TNOYS Pre-Conference Special Institute

"Child Abuse and the Brain: The Development Impact of Trauma in Childhood"

Presented by:
Frank Kros, MSW, JD

Presented by award winning national speaker and parent of two teenagers, this workshop is a "must-have" for child serving professionals and parents who want to learn more about the adolescent mind.

August 17, 2010
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel - Austin, TX

Key discoveries in neuroscience have revealed a more comprehensive and sophisticated understanding of the impact of child abuse on the developing brain. With incredible specificity, scientists have mapped how the experience of abuse in childhood changes the growing brain and predisposes it to psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Child abuse produces severe stress in the brain. The body's physiological response to stress impacts the brain at a highly vulnerable period in its development. This overwhelming exposure to physiological stress results in enduring alterations in brain structure and function including gene expression, mylenation, neurogenesis, synapogenesis and neural morphology. These alterations pave the way for "inward directed" problems like depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and post-traumatic stress disorder and/or "outward directed" problems such as aggression, addiction and impulsiveness. Understanding the specific consequences of abuse on the growing brain can significantly inform interventions and inspire new approaches for the focus and goal of treatment for child abuse victims.

Brain science can be an intimidating and sometimes boring topic for professionals in child serving organizations, parents and policy makers. This workshop makes neuroscience understandable and accessible to non-scientists so that the importance and usefulness of these brain-based discoveries can be shared and utilized across the helping professions. Most important, these findings provide a compass for those programs serving child abuse victims.

 Frank is a career child advocate, who has served as a childcare worker, child abuse investigator, children’s home administrator, consultant, college professor, attorney, writer and speaker. He is president of The Upside Down Organization and Executive Vice President of The Children's Guild.

$50 per person (if registering for the entire conference)
$100 per person (if not registering for the entire conference)

 

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