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AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- Texas spent more than $55 billion in 2017 to help children faced with maltreatment. That’s according to advocacy group TexProtects, who released a report Wednesday highlighting the costs of adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs. ACEs include child abuse, child neglect and household dysfunction. “The research is clear, we know that trauma early in life can change the architecture of a child’s developing brain,” said TexProtects CEO Sophie Phillips. “Therefore,...

F or Duke University sophomore Mila de Souza, including social-emotional learning in schools should be common sense. By that, she means it should be second nature for schools to support students’ mental health, teach children how to work well with others, and become a place where both educators and scholars can learn to value one another’s diverse experiences. “I feel a lot of schools are focusing on just education and making sure these students are able to pass tests, but not really...

South Dakota on Tuesday became just the eighth state to join the national Enough Abuse Campaign, a grassroots movement providing adults and communities with the knowledge and skills to prevent child sexual abuse in their communities. The Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment, Children’s Home Society and the South Dakota Department of Social Services made the announcement Tuesday as part of Children’s Day at the Capitol in Pierre. The Enough Abuse Campaign offers educational...

Last September, the Trump administration unveiled a controversial proposal — a policy that, if implemented, could jeopardize the legal status of many immigrants who sign up for some government-funded programs, including Medicaid. The Trump proposal is still working its way through the public comment and evaluation process, and could go into effect as early as this year, though some state attorneys general say they would challenge any such policy in the courts. In the meantime, some doctors...

Rugged, sepia-colored land stretches for miles around the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in the small town of Tornillo, Texas. This border gateway across from Guadalupe, Mexico, was known as the Tornillo Port of Entry until 2016, when it was re-named after Private Marcelino Serna , a Mexican citizen who crossed illegally into Texas in 1916 and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He went on to become the most decorated Texas soldier of World War I. A few years ago, the government had big plans to...

Several years ago NPR had a story about temper tantrums, describing a study showing that the sounds children make during a tantrum indicate that they are primarily sad rather than angry. The written version of the story opens with description of tantrums as " the cause of profound helplessness among parents." I thought this was an interesting choice of words, as I have always thought of tantrums as representing a sense of helplessness in children. In fact, in my over 20 years of practicing...

Dr. Felitti and Dr. Anda deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor or the Presidential Medal of Freedom or a Nobel or all three for their work. Perhaps that would give them the forum to push for the primary prevention of adverse childhood experiences.

It's no surprise to scientists that variety is the very essence of biology, not just the seasoning, but most previous studies of key brain cells have found little variability in a common cell process that involves how genetic information is read and acted on. The process, called epigenetics, involves chemical or structural "tweaks" to gene activity that don't affect the underlying genetic code itself, but do affect when and how a gene becomes available to be read for its protein-encoding...

For years, I loathed the person I saw in the mirror. Every imperfection, every roll, every spot of cellulite were flaws that I thought made me less. I hated my body. In middle school, I flipped through fashion magazines, tore out workout articles, and starved myself because I thought if I obsessed long enough, the dream body I had in my head would become reality. In high school, I struggled with anxiety over my acne and braces, believing that my outward appearance was the reason I couldn’t...

In a new study, University of Cambridge researchers found that recalling positive events and experiences can help young people build resilience against depression in later life. Depression is now the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 300 million people. The condition often first emerges in adolescence, a critical developmental time period when an individual experiences substantial changes in their brain structure and chemistry. Moreover, a known risk factor of...

Shawnee Inyallie is described as naïve and sweet by the people who knew her, and when the 29-year-old Chawathil woman went missing in mid-July of last year in Hope, British Columbia, her community mobilized quickly, organizing searches in spite of bureaucratic hurdles and a conspicuous lack of support from authorities. People worked together in search teams to comb the river, put up posters, and provide lunches for those who helped. I was moved by their spirit, and by Shawnee's smile in the...

Heeju Kim wants people to fathom what it would be like to be incapable of reading others’ body language and to be perpetually inundated with strange, troublesome noises. The end goal is to give you insight into the sensory and motor challenges that individuals with autism spectrum disorder face, and in turn, cultivate greater empathy. Kim, 29, has spent many years trying to better understand the experiences of her 27-year-old brother who has the disorder. In addition to various sensory...