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Hello all,

I work at an Early Learning Center and we will be presenting on ACES and Resilience to the parents of preschoolers. One of the aspects we have debated is when to offer them the ACES and Resilience surveys. However, after reading https://www.pacesconnection.com...under-the-microscope I am wondering what purpose it would ultimately serve (and what unintended consequences it may have) to give parents the surveys. It would be optional, and we are partnering with a local therapy clinic to have their staff be available during and after the presentations. Does anyone have any input on either side - to offer the surveys or not at the presentations? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you!

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I say go for it. It's a great way for people to look at their own lives, rather than keep it as an abstract concept. Also, if you have a large enough group, doing instant polling through online software such as Poll Everywhere, is a great way for people to see that we're all swimming in the same ACEs ocean.

And, that's a bridge to people understanding four very important aspects of this ACEs science:

  • They weren't born bad.
  • They had no control over what happened to them as children.
  • The things they did to cope were normal and expected, even if coping involved smoking, drinking, having inappropriate sex, doing drugs, overeating, doing thrill sports, overachieving, engaging in violence, stealing, etc.
  • And they can change. 

Here's an article about an organization that educated parents about ACEs science: https://www.pacesconnection.com...-to-parent-with-aces

Hi Jane,

Thank you for the feedback and the article. I know I have heard how powerful it can be for parents to see those numbers. We are excited but also a little bit afraid of presenting this information to parents so it's great to learn from others' experiences. 

Hi Brad,

I would love to be connected with one of the parent coaches! I can be reached via ACES Connection or email at mmcpheeters@fpschools.org. Thank you so much!

Hello All,

I work at Parents Anonymous of New Jersey. We have been doing ACE's survey since 2016. We generally discuss the important of  ACE's in our Self-Help support groups Statewide. Both our  Group Facilitators  & Parents didn't feel comfortable with the ACE's survey at first. As we began to use Mindfulness and discuss Trauma-Informed Care along with Adverse Childhood Experiences. The anxiety was removed from taking the survey.

Doreen 

Hi Doreen,

Thank you for sharing! As it stands, we are planning to offer the surveys as an optional piece at the end of the first presentation. We will have covered ACES via the ACES Primer video, and touched on mindfulness and resilience heavily by that point. We are trying to keep an emphasis on the positive aspects as much as possible.

Hi Melissa, I wrote about a prenatal study last week done by Kaiser Northern California clinicians that found merits to looking at prenatal women's ACEs in tandem with their resilience scores. Even though you're thinking about it in a different context, it was instructive that one of the takeaways was how resilience surveys helped shape an empowering and forward focused conversation between doctors and their patients. Here's a link to that story:

https://www.pacesconnection.com...e-scores-study-finds

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