Kid/Teen Friendly ACEs Materials

I'd encourage you to look at our program, Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience. It was developed to be used with young people by paraprofessionals. We have recently heard of a client who has adapted parts of it for use with 4th graders making them "Calm Coaches."

Please let me know if you would like a link to free a 30 day online review copy.

I'm curious about the context you want to use the materials....in a school setting? Our of school? What issue are you seeking to address?

All best,

Kay

Hi,

I would be cautious with presenting this information to children and teens. Harvard Center on the Developing Child does have a fantastic resource library and much of their material is in very accessible language. I would encourage you to emphasize more about self-regulation, resilience, hope, and building capacities. Using Brain States or Dan Siegel's hand model of the brain might also be an effective approach. If you do cover material around trauma and ACEs, be sure to emphasize that anything they have experienced has been outside of their control and is not their fault, as well as that the plasticity of the brain can help them 'bounce back' and trauma is not their destiny.

Community Resilience Initiative has a series of games created by the students at Lincoln High School that might also be appropriate (check out documentary Paper Tigers for more info on the work done at Lincoln High School around ACEs and trauma)

I like this video and it might be age-appropriate for some children/teens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVA2N6tX2cg

This one might be good as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up3MZuYkf-g

You could look at some of the animate videos available online such as by the Alberta Family wellness website, the Karyn Purvis Institute for Child Development, or just search on youtube. 

In our community, the school is now using the Brain Architecture Game to teach students about Risk/Protective Factors.  It's a good adjunct to teaching mindfulness and self-regulation skills.

Thank you all, so much, for your leads and suggestions.  And I will be following up in the next week or so.