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Handout
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
Early Brain and Child Development 101: Why Peekaboo Matters
For Medical Students and Residents In medical school, we learn the science behind health and disease. How do nephrons filter blood that runs through the network of capillaries in the glomerulus, and what disease occurs when that process goes awry? How do myocytes conduct electricity, and how do aberrations in…
Handout
Executive Function: Information for Providers
This handout helps explain what executive function skills are, why they are important and how supporting their development can promote healthy child and adolescent development.
Reading
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Increasing attention is being placed in the medical and public space on the mental health of infants and young children. Among mental health providers, infant mental health generally refers to children 3 years of age and younger, while early childhood mental health refers to children ages 3-5. This contrasts…
Handout
How to Help Families and Staff Build Resilience During the Covid-19 Outbreak
What can we do to build up and strengthen resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak? How can we build resilience to plan ahead for future times of crisis? This resource, with practical tips and suggestions for providers looking to support caregivers and each other, presents three science-based ways that we can…
Third Party Link
How to Motivate Children: Science-Based Approaches for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers
How to Motivate Children: Science-Based Approaches for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers…
Reading
The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early ChildhoodÂ
This report from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs explains how the earliest years lay the groundwork for lifelong health. When children have positive early experiences, they strengthen their developing biological systems and are more likely to thrive and become…
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.
Working Paper
The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain
Working Paper
Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined
Working Paper
Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation Â
Working Paper
Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive FunctionÂ
Third Party Link
Genes, Environments, and Time: The Biology of Adversity and ResilienceÂ
This February 2021 article by Tom Boyce, Pat Levitt, Fernando Martinez, Bruce McEwen and Jack Shonkoff article in the journal Pediatrics is one of two companion pieces. The article uses a gene-environment-time framework to look at the roles of genetic variation, environmental context, and developmental timing as they relate to…
Third Party Link
Leveraging the Biology of Adversity and Resilience to Transform Pediatric Practice
This February 2021 article by Jack P. Shonkoff, Thomas Boyce, Pat Levitt, Fernando D. Martinez and Bruce McEwen is one of two companion pieces in the journal Pediatrics. The article highlights how the different outcomes experienced by children are shaped by ongoing adaptations to context that begin very early and…
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…
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…