March 2022

By Lydia Dentworth, Photo: Lambert/Getty/The Atlantic, The Atlantic, March 11, 2022 Two years is a long time in any child’s life. It’s half of high school and most of middle school, time enough for a grade schooler to notch several inches on the kitchen doorframe and for toddlers to leap from first words to conversations. For the babies born in March 2020, just as the pandemic was declared, two years make up their whole lives. From the minute these children were born in empty maternity wards...

By Melinda Wenner Moyer, Image by Derek Abella, The New York Times, March 15, 2022 As Texas’ governor attempts to criminalize medical treatments for transgender youth, experts say there are many ways to help adolescents who are questioning their gender. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas declared last month that medical treatments given to transgender adolescents, including puberty-suppressing drugs and hormones, could be considered child abuse under state law. Opponents of the move swiftly responded...

By Zoeann Murphy and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Illustration: The Washington Post, The Washington Post, March 15, 2022 The wave of refugees flooding through Europe is striking not just for its historic scale and speed, but because half the people who have fled the war in Ukraine are children. Many have had to say goodbye to their fathers before undertaking difficult and disorienting journeys with mothers and siblings, sometimes waiting more than a dozen hours in the cold before being allowed to...

This fact sheet from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network o ffers information for caregivers on how to talk to children about war. This fact sheet includes the potential impact and considerations when talking to children about war, how to start the conversation, understanding media coverage, and how to foster resilience. Also, now available in Ukrainian , Russian , German , and Japanese . Click here to access the resource.

We know how hard parenting with PACEs can be. We at PACEs Connection want to support you in your parenting journey, and we’re excited to share that we have lots of resources to help you. Check out our NEW Parenting with PACEs resource list , which includes: Books for Parents Handouts for Parents Resources for Children Videos, Documentaries, and Podcasts for Parents Websites, Toolkits, Classes, and Articles for Parents You can also find these Parenting with PACEs resources in our new PACEs...

By Guest Author, 3/8/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ HOPE Week of Action Blog – March 7-11, 2022 Authors: Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba member of the HOPE National Advisory Board, and Allison Bovell-Ammon Last July, a TikTok trend embodied a moment of pure joy when policy change had a real-world impact on families’ lives. The social media outlet was full of parents dancing and taking a huge sigh of relief as the up to $300 monthly payments of the Advance Child Tax Credit (CTC)...

Ping Pong Talk Many new parents are thrilled to hear their baby’s first coos and noises! Encourage them to respond back as if they are having a conversation with an adult. They can respond by imitating the noise the baby made, or by saying something like, “tell me more.” Then they can pause and wait for the baby to respond again. Like a game of ping pong, parents can keep back and forth conversations going with and without words. Smiling, kicking and even turning away are all part of baby...

By Laura Gallant, 3/10/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Today, Thursday March 10, is the fourth day in our Week of HOPE. This week is intended to spread awareness of HOPE – Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences TM and help people learn about the difference that positive childhood experiences can make for children, families, and those who serve them. Today’s theme is HOPE Family Day. HOPE aims to shift the model of care to a more collaborative and family-led framework.

Stop the spread...of STRESS! Stress is not only triggered by external or internal factors. You can also pick up stress from social interactions – spouse, other household members, colleagues, etc. – usually referred to as emotional contagion. Learn how to stop the spread of stress and regain your health.

By Lurie Children's Hospital, Photo: Stock Photo, Daily Herald, March 5, 2022 We take care of our bodies by eating healthy, exercising and practicing good hygiene. Our minds and our hearts need us to take care of them, too -- especially in the face of ongoing stress. "It's important to remind ourselves, no matter our age, that there is no such thing as a good feeling or a bad feeling," said Rebecca Mitsos, a certified child life specialist at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital...

By Claudia M Gold, MD, March 8, 2022 Eight-week-old Asher hovered somewhere between awake and asleep in his mother Esther’s arms. His father Clarence explained that “naps are a thing of the past.” They described pressures they felt to tell the world Asher was a “good baby” when in fact he was often fussy and cried inexplicably. Taking care of this little person who needed great effort on their parts to settle was really hard. They both wanted to accept their son as his full self, free from...

By Jessica Grose, Image by Eleanor Davis, The New York Times , March 9, 2022 The parenting method RIE — that stands for Resources for Infant Educarers and is pronounced “rye” — and its most famous practitioner, Janet Lansbury, are having another high-profile moment, with interviews this year by Ezra Klein in The Times and Ariel Levy in The New Yorker . And because I’m old and cranky and have been on the parenting beat for a minute, my gut response to this resurgence is: Again? I remember...