Tagged With "Head Start and Early Head Start"
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Five Strategies for Engaging Family Partners [nichq.org]
Families have an unmatched impact on their child’s health, especially during the early years of life when children’s rapidly developing brains are laying the groundwork for their future health and wellbeing. To be the best advocates for their children, families need the right supports, whether they be access to public assistance programs like Medicaid and housing, opportunities to build a strong relationship with their child’s health provider, or resources that empower them to support their...
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FREE Access to 2 Early Childhood Webinars, Resources and Handouts on COVID-19
FREE Access to 2 Early Childhood Webinars, Resources and Handouts on COVID-19 (details below) Sponsored by Region 9 Head Start Association, Continued and Center for Optimal Brain Integration™ Webinar #1 Being Your Own Emergency First Responder: Leaders Managing the Stress of Working in Response to COVID-19 Facilitators: Julie Kurtz, Julie Nicholson and LaWanda Wesley Description: This webinar provides leaders with useful information to help them manage their own stress response to the...
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FREE Access to 2 Early Childhood Webinars, Resources and Handouts on COVID-19
FREE Access to 2 Early Childhood Webinars, Resources and Handouts on COVID-19 (details below) Sponsored by Region 9 Head Start Association, Center for Optimal Brain Integration™ and Continued. Webinar #1 Being Your Own Emergency First Responder: Leaders Managing the Stress of Working in Response to COVID-19 Facilitators: Julie Kurtz, Julie Nicholson and LaWanda Wesley Description: This webinar provides leaders with useful information to help them manage their own stress response to the...
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Giving traumatized kids a head start in healing [PBS News Hour]
Every year, thousands of children in the U.S. are expelled from school before they reach kindergarten. PBS News Hour special correspondent Molly Knight Raskin reports on the Head Start-Trauma Smart program in Kansas City, Missouri, thats trying...
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Growth through Trauma-Informed Strategies: Coaching and Consultation with Rick Griffin
There is a Chinese proverb that states, “If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." The benefits are evident, yet the real question becomes, “how do you grow people?” This Big Idea Session, CRI’s Trauma Coaching and Trauma Consultation Training, answers this question. Schools, organizations, and parents are discovering that the traditional “command and control” style of working with...
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Head Start Prevents Foster Care? To Be Decided [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The jury is decidedly out on the academic track record of Head Start, the education-oriented pre-school program for low-income families invented in the 1960s and federally proliferated in the early 1980s. Critics will point to large impact studies that show early academic gains fade by third grade. Proponents will say that those gains would stick if the students ended up in better public schools. But Youth Services Insider had never seen Head Start mentioned as a possible preventer of foster...
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Helping Children in Emergencies: Keep Your Child’s Developmental Stage and Temperament in Mind
By Karissa Luckett, RN, BSN, MSW Common reactions to stress will fade over time for most children. Let’s be honest: Your exploring, tactile toddler won’t suddenly start keeping their hands to themselves. Your continually forgetful preschooler won’t suddenly start hand-washing properly just because you’ve told them it’s important. Depending on their ages, stages and temperaments, some children will require more reassurance or more time to shift than others. This situation is unique, and so is...
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Helping Children Recover from Disasters
As we consider the effects of trauma on children, major disasters, whether they are natural or manmade, can profoundly affect their development. Below are links to a research-based fact sheet (in English and Spanish) you can share with parents and other primary care givers: English Version Spanish Version These are also attached to this post.
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Re: Developing Multi-Sector Partnerships in Early Childhood [nichq.org]
Thank you for sharing this. I love the programs that start in the Prenatal period as they begin in the beginning and provide healing for two generations.
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14 States are Strengthening 'Head Start' for At-Risk Children,Families [salud-america.org]
By Amanda Merck, Salud America!, February 26, 2020 Communities are increasingly concerned about the rise of poverty, homelessness, trauma, and opioids among children and families. However, few states address these issues by investing money in Head Start programs, which are proven to strengthen families, promote school readiness, and improve child health. The good news is that lawmakers in 14 states are investing over $400 million each budget cycle for local Head Start and Early Head Start...
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8th Annual Water Cooler Conference - Stronger Together: Transforming Opportunity for Every Child
On February 22-23, 2016, our friends at Advancement Project will be hosting the 8th Annual Water Cooler Conference at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. Don't miss out on this chance to hear keynote speakers Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character ; David B. Grusky, the Director of Stanfords Center on Poverty and Inequity; and Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, the Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Panelists...
