Blog

Newly elected governor Gavin Newsom’s big campaign promises on education could cost billions of dollars if fully realized. The governor-elect has pledged to establish a cradle-to-career system of education in California and made it a central tenet of his education platform. To improve educational outcomes, the former San Francisco mayor argues that the state needs to begin offering services in early childhood with interventions continuing throughout school and college. [For more on this...

"Having a history of trauma or loss does not by itself predispose you to have a child with disorganization. It is the lack of resolution that is the essential risk factor. It is never too late to move toward making sense of your experiences and healing your past. Not only you but also your child will benefit." That's a quote from the book Parenting from the Inside Out: How A Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, which was published fifteen freaking years ago. It's...

Millions of families live in poverty in the United States. Associated stressors can often lead to adverse life experiences for children in those families, and negative socioemotional outcomes later in life. Family-centered programs are a well-supported way of buffering against these effects. More than two decades of peer-reviewed research suggests family -focused interventions play a role in improving outcomes over a long period of time. Now, a paper published in Child Development finally...

The parents in Overland Park, Kan., were fed up. They wanted their children off screens, but they needed strength in numbers. First, because no one wants their kid to be the lone weird one without a phone. And second, because taking the phone away from a middle schooler is actually very, very tough. “We start the meetings by saying, ‘This is hard, we’re in a new frontier, but who is going to help us?’” said Krista Boan, who is leading a Kansas City-based program called START, which stands...

President & CEO Sis Wenger will address the plight of children living with addiction - an adverse childhood experience (ACE) often accompanied by additional ACEs - in their families, and its impact on their ability to be successful in school. A walk through the toolkit will be included. Register for the webinar here>> NACoA, in collaboration with Addiction Policy Leadership Action Network (APLAN), is proud to announce Addiction Policy Forum's release of Children Impacted by...

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...

Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity, as well as a range of other experiences that cause psychological trauma. These experiences create toxic stress that can affect children’s attention, learning, and behavior. Research on human development shows that the effects of such trauma can be mitigated when students learn in a positive school climate that offers long-term, secure relationships that supports...

Young children and their families can be tremendously affected by trauma, with significant implications for well-being well into the future. And while young children can be very expressive, they often do not have the skills or ability to use words to express how they are feeling. Adults may notice a variety of unexpected, atypical behaviors, and may need help understanding and nurturing infants and toddlers who have been affected. Fortunately, there are infant and early childhood mental...

The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health is pioneering a model of care that includes the baby starting at conception. Our model also includes transgenerational and intergenerational trauma, prenatal experiences, birth and attachment and bonding. We have a conference on this topic October 5-7, 2018, in Denver, CO. See: https://birthpsychology.com/2018-conference/welcome I will be a the Zero to Three conference representing our programs for a poster session. If you are...

Frank Field (Letters, 28 September and 5 October) and Sebastian Kraemer (Letters, 3 October) are right to highlight the £750m cut to services to support vulnerable families. This is indeed a national disgrace, but has gone under the wire partly due to Brexit. Home-Start and Sure Start were truly progressive initiatives, now thoroughly undermined by these cuts. In 2011, Graham Allen and Iain Duncan Smith published a cross-party governmental report, Early Intervention: Smart Investment,...

Stressful times push people to the limits. For many young people, stress comes from tuition bills, roommates who are late on rent, and job interviews that might have gone better with the right degree or certificate in hand. For new parents, it’s daycare bills, diapers and work days that might have gone better with more than three hours of sleep. Now imagine going through both sets of experiences at the same time. Combining young adulthood with parenthood is not easy, but nearly 3 million...

Oct 3, 2018, 11:00 AM, Posted by Martha Davis Collaborative approaches can help ensure kids grow up with a solid foundation of safety and with a support system for those who are affected by violence. As the executive director of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility in the late 1990s, I worked closely with the local police department, the Women’s Law Project , and the district attorney. At the time, these forward-thinking professionals were frustrated. They were arresting the...