Aces and kindergarten performance

You will remember me talking about the Irish and American Pediatric Society Meeting which we hosted in Nashville last fall.  Local child psychologist, Patti Van Eys, PhD, gave one of the best talks of the meeting. She discussed a study of more than 17,000 adults which showed that certain adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were followed by an increase in many adult disease including diabetes, depression, and early death. The original study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 and continues today.

Her talk was fascinating and led me to investigate ACEs further. Fortunately, a few weeks later Governor Haslam sponsored a meeting of local dignitaries and medical professionals featuring a Memphis Foundation dedicated to finding ways to prevent these ACEs and help kids already exposed. Dr. Van Eys was able to secure an invitation for me. Thank you Patti!

The current (January) issue of the journal Pediatrics contained a related article, “Adverse Experiences in Early Childhood and kindergarten Outcomes”. The ACEs they studied included 4 categories of child maltreatment (physical, sexual, psychological abuse, and neglect) and 4 categories of household dysfunction (substance use, mental illness, caregiver treated violently, and incarceration). This study included more than 5,000 children and their mothers.

The authors concluded: “This study revealed strong links between ACEs in early childhood and poor academic readiness by the end of kindergarten, which place children at elevated risk for poor educational achievement and subsequent health. Thus, adverse outcomes associated with ACE exposure begin in early childhood and impact multiple aspects of children’s lives. The findings from this study underscore the need for integrated cross-sector approaches to enhance the development of vulnerable children.”

Furthermore, the CDC says: Early childhood experiences lay the foundation for well-being throughout the life. The rapid pace of child development and brain growth from birth through age 5 make it a critical time period of opportunity and vulnerability. Several studies have linked adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), broadly defined as household dysfunction and abuse, to poor health outcomes. More recent work has linked ACEs with lower levels of school engagement in middle childhood and adolescence.

But the good news is that potentially toxic stressors (ACEs) can be made tolerable if children have access to stable, responsive adults – home visitors, child care providers, teachers, coaches, mentors.

So why am I burdening or boring you with this information? Well, it seems to me that if we are to do anything about our schools failure to educate some children, our high rate of physical and sexual violence, drug use and a host of other problems we must start with education parents in preventing ACEs in their children. And help them become strong stable mentors to counter the effect of ACEs already experienced or out of the parent’s control.

I have proposed teaching such subjects in early high school. Teens are anxious to critque their parents and often come to the conclusion that “I’m not going to do it like they did!” Perhaps you have experienced that personally in your kid’s reaction to your parenting or in your reaction to your parent’s. I contend that there is a chance some of the information taught can stick with the teens and stay with them when they become parents.

That’s my hope and my current mission. Anyone interested in getting on the band wagon, please send me a note.

I will be talking more about ACEs in the future, so stay tuned! Or if you would like more information click here.