Tagged With "How Educators Can Help"
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Integrating Healthcare and Early Childhood Systems Requires Capacity and Expertise [chapinhall.org]
By Angeline Spain, Angela Sander, and Amanda Brownd, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, 2020 Pediatric well-child visits represent a critical, often untapped opportunity to ask families about unmet social care needs and connect them with early childhood and other community services. Innovating in this space to address social determinants of health, early childhood organizations are increasingly building healthcare partnerships with the goal of increasing family access to services and...
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International Congress in Paris: The Transition to School
For many children, the transition to a traditional elementary school setting, whether it be from home or a pre-school environment, represents a radical discontinuity - not just in terms of their physical environment, but on multiple levels, including values, behavioral and learning expectations, teacher attitudes, emotional support, etc. What if, in line with the latest neuroscientific discoveries about brain maturation, we were to re-envision early childhood education as commencing at birth...
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Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
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Is This as Good as Childcare Gets? [TheAtlantic.com]
“Money has been a constant struggle,” says Kim Silva of her 30 years as an early-education teacher in Massachusetts. “One unexpected expense can put you in the hole for months.” Silva, 46, is the lead teacher in a preschool classroom at NorthStar, a childcare center in New Bedford, Massachusetts, that largely serves children whose parents’ income is low enough that they are eligible to receive financial subsidies from the state to help pay for care. Silva has worked there since she was 15,...
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Is your school a buffer zone against toxic stress?
The challenge of the fast pace and the strain of living in the 21 st century is the chronic stress of keeping up with volume of information, expectations and adverse experiences that leads to stressors of daily living. Adults have become good at adjusting to and compartmentalizing these stressors. Children and adolescents however are struggling to keep up and are in fact caving under the weight of the stresses. In addition, many children lack adequate nurturing and supports needed to give...
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Issue Brief 61 - Addressing Trauma in Early Childhood [chdi.org]
Young children (under age 7) are exposed at high rates to potentially traumatic events such as abuse, violence, and loss of a loved one. Over half of all victims of child abuse in the U.S. are under age six. 1 Despite this, young children who are victims of trauma receive trauma-focused behavioral health treatments at much lower rates than older children. Since 2008, of the more than 10,000 children in Connecticut that have received effective trauma treatments, only 800 of these children...
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It's More Than Pay: Striking Teachers Demand Counselors and Nurses [nytimes.com]
By Dana Goldstein, The New York Times, October 24, 2019 In a typical week, Adrienne Vaccarezza-Isla, a school counselor in Chicago, might help a dozen eighth graders apply to high schools across the city. Or try to convince a mother that her daughter, who had seen her get shot years earlier, should join a group for students dealing with trauma. Or work with sixth and seventh graders on time management. Even though she is the only counselor for 650 children at Avondale-Logandale Elementary...
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Kids of Color Often Shut Out of High-Quality State Preschool, Research Says [blogs.edweek.org]
By Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week, November 6, 2019 A study of 26 states and their preschool programs finds that as of roughly two years ago, a mere 1 percent of Latino children and just 4 percent of black children in those states were enrolled in "high-quality" state-backed early-learning opportunities. That's one main conclusion from a new report from the Education Trust, an education civil rights advocacy group. "Young Learners, Missed Opportunities: Ensuring That Black and Latino...
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L.A. teen moms in program that allows their children in class graduate from high school (abc7.com)
PANORAMA CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A group of students who studied in a classroom alongside their babies at a Panorama City school received their diplomas Monday. When 19-year-old Teresa Campa attended classes at the Assurance Learning Academy, her 5-month-old daughter Lydia usually sat with her. "Once I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to finish high school," Teresa Campa said. Campa is one of nine teen mothers who received their high school diplomas thanks to a curriculum called...
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Lack Of Child Care Rating Systems Leaves Parents In A Bind [NPR.org]
There are rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes and doctors. So why is it so hard to compare providers of child care? Part of the reason is that there are no nationally agreed-upon standards for what determines the quality of child care. The standards that do exist are formulated in each state, and they vary widely. For example, some states require that child care workers have a teaching certificate. Others require certain college courses. Some have strict ratios of how many caregivers...
