Tag Archives: family

Early Brain Development Specialist Deb McNelis, M.Ed, Speaks Internationally; Offers Unique Guides on Loving Babies; Supports PACEs Connection Monthly

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedchildren, education, family, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 5/23/231:31 PM

Deb McNelis, M.Ed, is an international speaker and author of materials supporting healthy infant and child brain development and the parent-child bond. She leads “The First Sixty Days” movement.

Twitter first made Deb McNelis aware of PACEs Connection. When she saw it pop up on her LinkedIn feed, she followed the links and was thrilled to find a community of “almost” like-minded people.

“We absolutely share the passion for preventing and healing childhood trauma; for building community,” said McNelis. But she says her work brings a sharper focus to the PACEs science movement, and a movement she herself is hoping to grow via PACEs Connection.

“I’ve been producing materials and speaking internationally for years about the importance of creating nurturing relationships with babies to establish that all-important ‘secure attachment.’ But when Bruce Perry and fellow researchers produced the 2018 study on the importance of the timing of developmental adversity – and laid it out that the first two months are likely the most consequential two months in brain development for any child – I felt an even stronger passion for ensuring this essential and significant knowledge is understood by all adults.”

Click here to see a brief clip of Dr. Bruce Perry with his co-author of “What Happened To You – Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing”, Oprah Winfrey.

“Essentially, Dr. Perry said the study shows that a child who has a horrible first two months – neglect or abuse, exposure to domestic violence, toxic stress – and a great next 12 years, is likely to have a worse life outcome than the child who has a nurturing, peaceful first two months and a horrible next 12 years! That should speak volumes to all of us, but especially expectant parents, employers who don’t offer paid parental leave, policymakers who don’t understand the need and the ultimate benefit of supporting families – especially in the tender early years,” said McNelis.

She now works in earnest to promote “The First 60 Days” movement, educating parents, people working in parenting, home visiting, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatricians, educators, policymakers and everyone else she can think of, to make that first 60 days of life a sacred time of connection and secure attachment for mothers, parents, caregivers, and those precious newborns.

PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren, herself the mother of a five-year-old and twins who are 18 months old, says she wishes more people would follow McNelis’s work, as she is beginning to do, and take McNelis’s lead in making monthly donations to PACEs Connection.

“We so appreciate Deb and the dozens of other people like Deb who are making small, steady, monthly donations. While we’re adding monthly donors, it would be good to see more of our almost 59,000 members – and literally millions of visitors – support our work to prevent and heal trauma,” said Cockhren.

Cockhren is asking members to sign on now to make a monthly donation to help fund the organization’s work to prevent and heal trauma, which includes supporting this anti-racist, equity-driven website, as well as our work with communities, and the newsletters, podcasts, conferences, Resource Center, and other free tools and guides offered by PACEs Connection.

“If just ten percent of our members made an automatic monthly donation of $10, you could help us cover a substantial portion of our costs,” said Cockhren.

Please consider following in the footsteps of early brain development specialist and the creator of the Neuro-Nurturing(R) materials from Brain Insights – proud PACEs Connection monthly donor Deb McNellis.

1. Name – Deborah McNelis, M.Ed

2. Occupation – I am an Early Brain Development Specialist who is the Founder of Brain Insights, LLC. In this role I am an international speaker, an author of numerous materials, the creator of Neuro-Nurturing® and the initiator of The First 60 Days Movement.

3. What is your connection to PACEs Connection/PACEs science? – The emphasis of my work and purpose of Brain Insights is entirely focused on prevention. This especially is the reason behind writing The First 60 DaysBooklet and initiating The First 60 Days Movement. Creating an awareness and understanding of the essential need for consistent nurturing responsiveness in the earliest days, weeks, and months makes an incredibly positive difference.

(Magazine shown above is free to download here.)

We in this movement need to make this common knowledge, so we can better support parents and caregivers. An awareness of early brain development — with the realization of the impact of relationship trauma, stress, and neglect and an understanding of the need for meeting physical needs, providing nurturing, security and play — ultimately benefits everyone of us. It is “preventive justice”, as it truly puts infants, babies, and children on a path to achieving their highest potential, by wiring their brains for connection, love, and healthy relationships, as opposed to distrust, disconnection, and the greater potential to seek out relationships and situations that reinforce unworthiness, poor self-perception, neglect, or danger.

4. Do you work in the field? – Yes, all of my work is based on child development and brain science with a focus primarily on the earliest months and years since that is the time the brain is most malleable, providing us with the most positive opportunity for well-being in life.

5. How did you find out about PACEs Connection? – Through LinkedIn and Twitter.

6. Were you surprised to find this resource? – I am not sure that surprised is the word, but I was definitely delighted.

7. What part of PACEs Connection do you like best? – It is not easy to choose a part that I would label as best. There is such a wealth of information and resources provided in various ways. It is all great. But if I would single out one aspect, I would say the Weekly RoundUp.

8. How do you use PACEs Connection? – I use it as a source of gaining awareness of what is being done in various locations and in various ways toward creating positive outcomes and increasing needed awareness. It is encouraging to see numerous efforts taking place.

9. Do you read the Weekly RoundUp? – Yes. It is helpful.

10. Do you share stories from the Weekly RoundUp? – Yes, I have.

11. Do you belong to a resiliency initiative? – I currently do not but would like to explore getting involved in this way.

12. What prompted you to support PACEs Connection with your gift? – I fully support providing financial help in hopes of reducing the number of children and families experiencing ACEs.

13. What keeps you giving as a monthly donor? – I want to continue to support the efforts of people who are leading the way toward significantly reducing the number of children whose brains are being developed in the midst of toxic stress. The science is there to show that it isn’t healthy for children to be in constant toxic stress. There are buffering effects as the result of positive childhood experiences – PCEs. It is essential that we get this message to everyone that has a direct or indirect influence on the development of children. Every child needs at least one nurturing relationship!

14. What would you tell others, to encourage them to support PACEs Connection on a monthly basis? – Something I say frequently is, EVERYONE needs to understand the impact experiences have on the developing brain, because when ALL children have the positive experiences they require from the start, we ALL benefit.

