Tagged With "children"
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When the Parenting Never Stops (nytimes.com)
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...
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NAMI Releases "Meet Little Monster" Children’s Mental Health Coloring & Activity Book
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) announces the release of “Meet Little Monster,” a mental health coloring and activity book created for young children as a tool for them to express and explore their feelings in a fun, creative and empowering way, as well as to help foster dialogue between children and the safe adults in their lives. NAMI is proud to make “Meet Little Monster” available for download to families, organizations, teachers, and young people across the country at no cost...
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E-Newsletter for youth and adults impacted by parental addiction: Grief
National Grief Awareness Week "Crying isn't the hurt, it is the process of being unhurt". Althea Solter ------------ The chronic grief of children and youth who are impacted by a parent's substance use can often go unacknowledged or be invalidated. As such, it is important for professionals to understand the chronic loss that can occur in a child's life when a parent struggles with addiction, particularly if both parents struggle. This grief can be compounded by a stigma that prevents...
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How Do We SEE and SUPPORT Children of Incarcerated Parents (CMHNetwork.org)
Launched in 2015 by the Osborne Association’s New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents (NYCIP), See Us, Support Us (SUSU) raises awareness and increases support for children of incarcerated parents. SUSU is a year-round effort with national partners, culminating in a month of action in October. This October, the campaign focused on supporting children’s educational success and wellbeing from early childhood through college. Learn how one amazing program in North Carolina (Our...
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Book Review: Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope
Review of Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows by Jessica King Childhood can be brutal. Some of the authors I admire most have been able to reflect on difficult childhood trauma and create art, holding those experiences up to the light and processing them. In children’s literature, these personal, heartfelt #OwnVoices works tell a difficult story with truth and compassion. Books like this form a vital “mirror” for children in similar circumstances. I received an advance copy of Rohan Bullkin and...
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PUB DAY: Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows Released Today
December 31, 2021 – Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows , a provocative new picture book by Jamaican poet and Chevening Scholar Juleus Ghunta, has been released today by CaribbeanReads, a St. Kitts-based publishing company. The book follows the title character, Rohan Bullkin on his journey from reluctant to enthusiastic reader. Rohan’s reluctance to read is fuelled by Shadows – manifestations of his adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. He improves his literacy with the guidance...
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Talking to Children about War (NCTSN)
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.
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How to Support a Child on the Gender Spectrum (nytimes.com)
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...
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Tips to Help Your Child Manage Scary News (maginationpressfamily.org)
By Jacqueline Toner, PhD, Magination Press Family, October 7, 2021 Whether from television news reports, the car radio, digital media, or adult discussions, children are often bombarded with information about the world around them. When the events being described include violence, extreme weather events, a disease outbreak, or discussions of more dispersed threats such as climate change, children may become frightened and overwhelmed. The latest installment in the bestselling What To Do...
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Online learning, racial tensions and ‘the talk’: Black parents raising children amid multiple crises (nbcnews.com)
By Patrice Gaines, Image by Chelsea Stahl/NBC News; Getty Images, NBC News, December 30, 2021 Parents say their Black children have had to grow up faster, especially in the post-Trump era, facing issues most white children don't confront until they’re adults, if at all. This year has been full of stress, chaos and uncertainty for all parents — whether it’s adjusting to the impact of the pandemic on jobs and children’s school schedules or trying to protect them while they were ineligible for...
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Tools for Supporting Emotional Wellbeing in Children and Youth [nap.nationalacademies.org]
While fewer children and youth have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults, the COVID-19 pandemic has still had a major impact on their lives. Though typically resilient to everyday stressors, children and youth are dealing with new challenges due to COVID-19 , like social distancing, changes to their routines, and a lost sense of security and safety, making them especially vulnerable to feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed. For some children, these challenges are exacerbated by the...
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Focus on Your Family’s Mental Health: Battling Anxiety While War Rages
It has escaped no one’s attention that there is a major military conflict going on in Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine. Turn on the Evening News, listen to the radio, or scroll through your social media news feed, and you'll see evidence of gross atrocities, senseless violence and doomsayers suggesting that this is the start of a world war. In the midst of all of this, how do you guard against fear and anxiety and protect your own mental health as well as that of your children? I...