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‘LAUNCH TOGETHER’ HIGHLIGHTS EARLY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA PREVENTION PILOT FOR RURAL AREAS [Ark Valley Voice]
Professor Ayelet Talmi, Ph.D., was the keynote speaker for the May “Launch Together” conference at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort Conference Center.
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Many Youngsters Aren't Ready for Kindergarten, Pediatricians say [chicagotribune.com]
By Serena Gordon, Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2019 The start of school is just around the corner, but a leading pediatricians' group warns that many kids entering kindergarten lack the skills they need to succeed in class. To help parents get their young ones ready to start school, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a report on what helps boost success as well as what factors may hinder kids’ school experience. “We’ve kind of focused on the acquisition of pre-academic skills,...
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Medicaid is Not Just for Doctor’s Visits: Innovative Early Childhood Funding Strategies [chcs.org]
If a family has no means of transportation, consistent prenatal care becomes extremely difficult. If a mother is homeless, she is less likely to attend a child wellness visit. If a one-year-old is hungry, brain development is detrimentally impacted. And if a toddler is experiencing trauma at home, he or she cannot focus on learning. While there is significant evidence around the value of investing in early childhood to improve physical, social, and emotional development later in life, more...
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Mindful News Roundup: On Our Minds (mindful.org)
Mindfulness in preschool A new initiative in Miami, Florida, is assessing how mindfulness in families might cultivate resilience and reduce domestic violence. The pilot program is headed by Scott Rogers , a mindfulness teacher and director of Miami Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program . Rogers has developed mindfulness exercises to be integrated into an Early Head Start educational setting, where preschool teachers, parents, and young children can learn about and practice mindfulness together—in...
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Mitigating the Effects of Trauma among Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Role of Early Childhood Programs [migrationpolicy.org]
A child’s early years are a time of exceptional growth, and ones that can be profoundly affected by traumatic experiences. Research has firmly disproven the idea that infants and toddlers are “too young” to be affected by such experiences, leading to an increased awareness of the need for trauma-informed services for children. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs have the potential to play a central role in identifying and addressing the effects of trauma, with lifelong...
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Modeling prosocial behavior increases helping in 16-month-olds [sciencedaily.com]
Shortly after they turn 1, most babies begin to help others, whether by handing their mother an object out of her reach or giving a sibling a toy that has fallen. Researchers have long studied how this helping behavior develops, but why it develops has been examined less. A new study looked at the role of imitation to find that when 16-month-olds observe others' helping behavior, they're more likely to be helpful themselves. The findings come from researchers at the University of Münster and...
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My son was hospitalized and now he has PTSD
“Grant, do you remember when you were in the hospital?” “Yes… they came to take the blood and I turned into a werewolf.” Original Post It happened quickly. A year ago my three year old had a collarbone fracture, it became infected and within 24 hours the situation was emergent. A week long hospital stay, one month with a PICC line and two months on oral antibiotics. Finally, the labs finally came back normal. The X-Ray was clean. Gillette Children’s Hospital closed our case. But the healing...
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My Working Week: ‘A Pupil is Worried Her Mum will Turn up at School Drunk’ [theguardian.com]
By Anonymous, The Guardian, December 9, 2019 Monday I work in schools, supporting children who are struggling including looked-after children, who are not being cared for by their birth parents. Some are with other family members. Others are with foster carers, and some may be in children’s homes. They make up 1% of the population and are the most vulnerable children in education. They achieve much lower grades and are 10 times more likely to go to prison than university. My role is to try...
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Navigating the Holidays for Students with ACEs
Over the last few weeks, I have had countless conversations with schools about the uptick of behavioral issues this time of year. Many educators are recognizing that students with ACE’s have a tough time around the holidays, but very few people know what to do about it. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, below are the top three pieces of advice I have been sharing. Avoid some of the most common holiday traditions: When we have negative experiences, our brain latches on to everything...
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New Report Explores Paid Family Leave: How Much Time is Enough?
A growing body of research is finding that, on the whole, job-protected paid family leaves of adequate duration and wage replacement lead to more income and gender equality, significant reductions in infant, maternal and even paternal mortality, improved physical and mental health for children and parents, greater family stability and economic security, business productivity, and economic growth.
