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Childhood Disrupted

Join in conversations inspired by Donna Jackson Nakazawa's book, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal. We'll chat about the latest research on how ACEs can affect our health, happiness, and relationships; vent a little; and brainstorm our best ideas for resiliency and healing.

Recent Blog Posts

Chronic Illness, Adverse Pre-Onset Experiences (APOEs) and A Splinter Metaphor

I got a big splinter in my index finger recently when I was lightly sanding door trim in preparation to prime it. It hurt and I cursed, which is a very satisfying bit of fight response that arises spontaneously now, and that I don't suppress when I'm in my own setting such as at home with no witnesses. It's a response to being hurt and "attacked," such as by the door frame I thought would be happy with its makeover.





I took the splinter in stride as just a part of painting project mode. It was so large that I pulled it out easily without even needing tweezers.



I treated my finger with soap and water, a little homeopathy with a dose or two of Arnica to support healing and minimize the pain, and a bandaid to protect it until it healed over. After it stopped hurting a day or two later, I forgot about it. This is a typical and normal response to an insignificant seeming physical trauma that is common in every day life.



Meanwhile, I kept going with my projects, including with beautification of the bathroom that I walk through on my to work in my Studio, which you see in the background.





The skin on my finger was well on its way to healing with just a shallow little bit of opening left so I didn't worry about as I worked in the dirt. Because we know from past experience that these kinds of little things happen all the time, it's normal to not worry about them. We know our bodies know how to heal.





It's when the wound still wasn't healed 2 weeks following the event that I gave it any attention again.





It didn't look infected as a potential cause for the lack of recovery. It seemed well on its way to being healed because it was small and shallow. But it really should have been covered by normal, uninterrupted skin by then. I poked around it a bit, couldn't feel any remaining splinter in there and watched some more.



The Splinter Metaphor



What follows with this splinter story is an APOE metaphor, a term I have coined as "adverse pre-onset experiences" aka APOEs. This builds on the term for our knowledge that ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) influence risk for chronic illness.



This is about how chronic illness starts for many of us within weeks or months of a stressful or traumatic event. And how we think, very normally, that this particular event is the cause. It's then bewildering when our new, quickly-becoming-chronic-from-out-of-the-blue symptoms don't resolve even when we address that triggering event by: treating the infection, which for some people never goes away (or resolves but leaves us still chronically ill), detoxing after an exposure, making time and being careful to allow our bodies to physically heal after surgery, grieving after the loss of a loved one...





I suspect most of you reading my blog have had some kind of experience similar to this, because who would spend their free time (and time we have to carve out from other things) reading about trauma if we weren't trying to figure out symptoms that haven't responded to the seemingly logical, sometimes easy, sometimes scary, but typically straight-forward things?



This splinter APOE metaphor dives deeper into what I think of as underlying drivers of chronic illness: the earlier, unresolved, invisible adverse experiences and traumas that happened long before the triggering event / APOE. In this context, the APOE is the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's the last event in a series, rather than the first or the only traumatic event.



This APOE metaphor is also about what can support the healing.





Paying Attention



With my focus now on the fact that I had a symptom, I looked more closely and paid more attention. I noticed there did seem to be slight swelling. But that seemed potentially normal following a big splinter experience.



I wondered if there remained a bit of splinter in there as the seemingly most logical cause of this problem.



I opened it up and dug around a bit with a sterilized needle, used a magnifying lens, had David take a look in case he could see better, but there was nothing.



I Googled and didn't see much beyond what I was doing although some people did have success soaking in warm salt water. I tried that a few times. No change. Still not healing.



It wasn't red, or painful and there was no other evidence of infection, but that seemed a reasonable next cause of the problem.



So I decided I perhaps needed to help it a little more overtly.



As many of us do, I chided myself.



Given the persistence of a symptom my body should have been able to easily take care of, I figured maybe I had done something wrong. Maybe I hadn't been careful enough in the beginning with my little treatment plan. Or maybe I was being averse to antibiotics and that would have been an appropriate thing to do. For those of us who go into self-blame, it's typically from a set of negative beliefs learned from experiences with our caregivers in childhood (ACREs ie: adverse childhood relationship experiences).



