More than 100 people gathered at a session entitled “Passing the Torch: Increasing Access to Support the Whole Child" at the 2018 National ACEs Conference held in San Francisco Oct. 16-17, 2018.
We heard from four panelists that do varied work around trauma in prenatal, infant care and early childhood. Julie Kurtz, the Co-Director of Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Education at the Center for Family & Child Studies at WestEd, started off by giving a tour of the neurobiology of trauma.
What struck me most about what she said is the idea she emphasized that there’s no such thing as “difficult behavior.” In fact, she explained, challenging behavior is part of a child’s job description, especially if children have experienced trauma.
When a child who has experienced trauma is triggered, Kurtz explained, “The past is hijacking their brain,” and they have little control over it. Raising awareness about these neurobiological effects and how to respond to them can help shift a caregiver’s response to the behavior, Kurtz said. Instead of being reactive, for example, an informed caregiver is guided by compassion, offers comfort, reminds a triggered child that they’re safe, and that they’re not in that scary past experience.
This may seem intuitive for people already working in trauma, but many of the conventional behavior management systems in education counter this idea (using stickers, time outs, etc). The other point Kurtz made that is so vital in talking about childhood trauma is the importance of a child having a relationship with at least one adult who is attuned to the child’s inner world, who can help regulate them and help buffer negative consequences.
For some children, this buffering relationship is with their child care provider or teacher. And it serves as a really powerful tool in building that child’s resilience, said Kurtz.
Marcia Salomon, the supervising public health nurse for the Nurse-Family Partnership program at the Orange County Health Care Agency, said their program is unique in that they begin tackling adversity while a mom-to-be is pregnant, beginning home visits before birth, in a truly preventive fashion.
Another thing I found unique about the Orange County Nurse-Family Partnership program is that they engage with families and help them develop life history timelines that allow them to better understand how their own pasts, including their childhood impacted them. This interaction also serves to build stronger relationships between nurses and mothers and helps the nurses understand holistically who the mothers-to-be are, and how their life experiences might influence their parenting. Throughout this process, they also make an effort to focus on strengths and resiliency, or “turning negatives into positives."
Tara Ficek, the director of health systems with First 5 LA, gave a great overview of their systems change process, with concrete examples and lessons learned.
Kama Einhorn, who serves as the senior content manager with the U.S. Social Impact Department of Sesame Workshop, explained the history of the popular children's television show Sesame Street, and the impact it’s had on children’s learning and development. One example I found particularly sweet -- that was unknown to me -- was the thinking behind developing the character of Oscar the Grouch; it was to normalize the negative emotions we all experience.
The Orange County’s Nurse-Family Partnership program prompted a lot of interesting conversations during the question and answer portion of the session. Many who spoke expressed frustration at the lack of communication, fragmentation, and silos that exist within fields and services. Many of those who attended the session were pediatricians, social workers and other professionals working with vulnerable families, and they wished they had had access to a program such as the Nurse-Family Partnership to refer patients and clients to. There was a clear consensus in the room that we need to work on the ongoing challenge of better collaboration, and increase access for those who need it.
Another important point a participant brought up was the importance of engaging fathers in the parenting process. Although the Orange County Nurse-Family Partnership focuses on the woman's story -- her health and experience as a mother, one participant stressed that we can’t assume women are doing all the caregiving, and that we need to work on engaging fathers to view themselves as important figures in their child’s life — even if they don’t live with their child.
In sum, the session was a great reminder of all the different kinds of trauma-related work people are doing — from home visiting, to systems change, to TV programming — and the work that still needs to be done to connect and coordinate with each other.
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