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New Report: Holding Policymakers Accountable for Kids' Well-Being
New Report: Today’s shifting political sands have put kids at risk, and it’s urgent that policymakers put kids’ needs front and center. We all have the power to hold policymakers accountable for prioritizing the needs of children, and our friends at the child advocacy group Kids Impact have charted a course on how. In their new report, “Accelerating Policymaker Accountability for U.S. Kids’ Well-Being: Charting the Course & A Call to Action,” they help define a collective “True North”...
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New Sesame Street Tools Help Build Resiliency [rwjf.org]
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Sesame Workshop share a common vision of giving all children—especially the most vulnerable among us—a strong and healthy start in life. We know that childhood experiences lay the foundation for children to grow into productive and successful adults, and promoting healthy behaviors and supporting families from the very beginning can help kids thrive. But it’s equally important to address challenges that can undermine their healthy development. That’s...
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No Small Matter (Trailer)
www.nosmallmatter.com The feature documentary NO SMALL MATTER confronts America's most pressing problems with an unlikely but powerful weapon: babies and young children. From home to childcare to preschool, high-quality early care and education has far-reaching impacts, and groundbreaking science to back it up. With a healthy dose of humor and a surprising edge, NO SMALL MATTER reveals the tragic cost of getting this wrong, and the huge payoff—for our kids, our families, and our country—of...
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Nurturing Children During Times of Stress: A Guide to Help Children Bloom by Yolo CAPC and YCCA
The Yolo County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) and Yolo County Children’s Alliance (YCCA) are excited to share Nurturing Children During Times of Stress: A Guide to Help Children Bloom. This guide for parents and caregivers, which we are launching during Child Abuse Prevention Month, contains tips and resources that parents and caregivers can use to promote resilience in their children and themselves. Nurturing Children During Times of Stress explains the effects of intense stress or...
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Nurturing Family May Lessen Early Brain Deficits Due to Poverty [PsychCentral.com]
REPOSTED FR OM ACEs CONNECTION SITE, posted by Samantha earlier today. A new study provides compelling evidence that growing up in poverty can lead to long-term negative consequen ce s on a childs brain development,...
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On the Street: Network Leaders Plus Sesame Street Resources Boost Community Engagement
Guadalupe Mendoza used to drop off her kids for pre-school, then make a quick and silent retreat. “I hid away,” says Mendoza, mother of five children aged 18 to 5; all but the oldest attended the Head Start/ECEAP (Early Childhood Education Assistance Program) at Walla Walla’s Blue Ridge Elementary School. “I didn’t allow myself to have a connection with the staff.” Three years ago, Mendoza began volunteering with the pre-school. Then she attended a moms’ group. Still, she shied away from the...
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Online On Demand trauma awareness training for early care and education professionals
Penn State Better Kid Care offers an online, On Demand trauma awareness training geared specifically for early care and education professionals. This 2-hr training promotes the awareness and understanding of trauma in young children and families, and addresses the role of early care and education professionals in nurturing resilience in the children and families in their care who have experienced ACEs. More information and how to access the module is included in the attached handout.
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Only 3 States Have a Gay-Straight Alliance in More Than Half of Their High Schools [childtrends.org]
By Dominique Parris and Brandon Stratford, Child Trends, November 5, 2019 In 45 states and the District of Columbia, less than half of all high schools report having a gay-straight alliance (also known as a genders and sexualities alliance, or GSA), according to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among the 48 states (as well as the District of Columbia) that provide data, only three states (New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts) can claim that more than half of...
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Opinion: Why 'Sesame Street' is Smarter About Foster Care Than Your Local Child Welfare Agency [latimes.com]
By Naomi Schaefer Riley, Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2019 When “Sesame Street” adds a character and a story line to its fabled neighborhood, people notice. In May, the show’s creators introduced Karli, a Muppet in foster care, and this month they revealed the reason for her situation: Her mom struggles with substance abuse. In supplemental “Sesame Street in the Community” videos available online, Elmo’s dad explains to him that “Karli’s mother has a disease called addiction. Addiction...
