Tagged With "children"
Blog Post
What Does It Mean for Children and Families to Be Healthy? (psychologytoday.com)
By Sarah MacLaughlin, LSW, and Rahil Briggs, Psy.D, Psychology Today, October 19, 2021 World Mental Health Day was October 10 and the American Academy of Pediatrics, alongside the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association, just declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health. These kinds of public acknowledgments about the importance of mental health suggest we have come a long way toward recognizing its impact.
Blog Post
Childhood Sexual Abuse During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has been brutal on us all. Rising depression and anxiety plague our world more than any time in recent history, and it is not only adults who are affected. Children have been home from school living with adults who are out of work, out of money, and out of patience. This article will discuss the increase in childhood sexual abuse during the pandemic explaining the underlying causes and some possible solutions. Understanding the Problem The Centers for Disease Control...
Blog Post
Sensory and Emotional Experience: Linked from Birth (Claudia M. Gold, MD)
Katie and Jason came to me at their wits’ end over four-year-old Mabel’s frequent meltdowns. “She’s been like this from birth,” Katie explained at our first visit. She described needing to nurse Mabel as an infant in a dark, quiet room because she was so easily distracted by sights and sounds. When I asked them to tell me about a recent specific moment of disruption, they described a visit to a county fair. Mabel was clearly so hungry that she was falling apart, yet despite the abundance of...
Blog Post
Stress Health website (www.stresshealth.org)
Research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back. The Stress Health website from the Center for Youth Wellness shares many ways that parents can support a healthy stress response: sleep, nutrition, exercise, mental health, mindfulness and healthy relationships. These things help to decrease our stress hormones and inflammation for healthier brains and bodies. Stress Health is about learning how the stress...
Blog Post
TAPP: Teachers and Parents as Partners (Positive Parenting Newsfeed)
Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News, August 12, 2021 Studies find that parental involvement in a child’s education can lead to more learning, higher test scores, graduation rates, and more opportunities to pursue higher education. Susan Sheridan, PhD, from the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools, studied the effects of the program TAPP, or Teachers and Parents as Partners. The study found that students whose parents...
Blog Post
Parenting for Social Justice: What You Can Do Starting from Birth (ZERO TO THREE)
These suggestions offer some starting points for parents who want their children to develop a just and inclusive worldview. Look at your baby or toddler. They are still learning to eat from a spoon, roll over, stack blocks, walk a few steps, or say their first words. It’s hard to imagine that even in these early years, young children are being shaped by the biases that surround them in the world. This is why parenting for social justice begins at birth. Get started with the following tips.
Blog Post
Easy Tricks to Improve your Relationship with the Child
How often do we hug children or express our love? How to improve relationships with children, to be not just a parent, but also a trusted friend, with whom they feel real closeness? Why relationships are deteriorating When children are very young, up to three years old, they very much feel the emotional state of their mother. If she is tired, irritated, or anxious, the child will be naughty too. Also, at this time, mothers are trying to wean the babies from their hands, and the children do...
Blog Post
The Mental Health Care Crisis Continues One Year Later...Maintaining Emotional Wellness during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Join Dr. Monique Collier Nickles on 4/13/21 for a live discussion related to this post by registering for ChildWIN's free Zoom event at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudu2qrT8oHtDAlFX5xEMUt2o9DC_qaimN?fbclid=IwAR1GdgppIzcIrMO8meIdCqoG5_mpuNz1jUAUbt6FcfKOVI9rg9X5Xh8EHBY The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been stressful and traumatic for many people, particularly our children and adolescents. As we approach the pandemic’s one year anniversary, unfortunately,...
Blog Post
Assisting Parents/Caregivers in Coping with Collective Traumas (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network)
This resource o ffers strategies to help parents/caregivers cope with collective traumas. This fact sheet also provides guidance on what parents/caregivers can do to care for their children as they cope. To access this resource, click here.