15. What is your greatest hope for what happens with PACEs science? That we end child abuse? Create equity? Eliminate racism? Do away with poverty? Create a trauma-informed and healing-centered planet? – Every aspect listed here needs to happen. My greatest hope is that through sharing the understanding of early brain development and the importance of nurturing our babies and children, and each other, that the shared value of commonality and community can grow. We can create a ripple effect of support and acceptance, instead of judgment and labels. It really does make a difference. There is great power in even just one caring adult positively interacting with a child. We can help people become that caring adult. We can help activate people to share the word about the importance of making the first 60 days of life a time of sacred connection and secure attachment that lays the foundation for physical and mental health, learning, positive behavior and self-perception, and the increased likelihood of overall well-being across the lifespan.

McNelis encourages fellow members of PACEs Connection to join her in making a monthly tax-deductible donation to PACEs Connection here.

One-time donations are encouraged as well!

If you’d prefer to mail your gift rather than give it online, here’s how…

Make check payable to:
TSNE (Third Sector New England, our fiscal sponsor) and write PACEs Connection Donation on the memo line.

Mail check to:
PACEs Connection, c/o TSNE, 89 South Street, Suite 700, Boston, MA 02111

Making a wire transfer or need Tax ID information?

Please contact Carey Sipp, Director of Strategic Partnerships, at csipp@pacesconnection.com

If you would like to be featured as a monthly donor, please send an email to Carey Sipp, director of strategic partnerships, with “Donor Spotlight” in the subject line to answer the 15 questions and let your fellow community members know more about you, how you use PACEs Connection, why you support the work.

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Constipation nation? Damndemic guts and PACEs science. Anybody else on the john at 5 a.m. being hypnotized by their IBS App?

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedfamily, life, love, mental-health, writingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 6/29/236:23 PM

This is the first in a series of blogs about what I believe to be some of the consequences – “negative” and “positive” – of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) across my lifespan. I share this as my healing journey takes another twisty turn for the better. I’d love to know if and how you believe your positive and adverse childhood experiences have affected your health.

I’ll post other installments as we at PACEs Connection continue to share the latest science, and stay focused on our work to connect and create healing communities. Subsequent topics may include insights on PACEs and finances, relationships, and parenting.

Please know my intention is not to offend anyone, or to make light of my own experiences, or to make light of the experiences of others. It is to share experiences in hopes of helping fellow travelers and wanting the world to know that the traumas being wrought upon us are in large part the results of broken values and systems in the collective that affect families and individuals — across the lifespan!

Physicians, policymakers, and business leaders need to know about the pain perpetuated and created by their reluctance to recognize and address childhood trauma as the root cause of most of our seemingly most intractable societal and personal challenges. We all live with collective “undigested trauma” and I believe that is why we are a nation and a people experiencing so much pain. The pain is trying to tell us all a lot. And I’ll say more about that in subsequent essays.

I do believe we are our own best healers, that laughter is some of the best medicine, and that being able to look back on adversity with curiosity, compassion, and grace adds years to our lives.

There is science to support those beliefs. Proof positive? I am still here, and look forward to sharing these and other findings with this “chosen family” of fellow members of PACEs Connection.

Happy 4th of July weekend. May it be truly liberating.

GUTS

Here’s the deal: I was born with gut issues. There are myriad reasons for it, probably, but the root cause of the root and sacral chakra block that keeps my guts twisted, turning, and sometimes frozen or burning, is likely trauma experienced when I was an itty-bitty fetus.

Adverse fetal experiences?

I say adverse birth experiences because my mother was the victim of horrific domestic violence while she carried me, and it sure didn’t get better when she had a baby girl instead of the hoped-for baby boy.

Anyway, that’s kind of root cause of why, at 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I am AWAKE. Doing cat-cow yoga moves. Breathing deeply into my bowels. Drinking MORE hot water. Taking the fistful of probiotics I take in the morning to complement the fistful of probiotics I take mid-day and the fistfull I take at night.

This is a 24-7 operation, trying to regulate my dysregulated guts. And it has been for much of my life. Oddly, while I was pregnant and pumped full of progesterone, and then breastfeeding and high on my own oxytocin, I didn’t have these issues. But that was more than 30 years ago. Those were the sweetest of days, despite all manner of other challenges.

But now it is about 5:45 a.m. I’ve done more yoga moves. I am sitting on the john with my feet up on a box to replicate the effect of using a “Squatty Potty”, a plastic footstool like thing I’d bought years ago after seeing it on SharkTank. As part of the sales pitch, the successful inventor revealed that the way Americans sit while toileting actually prevents a healthy bowel movement.

Go figure. Not having our bodies in a squatting position – as our hunter-gatherer nomadic ancestors did – isn’t good for us for many reasons. But that’s another gut report.

How many different simultaneous actions are happening here to support this effort?

All those probiotics are working in my frozen gut
I am massaging my part of my lower abdomen in a way that is supposed to help facilitate movement
I have been listening to the “Inner River” meditation in my “Flare Up Kit” on the Nerva app (I pay about $20 a month for it.) It is delightful. A lovely Australian lady hypnotizes me in 15 minutes to “relax my body” and calm my sympathetic nervous system the-heck -down so I can get to rest and digest and what I call DIVEST
I’ve been rocking gently, as that, too, is supposed to help
Prior to this magic moment, I sipped a cup of hot water
I also drank a tall-boy cup of “Bio Coffee” that tastes great with some stevia in it, and was created to help customers “love what it does to your body” because it’s formulated to help support gut health
Hours before this moment, I drank a few ounces of purified water into which I had dumped a scoop of “Calm” magnesium, which helps me sleep and has the side benefit of promoting “motility”
Prior to bed, I had also exercised, eaten a meal of organic turkey, organic jicama tortillas, and papaya. (I eat about six papayas a week because they are supposed to be so good for your guts). I had laughed some by watching the most recent episode of “Ted Lasso.” Laughter is great for guts
I had also had a long talk with a dear friend, which helped me have a sense of being supported and connected. (Relational health supports all health systems, but especially gut health. I think about this often as I eat dinner alone and don’t always relate to my food respectfully by taking time to savor it and thank the plant or creature whose energy I am consuming to stay alive. Note to self: ponder these things for a future essay!)

If I had a nickel for every dollar spent on different remedies for JUST my stomach issues over my lifetime, I might not be rich. But I’d be on the way.

A little bit of information (there is MUCH more) about PACEs science and gut health.