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Strategies to Fight Trauma and Stress in Kids [positiveparentingnews.org]
By Positive Parenting Newsfeed contributors: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Milvionne Chery; Field Producer; Roque Correa, Editor and Videographer , April 8, 2020 Please click here to access the video in English and Spanish. GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)—It’s a startling number. Nearly half of the kids in the U.S. experience one or more types of childhood trauma by the time they are 17. Trauma can get under the skin and make kids more susceptible to illness. Death…divorce…...
Calendar Event
Resilient Parenting Workshop
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Building Protective Factors With Parent Partners [Children's Trust Fund Alliance]
An infographic for parents and parent groups from the Children's Trust Fund Alliance highlights the importance of protective factors in strengthening families. It provides a colorful and engaging look at how parents and families can thrive by building protective factors through everyday actions. It also introduces two of the parent groups with whom the Alliance works and outlines some of the available resources focused on building protective factors and developing effective parent...
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Parenting Survival Guide: Caring for Kids with Mental Illness from Children's Mental Health Ontario
Parenting kids is tough, but it is even more difficult when your child is struggling with mental illness. Here in Ontario, as many as 1 in 5 children and youth will experience some form of mental health problem. The toll that takes, not only on the children, but on parents, too, is enormous. You may find that you are struggling to manage your households or perhaps you are missing a lot of work because you need to spend that time with your child. We also know that many of you are finding it...
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How Noise Affects Children [www.healthychildren.org]
By Sophie J. Balk, MD, FAAP, HealthyChildren.org Many parents know that very loud noise can hurt kids' hearing. With more kids and teens using personal listening devices like headphones and earbuds for music, videos and classes, it's especially important to be aware of sound that's too loud. It's also important to know that too-noisy environments can have harmful effects that go beyond hearing. Read on to learn more. [ Please click here to continue reading about the effects of environmental...
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Connecting Communities One Book at a Time launches July 13: Register now to learn from our national and Georgia partners how to lead a book study of 'What Happened To You?'
After more tha n two years of a deadly pandemic, a racial reckoning laying bare gross inequities, historic environmental catastrophes, and record-breaking gun violence and mental health challenges, could the first known national study of “What Happened to You?,” by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, help us heal our collective trauma, one relationship and community at a time? That’s the question Carey Sipp, PACEs Connection director of strategic partnerships, hopes will be answered with a...
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Connecting Communities One Book at a Time launches July 13: Register now to learn from our national and Georgia partners how to lead a book study of 'What Happened To You?'
After more tha n two years of a deadly pandemic, a racial reckoning laying bare gross inequities, historic environmental catastrophes, and record-breaking gun violence and mental health challenges, could the first known national study of “What Happened to You?,” by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, help us heal our collective trauma, one relationship and community at a time? That’s the question Carey Sipp, PACEs Connection director of strategic partnerships, hopes will be answered with a...
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Re: Connecting Communities One Book at a Time launches July 13: Register now to learn from our national and Georgia partners how to lead a book study of 'What Happened To You?'
Then we can understand, "What happened to us ?" Once an individual understands that they are connected, then the same question is more accurately asked about "us" and, eureka! Can ACEs and PCEs happen without others? If we agree, then the smallest unit in our systems is a 'family' in a 'community.' Street kids in the favela; 'Call of Duty' players online... perhaps even fatherless boys in Western culture. Let's collaborate to establish programs and systems that intervene.
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Lead Your Own What Happened to You? Book Study!
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Register now to lead a "What Happened to You?" book study and attend leader training on July 27!
Register NOW to learn how to lead a book study of What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry, MD PhD, and Oprah Winfrey in your community! Learn how you can bring a book club on to your community and help inspire a desire to work together to create a more equitable society. Come hear lessons learned and tips about how you can use the Alliance’s book club guide in working with your community. Children’s Trust Fund Alliance (CFTA) will conduct this training on Wednesday, July 27, 3-5 p.m. ET.
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Helping Your Young Child Feel and Understand Their Feelings [www.maginationpressfamily.org]
By Scott Stoll and Sara E. Williams, PhD, Magination Press Family, April 27, 2022 We all know that emotions like love and gratitude are fun and beneficial, but what about emotions like fear, worry or jealousy? Believe it or not, all our feelings serve a purpose. I say “believe it or not” because maybe, like me, you may have grown up believing that being scared is a bad thing and something to be avoided. Fear certainly does feel uncomfortable, doesn’t it? But what if I told you that you could...