Blog Post
Coloring Pages Important for Your Child
There are no children who would not like to draw. And you can hardly find parents who would not have to buy coloring books for their kids. But, unfortunately, no one or almost no one pays attention to what is hidden behind the bright cover. And oddly enough, but psychologists also do not spend a lot of their time researching colorings, or rather, what they mean. Coloring various pictures is not only interesting but also very rewarding. Painting pictures will help the child expand knowledge...
Blog Post
The Secret to Raising a Resilient Kid (NY Times)
By Erik Vance, NY Times, Sept. 1, 2021 The ability to bounce back is more important now than ever; here’s how to impart it. In my early teens, my dad took myself, my best friend and our neighbor on a grueling backpacking trip connecting California’s Yosemite Valley to Half Dome to nearby Clouds Rest mountain and back again. By the second day — halfway up Clouds Rest, on wobbly legs and besieged by mosquitoes — we finally mutinied. The three of us made it clear to my father that we were done.
Blog Post
How to Build Healthy Parent-Child Communication When Kids Don't Listen
Child growth and development are coupled with various challenges that parents deal with as part of what is needed to make them responsible human beings. Teaching your child how to listen and communicate effectively are some of the basic skills that are taught. However, children don’t listen on some occasions. It can be frustrating for a parent that does not know what to do. Raising children that don’t listen is common. This usually, is a hindrance to effective parent-child communication.
Blog Post
Cardozo: Parents fighting, teachers crying: Grownup stress is hitting kids hard
Alexis, 17, has always been close to her parents. But since the pandemic began, they have been arguing a lot. “We snap at each other more,” she said. “And because there’s more negative emotion with the virus and we’re all trapped in the house together, the stress is definitely amplified.” Both her parents have been working from their Maryland home since March last year. For most of that time, Alexis’ sister, who has graduated from college, has also been living at home. Last April, their...
Blog Post
Teen Mental Health - Resilient Georgia General Meeting
Resilient Georgia is excited to share information and resources from our June General Meeting on Teen Mental Health , where we brought together experts and advocates in the Georgia behavioral health space to discuss their work around adolescent well-being. Teenagers can be hard to decipher at times, but one point is clear: teens need large amounts of support to overcome the staggering odds of having mental illness. With rates of teen mental illness already higher than the adult population...
Blog Post
Considering Your Child's Mental Health as an Immigrant
Immigration can be complex. It may have different repercussions for families and individuals, especially children. Some immigrant families have the money to consult third-party advisers for their move to another country. But most immigrant families have experienced hardships, such as financial difficulties, social inequality, cultural barriers. These factors affect different generations of their family (1) . The individuals most susceptible to mental issues are the children. Even though...
Blog Post
How to Help a Kid Stop Lying and Tell the Truth: 9 Steps
Being a parent comes with sacrifices, but also with challenges. As children grow up, they begin to understand the world. And so, lying can appear as a regular behavior. I have two children, aged 10 and 14. I can say that lying was a big problem in our family during their childhood. For example, they lied they brushed their teeth. And of course, you can easily say if they brushed their teeth or not. Honesty is an important quality that helps build stronger relationships and bonds between...
Blog Post
Children, Youth, and Families Who Experience Migration-Related Trauma and Family Separation (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)
Offers information on unaccompanied and separated immigrant youth in the US who have experienced migration-related trauma and family separation. This brief includes information about: who unaccompanied children are and how many are in the US; how traumatic separation affects immigrant children, youth, families, and systems; and what can be done to assist immigrant children, youth, and families who experience traumatic separation. Click here to access this resource.
Blog Post
Yardelnarf! for Your Children
My friend Eileen recently revealed a staggering observation she'd made about parenting amid the pandemic. "Some parents feel ashamed if they can't buy the latest, greatest gadget for their kids." It triggered from her an impassioned treatise that expensive gadgets aren't necessary for a child's entertainment. She argued, "You can tell stories with a child, create a puppet show with socks, invent a new game, build a doll house out of a cardboard box!" You just need imagination and a simple...
