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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.
Caregiver Handouts: Games and Activities that Build Brains and Executive Function Skills
Staying Active for Caregivers Handout Value of Routines for Caregivers Handout 100 Ways to Bond with your Child Handout Positive Parenting Handout
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…
Early Brain and Child Development 101: Why Peekaboo Matters
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.
Executive Function: Information for Providers
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…
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
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…
How to Help Families and Staff Build Resilience During the Covid-19 Outbreak
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…
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…
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…
A Guide to Serve and Return: How Your Interaction with Children Can Build Brains
Key Concepts: Brain Architecture 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…
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”.
InBrief: The Foundations of Lifelong Health
Reading

The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood 

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…
The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood 
From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts
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.
Maternal Depression Can Undermine the Development of Young Children
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.
Strategies for Effectively Communicating about Toxic Stress
InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development InBrief: The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development Moving Upstream: Confronting Racism to Open Up Children’s Potential The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science into Lifelong Health Capitalizing on Advances in Science to Reduce the Health Consequences of Early Childhood Adversity Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Impacts of Racism on the Foundations of Health Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain Persistent Fear and Anxiety Can Affect Young Children’s Learning and Development InBrief: The Science of Neglect The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain InBrief: Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems  Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health
Third Party Link

Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood

Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood…
Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood
Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships Children’s Emotional Development is Built into the Architecture of their Brain Early Exposure to Toxic Substances Damages Brain Architecture  The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Expression and Affect Long-Term Development Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined InBrief: Understanding the Science of Motivation Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation   InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning  Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function  InBrief: The Science of Resilience
Third Party Link

Genes, Environments, and Time: The Biology of Adversity and Resilience 

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…
Genes, Environments, and Time: The Biology of Adversity and Resilience 
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…
Leveraging the Biology of Adversity and Resilience to Transform Pediatric Practice
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.
Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience
Building Babies’ Brains Through Play: Mini Parenting Master Class Experiences Build Brain Architecture
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…
Stress and Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do About It
Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development How Children and Adults Can Build Core Capabilities for Life FrameWorks: Changing the Childhood Obesity Conversation to Improve Children’s Health InBrief: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body FrameWorks: Framing Early Relational Health
Third Party Link

FrameWorks: Reframing Children’s Mental Health

Read the article at the Frameworks Institute…
FrameWorks: Reframing Children’s Mental Health
8 Things to Remember about Child Development FrameWorks: Effectively Communicating about Toxic Stress FrameWorks: Reframing Childhood Adversity FrameWorks: Framing the Overload Metaphor FrameWorks: Framing How Brains are Built 5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return What We Can Do About Toxic Stress What Is Inflammation? And Why Does It Matter for Child Development? How Racism Can Affect Child Development Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect their Genes ACEs and Toxic Stress: Frequently Asked Questions 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…
Special Considerations for Children in Foster Care