a new meaning, possibly completely different than the meaning in the f
