California Essentials for Childhood has just released its fourth newsletter. The full newsletter can be found attached. Check it out!

[Photo by Bryan Jones ] The human brain begins as a neural tube that develops five weeks after conception. Years later, it is fully formed. On Tuesday, experts in neuroscience, genetics and social work met in Manhattan to talk about what can happen to it along the way, and what emerging research tells us about how children who seem broken can be made whole. Officially, the meeting was called Poverty, the Brain and Mental Health. It could have been called This Is Your Brain on Poverty. Or:...

New research shows that certain family, social, and community supports may boost a child’s chances of thriving in the face of adversity. According to researchers, people who experience four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as economic hardship, exposure to violence, or the death of a loved one, are more likely to have lasting physical and mental health problems. But a new research abstract presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting identifies several...

Public health researchers cheered an encouraging trend recently : Childhood obesity rates, which rose steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, seemed to have plateaued in the 2000s. But new research suggests a different, troubling problem lurking behind that plateau — a steep rise in the rates of severe obesity, particularly among older and minority children. The fraction of adolescents with severe obesity — a body mass index of 40 or greater — has more than doubled from 0.9 percent in 1999 to...

The more children are spanked, the more likely they are to defy their parents and to experience increased anti-social behavior, aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties, according to a new meta-analysis of 50 years of research on spanking by experts at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. The study, published in this month's Journal of Family Psychology, looks at five decades of research involving over 160,000 children . The researchers say...

On April 15th, representatives from 6 counties met on a conference call to discuss recent First 5 activities around Trauma Informed Care (TIC). Since our first gathering at last year's Association Summit, we have been meeting quarterly via conference call and have learned that there is a lot going on with TIC. So much is going on that we decided to send out a survey gathering data to map all our TIC efforts across the state. Please let us know if you are at a First 5 and are interested in...

My co-teacher is stirring sugar into a pitcher of hot water. Our students, ages 4 and 5, stand around the table, watching the sugar intently. “It’s dissolving!” one student cries out. “What does that mean—dissolving?” my co-teacher probes. Another child raises his hand. “It means, like, disappearing, or disintegrating.” My students are the children of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and other professionals, and have been hearing words like “dissolve” and “disintegrate” since they were babies.

[From The Raising of America Newsletter] You're invited to join Dr. Renée Boynton-Jarrett via live stream as part of the 26th Annual Indiana University Northwest Forum on Child Abuse and Neglect: Raising Northwest Indiana . It Takes a Village: The Vital Village Network, Addressing Community Trauma, and Connecting Systems of Care to Improve Child Wellbeing Friday, April 29, 10:45am-12:00pm (Central) Dr. Renée Boynton-Jarrett will discuss strategies for mobilizing communities by engaging...

California’s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, and home to global industries that have revolutionized our way of life. Yet when it comes to caring for our children, we are failing to provide the essential services they need to thrive and succeed. The facts are disturbing and unacceptable. California ranks 49th among the states for standard of living for kids; roughly half of children are in families in or near poverty; nearly three-fourths of our youngest kids don’t receive health...

California will increase the amount of money new parents can receive through the state's paid family leave program under a bill to be signed on Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, his office said Friday. The measure, passed last month by the state legislature, would increase the amount paid to new parents or people caring for a sick family member to as much as 70 percent of their regular income for the poorest workers, up from 55 percent. Those earning more would still get an increase...

Join this webinar to learn or teach staff how to understand trauma and identify how to apply trauma-informed principles even in non-clinical work.

As the connection between exposure to trauma and long-term health conditions becomes clear, the health care sector is beginning to focus on how to best care for patients with a history of trauma. For many people, trauma may increase their risk of serious health issues leading to poor health outcomes and higher medical and social service costs. Health care providers can address patients’ traumatic experiences and their associated health effects by implementing trauma-informed approaches to...