Featured Resource
Family: Group of people that are related by birth, marriage, adoption, or the choice to live and love each other
Family rules: family patterns of interacting with each other and spoken or unspoken determinants of what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior within a family
Schemas: core beliefs and attitudes in the brain about people, relationships, and the world that form our thoughts and perceptions
Family schemas: a template for how we make sense of our lives; learned from early childhood interactions
Family rituals: things families do regularly together
LINKS
Strategies to Prevent ACEs
Read research about preventing Adverse Childhood Events from the CDC's website.
ACTIVITIES
Learn How to Build Resiliency in Your Child
Learn the definition of resiliency and use this checklist to find out what builds resiliency in children.
Identify Your Family Role
Learn about the fixed and rigid roles that develop when families become unhealthy or dysfunctional.
Resiliency Quiz
Teach children the aspects of resiliency by taking a quiz.
READING & RESEARCH
Troubled Family Life Changes Kids Brains
Article in Scientific American by Ian Chant about the effects of family problems on the developing brain.
ORGANIZATIONS
CDCs Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Research
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research describes how ACEs affect lifelong development.
NIH Health Brain and Child Development Study
NIH initiative to help researchers and clinicians address a critical gap in our knowledge of how environmental exposures, especially opioid and other drug use, affect infant and child brain development.