I applied a little topical antibiotic cream for a few days. Covered it with a bandaid. And once again carried on with daily life.



It healed completely within a few days.



It was April. Spring and the earth were calling. I created a new path with heavy flagstone. Then, after having a great time at the local nursery, I planted an entire flat of baby perennials that would stay short and bloom. I didn't worry about my newly healed finger.





A Little Fear



And then not only did the little wound reappear, it looked worse. This time, there was clearly infection.





As is also common when we have unexpected symptoms that aren't resolving with traditional approaches, that's probably when I started to feel a little fear.



It was still a really small symptom but something was clearly not right.



There was no redness or pain to suggest the infection was expanding beyond the little bit of active white cells that were gathering at the trauma site (the pus).



Not Doing it "Right"



Part of the fear was that I might not being doing this right (sound familiar?). Or that I might need to see my family doctor for a little help.



It's wonderful to have good people for support and treatment, but who wants to spend time in a medical setting when it's not necessary, even for little things? I treated with a slightly longer additional round of topical antibiotic.



I worried that perhaps I would eventually need oral antibiotics. I didn't like the idea of a course of systemic antibiotics given all the challenges I've had with constipation and the health of my gut. It fed the fear that I needed to catch this soon. Act with perhaps a little more urgency and not let things get out of hand.



Our minds can go to all kinds of scary places when we try to figure something out that is outside of our understanding. Whether the issue is big or small, it sets up residence and takes a chunk of our attention and emotional bandwidth.



Making the Time to Listen



The fear and lack of symptom resolution finally motivated me to sit down and spend a little more time with this issue. I decided I needed to really check out the fear, acknowledge it, see if it needed me to take action of some kind, or if I could let it get out of the way so I could make room to listen for my intuition.



Feeling Into Intuition



My feeling after pausing and listening more attentively was to soak my finger in hot salty water.



Salt water feels healing. The gentleness appealed to me. As did the slowing down. I figured I would just see what happened with this next step.



I soaked my finger multiple times a time a day until it was all wrinkly and prune-like. I gave it more care. Support. Tenderness. Paid close attention.



I was also more curious. The fear decreased because I was doing something, part of which was simply keeping myself campany during this process. Even though I didn't know where this would lead, it felt good as a next step.





After a few days, my finger looked better. There was still an open area and a pinpoint of something pale within it, but no progression of infection. Still no pain.



Rocking in my chair in the back yard while appreciating the gentle spring sun, I had the impulse to squeeze it. Like a pimple. To my utter surprise, a long thin beige-colored thing started coming out of my finger. I thought it was a solidified tube of pus.



When I touched it I realized it was actually a remnant of the original splinter. If you need a little forewarning, the picture after next might "gross you out" a little when you see the size of the splinter sticking out of my finger pad (there's no blood or anything else if you are queazy). So the picture below is easier to look at next.





The narrow piece of splinter was so long I couldn't believe I had never felt it, even when I had gently squeezed my finger and pressed around. I had only felt a thick widened area of firmness that I assumed was inflammation linked to healing the physical wound from the large splinter.



Even though I find the picture below shocking at some level, it is still remarkably satisfying to think I captured a series of pictures that depict what this healing journey can be like. Because this chronic illness onset journey is so typically invisible on so many levels.





The Root Can Be Invisible



Like old traumas, the root of my symptom had been invisible.



While the healing occurred because I actually removed a physical object linked directly to the triggering event (this kind of experience is why I think we so naturally trust we'll heal if we can just fix the issue linked to the onset trigger), I want to speak to the APOE metaphor. The experience caused by that seemingly invisible splinter remnant represents how past traumas can be so hidden and seem so subtle. It represents how, over time, they can prime our nervous systems to respond to that final triggering event in ways that lead to chronic symptoms. These symptoms occur when pathways of fight, flight and freeze become established as our new norm. The final event seems to be the last piece of a puzzle that solidifies something that has been evolving, often for decades according to the literature.