We know from the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study published in 1998 by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permenete, and written by personal heroes Vincent Felitte, MD, and Rob Anda, MD, that the more ACEs are stacked up in our history, the greater the likelihood of all manner of health issues. My score is eight out of the ten original ACEs.

Subsequent studies looking specifically at gut health show the correlation between gastrointestinal issues and ACEs. The dose-related response truths hold up. The more ACEs, the greater the likelihood of gut trouble. (I am also telling this story because I want to raise awareness of the connection between ACEs and all manner of issues, but also because I want to contribute to raising awareness of the correlation so maybe, just maybe, the next gut doctor I go to will know the rationale for asking patients to answer the ACE questionnaire!)

Baby and little kid guts. Opium?

As a child there were visits to the pediatrician. And the memories of being given paregoric – opium – which tasted like licorice (I cannot stand that taste) and which my mother kept above the refrigerator.

I have no idea how often she pulled out the dropper to knock me out when I was a colicky baby and whiny toddler. Or how many times the cleaning ladies who took care of me much of the time from the age of early infancy until I became a latchkey kid, slipped it to me so they could have a moment’s peace to do the work they were hired to do.

I have imagined, since doing exhausting rounds of inner child work and putting it together that my maternal grandmother died at the same time my mother went back to work – when I was just six weeks old – that the instructions to the cleaning ladies, who were paid $4 a day and not treated very well, must have been to “cook, clean, iron, and oh, by-the-way, there’s a baby in there”.

So that must have been part of the reason I have almost always felt an undercurrent of loneliness. Because I was left at home with the cleaning lady at least three or four days a week while my mother was working and or taking part in her myriad civic duties. And the person hired to clean the house and do all those other chores and take care of me? How could she have had a lot of enthusiasm for the role, given that she was being paid less than a dollar an hour, was expected to do an inordinate number of tasks, and was likely missing her own children? It was a no-win situation and when I was older and learned more about how Black people were treated, that, too, made my stomach hurt. Still does.

Where the nurturing came into the equation.

Thank God I also know that I sometimes stayed with my paternal grandmother. She loved me deeply and taught me, from an early age, about being kind to people. She also taught me about bugs, flowers, gardening, canning, pickling, cooking, and the joy of shelling peas. She was a living, breathing positive childhood experience (PCE) for me.

But in between those lovely visits to her farm, and wonderful times watching my next door neighbor, Miss Minnie Anne, cook and garden, I was a pretty sickly child who got carsick on the way to school. And who would throw up at the first whiff of certain odors. In fact, as a third grader, I contributed mightily to the Great Maple Street Elementary School Chain Reaction Barf of 1964.

The Great Maple Street Elementary School Chain Reaction Barf of 1964.

I remember it as if it were a minute ago: Someone threw up in the hallway on the way back from the lunchroom. We’d had fish sticks, mashed potatoes and maybe turnip greens or peas for lunch. Something green. Anyway, the scent of fishy vomit floated my way.

My friend Sally stood in line in front of me as I projectile vomited into her waist-length, shiny brown hair.

Several other kids chucked on the person in front of them.

The school janitor was shoveling that minty sawdust-like stuff all over the hallway to try and mask the scent. It was a feast for all the senses: sight, smell, sound, the touch of the teachers pushing us against the wall and away from each other, and the lingering taste of, well, you know.

We all got to go home for the rest of the day.

While I know Sally forgave me for upchucking on her, I once advocated for her so vociferously that I got paddled by the principal.

“A little Stokely Charmichael”

Perhaps I fought so hard on her behalf out of guilt for spewing bodily fluids onto her; perhaps it was because I started fighting for the underdog as a tiny child protecting my brother during my parent’s knock-down, drag-out, liquor-fueled (him, NOT her; thank God they weren’t both drinking!) fights.

Whatever the reason, later that year or the next, Sally had been out sick for a week or two, and was being forced to complete all of her homework in what other kids and I thought was an unre
asonably short period of time. I circulated a petition about this being unfair, resulting in the paddling and my being called “a little Stokely Carmichael” by the principal, as he whacked my fifty or so pound self three or four times with a long wooden paddle. It even had holes in it to enhance the pain.

Stokely Carmichael was a civil rights leader. In pre-integration small-town Georgia, comparing me to a Black man threatening this old white principal’s way of life was NOT a compliment. It was a comparison that earned me more punishment at home.

My beloved little paternal grandmother – she probably weighed eighty-five pounds soaking wet – was courageous as hell, herself a victim of domestic violence and an advocate for the Black tenants to whom my grandfather rented run-down shanties. I’d like to think she was secretly proud of the principal’s comparison, though I am certain it mortified the rest of the family, most of whom did not hold me in favor for my questioning of the hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children” with its key line “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” I wondered why, if Jesus loved everyone, we weren’t supposed to too?

A thrilling diagnosis.

I could go on about my guts as a kid, but I’ll fast forward to being 20 and having an “ulcerated area in my duodenum.” Truly, I was thrilled with the diagnosis, tendered by our trusted family doctor when I stayed in the hospital for tests and rest on a Christmas vacation home from college. Finally I had proof that I wasn’t making it all up, or, as my mother loved to say, “It is all in your head.”

She claimed I was faking it despite the fact that she drank about three bottles of Maalox a week to wash down the Anacin she took to help the tension headaches caused by the stress of her job working for a man she was terrified of, and living with a man she was terrified of because he would yank her hair out, punch her, throw her down steps, and threaten us with myriad weapons. Guns. Knives. Belts.

To make sure she knew whatever she did was worthless, he’d also sometimes trash the nice furniture she bought by slashing the surface of bedside tables with a hunting knife, punching or shooting holes in the wall, breaking glass to get into the door at all hours of the night, and literally pissing on the flowers she planted.

Yep. I think I came by my tender guts honestly.

Sometimes my mother would be doubled over in pain as she put on her makeup to go to work. Oh. And THAT smell would get to me, too. Because she had a port wine birthmark over half of her face, she literally cooked her “pancake” makeup each morning before applying it. Pancake makeup does not smell good first thing in the morning. Or ever.

She looked beautiful. But underneath that layer of makeup, and the starched white uniform, seamed white hose, and white oxford shoes she wore as her dental hygienist’s uniform, there was a riot of rage as dark and jagged as that birthmark that must have caused ungodly teasing in Depression-era Georgia and Alabama. It was probably part of the reason she felt as if she’d better say yes to my father’s proposal. About him? When she married him he was a World War II veteran who’d experienced his own share of trauma as a child whose father beat the hell out of him, and as a 18-year-old on a submarine in the Pacific during World War II. One story was that his best friend died right in front of him. My father had “hatch duty”. But one day the friend asked to open the hatch instead, and was killed the instant his head popped out in open air.

