Early Childhood Resiliency
Supporting Resilience in Children: A Guide for Pediatric Clinicians
With the right support, children can build remarkable resilience. Resiliency in children is not automatic or universal, but rather something that must be actively cultivated, especially for children in under-resourced environments.
As a pediatrician, you bring something no specialist can replicate: an ongoing relationship with the child and family. This guide puts evidence-based resources at your fingertips so you can identify, respond to, and help children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) within and beyond the clinical visit.
Use the sections below to find exactly what you need:
Identification & Evaluation
These resources bring together resources and practical tools you can use right in your practice to support early childhood resiliency.
Trauma-Informed Care | AAP Clinical Report
Guidance on recognizing, assessing, and responding to trauma in routine pediatric care. Covers screening, supportive relationships, clinical interventions, and referral to evidence-based mental health treatments.
Early Childhood Screening Assessment | Tulane University
Screening tool designed specifically for early childhood settings.
Addressing ACEs in Primary Care | AAP Clinical Report
Highlights the overlap between social determinants of health and ACEs. Offers practical guidance on where to start, with priority placed on families with children under age six.
Access Resource AAP login required
Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) | Massachusetts General Hospital
A brief questionnaire, validated for ages 4 to 18 years, for identifying and assessing changes in emotional and behavioral problems in children. Covers a broad range of psychosocial functioning concerns.
Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences and Other Types of Trauma in the Primary Care Setting | AAP Clinician Resource
A concise, practical starting point for addressing ACEs in your practice. Good for quick reference.
Screening Technical Assistance and Resource (STAR) Center | AAP
Supports practice and system-based interventions to increase rates of early childhood screening, counseling, referral, and follow-up for developmental milestones, perinatal depression, and SDOH.
Mental Health Tools for Pediatrics | AAP Clinician Resource
A compiled reference to help you determine which tools are most appropriate at each stage of screening, evaluating, and treating pediatric mental health needs.
Trauma-Informed Care and Promotion of Resilience | AAP PediaLink
A video-based learning series covering trauma symptoms, screening and surveillance tools, resilience promotion strategies, and guidance on when and how to refer or prescribe.
Mental Health Care in Pediatric Practice | AAP Clinician Resource
A clinical workflow guide showing how to integrate mental health care into routine pediatric visits.
Practical Strategies for Implementing Trauma-Informed Care | AAP PediaLink
Builds on the Trauma-Informed Care course above. Dives deeper into trauma symptoms by age group, TIC interventions, psychotropic prescribing guidance, and strategies for helping regulate disrupted caregivers.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Relational Foundations for Lifelong Health | AAP PediaLink
Addresses common infant and early childhood mental health concerns in clinical settings. Builds knowledge and confidence in supporting families to be attuned to their young children.
Keeping Children Safe: Injury Prevention in Early Care and Education Settings | AAP PediaLink
Equips providers with strategies to recognize, prevent, and respond to injuries across early care and education settings.
National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Programs (NNCPAP) | NNCPAP
Provides access to pediatric mental health care teams for consultation on behavioral health needs. Integrates mental and behavioral health in pediatric settings through teleconsultation.
Treatment Approach
Your clinical relationship with families fosters trust. These resources help you move from identification to action, supporting children and families through evidence-based treatment approaches you can implement or coordinate from your practice.
Illinois DocAssist | Illinois DocAssist
Free same-day psychiatric teleconsultation available to all Illinois health care and school-based clinicians. Also offers treatment referral assistance, provider resources, and continuing education. You don't have to navigate complex cases alone.
Trauma-Informed Care in Child Health Systems | AAP Policy Statement
Outlines what policymakers and health care organizations need to consider to integrate TIC principles across all pediatric points of care.
RAMP — Resources to Address Mental Health in Pediatrics | Lurie Children's Hospital
An online hub providing primary care clinicians with training and tools to diagnose, treat, and manage common mental health conditions in children. Includes clinician and family resources, medication management guidance, and therapy information.
Early Childhood Development, Adversity, and Resilience: A Review for Pediatric Health Care Providers | Harvard Center on the Developing Child
An interactive, self-paced learning module with curated lessons on early childhood development, adversity, and resilience. Includes clinical talking points and practice-ready resources.
Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope With Trauma: A Guide for Pediatricians | AAP Clinician Resource
Explains how early childhood trauma affects brain development, behavior, attachment, and long-term health. Highlights the pediatrician's role in screening, caregiver education, and care coordination.
Telementoring for Healthcare Professionals (ECHO Chicago) | Harvard Center on the ECHO Chicago
Case-based learning via videoconferencing for community-based providers. Builds knowledge and skills for managing common physical and mental health conditions through peer support and expert mentorship.
Childhood Trauma & Resilience: A Practical Guide | AAP
A comprehensive reference for child health professionals to identify, evaluate, and treat children and families affected by trauma and adversity in the clinical setting.
Access Resource AAP login required
AAP National Center for Relational Health and Trauma-Informed Care | AAP
A centralized hub for building clinician capacity in trauma-informed care grounded in relational health. Offers evidence-based training, technical assistance, and practical resources.
Protective Factors
Promoting resilience is a key strategy for addressing adversity, especially those involving social influencers of health. You know your patients' strengths and that knowledge matters. These resources focus on what helps children thrive in the face of adversity, from supportive relationships to self-nurturing skills.
