1. No category

Understanding
Adversity in the Early
Years
Colorado Efforts to Buffer the Impact of Stress
Reach Out and Read
State Conference
13 April, 2015
Objectives
1
Discuss how adversity in the earliest
years influence lifelong health, education
and economic wellbeing
2
Explore strategies that help buffer the
impact of toxic stress
3
Share Colorado strategies and
resources
The Civic Canopy
Helping the many work as one for the good of all.
• Engage Individuals
• Strengthen
Communities
• Transform Society
Developmental
Science
1
The Science
• Brains are built over time
• Interactive influences of genes and
experiences shape the architecture of
the developing brain
• Brain architecture and developing
abilities are built “from the bottom
up” with simple circuits and skills
providing the scaffolding for more
advanced circuits and skills
Experiences Build Brain Architecture
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/multimedia/video
s/three_core_concepts/brain_architecture/
Adverse
Childhood
Experiences
1
ACES Study
• Childhood adversity has lifelong
consequences
• Significant adversity in childhood is
strongly associated with unhealthy
lifestyles, and poor physical and
mental health
ACE’s Effects on Life
http://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/childmaltreatment
/phl/resource_center_infographic.html
National Survey of Children’s Health







socioeconomic hardship
divorce/separation of parent
death of parent
parent served time in jail
witness to domestic violence
victim of neighborhood violence
lived with someone who was mentally ill or
suicidal
 lived with someone with alcohol/drug problem
 treated or judged unfairly due to race/ethnicity
Colorado Survey Results
60
50
40
Nationwide
Colorado
30
20
10
0
0 ACEs
1 or 2 ACEs
3+ ACEs
Biology of
Adversity
1
Biology of Adversity
• Environmental experiences influence
brain and physiological architecture
and development
• Studies show stress during pregnancy
can influence brain and physiological
development
• Not all stress is bad stress; stress
responses are key
Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedi
a/videos/three_core_concepts/toxic_stress/
Strategies
and
Approaches
1
Promising Approaches
• Support sensitive and responsive
caregiver-child interactions
• Promote caregiver mental health to
support responsive caregiving
• Enhance caregivers' economic
stability to decrease the cumulative
stressors experienced by living in
poverty
Both / And
Enriched environments, relationships and
learning opportunities
AND
Reduction, prevention of significant
adversity that disrupts the developing
architecture of the brain
THROUGH
Multi-sector, multi-generational approaches
And Then Some
• Research to understand specific
practices that buffer the impact of
toxic stress
• Research and framing around
understanding the effects of positive
experiences
Reach Out and Read
• Supportive, responsive relationships can
prevent or reverse the damaging effects of
toxic stress
• Book sharing encourages calm and closeness
between parent and child
• Operationalizes the serve and return concept,
the basis of healthy attachment and dev’t
• The nurturing, 1:1 attention from parents
during reading aloud encourages children to
form a positive association with books and
reading later in life (and KG entry)
Reach Out and Read
• Book sharing can be particularly useful for those
living in a chaotic or stressful environment
• Ex. Military families: ROR has a national military
initiative which includes over 70 sites, including
3 in Colorado (AFA and Ft. Carson (FP and Peds))
• Ex. Recent immigrants: Value of giving books in
native language
• Sharon Darling (NCFL): “The best way to help
children is to help their parents. The best way
to reach the parents is through their children.”
Medical Home
• Bright Futures: Evidence based guidelines regarding
health supervision visits
• Screening: Development, social-emotional
surveillance (relationship as a VS), SWYC
• Refer to Community Resources:
• Help Me Grow
• Home Visitation Prgms(including Healthy Steps)
• Early Intervention Services
• Head Start
• Early Childhood Mental Health Providers
• Parent/Family Support
• Identify and collaborate with high quality early
education and child care
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health are life-enhancing
resources, such as food supply, housing, economic
and social relationships, transportation, education
and access to quality health care, whose distribution
across populations effectively determines length and
quality of life”
S.James in Promoting Health Equity: A Resource to Help Communities
Address Social Determinants of Health, CDC, 2008
Social Determinants of Health -2-
Health Practitioners need to pay attention to
risk factors of inequality and offer to their
patients the information and resources they
need to enroll in appropriate economic,
education and child care programs that benefit
families living in poverty.”
From : CDPHE Brief: http://virtualmentor.amaassn.org/2006/11/pfor1-0611.html
Parenting /Family support
• Triple-P
• Purposeful Parenting
• 5 Rs of Early Education
• Addressing illiteracy
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
• Child-Parent Psychotherapy
• Employment, Housing, Food
• Medical Legal Partnership
• Health Leads
More Resources
AAP Literacy Toolkit:
https://littoolkit.aap.org/Pages/home.aspx
AAP EBCD:
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aaphealth-initiatives/EBCD/
EBCD Workgroup Bright Futures overlay:
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-healthinitiatives/EBCD/Documents/EBCD_Well_Child_Grid.pdf
Provider Resources:(scroll down to bottom of screen).
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-healthinitiatives/EBCD/Pages/Additional-Resources.aspx
Colorado’s Response
• Build shared understanding about the
science and research
• Develop resources and tools
• Mobilize collective action
• Maximize existing resources; seek new
resources
Resources
Reach Out and Read Colorado: www.reachoutandreadco.org
Early Childhood Colorado Partnership:
www.civiccanopy.org/home/early-childhood-initiatives
Office of Early Childhood:
www.coloradoofficeofearlychildhood.com/
The Raising of America: www.raisingofamerica.org/project
Earlier is Easier: www.earlieriseasier.org/
Thoughts, Questions
Jodi Hardin and Dr. Steve Vogler