Multi-generational ACEs; medicine combinations; the bitter end of dark chocolate.

I now understand why my father suffered bouts of depression and anxiety, though I wish he’d had healthier ways of coping than jigger upon jigger of Early Times bourbon mixed with Coca-Cola, tons of my grandmother’s carbohydrate and fat-filled home cooking, relentless skirt chasing, and pound-downs on my mother when she sniffled, cleaned, didn’t cook what he wanted, complained about his wild spending or carousing, or didn’t properly clean and freeze the dove and quail he killed and brought home and left for her to “dress” because he was too smashed to do it himself.

Yep. Dead birds, bird guts and feathers, frozen little bird bodies suspended in ice in plastic containers in a deep freezer full of all manner of ice-encased fish and fowl.

Those could get me gagging too.

But I digress.

Yes. I’ve had a lifetime of gut issues I medicated with combinations of allergy medicine – because seasonal allergies and the resulting post-nasal drip (Sorry, but for folks with lots of ACEs, there are often issues with hyper-responses to allergens) – and the latest prescription for stomach ulcers. Tagamet and Tavist? That was a great combination, I explained to my doctor when I was in my early twenties. I don’t think he’d made the connection, yet, between allergies, post-nasal drip, and the Spring and Fall flare ups with gut pain and nausea until I explained why I needed both prescriptions.

Over the years there were endoscopies. Colonoscopies.The self-medicating power of the bubbles in beer. The realization that dairy was off the table. The realization that nightshade vegetables were off the table. The realization that gluten, too, was off the table. And then the horrific and deeply painful grief when one of my most favorite foods of all times – dark chocolate – was literally off the table and pretty much out of my life unless I wanted to pay dearly for having savored a bite or two of what had been a staple: four or five bars of Green & Black’s 85% organic chocolate a week. Almost a bar a day. For YEARS.

That loss came when the Damdemic hit, and I suddenly regressed into a primal fear of feeling incredibly unsafe in my own home, and in my own body, where the fire in my belly burned as if I’d swallowed a molten bowling ball.

Next report: Damndemic guts, masked horror, “Better Normals”, ACEs to PACEs, and the road to recovery being paved with many efforts.

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Carey Smith Sipp

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Review of “First 60 Days” booklet: Leveraging author’s work and movement could spark revolution to prevent and heal trauma, one precious baby, child, and caregiver at a time.

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedchildren, family, life, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 7/25/236:28 PM

(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new mothers; new parents and caregivers; young families. Full disclosure: Deborah McNelis’s company, Brain Insights, will soon be listed as a PACEs Connection partner, and is donating to PACEs Connection 5% of the profits from the sale of materials sold to our members or member organizations.)

Deborah McNelis’s newest offering, “The First 60 Days,” booklet (link is to a 12-page sample) is her heartfelt response to groundbreaking research by Dr. Bruce Duncan Perry and colleagues showing the negative developmental impact of toxic stress the first two months of life, and the importance of practicing what she calls “Neuro-Nurturing ®” during this influential time in infant brain development.

Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 8.51.43 PM Her booklet dispels 22 potentially harmful myths about caring for newborns, among them:

Repeatedly responding to and picking up a crying baby will spoil them.
Just like the heart is fully developed at birth, the brain is fully developed.
Babies are too young. They don’t know what is happening.
Rocking the baby creates a bad habit.
Your level of stress doesn’t matter to a baby.
If left alone babies will learn to self-regulate.

While it is not hefty, the booklet is packed with research-based recommendations, and is the capstone to McNelis’s decades of work with children and families. Over the course of some four decades in education, family support, and community building work, she created and introduced her “Neuro-Nurturing ® series of ringed, pocket-sized books, filled with loving and easy activities for caregivers to use with children at each age and stage, from newborn through age five. (These are books I definitely would have loved to have had when my children were young!)

What about those of us who didn’t necessarily have a Neuro-Nurturing ® start? Or children who may have experienced a lot of trauma? Or professionals who work with people who’ve experienced developmental trauma?

The research that moved McNelis to write her booklet was shared in the book “What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing” by Perry and co-author Oprah Winfrey.

Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 9.08.49 PM In their New York Times best-seller, Perry and Winfrey share ways to help heal Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

They also share causes of trauma as well as many ways we can help prevent it, including nurturing infants and children, building more compassionate communities, and being aware of the impact of racism and working to prevent it.

Those are parts of “What Happened to You?” that I loved most, so much so, in fact, that I have given away about twenty copies of it, reviewed it here on PACEs Connection, and last summer, with the help of partners including the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance and Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, helped drive a national book study of it, resulting in about 140 community-led book studies. That effort also resulted in a PACEs Connection webinar with Perry and PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren and director of outreach and education Mathew Portell.

McNelis’s ringed books, though first published in 2008, show a mindfulness to racial diversity that was not often seen 15 years ago. The origin of the ringed books is quite dear, too.

“As a kindergarten teacher for 10 years, I was constantly asked by parents about what to do with their new babies and toddlers, the siblings of my students. So I created index cards of activities to promote bonding, fun, and love – by age and stage – and shared the cards to provide quick and easy answers. And that is how these popular ringed booklets came to be,” McNelis said.

My take? Were we to truly leverage the findings of Perry and colleagues in their seminal paper, “Beyond the ACE score: Examining relationships between timing of developmental adversity, relational health and developmental outcomes in children”, published in 2018, and adopt, nationally, a program of “Neuro-Nurturing ®”, starting with this beautiful booklet of McNelis’s, we would likely see massive shifts in society within a generation.

We’d likely see a reduction in violence, child abuse, neglect, learning delays, school expulsions and suspensions, crime, domestic violence, poverty, racism and more.

Love begets love. Regulation begets regulation.

We have the resources to have a world influenced by Neuro-Nuturing ®, which could help babies receive the relational support science demonstrates helps promote healthy brain development and secure attachment.

A prediction?

I believe we’ll be hearing much more about the importance of the first two months of life from Oprah Winfrey, Perry’s co-author and friend of more than three decades, whose excitement in finding out about the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) Study in 2018 is likely matched by her learning about Perry’s research on showing the importance of a baby’s first two months.