Even when I had carefully and specifically looked for another piece of the splinter, even with a magnifying lens in hand, even when I had dug around and stirred it with a needle I hadn't found it or seen it.



Just like the nonphysical aspects of trauma, poking around in a wound hurts, so I hadn't dug very deep. But it had also been tucked away at an angle and really narrow. Like so often with trauma - it had been submerged.





Also like old trauma, it was so much larger than I could have ever imagined.



And as we are learning the more we understand trauma - in our personal lives and as a culture - trauma in our lives is not something we can ignore if we want to heal symptoms. It was affirming and reassuring to find that when I actually found the root cause AND was able to address it, my symptom resolved.



That's when my body's innate capacity for healing was able to do what it knows how to do. What it WANTS to do. Because our bodies want to heal, given the chance.





An Intelligence in Symptoms



My symptom had been an intelligent response to a real issue. It had been a sign that something was unfinished, incomplete, unresolved. It felt like a way my body could ask for my help.



As with my experience of chronic illness, my little symptom persevered and scared me just enough to invite me to dig deeper. It asked me to pause long enough to listen to potentially difficult emotions (in this case to a little fear and a light dose of self blame, and in the case of chronic diseases to often bigger feelings such as anger and grief, and more fear because what we are trying to heal is often so unknown).



This was a tiny example of how something old and invisible can drive a healing response. One that serves a purpose we don't often recognize. Maybe with enough time my finger would have worked the splinter out on its own. Maybe healing would have been through a fight, flight or even freeze response that was active at the cellular level (white blood cells coming to the rescue).





As it is, the process from day 1 until I helped expel the splinter took a month.



Symptoms as Motivators



My littlest symptom motivated me when I had really just wanted to keep going with my projects, my planting, my daily life. It called me away from what seemed much more interesting, interrupting the flow to have me focus on something that I expected to heal on its own. It helped me listen so I could find a way to help.





My finger healed fully within days after that. The way I had expected it to. The pad of it is covered with healthy skin, there is no pain and I've been able to resume playing and painting and more.





Here's to finding our ways to keep healing the impact of the old stuff. May the process keep helping our bodies so they can do what they know how to do so well when given the chance.



Resources and Related Blog Posts

Adverse Childhood Relationship Experiences (ACREs I): Intro to Invisible ACEs

ACREs II (How I Overcame Severe Food Intolerances)

ACEs: Adverse Childhood Experiences with examples from the movie Boyhood

Free ACE Fact Sheets and other Fact Sheets to educate your Doctor

Empathy: Can It Make The Difference?

Emotion has an enormous impact on imprinting memory in our brains. I had an experience when I was 6 years old that included emotion and I have the memory of it all of these many years later.

It was a 6 year old birthday sleepover party. There were 7 girls invited that lived near each other and played together most days. A girl new to the neighborhood was invited only due to the requirement of the birthday girl’s mother. I was also invited. I lived a block away but did play with these girls fairly often. Being an extremely shy girl, I really liked being accepted by this group and was excited to be included in the party.

The party progressed and it was now time to begin preparing for sleep. The new girl found a spot and laid out her sleeping bag on the family room floor. As she did this, one girl ran into the other room exclaiming how she was not going to put her sleeping bag anywhere near this new girl.

Sad girl with teddy bear -

The other girls followed, running into the other room expressing the same plan. Even though I was silent, I also followed the group into the other room. As I stated, it was very important to me to feel a part of this group.

Once in the other room, I turned around and saw the girl sitting all alone on her sleeping bag looking very dejected. At that moment an intense feeling of empathy overcame me. With this strong feeling, I picked up my sleeping bag, went into the other room and laid it out right next to the girl who was being excluded. To my surprise, the other girls followed and the party resumed.

The ability I had to see things from her perspective and the resulting empathy I had for this girl in this situation strongly overcame my need to be accepted by the group.

Brain research demonstrates that even very young babies have a capacity for empathy. This is an extremely essential life skill and is at the heart of social skills and success in life. It is a skill like any other, it needs to be developed.

As Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., states:

"One of the most important aspects of being a human being, is being able to be in a relationship. Being able to successfully form and maintain a relationship. And at the heart of that capability is the capacity to put yourself in somebody else's shoes, to see the world how they see it. That capacity is empathy."

As my career unfolded, I became extremely interested in early brain development research and ever since have had the (not small) goal of making it commonly understood…. and to have it understood by EVERY adult that directly or indirectly influences the lives of children and families. Realizing the significant influence of early relationships is an area of major focus in meeting this goal.

The brain is experience dependent, meaning development doesn’t just magically happen. A brain develops based on the combination of the genes a child is born with and the experiences that a child has. The earliest time in life is like the fourth trimester in rapidly connecting the 86 billion brain cells a baby is born with. Experiences create a direct and physical impact on the way a brain is wired. And the repetition of experiences strengthens the neural connections to create pathways for functioning in life.

The brain is designed to adapt to whatever type of experiences are repeated most frequently…. whether positive or negative. Even though it takes about 25 - 30 years for the brain to fully mature, the early, days, months and years are the time for the most rapid amount of growth and development of the brain.

Nurturing a newborn - BrainInsightsonline.com

We are biologically designed for relationships. We are born with a primary need to have someone care for us. We are completely dependent on at least one relationship with another person. Through the ideal situation of having someone lovingly and consistently respond to meet our needs in a nurturing way, brain pathways for empathy are being created.

If an infant is responded to repeatedly and predictably with care and understanding, this creates the feelings of safety and pleasure that the brain craves and requires. This begins the wiring in the brain for relationships with others in life. So, when infants consistently experience the give and take of a responsive interactive relationship, the basis for the ability to feel and express empathy occurs. Interestingly, research findings demonstrate that the brain areas for both empathy and violence are partially similar. These findings lead the researchers to state:

"We all know that encouraging empathy has an inhibiting effect on violence, but this may not only be a social question but also a biological one -- stimulation of these neuronal circuits in one direction reduces their activity in the other."

As a result a more empathetic developed brain will have more difficulty behaving in a violent way. While attending the sleepover party, my brain pathways likely fired in a way that found it too difficult to be mean to the new girl.

Various versions of interesting studies reveal that babies as young as 5 months old can demonstrate empathy. However, due to a variety of situations and circumstances some children do not experience the ideal nurturing relationships early in life. A child that does not experience the give and take of a consistently responsive nurturing relationship will have a more difficult challenge in developing the brain connections for seeing things from another person’s point of view.

However the wonderful news is, the brain is always learning, re-organizing and making new connections throughout life. This is called, plasticity. This provides us with the extraordinary opportunity to make changes later. Of course it is best to develop a brain as optimally as possible in the first place, but it is important to realize that changes can be made through learning and repetition at other times in life.

Care for others hands - BrainInsightsonline.com

When it comes to empathy and sympathy, research supports that humans can be contagious beings. This contagious aspect seemed to be the case in the slumber party experience where the other girls joined me after I showed empathy for the new girl.

Indicators are revealing that empathetic behaviors are in decline in many societies. There are numerous factors contributing to this occurrence. So, since we are neuro-biologically meant to be connected to others, it is essential that this is realized and an emphasis on early relationships is critical.


In summary

Valuing and prioritizing time for parents to spend with their babies and providing support for the establishment of secure attachment and early healthy and empathetic experiences is essential. Additionally needed, are provisions and policies for child care programs and schools to have low teacher child ratios to increase the opportunity to foster relationships that are built on understanding and empathy with every child.

When it becomes common knowledge that the brain is dependent on trusting, caring relationships and positive early childhood experiences, then babies in homes or child care settings and older children in schools will greatly benefit from supportive environments and will be engaged in inter-personal interactions that ultimately reduce violence and increases empathy for other human beings. This is prevention!

group of kids - braininsightsonline.com
Children have the capacity to learn to read, write and do math … children also have the capacity to empathize. If we truly want to help children thrive in life ….and want to have an incredibly positive impact on our world, it is VITAL that we place an emphasis on healthy relationships with others … This is where it all begins! After all it IS the primary need of the brain!
 