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Opioid-Dependent Newborns Get New Treatment: Mom Instead of Morphine [chcf.org]
By Dana G. Smith, California Health Care Foundation, August 1, 2019 When babies are born dependent on opioids, typically they are whisked away from their mothers, put into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), dosed with morphine to get them through withdrawal, and gradually weaned off the drug—a process that can take weeks. Research now suggests that this long-established standard of care may be the worst way to care for a newborn with opioid dependency, or neonatal abstinence syndrome...
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Oprah Winfrey and Healing from the Inside Out
Linda Rosenberg, President and CEO, National Council for Behavioral Health, brings news from the field to the National Council membership and joins the chorus of voices responding to the 60 minutes segment with Oprah Winfrey on childhood trauma in her post "Oprah Winfrey and Healing from the Inside Out" If you don’t fix the hole in the soul… you’re working at the wrong thing. – Oprah Winfrey Far too many children are growing up with a “hole in their soul.” Nearly half the nation’s children...
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Parent Handouts: Understanding ACEs, Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs (English)
Please see the main post for these parent handouts in the ACEs Connection Resources Center. These two flyers ( Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs ) can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. One is brand new and the other is a revision. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow. Translations of these flyers are in progress and will be shared by Family Hui and updated on ACEs Connection when available.
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Parenting Apps Aren't Just About the Kids Anymore [hechingerreport.org]
By Jackie Mader, The Hechinger Report, February 20, 2020 When Kayla Ramsey learned about Goal Mama, a new app from the Nurse-Family Partnership, a home visiting program, she jumped at the chance to try it out. Ramsey, who lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and has participated in the Nurse-Family Partnership since she became pregnant more than two years ago, quickly found this app was different from other parenting apps. Instead of solely highlighting developmental information relevant to her...
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Plymouth County Schools Receiving Trauma Informed Training
This opportunity is for schools and districts to receive training to develop an awareness of the prevalence of traumatic experience, its impact on academic behavior and relations and the need for a whole school approach. For the 2019-2020 school year, Carver, Marshfield, Rockland, Scituate and Silver Lake qualified to receive free training from TLPI.
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policy
Does anyone have any sample trauma informed policies that they are able to share with me? Or know where I can look? Thanks!
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Positive Relationships Can Buffer Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress, Researchers Say [bostonglobe.com]
By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2019 Traumatic events and toxic relationships during childhood can cast long shadows, often damaging mental health well into adulthood. But a growing body of research suggests sustained, positive relationships with caring adults can help mitigate the harmful effects of childhood trauma. And specialists say pediatricians, social workers, and others who work with kids should take steps to monitor and encourage those healthy relationships — just as...
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Power of Family Resilience to Protect Children From Bullying [sciencedaily.com]
By American Academy of Pediatrics, Science Daily, October 25, 2019 Studies show that children exposed to childhood trauma known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at increased risk of being bullied or bullying others. New research being presented at the American American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2019 National Conference & Exhibition suggests that family resilience -- the ability to work together to overcome problems, for example -- reduces this risk. The research abstract,...
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Preschool Teachers Earn Less Than Tree Trimmers [TheAtlantic.com]
In the past several decades, advances in brain science have suggested that the learning that occurs in the first few years of a child’s life lays the groundwork for a productive adulthood. The expansion of preschool is one of the few topics where both Republicans and Democrats in Congress find common ground; while lawmakers don’t always agree on how programs should be funded or structured, the belief that good early-childhood education can help prevent later gaps in test scores and...
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Professional development: How regional teachers continue their training [Press Connects NY]
Parents thought teachers graded papers on those days off during the year. District officials set the record straight on professional development. What's your child's teacher up to on those days marked for "professional development" on the school calendar? Across the board, parents we polled had the same answer: grading papers and completing lesson plans. Not even close, district officials say. Professional development means training, education and advanced professional learning intended to...
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Program gives Spokane schools resources to help students rise above adversity
By Jim Allen , Thu., Oct. 24, 2019 Think of it as a well-school checkup. On Tuesday morning at Bemiss Elementary School, educators and health professionals spoke enthusiastically about something called Resilience in School Environments, or RISE. A collaboration between Kaiser Permanente and the Spokane and West Valley school districts, the RISE program is expected to lift up teachers and administrators and give them tools to cope with all the challenges of the modern student. The challenges...