One of the key findings? An infant who has healthy relational connections the first two months of life and has high adversity the next 12 years will likely have a better outcome than the infant who has really bad experiences first two months of life and a healthy environment the next 12 years.

“Think of that,” Perry wrote in “What Happened to You?”. “The child who has only two months of really bad experiences does worse than the child with almost twelve years of bad experiences, all because of the timing of the experiences.

He continued, “This sounds discouraging, But we believe that poor outcomes are not inevitable; in fact, we believe that this is a perfect example of why we need developmentally informed, trauma-aware systems,” he said in the book.

Winfrey’s excitement about learning this information is palpable in the video clip below. In it Winfrey says she would be “so satisfied” if she could get the message out about the importance of the first two months of life.

As a society, we need to take our claims that we love our children and make them so!

If you are having a baby, have young children, or know people who’re having having a baby, consider these materials as a gift to yourself and your family, or as the perfect baby gift.

If you’re on a hospital board, or own a business having anything to do with children, consider buying the materials in bulk and customizing them with your logo. This also applies if you are part of an advocacy agency or organization, a medical practice, or community group. Or if you are a policymaker or work in city, county, or state government.

According to McNelis, “The materials are impressive promotional items that grab attention for your efforts, while contributing to a positive influence. State agencies, zoos, an Audubon Society chapter, health organizations, and more have bought these items as ‘premiums’ for new and expectant parents, as well as parents who needed parenting support. One state agency bought 47,000 sets and customized them with their logo.

“Visiting nurse organizations, a state representative who is also on a hospital board, judges and people in law enforcement are interested in the booklets for incarcerated mothers, foster parents, parents needing support,” she added.

Further, McNelis is donating five percent of the net profits from sales of the materials to PACEs Connection, when you mention PACEs Connection as the way you found out about her work.

For more information about ordering “The First 60 Days” booklets or the “Neuro-Nurturing ®” ringed books, please visit the Brain Insights website, or email McNelis at deb@braininsightsonline.com to receive your quantity order discount code.

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Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 8.52.29 PM: Author Deborah McNelis

Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 8.50.21 PM: Sample of 22 "Myths" McNelis dispels in her booklet

Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 8.52.49 PM: Ringed booklets to help parents co-regulate with their infants, babies, toddlers, children through age five

Screen Shot 2023-07-25 at 9.08.49 PM: Cover "What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing"

Screen Shot 2023-07-26 at 10.24.31 AM: Acknowledgment page from "The First 60 Days"

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The First 60 Days Booklet – 12 Sample Pages- Brain Insights (2).pdf

Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

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Opinion: Our economy is about to meet the childcare cliff — and it will be devastating (hechingerreport.org)

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedchildren, education, family, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 9/29/239:49 PM

According to estimates, up to 70,000 daycare facilities could close, causing three million child care slots to vanish. Credit: Camilla Forte/ The Hechinger Report

by Lisa M. Hamilton September 28, 2023 (Opinion) The Hechinger Report

(Lisa M. Hamilton is the president and chief executive officer of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.)

Millions of working parents will face a child care emergency after pandemic-era federal funding ends Sept. 30, just two days from now.

Whether you are one of the affected parents or not, you will feel the impact on our nation’s workforce and economy.

According to estimates, up to 70,000 daycare facilities could close, causing three million child care slots to vanish. This is a loss of educational opportunity for children, but also a devastating loss of support for millions of working parents who may have to leave their jobs.

All of us will surely feel the resulting blow to our economy if a projected $9 billion-plus in earnings is lost.

Sadly, this is just the latest failure in a child care system that has been broken for decades.

As The Casey Foundation recently highlighted in our 2023 KIDS COUNT^® Data Book, shortcomings of the child care system already cost the country $122 billion a year in lost wages, tax revenue and productivity.

We cannot allow these cascading consequences to continue.

Every other country with an economy comparable to ours has created a sustainable system that better meets the needs of families, employers and child care workers.

It’s time for policymakers to explore immediate solutions. We know they exist: Every other country with an economy comparable to ours has created a sustainable system that better meets the needs of families, employers and child care workers.

Moreover, we already have evidence in our own economy of what can work. For example, home-based providers are more likely to operate during non-traditional hours, when shift workers, single parents and student parents need them. One thing we can do right away is to increase access to affordable startup and expansion capital for new and existing home-based centers.

A robust, reliable care system requires investment. Average public spending on child care among the comparatively wealthy Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations is $16,000 a year per child.

The United States invests a mere $500 per child. How can we invest so little in our future workforce? In the leaders of tomorrow?

Families are working hard to meet their needs but costs continue to rise, putting quality care beyond their reach. Child care costs in the U.S. averaged $10,600 a year in 2021, according to an analysis by the advocacy organization Child Care Aware. That’s 10 percent of a couple’s average income — or 35 percent of a single parent’s income.

In at least 34 states, care for the youngest children is more expensive than in-state college tuition.

What support does exist for families is difficult to get and insufficient. As a result, only one out of every six U.S. children eligible for public subsidies receives them.

Women, single parents, parents in poverty, families of color and immigrant families carry the heaviest burden of this crisis: An analysis of 2017 data indicated center-based care for two children absorbed 26 percent of a white working mother’s median household income. For Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Black working mothers, those figures were 42 percent, 51 percent and 56 percent, respectively.

These figures demonstrate how the cost of care can make it almost impossible for a household to meet other basic needs like housing, food and transportation — which all continue to escalate in cost.

In spite of this, providers themselves, almost all women and disproportionately women of color, are barely staying afloat, operating on one percent margins.

No wonder so many are expected to close their doors starting next month.

In August, more than 1,500 state lawmakers from across the country gathered in Indianapolis for the annual National Conference of State Legislatures summit.

We heard Republicans and Democrats agree that something must be done to address the child care crisis.

They know the fallout will keep us from moving forward, from filling jobs and from ensuring that children are safe and thriving while their parents are working or completing their own education.

It’s time to channel that consensus into urgent action and real solutions.