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Be Consistent: Unpredictability Increases Your Child’s Risk of Developing Mental Illness [scitechdaily.com]
By University of California, Irvine, August 3, 2022 Developmental disruption makes people more susceptible to mental illness and drug dependence. University of California, Irvine researchers are conducting ground-breaking research into the idea that unpredictable parental behaviors, coupled with an unpredictable environment, such as a lack of routines and frequent disasters, disrupt children’s ability to develop their emotional brain circuits to their full potential, making them more...
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Upcoming Opportunity: Color-Brave Communities of Learning and Practice with EmbraceRace
Would you welcome the opportunity to have a series of meaningful conversations with other caring adults, like you, who play important roles in the lives of 0-8-year-old children of color? WHAT. Join EmbraceRace for a community of learning and practice (COLP) series, "Organizing in Defense of Early Racial Learning in Our Schools and Communities." Conversations will focus on what healthy teaching and learning about race looks like in early and middle childhood and how to come together to...
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Pain in Children is Often Ignored. For Children of Color, It’s Even Worse. [nytimes.com]
By Rachel Rabkin Peachman, The New York Times, Aug. 16, 2022 Racial differences in medical care are part of a theme experts are seeing “over and over” again. Judith McClellan, a social worker who lives in Salisbury, N.C., knows what it’s like to see her child in pain. Her daughter Kyarra, 15, has sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder that most commonly affects Black people and frequently causes pain so excruciating that emergency opioids are necessary. When she was...
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Why Dogs Can Be So Healing for Kids [nytimes.com]
By Catherine Pearson, The New York Times, June 15, 2022 A new study suggests that spending time with therapy dogs may help lower children’s stress levels even more than relaxation exercises. An unexpected benefit of adopting Annie, my family’s 40-pound, floppy-eared mutt, is the soothing effect she has had on my children. My sons often come home from a long, packed day at school and flop down on the floor next to Annie’s bed, lying quietly while she licks their fingers and cheeks. Or they’ll...
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Talking with your children about stress [apa.org]
By American Psychological Association, Updated July 6, 2022 Parents can offer assistance and support to help their children better manage life’s challenges by being available, listening actively and responding thoughtfully. According to APA’s annual Stress in America survey, many Americans—both adults and youth—report experiencing significant stress. Parents overwhelmingly reported concerns regarding child(ren)’s development, including social life or development (73%), academic development...
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The Implications of Family Stress from Household Poverty for Children's Development
“The insidious effects of childhood poverty disrupt nearly every aspect of child development. The Adaptation to Poverty-related Stress Model posits that one of the key mechanisms through which poverty disrupts healthy development is a combination of heightened exposure to poverty-related stress and reliance on specific coping strategies to manage stressors that may contribute directly to symptomologies….”
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Workbook: The Seven Core Issues Workbook for Parents of Traumatized Children and Teens
One of the first steps to parenting and caring for a child with loss/trauma is understanding your own Core Issues. The Seven Core Issues Workbook by Allison Davis Maxon and Sharon Kaplan Roszia, co-authors of Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency , provides parents and caregivers with the opportunity to explore, identify and address their own issues as well as their child's through various experiential exercises and activities . The Seven Core Issues outlined in the workbook include:...
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6 Expert tips you can use at home to help kids cope in the wake of trauma [parents-together.org]
By McKenna Saady, ParentsTogether, September 19, 2022 More than half of people experience a traumatic event at some point during their childhood — and more than a quarter of children will witness or experience trauma before the age of four. Between school shootings, COVID-19, and families being separated at the US-Mexico border, incidents of childhood trauma have pervaded the news in recent years. What is childhood trauma? Trauma is defined as the experience of an emotionally distressing...
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Register NOW for September 20 Book Study Leader Check-in and other "What Happened to You?" book study resources
It's not too late to lead your own book study of What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry, MD PhD, and Oprah Winfrey in your community! Register NOW to attend the Book Study Leader Check-In with Children’s Trust Fund Alliance on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 7-8:30 p.m. ET This is an opportunity to share your experiences as a book study leader, raise questions, make recommendations, and celebrate with us. Open to all book study leaders and those who may want to facilitate a study! This event is part of...