This was a presentation given at Parenting 2.0 Talks, Dublin, Ireland. September 2014

For a FREE Printable on using empathy with children click here.


To book a presentation toward making a difference for your school, organization, agency or company visit www.deborahmcnelis.com

It will be wonderful to have you follow all that I share on PACEs Connection.
The Neuro-Nurturing® materials from my company Brain Insights have been developed to contribute to creating conditions in the home that prevent adverse childhood experiences, and instead foster nurturing relationships, fun learning and invaluable connections between parent and child as well as entire families and communities.
Further, PACEs Connection receives 5% of the net profits of PACEs Connection-related orders. And, the materials can be customized with your logo added, to promote your organization or program while supporting healthy children.
I invite you to visit the website for more information about how you can benefit at: www.BrainInsightsonline.com
Deborah McNelis, M.Ed
Phone: 1-800-930-9290

Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations.

Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and the mothers, fathers, grandparents, adoptive, kinship, foster parents and other primary caregivers who care for them, to pediatricians providing recommended well child visits, and communities focused on trauma prevention and resiliency building.

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Christina Bethell, PhD, MBA, MPH, and founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CHAMI) and the EnACT! (Engagement in Action Framework) is cross-promoting her free Well Visit Planner, a web-based application to help families and physicians be better prepared for recommended well child visits, with Deborah McNelis, M. Ed, author and founder of “The First 60 Days” booklet and movement.

Bethell is also the principal author of a study on positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and their impact on preventing adult mental illness that led to the name change of ACEs Connection to PACEs Connection — for positive and adverse childhood experiences — in March of 2021.

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McNelis is the founder of Brain Insights and creator of the Neuro-Nurturing® series of ringed booklets sharing age-appropriate activities paired with brain development insights for caregivers to use in everyday life with babies and children. These activities increase the likelihood of secure attachment and a foundation of early relational and physical health.

McNelis is also the author of a groundbreaking booklet, "The First 60 Days" (link is to a 12-page sample). The booklet and a movement she has started by the same name, are her heartfelt response to groundbreaking research by Dr. Bruce Duncan Perry and colleagues showing the negative developmental impact of toxic stress in the first two months of life, and the importance of practicing what she calls "Neuro-Nurturing®” during this influential time in  infant brain development.


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The booklet dispels 22 potentially harmful myths to reassure and support new parents. A portion of each myth is told from the newborn's point of view. Readers also learn what newborns need for establishing a secure attachment and overall optimal development from what McNelis refers to as,Neuro-Nurturing® Knowledge. "It is all based on brain science revealing what babies and their parents/caregivers really need," McNelis said.

Details of ways the project’s partnership between Bethell and McNelis can benefit newborns, families, caregivers, communities, and PACEs Connection are spelled out in the attached one-sheet that is ready for download and distribution at resiliency initiative meetings across the country.

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The sheet shares information about Bethell and McNelis and their work thus far, and was created with support from Dana Brown, PACEs Connection PACEs science statewide facilitator, who is hoping that promoting the work directly to communities will create use of the Well Visit Planner and the Neuro-Nurturing® materials.

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.12.34 PM“Bethell and McNelis are dedicated to creating positive health equity, including child flourishing and family resilience. This is a terrific fit for any community,” said Brown.

“In California we have PACEs Connection cross-sector, resiliency focused communities in numerous counties. We’re starting out with the members of the PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities. Our hope is that member organizations in 12 counties in the Cooperatives will share the information with the parents and caregivers for the families they serve, and that hospitals, clinics, and child-serving organizations – including home-visiting nurses – will help promote use of the Well Visit Planner and the Brain Insights materials,” said Brown.

Cross-sector community member organizations belonging to the Coops include schools, communities of faith, health clinics, child-and-family-serving organizations, businesses, hospitals, media representatives, law enforcement, county and city government offices, and more.

The twelve member counties are: Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Sonoma, Tulare, and Yolo.

