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Caregiver Handouts: Games and Activities that Build Brains and Executive Function Skills

Here you’ll find handouts with suggestions for games and activities to do with children of different ages. They can be shared at well child visits or when caregivers are looking for support with behavior. These activities can promote child-caregiver bonding, executive function skills, and build children’s brains through play.

Handout

How to Motivate Children: Science-Based Approaches for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers

How to Motivate Children: Science-Based Approaches for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers…

Third Party Link

A Guide to Toxic Stress

This area of the website for the Center on the Developing Child provides a collection of resources for understanding toxic stress and resilience. A Guide to Toxic Stress…

Third Party Link

A Guide to Serve and Return: How Your Interaction with Children Can Build Brains

This page contains a collection of resources about the concept of “serve and return” interactions. It includes an introduction to the basics of serve and return and the science behind it and includes videos that can be shared with caregivers about how serve and return interactions build brains. For…

Reading

Building Core Capabilities for Life

Third Party Link

Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change

Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change…

Brief

InBrief: The Foundations of Lifelong Health

This brief summarizes essential scientific findings from the Center publications, “The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood”.

Working Paper

Maternal Depression Can Undermine the Development of Young Children

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs examines why addressing the consequences of serious depression in parents and caregivers could support the future prosperity and well-being of both children and society as a whole.

Reading

Strategies for Effectively Communicating about Toxic Stress

This guide from the Frameworks Institute provides suggestions on how to frame conversations with caregivers who may have experienced toxic stress themselves. It makes 5 key framing suggestions that can help providers to highlight resilience, reduce caregiver guilt and raise the public health nature of the problem of toxic stress.

Brief

InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development

Brief

InBrief: The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development

Reading

Moving Upstream: Confronting Racism to Open Up Children’s Potential

Third Party Link

The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress

Read the article at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Third Party Link

Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science into Lifelong Health

Read the article at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Third Party Link

Capitalizing on Advances in Science to Reduce the Health Consequences of Early Childhood Adversity

Read the article at JAMA Network.

Third Party Link

Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Impacts of Racism on the Foundations of Health

Read the article at Annual Reviews.

Working Paper

Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain

Working Paper

Persistent Fear and Anxiety Can Affect Young Children’s Learning and Development

Brief

InBrief: The Science of Neglect

Working Paper

The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain

Brief

InBrief: Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems

Reading

Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems

Brief

InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health

Working Paper

Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships

Working Paper

Children’s Emotional Development is Built into the Architecture of their Brain

Working Paper

Early Exposure to Toxic Substances Damages Brain Architecture

Working Paper

The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture

Working Paper

Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Expression and Affect Long-Term Development

Working Paper

Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined

Brief

InBrief: Understanding the Science of Motivation

Working Paper

Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation

Brief

InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning

Working Paper

Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function

Brief

InBrief: The Science of Resilience

Working Paper

Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how supportive relationships with adults help children develop resilience, or the set of skills needed to respond to adversity and thrive.

Third Party Link

Building Babies’ Brains Through Play: Mini Parenting Master Class

Building Babies’ Brains Through Play: Mini Parenting Master Class…

Third Party Link

Stress and Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do About It

Stress and Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do About It…

Third Party Link

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development…

Video

How Children and Adults Can Build Core Capabilities for Life

Brief

InBrief: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body

Third Party Link

FrameWorks: Effectively Communicating about Toxic Stress

Third Party Link

FrameWorks: Reframing Childhood Adversity

Infographic

FrameWorks: Framing the Overload Metaphor

Infographic

5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return

Infographic

What We Can Do About Toxic Stress

Infographic

What Is Inflammation? And Why Does It Matter for Child Development?

Infographic

How Racism Can Affect Child Development

Infographic

Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect their Genes

Infographic

ACEs and Toxic Stress: Frequently Asked Questions

Infographic

What is Executive Function? And How Does it Relate to Child Development?

Reading

Special Considerations for Children in Foster Care

Children in foster care commonly face adversity far exceeding that of typical childhood. All children experience tolerable, temporary stressors as a normal part of learning and growing, such as a first day in a new school or performing on stage in front of an audience. These experiences are healthy and…