Yesterday while I was on the road I made good use of my time (and played with my new Bluetooth earpiece) and returned several phone calls. One call was to one of the most awesome moms I have met in this gig … the mom I wrote about in this post. In a nutshell, her son has serious attachment and trauma issues as a result of repeated medical procedures. He’s not yet three years old, but he’s quite angry. He sees his mother as both the... more

There are some final thoughts I would like to share from the article entitled: The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to Adult Health: Turning Gold into Lead.

The authors of the ACE Study have come to completely embrace the concept that negative early childhood experiences have a profound impact upon one’s adult life—both physically and emotionally. Furthermore, the authors point out how rarely the medical/professional... more

Continuing with my discussion about the ACE Study… it is interesting to note what the authors of the study consider to be their two most significant findings: that adverse childhood experiences are “far more common that recognized or acknowledged”, and that such negative early childhood experiences “have a powerful relation to adult health a half-century later.”

If you read the breakdown of the categories studied,... more

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study is an ongoing evaluation of the effects of less-than-optimal childhoods on adult mental and physical health. I am fascinated by this study, for it is proving to be a good indicator of the price our society pays for not addressing the needs of our children when they are still children! How many of us have lobbied and begged and pleaded and cajoled and threatened and sued our schools and mental health professionals in an attempt to get them to sit up and... more

I receive a steady stream of electronic newsletters. There’s the Children’s Bureau Express and the publication that originates from the Evan B. Donaldson Institute. The Child Information Gateway has an e-newsletter. And here’s one called the NRCFCPPP (National Resource Center... more