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10 Tips for Sexual Abuse Prevention
When we consider the high numbers of children that are sexually abused it is disappointing how little is out there to support parents in prevention efforts. Although Erin’s Law has brought Sexual Abuse Prevention to many children in the school setting, parents are still often at a loss as to how to talk to their children about this difficult topic. As a therapist who has specialized in treating child sexual abuse for twenty years, I have crossed paths with thousands of children and families...
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Successful launch of our first Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative: “What Happened to You?”
PACEs Connection is thrilled to share that our first-ever Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative involved thousands of people; scores of book studies! The PACEs Connection's Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative helps people bring their community together around books that help us have critical conversations about trauma, racism, inequity, protective factors, positive childhood experiences, and the role community plays in preventing and healing trauma and...
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Asking about guns in houses where your child plays [health.harvard.edu]
By Claire McCarthy, MD, Harvard Health Publishing for Harvard Medical School, September 22, 2022 All of us can lower the odds of unintentional shootings. Guns hurt and kill; it’s a simple fact. And while most gun injuries and deaths are the result of an assault or suicide, unintentional injuries happen all the time, including to children and between them. In the six-year span between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020, there were at least 2,070 unintentional shootings by children under...
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How to Talk About Mental Health With Your Child and Their Pediatrician [healthychildren.org]
By Jeffrey D. Shahidullah, PhD and Rebecca A. Baum, MD, FAAP, Healthychildren.org Children, teens and families are navigating difficult times. Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether day-to-day stress is getting the best of us, or when something more serious may be going on. In either case, talking with your child's pediatrician is a great place to start. Starting the conversation Many pediatricians check for mental health concerns at well-child visits. The doctor may ask your child...
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Many California Families Can't Access Mental Health Care for Kids. This East Palo Alto Mom Found a Way [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Blanca Torres, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED, September 30, 2022 Jasmine Cuevas stood at her kitchen stove preparing migas, stirring a pan of eggs and tortillas before calling her four children to dinner. She spooned servings onto plates while asking each about their day. “I get out of work, get them from school and then we come straight home,” she said. “And, it’s a wreck: dinner, homework, reading, bath and then bedtime by 7:30 at the...
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Why Childhood Anxiety Often Goes Undetected (and the Consequences) [childmind.org]
By Roy Boorady, MD, Child Mind Institute, August 18, 2022 All kids worry sometimes. But when worry makes it hard for them to participate in daily life, they may have an anxiety disorder. Because anxiety often affects a child’s thoughts and feelings more than it affects their behavior, it can be hard to spot. It’s also possible for a child to be generally happy but still so anxious that it interferes with some aspect of their life, like school or socializing. Common outward signs that a child...
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How Climate Change Affects Children's Health [healthychildren.org]
By Aparna Bole, MD, FAAP & Claire McCarthy, MD, FAAP, HealthyChildren.org Every day, pediatricians see how climate change affects children’s physical and mental health. When pediatricians talk with parents about what’s good for their kids, part of our job is connecting the dots between climate change and their child’s health. Connecting the dots For example, pediatricians often talk with parents about how a healthy diet and exercise help children grow into healthy adults. When we talk...
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Breaking the Cycle: How parental mental health affects kids — and what to do about it [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Blanca Torres, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, October 18, 2022 When Mariana Pimentel thinks about her childhood in a small town in Mexico, she remembers being surrounded by anger and desperation. Her parents worked long hours to support Pimentel and her brothers and sisters, so they were often absent. When they were home, her parents communicated by yelling. “I want my kids to grow up in a different environment from how I grew up and not repeat the same mistakes,” said...
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The Winning Family: A Proven Primary Prevention Resource for Parents
Combining three generations of family experience with ACES research and positive psychology, THE WINNING FAMILY helps prevent dysfunctional behaviors and discipline problems from the inside out.
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4 Ways Outdoor Play Helps Develop Resilience In Children
Outdoor play is key to the health and well-being of children. Getting muddy and staying out till sunset is great for children’s development and can help them refine their motor coordination skills. Kids who play outdoors have improved cognitive skills, too. A recent systematic review found that children who have regular access to green spaces show improved “mental well-being, overall health, and cognitive development.” Children who play outside also had better self-discipline and showed...