resilience screening: what’s in your backpack?happiness. resilience ... building relational health...
TRANSCRIPT
Resilience Screening:What’s in your Backpack?
Nurturing Developing MindsFebruary 23, 2018
Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed.Senior Fellow, Institute for Child SuccessResearch Professor, University of North Carolina Charlotte
We envision an America where all children can grow up...
We are not there now…
Ascend at the Aspen Institute
We are not there either…
We live and work in a country facing increasing individual trauma and societal stress.
This is not OK
The early years really matter
Intertwined cognitive and social-emotional development Executive function Self–regulation Empathy
Trauma Toxic Stress Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)
Poverty Racism & Implicit bias Educational and health inequity Politics…
MindfulnessKindnessHealthHopeHappinessResilience
We can build it…
Building Relational Health: The Arc of Science ….
Gruendel, 2.7.18
Maternal depression Parent-child attachment Domestic violenceSubstance AbuseACES
Parental Health &
Mental Health
Child Health, MH and Behavior
Family Basic Needs
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[email protected] 10.14.17
Unstable/unsafe housing
Family and community violence
Not enough food to get through the month Unstable child care
Weak social networks & social capital
Unstable work statusNeeds of aging parents
School absencesSchool suspensions/ expulsionsSchool performanceDevelopmental delaysHealth problemsAnxiety/fear/aggression
Recognizing universal challenges and extra stress for some
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When Stress Becomes Toxic
NORMAL STRESS
Getting immunized; Meeting new people; First day at school. First day at work. Presenting big ideas at a public meeting; New physical challenges
TOLERABLE STRESS
Serious Illness; Death of a loved one; Frightening accident; Acrimonious divorce; Persistent discrimination
TOXIC STRESS
Tolerable stress that is not buffered by caring, actively-present adults (or peers). The body’s stress system activates and stays at high levels “like revving a car’s engine for hours every day.”
This causes damage at the cellular level of our bodies, impacts our health and mental health, and can be passed from one generation to the next at the genomic level.
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Key Concepts: Toxic Stress. Harvard Center on the Developing Child, Retrieved July 2015
Two minutes on how Toxic Stress feels in our bodies
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Strong & Healthy Families
Healthy Children… as
early as possible
Strong, Healthy
Schools & Communities
First, we can listen to the science. It says, to raise kids who are healthy, safe, smart and strong “we” need to invest in…
Second, we can find kids in need through universal developmental screening, early surveillance and real-time school-based Early Warning Systems (including data on performance, chronic absences and behavior challenges at the 3rd
grade or earlier).
Third, we can support adults who are the buffers against toxic levels of stress in children’s lives…
Parents, across generationsTeachersMentorsCoachesPrincipals…Us
Because grownups experience stress, too
Fourth, we can partner with families and the community to invest in mindfulness and to promote trauma-informed practice and social-emotional learning
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Click Later
Fifth, we can continue to build experiences that connect mind,
body and feelings to support health, SEL
and resilience
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Finally, we can learn to listen with humility
…because everybody has a story…
Opioids
Child Abuse or Neglect
Violence. Death. SeparationTrauma.
Disability
ClickNow
Strong & Healthy Families
Healthy, Safe, Smart, Strong
Children
Strong, Healthy
Schools & Communities
On the road to building relational health and resilience, it takes individual strength and perseverance, but GRIT alone is not enough
Additional Resources
ACES Too High • Find your ACE score (and your
resilience scoring checklist)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The ACE Study
ACES Connection • Growing Resilient
Communities 2.0 and Organizing Your Initiative
• ACES Connection Community Tracker
