Coping with Trauma: A Collection of Resources

• What happens to kids with disabilities in school lockdowns? June 2019
• Adverse events during the first years of life may have the greatest effect on future mental health May 2019
• ‘For-Now Parents’ and ‘Big Feelings’: How Sesame Street Talks About Trauma May 2019
• Nine Simple Trauma Informed Gestures Mar 2019
• What’s Going on in the Brain of a Child Who Has Experienced Trauma? Dec 2018

• Archived In the News!
  • Psychological Damage Inflicted by Parent Child Separation is Deep, Long Lasting Oct 2018
  • 11 Ways to Make Your Classroom a Safe Haven for Children Exposed to Trauma Oct 2018
  • The Trauma Informed Teacher-Silent Front Line July 2018
  • Supporting Children and Parents Affected by the Trauma of Separation June 2018
  • How Teachers and Schools Can Help When Bad Stuff Happens Oct 2017
  • NPR Ed: For Traumatized Children, An Offer Of Help From The Muppets Oct 2017
  • When Schools Meet Trauma with Understanding, Not Discipline June 2017
  • Relax, Heal, Learn April 2017 Training is showing teachers how to handle stress and trauma so that students can achieve academic and emotional success.

Disability rights activist Emily Ladau, author of Demystifying Disability, an NPR and Booklist editors’ pick for 2021, argues that ableist language holds us back from not only having more productive conversations about Covid, but developing more effective policies to confront the pandemic.

Read on for her curated list of some of the most crucial journalism on how tangibly these oversights affect people whose lives have already been disproportionately upended by Covid, as well as tips for improving your understanding of ableism and the huge and diverse disability community.

Even before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, mental health professionals were struggling to meet the needs of the 1 in 5 children and adolescents with a mental health or learning disorder. Then the pandemic hit, bringing an upsurge in youth reporting mental health challenges.

In this report, we examine the growing body of research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health, including the results of a survey of thousands of parents conducted by the Child Mind Institute.

• ACEs and Developmental Disabilities (PDF) Comprehensive PowerPoint overview of ACEs, trauma and IDD
• A Trauma-Informed Toolkit for Providers in the Field of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (PDF) May 2017

• Nine Simple Trauma Informed Gestures Mar 2019
• Why Did They Post That on ACES Connection? Oct 2018 This post explains the broader definition of ACES and gives examples.
• The Pair of ACES: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments (Poster) Oct 2018 This graphic illustrates the Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments that contribute to toxic stress and long term consequences for the brain and overall health.
• What is Good Self Care and Why You Deserve It Published: May 29, 2018 Self-care is central to living a life that’s productive, fulfilling, and that you feel good about. Yet too few of us know how to honor our deep needs and cravings to slow down, rebalance and ask for the help we need.

• Additional ACES Too High Resources
  • The Secret to Fixing School Discipline? Change the Behavior of Teachers Two kindergarteners at Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood get into a fight on the playground. Their teacher sends them to the principal’s office. Instead of suspending or expelling the six-year-olds, as happens in many schools, Principal Godwin Higa ushers them to his side of the desk. He sits down so that he can talk with them eye-to-eye and quietly asks: “What happened?” He points to one of the boys. “You go first.”
  • Five Minute Video Primer about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (Video) Published: April 2016 | 5 minutes Many people have been asking for a short video that explains the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, the groundbreaking epidemiological research that revealed the link between childhood trauma and the adult onset of chronic disease, mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence.
  • England and Wales produce new animation about ACEs & resilience (Video) Published: May 2017 | 5:43 minutes Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are those that directly harm a child; such as physical, verbal and sexual abuse or physical or emotional neglect – as well as those that affect the environment where they grow up; including parental separation, domestic violence, mental illness, alcohol abuse, drug use or incarceration.

• Comforting and Supporting Kids During Community Stress (PDF)

While fewer children and youth have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults, the COVID-19 pandemic has still had a major impact on their lives. Though typically resilient to everyday stressors, children and youth are dealing with new challenges due to COVID-19, like social distancing, changes to their routines, and a lost sense of security and safety, making them especially vulnerable to feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed.

