Cultivating Awesome Parents

Eects of a Stressful Childhood

Children exposed to four or more adverse childhood experiences (physical, or sexual abuse, incarcerated relative, domestic violence, mental illness, hunger, substance abuse, divorce, neglect) are less physically and mentally healthy, less socially competent, and less likely to succeed than their peers from less stressful environments.

Learning and development

Lifetime Cost of Adverse Childhood

32x
behavior and learning problems

65%
chance of retention or special education
$83.5 Billion

$124 Billion
Estimated costs of lifetime child maltreatment, CDC

Life expectancy

Productivity Loss

$25 Billion

Health Care

0 6+ 60 years

80 years
$4.6 Billion

Special Education

$4.4 Billion

Child Welfare

$3.9 Billion

Criminal Justice

Suicide attempts

12x

Depression

4.5x

Missed Work

4.5x

Heart Disease

2x

But
A secure attachment with an empathetic parent can protect kids from the stress of an adverse childhood
Cary Kaczowka cary.kaczowka@swe.org Aaron Squier aaron@aaronsquier.com Inventors Studio Spring 2013 Prof. Burt Swersey

Cultivating Awesome Parents

Two Solution Paths
Stress Monitoring and Feedback
Motivational interviewing for better parent behavior
Lets Begin
I would like to ! Lower my stress ! Assess my parenting ! Improve my parenting ! Learn parenting tips ! .
How often do you spend quality time with your child? A few hours a day
Is that how often you want to see her?

Action Plan
Here is a recap of the plan you developed. Over the next few days, keep them in mind. We will check back in on Monday May 13th. Teach my daughter one new skill a day. Learn something from my daughter. Begin a sleep training plan so we both get some rest! (click to expand details)

Yeah, I guess?
Why is that?

Shes a lot of work, pretty exhausting. I come home after working all day and just want to rest.

Motivational Interviewing Often helps those dealing with weight, exercise, and substance addiction Clinician guides the client to motivate themselves internally to change Has yet to be used widely in parenting but has proven to help develop relationships

Stress Monitoring and Feedback

Enabling parents to monitor infants stress levels and receive feedback on their parenting
Pacifier records cortisol in saliva, body temperature Bracelet records movement, pulse, sound

Donnys Stress

Donnys Stress

HIGH
TIPS FOR LOWER STRESS

Normal
GOOD JOB!

Move Donny to a quieter area Hold him for a few minutes Sing him a song

Senses cortisol level, movement, body temperature, pulse, audio Analyzes data, determines stress level Compares to average, to other babies Informs parent of high stress Gives feedback when stress is lowered Suggests how to decrease childs stress