Unit 1: Identifying ACEs and Understanding Long-Term Effects
Unit 1: Identifying ACEs and Long-Term Effects
Lesson 1: Various Types of ACEs
Objective: Define the term ACEs and various reasons children may experience toxic stress.
Introduction: Thank you for taking this small step to make our classrooms a safer and more welcoming environment! To begin our mini-course, we need to first understand some of the terms we will be using throughout. You will be given opportunity to make this applicable to your own practice by putting it into your own words and through self-reflection.
Terms:
| Vocabulary | Definition |
| Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) | potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood. ACEs can include violence, abuse, and growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems. Toxic stress from ACEs can change brain development and affect how the body responds to stress (CDC, 2024). |
| Toxic Stress | stress that is prolonged, severe, or chronic, can cause significant problems with health and development. |
| Household Dysfunction | Relationships between family members are tense and can be filled with neglect, yelling, and screaming |
| Abuse | To treat with cruelty, and with violence repeatedly. Including physical, emotional, and sexual. |
| Neglect | To fail to take care properly. Including food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep, academic, etc. |
| Socio-economic disadvantage | a social or economic condition or perceived condition of a person who is disadvantaged by poverty, low income, homelessness, or lack of or low-level educational qualifications (CDC). |
Videos:
Please watch this video to learn about ACEs and how they can cause toxic stress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vIqJK8Nu1Q
Watch the video to learn about the ways that ACEs can affect children.
Instructor’s Thoughts:
Unfortunately, many students experience these forms of ACEs. There are three main categories of ACEs including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. Children can experience one or multiple forms of these types of stressors. According to the Harvard University website on ACEs, approximately two-thirds of Americans have experienced one ACE, and one-sixth have experienced four or more ACEs (2024). Often one ACE may spark another. The only thing I would add to this graphic is that a lot of time socio-economic disadvantage is also an ACE that can cause lots of stress within the home (household dysfunction). These ACEs can cause children to have toxic stress and have lifelong effects on their growth and development.
Activity:
Please define the term ACEs and give an example to add to our word cloud. Please submit only one- or two-word responses. You may submit multiple entries.
After submitting to the word cloud, please jot down answers to these questions..
What words stood out to you in the word cloud?
How would you define ACEs in your own words?
Lesson 2: Long-term Effects of ACEs
Objective: I will recognize long-term effects of ACEs.
Introduction: Now that we understand the definition of ACEs and the categories of ACEs, we are going to learn about the long-term effects of ACEs on children's health and wellbeing. I imagine you will be surprised about how ACEs can really effect children’s development and their functionality in adulthood.
Beginning Activity-KWL chart: Divide a sheet of paper into three equal sections. Label the first section “What I know” the second, “what I wonder” and the third “what I learner” . Add bullet points to the first two sections about what you know about the long term effects of ACEs and what you wonder.
| What I know | What I wonder | What I learned |
Reading: The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Health and Development in Young Children by Erica M. Webster
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8882933/
Webster E. M. (2022). The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Health and Development in Young Children. Global pediatric health, 9, 2333794X221078708. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333794X221078708
Video: Watch this TedTalk video explaining the long-term effects of ACEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk
Instructor Thoughts: As you have learned there are negative impacts ACEs have on the lives of individuals including their physical health, mental health, social and economic success, and even early death rates. This chart shows how as children age, there are increased negative effects of ACEs.
Ending Activity (KWL chart): Fill out the last section of the KWL chart about what you learned about long term effects of ACEs. If there are any questions that were not answered in this lesson, please add them to the google document list of questions.