The tools on this webpage were created to teach skills that can help children and youth cope with some of the challenges associated with the pandemic, like:

• Changes in their routines
• Breaks in continuity of learning
• Breaks in continuity of health care
• Missed significant life events
• Lost security and safety

• Tools for Younger Children
• Tools for Youth and Teens

• Children and Trauma: How Children May Respond-Tip Sheet from Center for Inclusive Child Care (PDF) Definition of trauma and developmental responses of young children to traumatic experiences.
• Trauma and Challenging Behavior-Tip Sheet from Center for Inclusive Child Care (PDF) Highlights the relationship between trauma and challenging behavior and strategies to build caring relationships with young children.
• Strategies to Support Children who have Experienced Trauma-Tip Sheet from Center for Inclusive Child Care (PDF) The definition of and practical strategies to support young children who have experienced trauma.

• Separation and Detention of Migrant Children and Families October 2019 This set of resources includes the October 2019 Toxic Stress Issue Brief: Family Separation and Child Detention, the recorded testimony of Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff and media coverage featuring Center experts.
• Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect Their Genes
  • Infographic: What is Epigenetics? (PDF)
• Translation Library
• Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, Migrant Family Separation Congressional Testimony Published: Feb 7, 2019 | Length: 6:36 mins On Feb. 7, 2019, Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., presented testimony at a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. As Dr. Shonkoff writes, "From a scientific perspective, the forcible separation of children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Prolonging that separation is like preventing the first responders from doing their job."

• Tip Sheet: Supporting Children Who Are Experiencing Stress (PDF) Added: Feb 2017

• Helping Children Cope with Frightening News
• The Teacher’s Role When Tragedy Strikes
• Guide for Helping Children Cope After a Traumatic Event Includes recommendations for various age groups

• The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) nationally, by state and by race or ethnicity Oct 2018
• Supporting Children and Parents Affected by the Trauma of Separation June 2018
• Supporting the Psychological Well-Being of the Early Care and Education Workforce: Findings from the National Survey of Early Care and Education (PDF) April 2018

• Additional Child Trends Resources
  • Resources to Help Children in the Wake of a School Shooting
  • Five Ways Trauma Informed Care Supports Children's Development This news bulletin describes childhood trauma and explains the importance of trauma informed care (TIC) as providing a common language to support children who have been exposed to trauma. It includes links to resources and provides information helpful to parents and everyone who works with children.
  • Helping Young Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: Policies and Strategies for Early Education This report from Child Trends and the National Center for Children in Poverty includes a review of the prevalence of early childhood trauma and its effects. The report offers promising strategies for child care and preschool programs looking to help young children who have endured trauma, and presents recommendations for policymakers to support trauma-informed early care.

The authors to provide answers to some of the questions they weren’t able to address during the live presentation on Supporting the Grieving Student: Practical Guidance for All School Professionals.

CECO has released 5 training modules on Culturally Responsive Trauma Informed Practice in 2023. They are available in English, Spanish and Chinese. Log In or create an account to view them and many more training modules on CECO  for early learning and care professionals.

• 5 Ways to Ways to Help Your Child Prevent Bullying
• Resources for Parents Following Traumatic Events

• When Students are Traumatized, Teachers are Too Oct 2017

• Empathy In the Classroom: Why Should I Care?
• The Long Game: 4 Essentials for a Successful Mindfulness Program
• Social Emotional Learning: A Schoolwide Approach
  Strategies like mindfulness, emotional regulation, and supportive small groups help Symonds meet the academic and social needs of their students.

• Additional Edutopia Resources
  • Helping Students Who Experienced Trauma
  • There's no such thing as a bad kid in these six Spokane, WA, trauma-informed elementary schools
  • "It's Not What's Wrong with the Children, It's What's Happened to Them"

• Children's Responses to Crises and Tragic Events (PDF) - Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and young children who experience a tragic event may show changes in their behaviors. They also may be indirectly affected by a crisis through what they hear or see on the TV. This tip sheet provides information on what families and staff might see and how children may respond. It also includes additional resources.
• Helping Your Child Cope After a Disaster (PDF) - After a disaster or crisis, children benefit when adults assure them that they are safe and help them learn how to cope effectively. This tip sheet provides families and staff with things they can do to help a child feel safe after a disaster or crisis.

Despite the stress of the pandemic, most parents in households with at least one child with special health care needs felt close to their children during this time and did a variety of activities with them, according to a family snapshot survey. But families in these households also experienced several challenges, including high rates of disruption in day care, health care, and employment, and a loss of technological and therapeutic supports.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), and Tufts Medical Center, is surveying a total of 9,000 parents over a period of seven months to measure the impact of the pandemic on family life, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and positive childhood experiences. The latest Family Snapshot report seeks to understand the significant impact on families raising children and youth with special health care needs.