This is a time for creativity and thinking big among both the private and public sector. The Casey Foundation urges lawmakers to invest in the child care sector, starting with these steps:

Congress should reauthorize and strengthen the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. The main reason we didn’t lose 75,000 child care centers and 3 million slots during the pandemic was the $40 billion allocated to strengthen the child care sector in the American Rescue Plan Act. We now have evidence that these investments work.
Public and private leaders should work together specifically to improve infrastructure for home-based child care providers. Start by increasing access to affordable startup and expansion capital.
Governors and legislators should encourage the higher education and business communities to take steps such as co-locating child care at work and learning sites to reduce transportation challenges.

The underpinnings of our families and our economy are too important for our elected officials to continue to ignore what is happening. The pandemic sharpened our understanding of the issues. There are good models to follow.

Now is the moment for generational action to ensure children, parents and guardians, providers and employers are never again standing at the edge of a cliff, looking for a bridge to safety, and wondering whose kids will make it to the other side and whose will be left behind.

Lisa M. Hamilton is president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

This story about the child care funding cliff was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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IMG_7991: Lisa M. Hamilton, President and CEO, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedchildren, education, family, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 10/3/234:59 PM

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations.

Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and the mothers, fathers, grandparents, adoptive, kinship, foster parents and other primary caregivers who care for them, to pediatricians providing recommended well child visits, and communities focused on trauma prevention and resiliency building.

Christina Bethell, PhD, MBA, MPH, and founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CHAMI) and the EnACT! (Engagement in Action Framework) is cross-promoting her free Well Visit Planner, a web-based application to help families and physicians be better prepared for recommended well child visits, with Deborah McNelis, M. Ed, author and founder of “The First 60 Days” booklet and movement.

Bethell is also the principal author of a study on positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and their impact on preventing adult mental illness that led to the name change of ACEs Connection to PACEs Connection — for positive and adverse childhood experiences — in March of 2021.

McNelis is the founder of Brain Insights and creator of the Neuro-Nurturing® series of ringed booklets sharing age-appropriate activities paired with brain development insights for caregivers to use in everyday life with babies and children. These activities increase the likelihood of secure attachment and a foundation of early relational and physical health.

McNelis is also the author of a groundbreaking booklet, “The First 60 Days” (link is to a 12-page sample). The booklet and a movement she has started by the same name, are her heartfelt response to groundbreaking research by Dr. Bruce Duncan Perry and colleagues showing the negative developmental impact of toxic stress in the first two months of life, and the importance of practicing what she calls “Neuro-Nurturing®” during this influential time in infant brain development.

The booklet dispels 22 potentially harmful myths to reassure and support new parents. A portion of each myth is told from the newborn’s point of view. Readers also learn what newborns need for establishing a secure attachment and overall optimal development from what McNelis refers to as,Neuro-Nurturing® Knowledge. “It is all based on brain science revealing what babies and their parents/caregivers really need,” McNelis said.

Details of ways the project’s partnership between Bethell and McNelis can benefit newborns, families, caregivers, communities, and PACEs Connection are spelled out in the attached one-sheet that is ready for download and distribution at resiliency initiative meetings across the country.

The sheet shares information about Bethell and McNelis and their work thus far, and was created with support from Dana Brown, PACEs Connection PACEs science statewide facilitator, who is hoping that promoting the work directly to communities will create use of the Well Visit Planner and the Neuro-Nurturing® materials.

“Bethell and McNelis are dedicated to creating positive health equity, including child flourishing and family resilience. This is a terrific fit for any community,” said Brown.

“In California we have PACEs Connection cross-sector, resiliency focused communities in numerous counties. We’re starting out with the members of the PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities. Our hope is that member organizations in 12 counties in the Cooperatives will share the information with the parents and caregivers for the families they serve, and that hospitals, clinics, and child-serving organizations – including home-visiting nurses – will help promote use of the Well Visit Planner and the Brain Insights materials,” said Brown.

Cross-sector community member organizations belonging to the Coops include schools, communities of faith, health clinics, child-and-family-serving organizations, businesses, hospitals, media representatives, law enforcement, county and city government offices, and more.

The twelve member counties are: Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Sonoma, Tulare, and Yolo.

“We’ll know we’re succeeding if there is an increase in enrollments in the Well Visit Planner in these areas. This is important because by promoting well child visits, we increase the likelihood of families and physicians establishing a an ongoing relationship. Building on a trusted relationship, together they are more likely to be able to identify a developmental delay, postpartum depression, or consequences of a challenge in the home that can be supported before a challenge becomes a crisis,” said Brown.

“The hope is to continue to braid resources within communities — as they are interested — so there are lists of resources available for the pediatricians and other caregivers to share with families. We want to support parents, care providers, and communities in creating safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for every child, and believe these innovations, in combination with more to come, can help to do that,” said Brown.

“This project partnership and the fact that Deb is willing to discount her materials so they can be a potential fundraiser for communities, and is sharing with PACEs Connection profits from the sale of her materials — which are promoted on the Well Visit Planner site, which has the potential to reach millions of parents — bodes well for all involved,” said Brown.

According to McNelis, the ringed books are literally positive infant and childhood experiences parents and childcare providers alike can keep in their pockets and use throughout the day to engage little ones in activities that nurture optimal brain development. Across the series of books, there are scores of activities to stimulate fine and large motor development, language skills, thinking abilities, creativity, curiosity, self-awareness, and most importantly, connection with others.

State and child serving organizations have bought thousands of sets of the ringed books for parents in various programs.

“The First 60 Days” booklet and the ringed Neuro-Nurturing® series from newborn through age five, are available for bulk and individual purchase. Organizations seeking to customize the materials can opt to have their logo printed on the back cover, and can resell the materials at the retail price for fundraisers, in hospital and faith community gift shops, at health fairs and such, as is detailed in the attached one sheet,” said Brown.

“People wishing to access and use the Well Visit Planner with their infants and children need simply click on the link and enroll,” she added.

For more information about joining the PACEs Connection Cooperative of communities in California, reach out to Dana Brown at dbrown@pacesconnection.com. For Coop information the U.S. and territories, contact Mathew Portell, director of education and outreach, at mportell@pacesconnection.com.

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Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.11.51 PM: Deborah McNelis, M.Ed.

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.41.45 PM: "The First 60 Days" booklet

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.12.34 PM: Dana Brown, PACEs Connection PACEs science statewide facilitator

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.13.04 PM: Neuro-Nurturing(R) Materials

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.49.28 PM: Download and share this one-sheet with your community

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.46.05 PM: Home page of the Well Visit Planner

Screen Shot 2023-10-03 at 6.30.31 PM: Christina Bethell, PhD. MBA, MPH

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10.3.23 Community Support Flyer.pdf

Carey Smith Sipp

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Children Born in the Pandemic: Developmental and Family Challenges — How is Oklahoma Using ARPA Funds to Help?

