Children
& Youth

ACEs 101

Course Description

This program introduces the 1998 ACEs Study that established a link between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and adult health outcomes. This module will look at brain development research that explains why ACEs have a life-long effect on health and behavior. In scenario-based learning sequences you will learn how toxic stress can cause protective features of brain development and functioning to become maladaptive through the processes of epigenetic and triggering. This module also includes a survey of projects and programs that have used the knowledge from the ACEs study and brain research to begin to build better communities and stop the spread of ACEs to future generations.

By taking this course, learners will be able to:

• Understand the ACEs research well enough to talk about it to someone else.
• Understand the data and its implications for yourself and others.
• Understand how brain development can be affected by toxic stress.
• Describe how the damage of toxic stress can be passed from one generation to the next through the process of epigenetics.
• Describe some of the prevention and response strategies.