“In October 2021, the Centers for Disease Control named a "hidden pandemic" — that of COVID orphans, or young people who have lost one or both primary caretakers to the new coronavirus. In the United States alone, more than 140,000 children had lost a parent or guardian at the time of the study, and that number has continued to ascend in the wake of the Omicron variant.

Grief is a natural response to many types of losses, even those that do not relate to the death of a person — for example, divorce, a change in housing or socioeconomic status, or a loved one’s illness. And it transcends emotion, impacting our brain, body, and behavior, no matter our age. For that reason, it is critical to understand how best to support grieving students’ needs in the classroom, and in turn, for school leaders to apply their own knowledge of grief-responsive practices to leadership, not only supporting teachers’ wellbeing as they work with grieving students but recognizing that many teachers are grappling with grief themselves — at and beyond the workplace.”

This article describes five strategies help to create wraparound systems of support for teachers, creating a reciprocal sense of wellbeing between students, teachers, and school leaders that centers social-emotional wellness in times of loss.

• How to Keep Students with Disabilities Safe in Lockdowns, Evacuations and Other School Crises
• Four Ways to Prevent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children
  The reality of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children is something most adults want to ignore. We don't want to believe young children, much less infants, can develop PTSD. But they can. That's the bad news. But there's also good news, and it is this: resources and techniques can be employed to keep ordinary childhood traumas from turning into PTSD. This final post in Friendship Circle's series about PTSD in kids highlights several of them.

Learn about how early childhood education and care programs are being guided to use Pyramid Model practices in addressing the needs of young children during the Pandemic and other Traumatic Events. Our panel will discuss the impact of trauma on young children’s social-emotional health and how Child Care Resource & Referral leaders are making a difference in the support of programs. Includes the Trauma-Informed Care Guide (PDF) and Trauma-Informed Checklist (PDF).

• Guiding Caregivers: How to Talk to a Child About Deportation or Separation Published: Mar 2019 Offers guidance on how to talk with children about deportation or separation. This fact sheets guides family members, caregivers, as well as providers, on how to speak to children about these issues including, if it is appropriate to talk to children at all about such things and how to use analogies to explain the idea of deportation and separation.
• The Road to Recovery: Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Who Have Experienced Trauma
  The Road to Recovery is a training that provides an overview for providers on how to work with children and families who are living with intellectual and development disabilities who have experienced trauma. This Toolkit consists of a Facilitator Guide and a Participant Manual. Together, they are designed to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about working with children with IDD who have had traumatic experiences, and how to use this knowledge to support children’s safety, well-being, happiness, and recovery through trauma-informed practice.
• Psychological First Aid Online
  PFA online includes a 6-hour interactive course that puts the participant in the role of a provider in a post-disaster scene. This professionally-narrated course is for individuals new to disaster response who want to learn the core goals of PFA, as well as for seasoned practitioners who want a review.

• Downloadable publication, What Parents Can Do is available in English and Spanish

The mission of Piplo Productions is to help children and families recover after stressful or traumatic events by using story, clinical psychology and cute characters.

• Once I Was Very Very Scared Published: 2017 This story is about a little squirrel who announces that he was once very, very, scared and finds out that he is not alone. Lots of little animals went through scary experiences, but they react in different ways. Turtle hides and gets a tummy ache, monkey clings, dog barks, and elephant doesn’t like to talk about it. They need help, and they get help from grown-ups who help them feel safe and learn ways to cope with difficult feelings.
  
  Written by Chandra Ghosh Ippen, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at UCSF, to help children and grown-ups (parents, teachers, and other important adults) understand how stress can affect children and ways to help them. It was released in 2017, is available for free download along with activities using the characters in the story. Other stories, The Trinka and Sam series, were developed to help children and their families after natural disasters. Stories are available in English, Spanish, and Turkish.

• You Weren’t With Me Published: Feb 2019 Little Rabbit and Big Rabbit are together after a difficult separation, but even though they missed each other, Little Rabbit is not ready to cuddle up and receive Big Rabbit's love. Little Rabbit needs Big Rabbit to understand what it felt like when they were apart. "Sometimes I am very mad. I don't understand why you weren't with me," says Little Rabbit, "I worry you will go away again." Big Rabbit listens carefully and helps Little Rabbit to feel understood and loved. This story was designed to help parents and children talk about difficult separations, reconnect, and find their way back to each other.