August 7, 2026Uncategorizedchildren, family, life, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 10/17/231:45 PM

While in many early reports it sounded as though babies born during the Pandemic would likely be affected by developmental delays, newer research shows mixed or fewer concerns.

There is no denying, though, that for families having new babies, or adopting, or providing foster care for babies during the Pandemic, there were additional stresses.

Join PACEs Connection for a free webinar October 19 from 12 p.m to 1:30 p.m. ET/ 9 a.m. – 10:30 PT, to explore how leaders in one state, and two PACES Connection senior staff members, have been addressing the challenges of welcoming a new baby – or multiple babies – during that time.

Please register here.

Trauma experts share their experiences of pregnancy and childbirth during the Pandemic

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.31.52 PM PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren, leads, among multiple educational offerings, the PACEs Connection Historical Trauma in America series. She will share about historical trauma and the Racial Reckoning erupting during the Pandemic, as well as her personal experience of giving birth to twins – a girl and a boy – in November, 2021.

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.32.19 PM Cockhren will be joined by Porter Jennings McGarity, PhD, LCSW, and PACEs Connection trauma-informed criminal Justice consultant and director of continuous quality improvement (CQI). Jennings-McGarity gave birth to two sons during the Pandemic.

How Oklahoma looks to support parents, caregivers, families, children

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.33.11 PM Linda Manaugh, chief program officer of the Potts Family Foundation, which is leading the work in Oklahoma, and Marlo Nash, a longtime consultant on early childhood and child welfare systems, will be joined by Laura Porter, international expert on the science of adverse childhood experiences, Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.33.55 PM to discuss the work in Oklahoma.

Porter is the co-founder of ACE Interface, LLC. She, Manaugh and Nash have worked together to design, secure American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for, and implement the groundbreaking work in Oklahoma.

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.34.52 PM The work involves research in 15 communities to learn more about how young children and families are doing, what their needs are, and how well their communities are supporting them.

How can PACEs Connection members help support families who welcomed babies during the Pandemic?

Rounding out the webinar to share learning that can be used across all communities, Deborah McNelis, M.Ed, will share about ways to be supportive of babies born during the Pandemic, and their caregivers. McNelis is an early brain development specialists and the creator of resources to encourage positive childhood experiences in young families.

Register for the webinar here.

Full disclosure: McNelis donates to PACEs Connection five percent of net profits from related sales of her Neuro-Nurturing(R) materials from Brain Insights.

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Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.31.52 PM: Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.32.19 PM: Porter Jennings-McGarity, PACEs Connection

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.33.11 PM: Linda Manaugh, Potts Family Foundation

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.33.55 PM: Marlo Nash

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.34.52 PM: Laura Porter, ACE Interface

Screen Shot 2023-10-02 at 9.57.24 PM: Deborah McNelis, Brain Insights

Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

“How to Handle with Care”: A fast read on a best practice your community can use to start helping kids ASAP!

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, family, life, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 1/1/2412:23 PM

BOOK REVIEW

“How to Handle with Care”, a new book by author Wendy Samford, PhD, is step-by-step instruction manual to create — in your community — a best practice that can help end the racially-motivated school-to-prison pipeline one child at a time, and quickly!

How?

By addressing the trauma of each child individually, with a cross-sector approach to supporting hurting children that has law enforcement working with educators all across the United States. (www.handlewithcarewv.org)

Simply put, if law enforcement comes into contact with a child in the course of duty, the name of the child and the words “Handle With Care” will be sent to the child’s school.

This simple message lets trauma-informed school personnel know that something happened to that child and to treat them with kindness.

“If additional services are needed for the child, the family is then informed and bridges are built from law enforcement to schools, and schools to community service agencies,” said Samford.

If administrators, faculty, and staff in the school know a child has had a hard night, they can help protect the child from added stresses the next day. For example, instead of having a child who was up in the middle of the night take a test, give an oral book report, or run the risk of acting out emotionally and getting in trouble for it, the child can be led to a quiet corner to rest.

Samford’s fast-read guide will show communities starved for ways to stop systemic trauma in education and juvenile law exactly what to do. Best of all, it’s in a book you can read in an afternoon, and follow step-by-step.

Already across the country, there are at least five states that are actively using the program, and it is in development in many more states and counties, and there is active interest in the program in almost every state.

For the full report, find the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any major book retailer.

For more information about the book, please contact Wendy Samford at www.wsamford.com

For more information about the Handle With Care program, contact Andrea Darr at adarr@jbsinternational.com.

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Screen Shot 2024-01-01 at 1.23.20 PM: How To Handle With Care is available on Amazon and the Barnes & Noble websites

Screen Shot 2024-01-01 at 1.29.44 PM: Wendy Samford, PhD

image 4: Map showing states where Handle With Care is being implemented in the U.S.

Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

Sign on now to support the “Decade of the Child” movement led by the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC) and partnering organizations

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, family, health, mental-health, writingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 10/24/244:02 PM

A movement to motivate the incoming administration to proclaim the next 10 years as the DECADE OF THE CHILD is being led and launched by the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, (NPSC) with support from PACEs Connection and a growing list of research, public, behavioral, and mental health-oriented organizations, as well as nonprofits supporting child advocacy, policy, and social justice.

“Our nation is failing its children. Despite our economic power, millions of children in the United States face grim realities. We need an unprecedented mobilization—a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to prioritize the health and well-being of every child in America, said Diana Fishbein, PhD, founder, president, and co-director of NPSC, in announcing news of the movement.

“We will seek congressional support for both policy change and dollars to be allocated to the National Institute for Health (NIH) for whole child health and wellbeing research, and are launching the movement to unite people, organizations, and agencies to mobilize an unprecedented national movement. We are working to end the deficiencies and disparities in child health and wellbeing, and envision future generations of happy, healthy, and productive children and adults” said Fishbein.

A general description of the initiative can be found on the NPSC website. NPSC intends to invoke the same process used to proclaim the Decade of the Brain in the 1990s.

