APPENDIX B: DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS
Connecting Adverse Childhood Experiences with Noncognitive Factors to Build a New Set of Tools. Now that the fields of Adverse Childhood Experiences and noncognitive factors are better established, it is time to bring them together in order to create a more complete picture of the “whole child.” One promising example is the work of Turnaround for Children, founded in New York City after the 9-11 attacks. It “aims to produce research-backed and evidence-based tools” for use by both educators and health professionals.
The researcher/practitioner F. Brooke Stafford-Brizard done just that in the paper called “Building Blocks for Children” (2016), where she integrates the aforementioned “soft” noncognitive factors with the hard physiological data to form a pyramid, somewhat akin to “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
At the bottom of the pyramid are such factors as attachment, stress management and self-regulation. The next two levels cover a child’s awareness (self and social) and executive functions as well as various “mindsets” such as one’s sense of belonging and self-efficacy. It is not until a child is grounded on these three foundational levels—what Stafford-Brizard calls “healthy development, school readiness and mindsets for self and school”—that he or she can begin to exercise self-discipline, perseverance and “grit.” And without a capacity for resilience and grit, it is extraordinarily difficult to become a self-directed and intellectually curious learner and citizen.
With the advent of this instrument, educational practitioners are now better equipped to analyze and assess a student’s readiness to learn. Those who work with children and youth, whatever their roles, are now better able to locate specific learning and physiological deficits, and once located, determine how they interrelate. Once the entirety of a student’s health and learning profile has been mapped, then a more effective and customized treatment—medical and developmental—can be prescribed. This breakthrough tool is elegant in its simplicity, once, of course, you learn how to decode the jargon.
Connecting Adverse Childhood Experiences with Noncognitive Factors to Build a New Set of Tools. Now that the fields of Adverse Childhood Experiences and noncognitive factors are better established, it is time to bring them together in order to create a more complete picture of the “whole child.” One promising example is the work of Turnaround for Children, founded in New York City after the 9-11 attacks. It “aims to produce research-backed and evidence-based tools” for use by both educators and health professionals.
The researcher/practitioner F. Brooke Stafford-Brizard done just that in the paper called “Building Blocks for Children” (2016), where she integrates the aforementioned “soft” noncognitive factors with the hard physiological data to form a pyramid, somewhat akin to “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
At the bottom of the pyramid are such factors as attachment, stress management and self-regulation. The next two levels cover a child’s awareness (self and social) and executive functions as well as various “mindsets” such as one’s sense of belonging and self-efficacy. It is not until a child is grounded on these three foundational levels—what Stafford-Brizard calls “healthy development, school readiness and mindsets for self and school”—that he or she can begin to exercise self-discipline, perseverance and “grit.” And without a capacity for resilience and grit, it is extraordinarily difficult to become a self-directed and intellectually curious learner and citizen.
With the advent of this instrument, educational practitioners are now better equipped to analyze and assess a student’s readiness to learn. Those who work with children and youth, whatever their roles, are now better able to locate specific learning and physiological deficits, and once located, determine how they interrelate. Once the entirety of a student’s health and learning profile has been mapped, then a more effective and customized treatment—medical and developmental—can be prescribed. This breakthrough tool is elegant in its simplicity, once, of course, you learn how to decode the jargon.