As the nation navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this film and curriculum offers tools to mitigate the effects of grief, trauma, anxiety, and other emotional stressors affecting both students and teachers. The 43-minute film features teachers, parents, students, and renowned experts including Linda Darling-Hammond and Pedro Noguera, among others. The accompanying research-based SEL curriculum provides a practical, empathetic, and scientific understanding of how trauma impacts behavior and learning, and how to manage it within any classroom setting. The curriculum shares specifically how to develop 5 core social emotional 'muscles' to help teachers improve their mental health while also creating trust with youth, to mitigate the effects of stress and open young minds to learning.

• Resources Specific to Early Childhood Programs
• Resources Specific to People with Disabilities

When young children have experienced trauma, it affects their behavior and interactions in the classroom. How can early childhood teachers and caregivers respond to trauma-related behaviors in order to best support children’s needs? In this video experts, including Dr. Bruce Perry, discuss how the organization of the brain affects children's response to trauma and discuss regulatory and relational strategies that are most effective at supporting children demonstrating trauma-related behaviors. The experts caution against using behavioral strategies for children who have experienced trauma. Discussion questions and related videos are also available here.

• Tips for Talking With and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event A Guide for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers (PDF) Children and youth can face emotional strains after a traumatic event such as a car crash or violence. Disasters also may leave them with long-lasting harmful effects. When children experience a trauma, watch it on TV, or overhear others discussing it, they can feel scared, confused, or anxious. Young people react to trauma differently than adults. Some may react right away; others may show signs that they are having a difficult time much later. As such, adults do not always know when a child needs help coping. This tip sheet will help parents, caregivers, and teachers learn some common reactions, respond in a helpful way, and know when to seek support.

The key questions addressed in this paper are:

• What do we mean by trauma?
• What do we mean by a trauma-informed approach?
• What are the key principles of a trauma-informed approach?
• What is the suggested guidance for implementing a trauma-informed approach?
• How do we understand trauma in the context of community?

• Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress: Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation From an Applied Developmental Perspective
  This is the first in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress. The first report, Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation from an Applied Developmental Perspective, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding self-regulation in context, using a theoretical model that reflects the influence of biology, caregiving, and the environment on the development of self-regulation.
• A Review of Ecological, Biological, and Developmental Studies of Self-Regulation and Stress The second reportprovides a cross-disciplinary review of research on the relationship between stress and self-regulation.
• A Comprehensive Review of Self-Regulation Interventions From Birth Through Young Adulthood February 2016 The third report describes results of a comprehensive review of self-regulation interventions from birth through young adulthood and summarizes the level of evidence for different interventions across age groups and outcome domains. In this report, we provide details on the methodological approach and data findings, including figures with detailed descriptions for the reader who is interested in the evidence base supporting our conclusions. These conclusions are repeated in our fourth report, Implications for Programs and Practice, with a more applied summary of the results organized by their implications for different types of programs. This third report therefore provides a more technical reference for the fourth report.
• Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Report 4: Implications for Programs and Practice December 2, 2016 The fourth and final report is targeted specifically towards program administrators and practitioners. This report reviews the key concepts for understanding self-regulation, including the relationship between stress and self-regulation. Additionally, it summarizes principal findings from a comprehensive review of self-regulation interventions. Finally and most importantly, it addresses how current theory and knowledge of self-regulation may apply to programs and practitioners serving children and youth in different developmental groups from birth through young adulthood. A discussion of the report is found on the FPG website

• Additional Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Resources
  • Summary of Key Concepts: How Do Acute and Chronic Stress Impact the Development of Self-Regulation? (PDF)
  • Seven Key Principles of Self-Regulation and Self- Regulation in Context (PDF)
  • Teaching Self-Regulation in the Classroom FPG’s Desiree Murray Podcast: Why self-regulation is important and how to teach the skills with Desiree Murray, a senior research scientist and associate director of research at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, who recently published a report on self-regulation as part of a collaboration with researchers at Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy.
  • Self-Regulation Briefs January 2018
    Six free briefs are now available regarding the series on self-regulation from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• A Child's Perspective of a Traumatic Experience (Video)
• Elmo: I Can Feel Safe (Video)

“We are facing a significant national mental health crisis in our children and teens which requires urgent action. In the first six months of this year, children’s hospitals across the country reported a shocking 45 percent increase in the number of self-injury and suicide cases in 5- to 17-year-olds compared to the same period in 2019. Together with the AAP and the AACAP we are sounding the alarm on this mental health emergency.” Children’s Hospital Association

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a serious toll on children's mental health as young people continue to face physical isolation, ongoing uncertainty, fear and grief. Even before the pandemic, mental health challenges facing children were of great concern, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated them.