Resilience and Child Traumatic Stress | National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Explains how resilience looks different for each child and identifies key factors that strengthen it including supportive relationships, safe environments, self-confidence, and community resources. Can also be used as a family handout.
AAP National Center for Relational Health and Trauma-Informed Care | AAP
Empowers clinicians to promote safe, stable, and nurturing relationships through evidence-based training and practical resources.
Preventing Childhood Toxic Stress: Partnering With Families and Communities to Promote Relational Health | AAP Policy Statement
Makes the case for centering pediatric care around strengthening relationships between children, families, and communities as the primary strategy for building resilience and preventing long-term harm.
Keeping Children Safe: Injury Prevention in Early Care and Education Settings | AAP PediaLink
Builds a strong foundation in safety practices that support enriching, secure daily experiences for young children.
Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience | Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Explains the role of supportive relationships and environments in building resilience, including the biological and social mechanisms behind outcome variability.
The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children | AAP Clinical Report
Discusses the importance of play in building cognitive and social-emotional skills, which is a natural entry point for conversations with families about supporting development at home.
Reach Out and Read Illinois | Reach Out and Read
Webinars and clinical resources on early relational health and protective factors against ACES. Practical tools for incorporating literacy promotion into well-child visits.
Why Resilience Differs
Understanding why some children grow and adapt through adversity while others struggle helps you meet each child where they are. These resources explore the science behind resilience variability, from biology and genetics to environment and developmental timing.
Genes, Environments, and Time: The Biology of Adversity and Resilience | AAP Clinical Report
Explains how genetic factors, environmental context, and developmental timing interact to shape outcomes. Children vary in their sensitivity to these influences, and critical developmental windows offer meaningful opportunities for intervention.
Preventing Childhood Toxic Stress: Partnering With Families and Communities to Promote Relational Health | AAP Policy Statement
Explains how early experiences shape brain architecture and long-term health, and why both positive and negative environments matter for resilience development.
Modifiable Resilience Factors to Childhood Adversity for Clinical Pediatric Practice | AAP Clinical Report
Identifies five evidence-based resilience factors clinicians can actively influence, including positive appraisal styles, executive function, parenting quality, maternal mental health, and household routines. Includes 10 concrete recommendations for practice.
Early Childhood Development, Adversity, and Resilience: A Review for Pediatric Health Care Providers | Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Self-paced learning module with interconnected lessons on the science of resilience, with clinical talking points built in.
Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience | Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Explores the biological and social mechanisms behind variability in resilience outcomes, with implications for how clinicians can intervene effectively.
Patient-Facing Resources
These resources are designed to share directly with families in the waiting room, at the end of a visit, or as a follow-up. They reinforce what you're already doing in the exam room to guide and help families build resilience at home.
Parenting After Trauma: Understanding Your Child's Needs | AAP
A guide for foster and adoptive parents on helping children cope with past experiences. Accessible, expert-informed language for families navigating trauma.
Bring Out the Best in Your Children | AAP
Key principles to help caregivers positively shape their child's behavior. Concise and practical.
When Things Aren't Perfect: Caring for Yourself and Your Children | AAP
Explains how stress and adversity affect both children and caregivers, and highlights protective factors, including caregiver self-care, that buffer toxic stress and build resilience.
Resilience: Helping Your Children Rise Above the Challenges of Life | AAP
Explains the 7 Cs of Resilience and gives parents concrete ways to foster confidence, coping, connection, and emotional security.
Resilience and Child Traumatic Stress | National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Explains resilience in accessible terms. Doubles as a clinician reference and family handout.
Parenting Resources & Early Childhood Development Support | Sesame Workshop
Age-appropriate videos, activities, and caregiver resources on challenging topics including trauma, grief, and social-emotional development. Available in multiple languages.
FAST-B: First Approach Skills Training Behavior | Seattle Children's Hospital
A free, self-directed evidence-based program for caregivers managing behavioral challenges in school-aged children. Modular and self-paced so families can work through it at their own pace and follow up with their PCP.
Nurture Connection | Nurture Connection
A national network promoting early relational health for families and communities.
How to Use Emotion Coaching to Teach Children Self-Regulation | He's Extraordinary
A step-by-step guide for using emotion coaching at home to build self-regulation skills.
BEACON — Behavioral Health Care and Ongoing Navigation | State of Illinois
A centralized resource connecting Illinois youth and families to community-based behavioral health services and state-funded programs.
Emotional Coaching for Parents (Ages 3–10) | SHARE
An introduction to a communication tool that uses moments of emotion to guide and teach a child about more effective responses.
NAMI Illinois Family-to-Family Program | NAMI Illinois
A free, evidence-based class for family members, partners, and friends of individuals with mental illness. Also available in Spanish.
Mindfulness Exercises for Kids | Zero to Thrive
Grounding and mindfulness strategies families can use at home.
Help Protect Children From Suicide | ICAAP
Protective factors for suicide prevention. Designed to share at appointments.
Creating Positive Experiences for Your Infant | HealthyChildren.org
Tips for building positive early experiences during a baby's first year of life.
Grief Support for Patients and Families | ICAAP
Patient-facing flyer on grief support resources for children and families.
CBT Books & Workbooks List | ICAAP
Curated titles for children, teens, and parents that reinforce CBT strategies for managing worry, anger, and stress.
Follow Pediatricians for Trustworthy Content | HealthyChildren.org
A curated list of pediatricians to follow on social media for reliable, evidence-based content on children's health. This is a practical recommendation for families navigating a noisy information landscape.