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A Guide to Creating “Safe Space” Policies for Early Childhood Programs [CLASP]
From the Center for Law and Social Policy Early childhood programs play an important role in the lives of young children and their families. But in our current immigration policy climate, families across the country are questioning whether it’s safe to attend or enroll. Providers can take steps to protect families’ safety and privacy by implementing policies that designate their facilities as a safe space from immigration enforcement. This guide explains federal agency guidance related to...
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ACE-Aha Moments & Parenting: Meet Aprel Phelps Downey
Aprel Phelps Downey What was your ACEs Aha moment? When did you first hear about ACEs and what impact did/does it have on you? How do ACEs impact you as a parent? How is your parenting impacted by past trauma? What’s been most helpful to you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What’s been most challenging for you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What has parenting taught you? What have you learned? How do you manage complex family relationships? What inspires/encourages and helps you? I know...
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ACEs Champion Julie Kurtz Gives Every Child (and Adult) a Voice
Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...
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ACEs Science in Education: The Next Big Challenge is Systems Change #ACEsCon2018
One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. It included a dynamic and diverse panel of education...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)…Why is Hugging Sooo Very Critical?
"The reality of my own “adverse childhood experiences” is just catching up with me at age 73. My guess is I’m not alone."
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An Early Childhood Development Expert Explains How Trauma and Stress Can Derail a Kid’s Life [sarasotamagazine.com]
By Cooper Levey-Baker, Sarasota, December 19, 2019 Mimi Graham has spent her life fighting for kids. She began her career in the late 1970s as a Head Start administrator before moving into the world of academia to study child development and advocate for public policies that improve the health of mothers and children. Today, she’s the director of Florida State University’s Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, a position in which she advises government agencies and...
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Announcing CRI's Newest Trainings- July and September!
CRI is excited to announce new trainings! We will have online trainings in July, and an in-person training in September. July Online Trainings CRI Course 1 LIVE WEBCAST: Trauma-Informed Training A dynamic 2 part six-hour LIVE WEBCAST course, Course 1 introduces CRI’s capacity-building framework for building resilience, KISS. Knowledge, Insight, Strategies and Structure describes our community’s learning and movement from theory to practice and how to implement evidence-based strategies into...
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Are Lockdown Drills Trauma Informed?
Are lockdown drills trauma informed? We have outlined three easy to implement recommendations. Please share with your fellow teachers!
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Armstrong: Building a Supportive Classroom Community in Early Childhood
As an educator and researcher who specializes in early childhood and also works with older grade levels, I’ve used National Bullying Prevention Month to reflect on ways bullying progresses as children age. I’ve been wondering what can be done in early childhood to prevent bullying in later grades. I’ve reviewed the literature on bullying, including sites that provide suggestions on how to prevent and address bullying , but figuring out how to get started can be overwhelming as it involves...
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Arts-Rich Preschool Readies Kids for Learning [psmag.com]
Preschools have a single, all-important mission: getting kids ready to learn. Students should emerge knowing their letters, numbers, and shapes, as well as a certain level of emotional awareness. A new study identifies a uniquely effective way to impart this foundational knowledge: immersion in the arts. It reports low-income children who attended a Head Start program experienced a more robust rise in readiness if their program included daily music, dance, and visual arts classes. [For more...
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As More Children Show Symptoms of Trauma, Head Start Programs Expand Support Services
This story is part of an EdSurge Research series about the early childhood education workforce. HAMILTON, Ohio — Suzanne Prescott first noticed the changes in children’s behaviors in 2015 "She was fielding reports of kids knocking over bookshelves, tables and chairs; hitting their classmates; and causing physical harm to themselves and their teachers. Not only were more 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds having outbursts, they were doing so with an intensity Prescott had never before seen. In some...
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BABY ACES: When we consider the traumas that qualify as ACEs, babies need their own list.
Babies are obviously very different from older children developmentally, including their ability to understand and process trauma. Indeed, a baby may be completely unaware of an actual ACE— say, the incarceration of their father— which a middle schooler would be painfully aware of. Yet at the same time, the baby could be much-more-acutely impacted by the secondary effect of this same ACE: a sad, stressed, and distracted mother. Similarly, if a parent dies in a car accident when a child is in...
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Bringing ACEs, Resilience, and Hope to preschool families
This school year, an endeavor of the Franklin Pierce Hewins Early Learning Center (ELC) was to bring Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Resilience to the preschool families. What began as a broad idea soon turned into an exciting project: “Rise to Resilience & Hope”. Our ELC has had a Kids at Hope culture for many years – believing that all children are capable of success, with no exceptions. With Kids at Hope, the adults are Treasure Hunters, seeking out and recognizing the...
