Erin Webster
One of the big things that stood out to me this week was the connection between multiple resources and that connection is how trauma is becoming so largely recognized because of how many people identify with having had trauma. In Vicky Kelly's TED Talk, she talked about how trauma was becoming such a common occurrence that people no longer ask, "What's wrong with you?" and instead ask, "What happened to you?" This common theme is, also, in chapter two of our text book, where it talks about how children need to be recognized as the individuals that they are, instead of being identified by the trauma that they have endured.
This profound awareness that people are not identified by their trauma is personally important to me because it is an issue that has affected people in my life who feel like others only care about them if they do talk about their trauma. Like Vicky Kelly mentioned in her TED Talk, people with trauma need help with their traumatic experiences and that is why it's so important that people are now recognizing how impactful trauma is to young children so that resources are made available to children and families to help reduce that trauma earlier on.
Some of the resources that I found were:
https://first5shasta.org/resources
This is a great resource in my home community. First 5 Shasta provides families and educators with resources for every aspect of development of the young child. I especially appreciate how it connects families with services and resources in the community; as someone who works for an agency who specifically helps low income families, First 5 Shasta has been the resource that has provided the most for the families we serve.
https://www.first5california.com
This is also a great resource. It is very similar to First 5 Shasta but it isn't region specific and it provides a lot more social-emotional resources. One of the resources on the front page that I thought was very useful was an article on how to prevent toxic stress in children. Another article was very useful in teaching parents how to help children breathe when they are having big emotions. I thought this website was very engaging and interactive. It was interesting to go through the different resources provided and I enjoyed reading the material from both an educator standpoint and from a parent point of view.
https://kidshealth.org/
As a parent with three children who have seven year age gaps between each one, I thought this website was the most helpful because it identified and provided resources for key mental health issues within in the different age ranges. It, also, provided resources for parents and for the children so that they could find something that they were curious about and read about it themselves. For me personally, I think the section that addresses teenage mental health and social-emotional skills was the most useful because I think it is harder to get teenagers to connect with you.