“We would like to be able to document widespread support for creating this movement. Your organizational and individual endorsement could make a critical difference. Our list of supportive organizations, foundations, societies, and individuals is rapidly growing, which is a heartening sign. We would love to see as many of the almost 61,000 individual members of PACEs Connection sign on as possible,” said Fishbein.

“Our hope is that you will indicate your individual support and possibly also that of your organization for the Decade of the Child on our website. We are not asking for money; we just want to marshal the power of organizations, institutions, foundations, communities, and individuals to spread the word about the value of this initiative, so please repost this PACEs Connection story using the social media icons below the post” Fishbein said.

Organizations may also customize a request for individual members to endorse the movement by using materials on the NPSC site. They may also send out a more generic request if desired.

“It is past time for the ‘Decade of the Child’ as too many of our children are suffering. We need all people concerned about the health and wellbeing of our nation’s children to be involved in bringing others on board to help,” said Fishbein.

Organizational endorsements will be updated frequently on the NPSC website. They are, as of October 23, 2024

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE)
Applied Prevention Science International
Integrated Care for Kids/InCK Marks Network
HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice
Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS)
itotheN | Intergenerational Impact
Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina
Institute for Research and Development “Utrip”
Partnership to End Addiction
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development
Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice
Center for Whole Health Learning in K-12
Association For Behavior Analysis International
Nova Institute for Health
Global Alliance for Behavioral Health & Social Justice
PACEs Connection
Society of Behavioral Medicine

For more information, please visit https://www.npscoalition.org/p…/decade-of-the-child

Learn how to bring “Neuro-Nurturing®” to your community! Free webinar with neurodevelopment and public health experts Friday, January 10 from 3-4 p.m. EST

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, family, health, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 1/7/259:14 PM

This webinar is the first in a series of several webinars that will feature respected experts in early childhood development. Presenters (and collaborators) for the series will include:Christina Bethell, Ph.D., Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Founding Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative.Diana (“Denni”) Fishbein, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, President & Co-Director of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives.George Halvorson, Chair and CEO of the Institute for InterGroup Understanding; former CEO of six different health care delivery and financing organizations in the U.S. including Kaiser Permenente, where he served as chairman and CEO for more than 10 years. Author and child advocate.Deborah McNelis, M.Ed, early brain development expert, creator of the Neuro-Nurturing® model, author of “The First 60 Days” and the Neuro-Nurturing® series of developmentally appropriate ringed activity books loved and in use worldwide.And many more.Register for this first webinar and you’ll be invited to the subsequent ones in the series.

Neuro-Nuturing: Advancing Powerful Strategies for Lifelong Health and Black Birthing and Decade of the Child Initiatives webinar Thursday, Noon ET.

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, family, health, mental-health, parentingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 5/20/251:07 AM

Can a 10-minute-old-baby actually learn something?

Can such a new and tiny being figure out “I’m like you and you’re like me?”

Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Columbia University and New York State Psychological Institute psychologist, shares research showing that babies can imitate expressions at 10-minutes-old!

“Early infancy is a critical developmental period,” says Dr. Beebe.

We’ll be sharing more of her video and wisdom in our Neuro-Nuturing: Advancing Powerful Strategies for Lifelong Health and Black Birthing and Decade of the Child Initiatives webinar this Thursday!

Join us May 22 from Noon – 12:30 p.m. ET for this free CHC: Creating Healthier Communities CHC University webinar featuring internationally-recognized subject-matter experts in early relational health.

Please click here to secure your registration.

https://www.pacesconnection.com/video-embed/t/0/c/537553125301661398/p/537553125301708079

🌎 How important is this information to the health of your organization? Your community? Our nation? The world?

🧠 How can learning more about how a baby’s brain develops help you and your team create healthier communities?

💕 Join us and learn how and why early relational health is the foundation of emotional, mental, and physical health and wellbeing — for improved lifelong health and wellbeing — and how an infant’s experiences literally shape the architecture of his or her brain for future trust, curiosity, ability to connect and relate, or, conversely, be more likely to experience fear, mistrust, and isolation.

We’ll also explore strategies for your organization, faith community, health care system, child- and family-serving organization to create and leverage “Neuro-Nurturing Ecosystems”, and engage more fathers in the birthing journey and early relational health.

Register now for this free webinar brought to you by CHC: Creating Healthier Communities in cooperation with Population Health Learning Collaborative and PACEs Connection.

“This webinar emphasizes proactive Neuro-Nurturing as a vital intervention for infant neurodevelopment and early relational health,” said Deborah McNelis, M.Ed., author of “The First 60 Days: The Most Influential Days of Infant Brain Development”, who will highlight how early experiences shape lifelong health. Curated videos by Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Psychologist at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute, will be shared — including one of a 10-minute old infant already mimicking his father — demonstrating the the importance of parent-infant attunement.

Screenshot 2025-05-13 at 4.10.31%u202FPM

In a proven example of scaling successful strategies for maternal and child health, Demetrius Geiger, MPH, program manager for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities (CHC), will share about the impact of CHC’s Black Birthing Initiative.

Christina Bethell, Ph.D., MBA, MPH, the Director of the Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) and public health professor at Johns Hopkins University will share frameworks and tools such as the Well Visit Planner, that show how to integrate Neuro-Nurturing and Whole Child Health Policy into healthcare systems across a state.

Diana Fishbein, PhD,Nova Scholar, Nova Institute for Health; Senior Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and founder, president, and co-director of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, (NPSC), will share updates on THE DECADE OF THE CHILD initiative, a call for the “transformational change our children need that can be achieved by comprehensively supporting our families and communities through collaborations across all sectors of society.”

Bill Barberg, population health and system change expert, will share valuable approaches to implementing pragmatic, collaborative strategies for achieving positive impact at a community scale, highlighting strategies for engaging fathers in Neuro-Nurturing. Barberg is also founder of the Population Health Learning Collaborative.

Joshua Liston Zawadi,founder of Dad Doula University, will share his approach for engaging fathers in the birthing journey and in supporting early childhood development.

The webinar will be moderated by Carey Sipp, webinar convener, director of nonprofit partnerships for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities, and volunteer director of strategic partnerships for PACEs Connection.

“This webinar promises to engage participants with expert insights and actionable strategies. We are thrilled to have assembled these nationally recognized leaders dedicated to early relational health, systems change, and child and parent advocacy for this event,” said Sipp.

Please click here to secure your registration.

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