The Leap Coalition of Larimer County presents their 3rd Annual Community Conversation Starter, "The Biology of Adversity and Resilience: A two-generation approach to risk and opportunity," featuring Dr. Sarah Enos Watamura. Leap is a community-wide initiative working to enhance infant and early childhood mental health services in Larimer County, Colorado. Leap receives backbone support from the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County.

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

In this science talk, David Williams of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health looks at the social and behavioral factors--including socioeconomic status, race, discrimination, and place--that play a role in triggering toxic stress for children and adults. He also discusses what effective solutions for reducing toxic stress and improving health must look like. Williams is the Florence and Laura Norma Professor of Public Health and a Professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Center-affiliated faculty member. To view more resources from the Center on the Developing Child, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/

In a "TED-style talk," Stephanie M. Jones, Marie and Max Kargman Associate Professor in Human Development and Urban Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describes a new intervention that links the science of brain development with supports for adults and children. The intervention focuses on building executive function skills in children, teachers, and parents by interrupting the stress cycle and putting the front of the brain back in control, so that everyone can go from their stressed self to their best self. To view more resources from the Center on the Developing Child, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/

Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy development. While moderate, short-lived stress responses in the body can promote growth, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body's stress management system in the absence of protective adult support. Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. This video is part three of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. Also from the "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" Series 1. Experiences Build Brain Architecture: http://youtu.be/VNNsN9IJkws 2. Serve & Return Interaction Shapes Brain Circuitry: http://youtu.be/m_5u8-QSh6A For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/three_core_concepts/

One of the most essential experiences in shaping the architecture of the developing brain is "serve and return" interaction between children and significant adults in their lives. Young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them. This back-and-forth process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain, especially in the earliest years. This video is part two of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. Also from the "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" Series 1. Experiences Build Brain Architecture: http://youtu.be/VNNsN9IJkws 3. Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development: http://youtu.be/rVwFkcOZHJw For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/three_core_concepts/

The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through a process that begins early in life and continues into adulthood. Simpler circuits come first and more complex brain circuits build on them later. Genes provide the basic blueprint, but experiences influence how or whether genes are expressed. Together, they shape the quality of brain architecture and establish either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health, and behavior that follow. Plasticity, or the ability for the brain to reorganize and adapt, is greatest in the first years of life and decreases with age. This video is part one of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. Also from the "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" Series: 2. Serve & Return Interaction Shapes Brain Circuitry: http://youtu.be/m_5u8-QSh6A 3. Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development: http://youtu.be/rVwFkcOZHJw For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/three_core_concepts/

Just as we nurture children’s physical health, we must also care for their mental health. But even experienced early childhood professionals may not understand social-emotional development and how it supports children’s mental health. This video covers: What social-emotional development is and how it relates to mental health Social-emotional skills and how children develop them How social-emotional development supports overall health and well-being

For children to develop strong mental health, they need loving and secure relationships. They also need positive, safe and predictable experiences both at home and in child care or educational settings. Children’s brains develop rapidly during the first few years. For that reason, it’s a time of great sensitivity. When children face chronic stress like abuse, neglect, community violence or substance abuse by a caregiver, their mental health can suffer. This video covers: • How mental health supports children’s long-term success • Risk factors that can harm children’s mental health • Importance of acting early to address mental health issues