“Despite trauma being widespread and detrimental to the well-being of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, few early care and education (ECE) programs and state systems are prepared to offer care that is trauma-informed—with all adults able to recognize and respond to the impact of trauma on young children, and to infuse trauma awareness, knowledge, and skills into program culture, practices, and policies. ”

“Having language to talk about psychological disorders and describe the complex emotions that we experience is vital.”

“Of all parent-child activities, reading aloud provides the richest exposure to language, so promotion of reading aloud, especially for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds, holds great promise for strengthening school readiness and laying a strong foundation for future educational success.”

“Particularly striking among the welfare parents was their resilience and the persistence in the face of repeated defeats and humiliations, their joy in playing with their children, and their desire that their children do well in school. In spite of these sometimes Herculean efforts by parents in welfare families, their children were exposed to a fraction of the language that children in working-class and professional families were exposed to. This difference was strongly associated with differences in students’ academic achievement.”

“Studies conclude that regardless of the presence of trauma, youth-based mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training in primary care and other settings is effective in improving self-regulation of stress, improving mental health symptoms, lowering blood pressure, and improving overall coping.”

“Chronic stress is bad for adults, but it is particularly troublesome for children, because among many other effects, it can disrupt still-developing white matter in the brain, causing long-term problems with complex thinking and memory skills, attention, learning and behavior. Once positive coping skills are learned and put into practice, especially as a family, they can be used to manage stress for a lifetime.”

“A statistically significant achievement loss associated with the transition from elementary school to middle school at 6th grade was found, as compared with K–8 schools that did not have a school-to-school transition at 6th grade. High school dropout rates were higher for districts with Grade 6–8 middle schools than for districts with K–8 elementary schools.”

“Without treatment, childhood anxiety is likely to persist, negatively affecting a child’s social and family functioning and overall quality of life.”

“Maltreatment during childhood represents one of the strongest risk factors for developing depression and anxiety. Childhood maltreatment and other adversities account for up to a third of the risk for mood and anxiety disorders. Further, depression and anxiety disorders are major public health problems, affecting 15 and 32% of youth, respectively, by the age of 18 years.”

“Kids with higher SEL usually have better grades, assessment scores, behavior, and attendance. The SEL-GPA correlation is relatively large. Compared to kids who are low on several aspects of SEL, kids who are higher are twice as likely to have above-average grades.”

“Eighty-eight percent of current students and 78 percent of recent high school students from strong SEL schools felt motivated to work hard and do their best in school, compared to 39 percent of current and 24 percent of recent students in low SEL schools.”