“We’ll know we’re succeeding if there is an increase in enrollments in the Well Visit Planner in these areas. This is important because by promoting well child visits, we increase the likelihood of families and physicians establishing a an ongoing relationship. Building on a trusted relationship, together they are more likely to be able to identify a developmental delay, postpartum depression, or  consequences of a challenge in the home that can be supported before a challenge becomes a crisis,” said Brown.

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“The hope is to continue to braid resources within communities — as they are interested — so there are lists of resources available for the pediatricians and other caregivers to share with families. We want to support parents, care providers, and communities in creating safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for every child, and believe these innovations, in combination with more to come, can help to do that,” said Brown.

“This project partnership and the fact that Deb is willing to discount her materials so they can be a potential fundraiser for communities, and is sharing with PACEs Connection profits from the sale of her materials — which are promoted on the Well Visit Planner site, which has the potential to reach millions of parents — bodes well for all involved,” said Brown.

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According to McNelis, the ringed books are literally positive infant and childhood experiences parents and childcare providers alike can keep in their pockets and use throughout the day to engage little ones in activities that nurture optimal brain development. Across the series of books, there are scores of activities to stimulate fine and large motor development, language skills, thinking abilities, creativity, curiosity, self-awareness, and most importantly, connection with others.

State and child serving organizations have bought thousands of sets of the ringed books for parents in various programs.

“The First 60 Days” booklet and the ringed Neuro-Nurturing® series from newborn through age five, are available for bulk and individual purchase. Organizations seeking to customize the materials can opt to have their logo printed on the back cover, and can resell the materials at the retail price for fundraisers, in hospital and faith community gift shops, at health fairs and such, as is detailed in the attached one sheet,” said Brown.

“People wishing to access and use the Well Visit Planner with their infants and children need simply click on the link and enroll,” she added.

For more information about joining the PACEs Connection Cooperative of communities in California, reach out to Dana Brown at dbrown@pacesconnection.com. For Coop information the U.S. and territories, contact Mathew Portell, director of education and outreach, at mportell@pacesconnection.com.

What Children Really Need Is Adults That Understand Development

The brain doesn’t fully develop until about the age of 25. This fact is sometimes quite surprising and eye opening to most adults. It can also be somewhat overwhelming for new parents and professionals who are interacting with babies and young children every day, to contemplate. It is essential to realize however, that the greatest time of development occurs in the years prior to kindergarten. And even more critical to understand is that by age three 85 percent of the core structures of the brain are formed with the first 2 months being found to have the most significant influence.

The wonderful news is, brain research provides information to relieve the minds of caring adults. Neuroscience provides the knowledge of what developing brains need most for learning, physical and mental health, and overall well-being in life. And the even better news, it really isn’t complicated.

It Is Just This Simple

The brain grows in sequential fashion, from the least complex functioning area to the most complex. There are three crucial points to make about this fact.

  • Even though the most complex area of the brain is the last to complete development, experiences in the early months and years have a very influential impact.
  • Children need appropriate experiences in the early months and years to wire the brain in preparation for more complex learning and emotional health.
  • Pushing academics too early and ignoring the incredible impact of nurturing relationships and play can be detrimental.

To develop the higher functioning areas of the brain, secure responsive and predictable nurturing relationships are crucial. We are biologically designed for relationships. When the brain feels a sense of trust it is then able to relax and is ready to learn. This security is essential to establish right from birth. It contributes to a brain ready for learning, self-regulation, resiliency and getting along with others.

Children also must have appropriate and safe opportunities to experience things for themselves and feel the sense of accomplishment that goes along with completing tasks independently. To support this, adults need to allow (not force) enough time for children to try things over and over again at their own pace. Repeated experiences create strong brain connections. This is why children often want to play the same game, sing the same song or have a story repeated.

Time for independent trial and error is extremely valuable. Children, however also need someone available to help and encourage them when things get overwhelming or to help them through new situations. Children feel comfortable and develop a continued sense of excitement toward learning when caring adults provide available support and developmentally appropriate stimulation.