Additionally, many young people have been impacted by loss of a loved one. Recent data (PDF) show that more than 140,000 U.S. children have experienced the death of a primary or secondary caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic, with children of color disproportionately impacted.”

Read more about this national emergency in this press release, Pediatricians, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Children's Hospitals Declare National Emergency in Children's Mental Health, October 19, 2021. Take action at the Sound the Alarm website.

The behavior issues are a reflection of the stress the pandemic placed on children, experts say, upending their education, schedules, and social lives. For students dealing with grief, mental health issues, or the layered effects of poverty and racism, big transitions can be even more challenging.

Complicating how schools are responding to disruptive behavior is the fact that many educators are on edge, too. Staff shortages and quarantines have stretched teachers thin, leaving many with less of the patience needed to de-escalate student conflicts. Some say they’re already as tired as they’d typically be by Thanksgiving.

This article gives many examples of the types of behavior that educators are dealing with as well as the challenges faced by teachers who are dealing with their own issues around the pandemic. It also describes the solutions that both students and teachers are implementing to help address the mental health of students and teachers alike.

• Supporting Self-Regulation Tip Sheet for Infants (PDF)
• Supporting Self-Regulation Tip Sheet for Toddlers (PDF)

The vast majority of children experience the death of a close family member or friend. Bereavement can have a profound and long-term impact on children’s psychological adjustment, academic achievement, and personal development. This session will discuss basic skills for pediatric healthcare providers in how to talk with and support grieving children and families and outline some of the unique challenges posed by grief during the current COVID-19 pandemic. It also addresses the difference between trauma and grief and how we need to be trauma informed and grief sensitive. Additional resources are identified including resources from the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement3

“A series of free, evidence-based video and print resources that caregivers and educators can use to teach their kids critical mental health and coping skills. The project was born of an innovative partnership between the state of California and the Child Mind Institute.”

“Why was this project developed? Fully 20% of our kids have a mental health or learning disorder. Covid has put every child in the State of California and the nation under unprecedented stress: Personal trauma, economic and learning loss, and continuing uncertainty. They’ve never needed foundational mental health skills more than they do right now.”

Videos are produced in English and Spanish for students, parents and educators. They teach clinically proven foundational mental health skills with different videos for elementary, middle and high school students. The elementary-age videos feature hedgehog characters in imaginative stories to teach key skills in a way that kids will enjoy watching and remember longer. Each video comes with Skill Sheets that summarize and reinforce key ideas.

Kids help to narrate and create the story, while mental health experts guide the problem-solving and discussion. The videos are well-produced and very engaging.

You might start by watching the Introduction for Parents. This 14 minute video explains the need for this important project and touches on stories from real families that will ring true in some way for all of us during the pandemic.

Households of young children with disabilities are not getting the support they need during the COVID-19 pandemic. When we launched the RAPID-EC weekly nationally representative survey on April 6, we were sure that we would find that households with children age five and under would need additional support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We were less prepared to see dramatic results for households in which there is a young child with a disability.Our data suggest that these households are facing particularly difficult circumstances and require additional resources and supports.

In this article, you will find important information about how to talk to children about common tough topics, including shootings, death, racism, mental health, illness, divorce, and more. Also find a step-by-step guide with a free PDF printable handout for talking to kids about tough topics, in general, tips on trauma-informed care, and book lists to help guide children to exploring tough topics in an age-appropriate way.

1. Why Talking About Tough Topics With Children is Important
2. Tough Topics That Kids Might Bring Up
   1. Talking to Kids About School Shootings
   2. Talking to Kids About Death
   3. Talking to Kids About Exclusion, Racism, and Discrimination
   4. Talking to Kids About Mental Health
   5. Talking to Kids About Illness
   6. Talking to Kids About Divorce
3. 5 Steps for Talking to Children About Tough Topics
4. Trauma-Informed Tips and Strategies
5. Children's Book Recommendations

• Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care
  This 6-part series of research briefs, available in English and Spanish, was designed with the primary care practice in mind - those who may or may not be familiar with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the process of asking families about exposure to ACEs or other traumatic events. It includes information on trauma for pediatricians and handouts for parents.
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Lifelong Consequences of Trauma (PDF)
• Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope with Trauma: A Guide for Pediatricians (PDF)
  • Parenting after Trauma: Understanding Your Child's Needs (PDF)

Seclusion and restraint can hurt children, said Ross Greene, a clinical child psychologist who taught at Harvard Medical School for more than 20 years and wrote four books on behavioral challenges in kids.

