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Maybe they were good parents. I saw them at a family restaurant, where a friend and I were having lunch. They looked pretty young, and a baby girl was pulled up in a high chair at their booth. She was an adorable little thing, maybe 5 or 6 months old, with fat cheeks and a head of reddish-gold hair. But they didn't notice. Mom looked rough, and wore a T-shirt that said "Evil bitch." She had laid down in the booth with one knee up and her arms flung over her eyes. She ignored the baby. Across...

A wonder story of the impact of ACEs and how community services, such as Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT), which was funded through First 5, provided the help one mom needed to break the cycle of ACEs. This story also provides a great overview of ACEs and some initiatives in California that are working to address ACEs and build resilience. http://www.first5la.org/index.php?r=site/article&id=3682

The Appanoose County NEST program has been under the guidance of coordinator Meho Clark for about three years and has been growing steadily. The parent education and support group began about five years ago at SEIDA, but has since moved under the control of Clark at the ISU Extension Office where it currently serves about 60 families and 100 children. The program serves anyone who is pregnant or with a child under five. There are not other restrictions on who can participate. Families can...

For the first time in California, thousands of early-learning centers in most of the state, from preschools to licensed child-care centers and homes, are in the process of implementing a common system to rate the quality of their programs.   The...

Like any expecting couple, Brett Pipitone and his wife, Laura, knew that having a child would upend their daily routine. But no research or planning prepared them for their biggest challenge: postpartum depression. “It was an incredibly stressful situation,” Brett said. After giving birth to their daughter in 2014, Laura found herself “wanting to disappear” and completely disengaged from her surroundings. She’d call Brett at work in tears, and he’d rush home to help. He wound up taking much...

A meaningful pre-kindergarten experience is increasingly seen as a critical part of a child’s education, and parents are expected to play a much more significant role. In this city, like many around the country, poorer families must first overcome powerful hurdles to be more present in their children’s education. That’s why Pre-K for San Antonio was designed to support and engage parents and extended families in ways that bolster their pre-schoolers’ chances to excel. While students are...

Cherokee Point Parent Leaders presented at the Restorative Practice / Restorative Justice Summit hosted by the Human Relations Commission and Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention in San Diego last Friday. Sharing their work over the past 5 years in two break-out sessions, they moved audiences with their compelling stories demonstrating how a trauma-informed community school can lead to transformative change for their children and families. Please see the attachment for more...

Echo's conference this year is bursting at the seams with great workshops for teachers, parents and anyone who works with children and their families. In addition to the not-to-be-missed keynotes such as Dr. Ross Greene, we are proud to present: Robbyn Peter Bennett Workshop Spotlight: Self-Regulation, Dysregulation & Co-Regulation - Neurologically Informed Teaching & Parenting You may have seen Robbyn Peters Bennett in her TEDx talk . In our conference workshop, Robbyn will discuss...

As a research topic, Intimate Relationships are not well understood in Indian Country. This article, [ LINK HERE ] soon to be published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, is a first small step in addressing this gap. Decades ago, I spoke about the difficulties of parenting when you had no examples to emulate. As a boy, I changed diapers, fed babies, soothed fussiness and performed scores of other child care tasks. During one of our early morning talks, my Mother told me that she was...

"The purpose of fear is to raise your awareness, not to stop your progress." Steve Maraboli I sat down to write this piece after reading a post about being "drugged by our parents"! And, let me tell you, I had an immediate visceral reaction. I felt sick to my stomach and I felt upset that we have to resort to fear mongering to get others to see that our points of view are superior. If you want to read that post, you can read it here . But, what really came to fruition to me: We really suck...

Drs. Teri Petterson and R.J. Gillespie, who led integration of ACEs into pediatric practice in Portland ______________________________ PORTLAND – R.J. Gillespie, M.D., and his team are working with parents at The Children’s Clinic to interrupt the cycle of adverse childhood experiences. Health System Transformation (HST) makes this project possible – and makes preventive and lifelong health priorities, by doing things differently and promoting local innovation. It’s...

As researchers have come to understand how poverty and its stresses influence children's brain development, they've begun untangling how that can lead to increased behavior problems and learning difficulties for disadvantaged kids. Rather than trying to treat those problems, NYU child development specialists Adriana Weisleder and Alan Mendelsohn want to head them off. They say they've found a way: Working with low-income parents when they bring babies and young children to the pediatrician.