Due to rapid growth at this time, the brains of babies and young children are especially vulnerable to experiences and their environment and will therefore continually adapt to what they are exposed to most frequently. Environments that are chaotic, unpredictable, disorganized or highly and intensely stressful have a direct negative influence on the development of the brain.

According to Jane Healy, a well-respected educational psychologist, “Early childhood programs that implement a directed academic curriculum often replace essential, hands-on learning activities with skill-based performance and rote-learning tasks. In doing so, they risk the developmental growth necessary for children’s future academic success.” Experts believe that when rote-learning tasks are used extensively in an early childhood classroom or other setting, normal growth and development of the brain can become distorted.

Early learning environments (home or school) that are appropriate for a child’s developmental level provide opportunities to learn through movement, play and hands-on exploration. Through this type of learning, children test new knowledge in a relaxed setting and then naturally relate it to existing knowledge and store the new information. Children just naturally want to explore, spin, pretend, run, pour, skip, create, imagine, pound, throw, squish, hop, sing, and figure out the world. They are doing exactly what their growing brain needs. Understanding adults just need to provide plenty of wonderful opportunities for this to occur, then not get in the way, but provide caring support when needed. It really isn’t complicated, is it?

Let's make this needed understanding become common knowledge. The children are counting on us... and ultimately we ALL benefit!

For more information, resources and support go to: www.BrainInsightsonline.com

What children need most - BrainInsightsonline.com - new

We make all of this understandable and easy to implement into everyday life.

Topics

My position in the Hamilton County Schools was a position that many of the ACE group would envy. My work was directly with teacher, student, family and the courts/jails/police.  If a teacher had a problem with a student very often he/she would come to me for assistance.. If the state recognized this student as conduct disordered or emotionally disturbed services could be established and my network, extensive, brought the problems to understanding and hopeful solutions. Positions such as this one should be available in every school especially elementary years. 

     Perhaps foundation monies could be found to finance a position or two and actually devote staff with university help to measure successes and failures and develop a model program for the entire country. 

 

  Let me share some of the qualifications for such a person.. First and probably the most important is willingness to really "get dirty"..  The type of home visited ; the people (parent) can be a turn off for someone not equipped to see beyond.. It is that "seeing beyond", undefined, that is the most willing characteristic.  I am male and had a bit of an easier way. Most of my clients were boys and most of the parents were single home with mother only.  The challenges  are myriad and the door in the face just one of the obstacles . The goal, never lost, is the real reward... the child. 

  My regret was having to retire before ready to go. Lost hearing on one side due to Acoustic Neuroma, a benign growth that had to be removed from the acoustic nerve..  Bob Brooks

I am baffled and frustrated at the lack of trauma understanding among therapist especially those who work with couples and adults. Does anyone else find this troubling? My partner attends 12 step program and sees a therapist--but very little of it is addressing his ACES. I encourage the work he is doing but have to bite my tongue on the missing pieces, lest I trigger him. A previous newly trained, couples counselor spent alot of time on "communication" all the while ignoring the ACES related symptoms that were in the room. Does one have to seek out trauma therapists specifically? Any thoughts or perspectives.

Hello friends

   I need help and want to be more interactive in this goup. i have purchased the book. Childhood disrupted by Donna Nakazawa. i am a ADULT TRAUMA VICTIM  and feel like a WOUNDED CHILD.  I JUST STARTED COUNSELING WITH a EMDR Therapist for about 3 weeks now. it hurts. My mother was a  female batterer. Can this group help me to learn WHY do we not want our biograpy to become our biology. i guesss i am finding my voice have the questions now in life to ask why. As a kid i got beat up alot by my impatient mother and my absent father.  Can this group help me to get connected i feel alone and isoloated. I am involved in the 12 step groups as well. Both of my parents were Untreated adult children of alcoholics. I am 58 years old phyiically or i have 58 years chronically years but biological i feel like a wounded lil boy still, please connecwith  me so i can fell aprt of and learn to heal too.

 

 

 

Rick friday 02/17/17 central Fla.

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