Trauma-Informed Parenting

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...

March 1, 2022 by Rise As part of our community-building workshops to begin the program , parents in the 2022 Rise & Shine leadership program engaged in discussion about self-care and community-care strategies. Together, parents developed a list of self-care and community-care strategies for our group, which we also want to share as a resource for our Rise community. We hope it can be a tool as we continue to explore ways to build relationships, keep each other safe and care for ourselves...

In light of recent events, Resilient Guilford Network is sharing resources from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) in response to the war on Ukraine. Some are specific to military families, while others are more general resources. Please see the links below and let us know if you have questions and how we can help support your local efforts. Deep breaths as we start a new week together. We look forward to staying connected and are grateful for all you do. General Child...

Getting Out the Door on Time For many families, getting out the door to school each morning can be a source of stress and conflict. For preschoolers, you can help parents promote autonomy and self-regulation skills by suggesting that they create a simple picture schedule of the morning activities to empower their child to be “in charge” of their own behavior. Having control over how and when things get done increases cooperation skills and builds competence. See this video for an example...

By Summer Allen, Greater Good Magazine, February 24, 2022 Humans are social creatures with a propensity to connect with others and to form relationships. Our relationships can be sources of fun, gratification, peace, well-being, obsession, love, pain, and grief. They inform the rhythms of our days, the work that we do, and how we feel about ourselves—and they add meaning to our lives. But our social nature isn’t just a product of the way we are raised or the culture we live in. It’s actually...

New research helps explain how stressful events make teens vulnerable to anxiety and depression—and points to ways to help them cope better. Adolescence is a stressful time in life. Teens have to navigate increased independence from their parents, new and more complicated peer relationships, and more demanding academics, all while managing radical changes in their brains and bodies. Not only that, the current COVID-19 pandemic has created additional hardships for them. No wonder they may be...

Time-Outs Time-outs are an often misunderstood and misused technique for discipline. Here are a few quick ways to explain time-outs to caregivers: It’s a pause or body break, not a punishment. It’s meant to interrupt physically aggressive behavior only. It’s short: 30-60 seconds. Time-outs are not a replacement for caregiver soothing. Learning to pause and calm down takes practice and consistency. See this video for more information: Download printable flyer Click here for more tips like these

By David Marchese, Photo Illustration: Bráulio Amado/The New York Times, The New York Times, February 18, 2022 Since the Yale cognitive scientist Laurie Santos began teaching her class Psychology and the Good Life in 2018, it has become one of the school’s most popular courses. The first year the class was offered, nearly a quarter of the undergraduate student body enrolled. You could see that as a positive: all these young high-achievers looking to learn scientifically corroborated...

We did a massive overhaul of our Resource Center . Why it matters : You can find articles, research, reports about PACEs science, practice and policy MUCH more easily. Why we did it : The structure of the old Resource Center wasn't working very well, the content was out-of-date, and useful information was difficult to find. How we did it: With the old Resource Center, we were pretty much trying to fit a square peg into a round hole—we adapted a community page on our social network platform...

Parenting that is supportive, proactive, responsive and involved promotes resiliency and hope. Research shows parenting is critical in supporting and shaping children’s health, educational, emotional and developmental outcomes. Our asset-based, trauma- informed, and equity centered approach focuses on creating both short- and long-term positive outcomes to support overall family well-being. Parents will: Discuss parenting culture, styles, realities and challenges Understand the importance of...

By Jessica Grose, Image: Eleanor Davis, The New York Times, February 16, 2022 We have a mainstream directive for raising children in our society: You provide them with support, shelter and care until they’re 18, and then they’re supposed to be, more or less, self-sufficient, launched into the world as adults. This framework leaves out millions of parents whose children struggle with substance abuse or mental illness, who may be providing active care to their adult children for the rest of...