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What are ACEs and Why Do They Matter? In 2016 1 , nearly half of U.S. children – 34 million kids – had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and more than 20 percent experienced two or more. The new brain sciences and science of human development explain how ACEs can have devastating, long-lasting effects on children’s health and wellbeing. These events resonate well beyond the individual child to have far-reaching consequences for families, neighborhoods, and communities. ACEs...

Desperate to reduce crowding in jails and prisons, court systems all over the country are trying diversion – alternatives to putting offenders behind bars. On today’s Reveal, we peek behind the good intentions and uneven results. Reveal’s Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter investigate an Oklahoma recovery center called Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, or CAAIR. The founders of the program say it’s all about helping people with addiction. It turns out it’s also a work camp...

The ways in which states and their respective child welfare agencies support LGBTQ youth varies greatly, according to a state-by-state analysis and map of child welfare systems’ policies from Lambda Legal . Some state agencies have explicit safeguards that protect youth from discrimination on the basis of sex or gender, while other states have none at all, according to the national organization that works to promote the civil rights of the LGBTQ community. The issue has grabbed attention...

This site features painful stories of America’s history of racial injustice. In order to heal the deep wounds of our present, we must face the truth of our past. After slavery was formally abolished, lynching emerged as a vicious tool of racial control to reestablish white supremacy and suppress black civil rights. More than 4,000 African Americans were lynched across twenty states between 1877 and 1950. These lynchings were public acts of racial terrorism, intended to instill fear in entire...

It can be hard for us outsiders to battle "disaster fatigue." Still, 21 days after the disaster, which was well predicted 10 days before that (a month ago, in total) -- and we can not figure it out? People are still waiting hours in line for 'food': "What I got was 3 bottles of water and 4 cans of Pringles." Most with no sanitation, no power, no running water, no cell communication, one thousand, five-hundred roads out -- "What are you going to do today, t.o.d.a.y.?" is never answered.

Topics we'll cover: Introduction to neurofeedback. What brain plasticity means for people without a Ph.D. Why neurofeedback helps brains that developed during ACEs. How to Attend Online Chats: Members of ACEs Connection : Go to Chats. Find today's chat. Chat starts at 10 a.m. (PST) and 1 p.m. (EST) More about Sebern F. Fisher, MA "I have learned what I have shared here from my work with my patients, walks with neurofeedback colleagues, and training my own brain." Sebern Fisher Sebern Fisher...

The aces experienced by Stephen Paddock aren't the only aces that twist the minds of children. Other adverse childhood experiences exist, and they can often result in narcissistic children who lack empathy...a dangerous combination. Consider the following adverse childhood experiences and their consequences for the children and adults they will become. 1. Parents who never allow their child to experience the logical consequences of his actions. 2. Parents who when they tell their child to do...

How often do you feel happy, enthusiastic, amused, inspired, or calm on a given day? For more than a decade, researchers have been uncovering a link between positive emotions and better health , particularly for women . But there’s a catch. Beyond how much positive emotion we feel, more recent research has found that variety matters as well. For example, people who experience a greater variety of positive emotions may be less depressed, healthier , and better able to cope with negative...

An undocumented immigrant father drops off his 12-year-old daughter at school in Los Angeles. Moments later, 2 black, unmarked vehicles surround his car a few blocks from the school. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrest him while his 13-year-old daughter watches from his car; she can be heard sobbing while she films a cell phone video of the arrest that later goes viral. 1 An undocumented Guatemalan mother of 4 children, including 1 with cerebral palsy, faces...

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist . He believed he was personally chosen by God for a mission that no one else could achieve. After 1493, he signed his name "xpo ferens"—"the Christbearer." His stated goal was to accumulate enough wealth to recapture Jerusalem. His arrogance led to his downfall, that of millions of Native Americans—and eventually fostered his resurrection as the most enduring icon of the Americas. In 1496, Columbus was the governor of a colony based at Santo Domingo, in...

An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system. Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates of dropouts and suspensions. They are most likely to be identified as needing special education services, and they are least likely to...

In 2013, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine published a report showing that Americans die earlier and experience poorer health than residents of other high-income countries, such as Australia, Finland, and Japan. Though such international comparisons are concerning, health differences within the United States are even larger. Studies have found, for instance, that in many American cities life expectancy varies by as much as 20 years between neighborhoods. A recent...