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Promising Research on Mindfulness for Kids (eomega.org)
Mindfulness trains our brains to respond in ways we choose instead of always in a default manner, which often is a knee-jerk reaction from the reptilian part of the brain. This is especially pertinent in situations that bring up stress or conflict. For instance, if a child has learned to use violence to react to feeling scared, mindfulness can help him or her become aware of this habitual behavior and the feelings underneath it, and ultimately rewire the reaction to a constructive and...
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Racism Kills: What Community-Level Interventions Can Do About It [Rewire.news]
In the first two installments of this series, we addressed promising approaches for buffering the impact of racism on health—learning cognitive and emotional strategies, known as self-regulation , for coping with stress and building cultural connections that buffer the impacts of toxic stress. Both of those arenas are born out of social science research showing a connection between these elements and improved health outcomes, even in the face of significant adversity. But these individual...
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Raising The Organic Unity Of Child-And-Community
“When a child displays a behavior problem, the first place to look for the cause and for the solution is to the child’s environment.” Maria Montessori We cannot truly separate the child from the community. In our efforts to “fix” child behavior or heal the child from the traumatic impact of adverse childhood experiences, we need to relate to the community as an extension of the child’s physical and psychological constitution. An organic unity operates here. There is more than just a...
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Rebuilding Lives while Building Homes: Tony McGuire's Resilience-Building Carpentry Class
Tony McGuire is a great carpenter. He ran his own construction business for years. Then he wanted to get into teaching. He became a Tenured Faculty member at a local community college, and landed in the state penitentiary as a Basic Skills Carpentry instructor. So how could that be connected to saving lives with a 20 buck investment? Tony got touched by CRI’s trauma-informed training. He saw himself past and present and knew somehow that, “with this information comes the responsibility to...
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Regulations for child care hard to roll back, as Trump proposed, because there aren’t many [hechingerreport.org]
Ivanka Trump has waded into the child care debate again with vocal support for a proposed one-time influx of $1 billion to the federal Child Care Development Fund, which provides states with money for subsidizing care. The money, which is listed in addition to the $5.3 billion for child care also included in the White House’s proposed budget, would be available to states willing to compete for it in part by eliminating requirements or regulations that can make it harder to run child care...
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Reminder: Live Chat with Donna Jackson Nakazawa
"It's really not survival of the fittest - it's survival of the nurtured." Donna Jackson Nakazawa Date: Tuesday, November 14th, 2017 Time: 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST Where: Here / Chats ( featured chat ) Hosted by: @Jane Stevens Topics to be Covered: Parenting with ACEs. What parents need to know. Affordable self-care for stressed and busy parents. Healing from ACEs & family wellness. How to Attend Online Chats: M embers of ACEs Connection : Go to Chats (top of page). Find...
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Research Brief: Frequently Asked Questions about Kindergarten Entry Assessments
The foundation for school success begins early in a child’s life. Children learn from the time they are born, and their early childhood experiences shape their physical and language development, their cognition, and their social and emotional development. Children who enter kindergarten with low levels of these skills and abilities fall behind and struggle to catch up to their peers. Over the past decade, policymakers and other stakeholders have become increasingly interested in...
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Resource: Guide for Early Childhood Development
Healthy development in the early years of life provides the building blocks for lifelong health, educational achievement, and responsible citizenship. What can we do during this incredibly important period to ensure that children have a strong foundation for future development? This guide explains how children develop in their earliest years, why that time period is so important, and the practical ways we can support early childhood development (ECD) and improve outcomes for children and...
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Revisiting a Wonderful Resource
Today I stumbled on an "old" resource and was reminded about what great and accessible information it has. Calmer Classrooms was published in 2007 by the Child Safety Commissioner in Victoria Australia. It is full of excellent and...
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Rwanda's Plan to Reduce Poverty by Harnessing Father's Love [qz.com]
By Annabelle Timsit, Quartz Africa, October 8, 2019 Like many three-and-a-half year olds, Odille Igirimbabazi loves to sing and dance. On a recent morning in her home, wearing her favorite blue and yellow dress and clutching a doll that her dad, James, made for her, she sings religious songs and sways energetically as James watches, claps, and smiles, tapping his feet. When she finishes, he scoops her up into his arms to tell her how proud he is. “Bravo!” If this seems a common family scene,...