The practices are especially harmful because they happen at the hands of adults whom children have been taught to trust. Some students will lose trust in authority figures altogether, Greene said, or lose their desire to attend school. Others experience residual anguish long after the ordeal ends.

“The kids I’ve worked with who were most affected by it are still affected by it, even though no one’s laid hands on them three or four years later,” said Greene, who now runs a nonprofit called Lives in the Balance and travels to schools, psychiatry units and detention facilities around the world to promote alternative disciplinary approaches. “A lot of people would say that meets the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.”

U.S. Department of Education released a new resource: Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health (PDF) to provide information and resources to enhance the promotion of mental health and the social and emotional well-being among children and students. This resource highlights seven key challenges to providing school- or program-based mental health support across early childhood, K–12 schools, and higher education settings, and presents seven corresponding recommendations. This resource includes many real-world examples (PDF) of how the recommendations are being put into action by schools, communities, and states across the country.

You may have heard of ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences, from the famous TED talk by Nadine Burke Harris, former Surgeon General of California. This video series summarizes what we know about ACES and applies it to support for families in Head Start programs. These powerful videos hold the stories of people who have experienced ACES and professionals who have identified and supported children and families exposed to ACES. The video series is a must see for those who work with vulnerable populations.

Operation Breaking Through houses the largest Head Start program in Missouri. It models a multi-disciplinary approach and includes a partnership with a local children’s hospital. It was designed to raise awareness and educate. It provides the perspectives of parents, Head Start staff, health care professionals, and others on the issues of adverse childhood events (ACEs), toxic stress, and resilience.

Watch the videos in this series to learn how high levels of stress can impact a child's lifelong health and well-being. Find out how Head Start programs and health care professionals can support children and families to help prevent early childhood stress.

Use these videos to generate interest and support for activities in Head Start and Early Head Start programs and in partner organizations that help identify and care for families affected by ACEs and toxic stress. The User Guide includes a breakdown of the video segments by topic area.

Explore related resources on ECLKC to learn more.

• Signs and Symptoms of Childhood Trauma
• Children’s Responses to Crises and Traumatic Events
• Supporting and Understanding Trauma During COVID-19 (PDF)

This guidance from Fred Rogers provides tips on how to talk to your child about death, alerts you to common reactions that you may see while your child grieves and gives strategies for how to support your child.

Also helpful is When Difficult Things Happen, A guide from the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media (PDF) for supporting children through hard moments in life.

Another article specifically addresses the loss or death of a teacher, When Children Lose a Teacher, Karen Nemeth, January 2022.

• Supporting Young Children Who are Experiencing Separation and Trauma Oct 2018 This page offers resources for families and caregivers working with very young children who have experienced trauma as well as connection to specialized mental health professionals who understand the needs of very young children. Please see the directory below to reach an IECMH contact in your state who has volunteered to field inquiries and make connections to resources and clinicians.
  • Parent Tips for Infant and Toddlers After Disasters (PDF)
  • Parent Tips for Infant and Toddlers After Disasters - Spanish (PDF)
  • Parent Tips for Helping Preschool Age Children After Disaster (PDF)
  • Parent Tips for Helping Preschool Age Children After Disaster - Spanish (PDF)

Strong, caring and loving relationships can shield children from the impact of negative experiences, and they can be mutually healing.

Children are deeply impacted by the events that take place around them. Even though they may not understand what they see and hear, they absorb and are affected by the people they rely on for love and security. Constant, unrelenting negative experiences – known as “toxic stress” – take a toll on a child’s growth and development. Parents and caregivers play a very important role in helping infants and toddlers heal from traumatic experiences.

This set of resources provide recommendations and strategies to help caregivers support young children during times of trauma. Included in this set of resources are, Mindfulness Practices for Families, Helping Your Toddler Cope with Grief and Death, and Supporting Young Children Experiencing Separation and Trauma.