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Bringing ACEs, Resilience, and Hope to preschool families
This school year, an endeavor of the Franklin Pierce Hewins Early Learning Center (ELC) was to bring Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Resilience to the preschool families. What began as a broad idea soon turned into an exciting project: “Rise to Resilience & Hope”. Our ELC has had a Kids at Hope culture for many years – believing that all children are capable of success, with no exceptions. With Kids at Hope, the adults are Treasure Hunters, seeking out and recognizing the...
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Re: As More Children Show Symptoms of Trauma, Head Start Programs Expand Support Services
These kids were my patients in rural Michigan. They are everywhere. In the article they find the average ACE score for these kids to be 8 at 4 years old. I found most of my infant patients had 3 or 4 of the 5 household dysfunction ACES at the first visit at a week of age. These are the kids who were the babies that I found on the 4 month Ages and Stages Social Emotional Screening but couldn't get the services that these babies needed via infant mental health for dyad work in the state's...
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Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care
STRIVE (Supportive Trauma Interventions for Educators) SUMMER 2020 TRAININGS Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care July 11th, 9:30-12:30pm, REGISTER HERE July 17th, 9:30-12:30pm, REGISTER HERE August 7th, 9:30-12:30pm, REGISTER HERE STRIVE is a collaborative project between Boston Medical Center’s Child Witness to Violence Project and Vital Village Network that aims to help schools and early education systems of care increase their capacity to identify, respond to,...
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State of Babies Yearbook: 2020 (zerotothree.org)
Telling the story of America’s babies is more important than ever. Last year, the inaugural State of Babies Yearbook: 2019 revealed that the state where a baby is born makes a big difference in their chance for a strong start in life. New data this year shows that even among states with high averages, significant disparities exist in the opportunities available to babies of color to thrive, as well as those in families with low-income, and in urban or rural areas. Now as our country faces an...
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Why the dean of early childhood experts wants to get beyond the brain [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and in...
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Considerations for Building Post-COVID Early Care and Education Systems that Serve Children with Disabilities [childtrends.org]
By Mallory Warner-Richter and Christina M. Lloyd, Child Trends, August 6, 2020 Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for all families, especially those caring for young children with disabilities. Of the 24 million children under age 6 in the United States, about 5 percent (1.2 million) have a diagnosed disability, which qualifies them for early intervention or special education services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 1 IDEA categorizes 13...
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Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care
STRIVE (Supportive Trauma Interventions for Educators) FALL 2020 TRAININGS Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care Saturdays from 9:30-12:30pm September 26th - REGISTER HERE October 3rd - REGISTER HERE October 17th - REGISTER HERE November 7th - REGISTER HERE STRIVE is a collaborative project between Boston Medical Center’s Child Witness to Violence Project and Vital Village Network that aims to help schools and early education systems of care increase their capacity...
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Prevention is Essential: Collective Impact Coalition Promotes Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for All Maryland’s Children
When members of Maryland’s State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (SCCAN) began in 2006 to examine what their state was doing in the realm of prevention, they discovered a gaping hole. Many participants in the 23-member Council—people working in child welfare, mental health, law enforcement and advocacy groups—knew about ACEs and about the corrosive effects of early childhood maltreatment. But they discovered, through informational interviews across different sectors and an environmental...
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Building Resilience in Children through Play
A big part of building resilience in children is to increase the amount of time we spend in healthy interaction with our children. The more positive interactions we have, the stronger our bonds to each other grow. The stronger the bonds, the more emotional stability a child will possess.
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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The Impact of Coronavirus on Households Across America [rwjf.org]
From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, November 2020 While billions of dollars have been appropriated by federal and state governments since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, a series of polls by NPR, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation find that a substantial share of households have not been protected from serious impacts of the pandemic across many areas of residents' lives. “The Impact of Coronavirus” poll series offers a national look...
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New Understanding Childhood Trauma Resource for Parents/Caregivers
Please see our new pamphlet for parents/caregivers about childhood trauma (now in eight languages), and share with friends, family and colleagues. Although designed for Massachusetts residents, the resource page can be adapted for other locations. Thank you for your help and any distribution ideas. https://www.frcma.org/about/tr...sources-and-training https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NEW-Understanding-Childhood-Trauma-Resource.html?soid=1135101415145&aid=t6mWQvwx2sA
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Multnomah County Job Opportunity - Preschool Division HR Analyst Senior
Final Filing Date 01/31/2021 OVERVIEW: This Human Resources Analyst Senior will work with the new Preschool for All division and provides advanced professional and technical consultative support and serve as a subject matter expert with in-depth knowledge of employee and labor relations, complaint investigations, performance management, and workforce planning which includes succession planning, equity and outreach as related to short and long term staffing. Work is performed independently,...
