Dutch Courage Most student aren’t shy when it comes to knocking back the shots in Willow. Yet for some, alcohol has become a dangerous coping method for getting through the exam period. As tempting as a tipple might seem to get you through the...
The government’s punitive measures have made it harder to get out of poverty. And austerity is making it worse. Angela has lost track of time. It is nearly three ‘o’ clock. She picks up the supermarket bag full of loose papers;...
Last week Washington State Supreme Court heard information from experts about what goes on in the brains of adolescents. It is a fairly long video but very important to understand why the teenage does what they do. There is also some conversation...
Recently, I went to a trailer screening for a feature-length documentary in progress called “Child Sex Trafficking: A Story About Love.” The film, directed by Sheri Shuster, who recently worked at Covenant House, which provides shelter and...
Last week, we went to visit an elementary school principal to talk about our plans at Echo Parenting & Education to pilot a year-long school trauma training that would target the whole school body - from teachers, to yard and cafeteria staff, to teachers aides. My colleague and I were waiting for the principal in the school office, watching the little kids coming in to get band-aids and parents with toddlers in tow talking to the school secretary, when suddenly we heard crying and...
….Bemis’s story was not an uncommon one among Civil War veterans. Historians are beginning to uncover what was a virtual epidemic of emotional, psychological and neurological trauma that afflicted soldiers after the war. Veterans labored...
To the Editor: Re “ Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries ” (news article, May 17): Considering medications for use in very young children continues to be analogous to breaking the glass on a fire...
Violence and trauma can have serious and long-lasting consequences for children’s physical and mental health. This series of eight videos from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime examines how the needs of children...
The CSG Justice Center is hosting a series of national events to promote the release of The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System . Each event will...
De-escalating children’s behavior is a tough job. Whether the child is three or thirteen, once a tantrum starts, it’s hard to bring it to an end. Bruce Perry, a noted expert on brain development explains that the trick to successful...
This remarkable reporting endeavor by Ta-Nehisi Coates on TheAtlantic.com is a must-read for anyone who doubts that racism is traumatic, or how it's easy to drop from the middle class into poverty with the addition of just one more ACE. Two...
Staff member patting down inmates at Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center - Photo by Richard Ross ____________ “Disturbingly high rates of ACEs” were found in 64,329 juvenile offenders in Florida — 27% of...
[Photo by Ellen Webber] NPR reporter Patty Neighmond does a great eight-minute feature on how 11-year-old Noah Cummings and his parents, Heather (an anxious parent) and Dave, used cognitive behavioral therapy to help Noah overcome his anxiety. One study shows that therapy for children AND their parents (and no drugs) helps prevent children from becoming anxious. The first step for Noah was to help him understand how anxiety made his stomach ache. Lyons often draws cartoons to show...
It seems as if this article could be written in almost any country, and the causes of boys and girls joining gangs are the same. In this case, Shawn Swingler reports from South Africa's Daily Maverick: [ Major General Jeremy Vearey, Provincial Commander of Operation Combat] argues that a combination of drugs, lack of safe common spaces, and the intergenerational transmission of violence lead to the creation of teen gangsters. He also argues that children often look to emulate their...
[Photo by Larry Beckner.] Eric Dietrich wrote this profile of Wendy Bremner, a Bureau of Indian Affairs victim specialist who understands ACEs. She points out a study that showed students at a middle school had an average of 14 adverse childhood experiences. As is the case with other reservations in Montana, the Blackfeet reservation’s crime rates are well above those of the state’s other communities — “to the tune of two or three times higher,” in the...