Blog Post
How to Support Adult Children Struggling With Mental Health (NY Times)
Expert advice on how to gently offer help and compassion. Katie Bradeen of Colorado Springs, Colo., began to worry about her 20-year-old son, Ryan, when he came home for Christmas break of 2020. She said he had a “gray demeanor” and “he seemed to be in slow motion.” Though Mr. Bradeen was on campus for his sophomore year of college, the social distancing and virtual classes during the pandemic were challenging, especially for him as a theater major. The winter of 2021 “was even more...
Blog Post
How to Raise Kids Who Won’t Be Racist (NY Times)
If race is largely a social construct, then teaching children about it will only perpetuate racism — right? Wrong: Studies show precisely the opposite. Open conversations about race and racism can make white children less prejudiced and can increase the self-esteem of children of color. If states ban the teaching of critical race theory , as conservative lawmakers in many are attempting to do , or if schools don’t provide consistent education about racism and discrimination, it’s imperative...
Blog Post
COVID-19 is Making Kids Anxious: What Can Parents Do? (Positive Parenting)
“I’ve tried to give them permission to be upset because this is not a fun time,” shared Cynthia Soliz. These days, Cynthia Soliz, like many other parents, is not just mom to 11-year old Anthony and 6-year old Petra, she is also a full-time cook, teacher, camp counselor and psychologist to her kids. And her time is stretched thin. “We know that this is a time where families are extremely stressed, as are their children,” said Jessica Bartlett, Ph.D. Developmental Scientist, Jessica Bartlett,...
Blog Post
To Raise Resilient Kids, Be a Resilient Parent (nytimes.com)
By Emily F. Popek, New York Times, March 28, 2018 As parents, we want our children to be emotionally resilient — able to handle life’s ups and downs. But parents’ ability to foster resilience in our children hinges a great deal on our own emotional resilience. “A parent’s resilience serves as a template for a child to see how to deal with challenges, how to understand their own emotions,” said Dr. Dan Siegel, author of “The Yes Brain,” which focuses on cultivating children’s resilience. Yet...
Blog Post
Parenting Through Terminal Illness (NY Times)
As their father fights to live, my children and I learn how to grieve. One night last fall, as I sat in bed with my 9-year-old son, Cohen, he looked up at me through tears and asked, “Do you think Daddy will have a long life or a short life?” It was a big question from a little boy, but not an unexpected one. Two years ago, my husband, Chris, was diagnosed with the progressive neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S. Doctors said he had six to 12 months to live. He...
Blog Post
How to Help Young Children Build Resilience (psychologytoday.com)
By Vanessa LoBue, PhD, Psychology Today, January 10, 2022 Between the global COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic downturn, and widespread protests over racism , the last few years have been difficult for everyone. Many people are struggling, consumed with anxiety and stress , and finding themselves unable to sleep or focus. As a developmental psychologist and researcher on anxiety and fear in infants and young children, I have been particularly concerned about the impact of the...
Blog Post
Roadmap to Resilience
On November 17, 2021, Roadmap to Resilience: Supporting Children Experiencing Stress and Trauma announced its official website launch and release of podcast episodes, short videos, and other digital tools. Roadmap to Resilience guides the listener through specific, trauma-informed approaches to supporting children and their families. Created by a task force of international child trauma experts, the collection of free resources provides practical, accessible, and timely digital content for...
Blog Post
Nurturing Gratitude (zerotothree.org)
By Sarah S. MacLaughlin and Rebecca Parlakian, ZERO TO THREE, November 18, 2020 Many parents worry about children being ungrateful. Here's what you can do. When a child demands a toy or refuses to cooperate, it can feel frustrating—like they just don’t understand how lucky they are. Children’s demands might hit especially hard when we’re working long hours to make ends meet or just trying to get dinner on the table. We’re also reminded of how much need there is among families in our own...
Blog Post
Sharing Stories Across Cultures: Native American Authors (zerotothree.org)
Reading together with young children, starting from birth, gives you the opportunity to share the world with them. Help your child develop an understanding of Native American cultures and communities by choosing books from the titles here from ZERO TO THREE. As you read: Ask questions, watch to see what your child is curious about, and learn more together. Click here to access ZERO TO THREE's list of children's books by Native American authors .
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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…...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Comment
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...