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Resilience - Bouncing back? [nurseryworld.co.uk]
By Anne O'Connor, Nursery World, December 21, 2020 While some tabloids have been screaming that children have ‘gone backwards’ in their learning and development during the pandemic, it has also being said that our youngest children have bounced back easily into school and nursery, despite all the changes to their provision. This seems to be proof to many that babies and young children are hardy, resilient and ‘coping fine’ – so, we needn’t worry about them? Head teachers, managers and...
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WestEd Infographics Available: Barriers to Early Childhood Screening and Access to Resource
WestEd recently created three infographics related to workforce issues and access following screening of young children that were developed by the California State Screening Collaborative , with funding from California Department of Public Health and California Department of Developmental Services, Early Start . Please consider reviewing and sharing with your networks. The infographics are attached below.
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COVID-19 cases, new syndrome on the rise among children, especially Latino children (calmatters.org)
“We are at a critical time because the overall number of cases of COVID are increasing so much,” said Dr. Jackie Szmuszkovicz, pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We are seeing more children with MIS-C the last few weeks following that big increase (of cases) in the community.” MIS-C , or Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, is the name of a new inflammatory syndrome that afflicts a small number of kids three to six weeks after they experienced coronavirus,...
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Federal Policies Can Address the Impact of Structural Racism on Black Families' Access to Early Care and Education [childtrends.org]
By Chrishana M. Lloyd, Julianna Carlson, and Marta Alvira-Hammond, Child Trends, March 5, 2021 As we wrote in the first brief of this series, Black Americans’ social standing in the United States has been shaped by a long history of racism in laws, policies, and practices that has built racist institutions and created and exacerbated inequality. This inequality is built into the infrastructure of our country and has formed the foundation for structural racism—a system that privileges White...
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Head Start Study Highlights Important Role of Trauma-Informed Attitudes
Head Start and Early Head Start continue to lead the way in promoting school readiness and family engagement for vulnerable young children. It’s no surprise, then, that Head Start is increasingly focused on implementing trauma-informed care (TIC). A recent study adds timely relevance to the advancement of trauma-informed care in Head Start preschool settings. The study, published in School Mental Health , “examines the relationship between trauma-informed training content, trauma-informed...
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Early Childhood Education Training Approved as Evidenced Based Professional Development by Tennessee Department of Human Services
In the summer of 2020, the Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) at Austin Peay University, reached out asking me to provide several professional development opportunities for early childhood educators statewide after being awarded grant funding. TECTA leadership requested that I deliver a training I had used in July of 2020 when training the childcare leadership of the state of Mississippi. The training entitled, Using a Trauma Informed Approach in Early Childhood Education ,...
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"I'll be here again next week." - Because if one person stays, that will be enough.
When a child welcomes you into their life, honor that. Hold that in the highest regard because on that day you have not only become a friend, but a glimmer of hope. You represent a world where people don’t make empty promises, tell lies, or disappear without a warning. In the eyes of a child who is more familiar with grief than joy, you very well could be the key to the elusive stability they have always heard about, but never known.
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Unlearning the Triune (3-part) Model of the Brain - It's a Myth?!
Originally posted on Rise to Resilience. "Change is the end result of all true learning." - Leo Buscaglia I first learned of the triune, or three-part, model of the brain when researching Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience which became the original Rise to Resilience presentation. Since then, I encountered the triune brain model regularly: Conscious Discipline uses it as a foundational concept. Dr. Dan Siegel's Hand Model of the Brain and the "flipping your lid" analogy. And in...
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What Babies Need Right from the Start (Birth-24 months) "Delusional Optimism" Podcast with Dr. B
Raising an infant can be very consuming and upending, especially for new parents. Babies have needs that are confusing and different, and there are times when nothing a parent does will sooth the baby. In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B and co-host Seth Creekmore discuss how to survive those early years and share what babies need from birth to 24 months. Listen to some common parenting myths that are harmful and misleading.
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RISE: Navigating individual and collective wellness, advocacy, and change
Join Melissa McPheeters of Rise to Resilience with special guest and parent, Janise Cross, for this interactive workshop! Click here to register! Schedule: During this 3-hour interactive workshop, Melissa and Janise will facilitate a presentation, time for personal reflection, and voluntary activities to solidify learning and growth among participants. Two fifteen minute breaks are provided. There is no expectation that you have your camera to participate. We encourage you to show up in...
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Childcare providers use two- generational approach to help preschoolers from being expelled
It’s shocking: Preschoolers are three times more likely to be expelled than children in elementary, middle and high school, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Boys are four times more likely than girls to be kicked out, and African American children are twice as likely as Latinx and White children. One organization with childcare centers and mental health providers in Kentucky and Ohio began a long journey 15 years ago, when they began hearing about...