Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
@suzannezeedyk
Oct 4, 2020 • 22 tweets • 14 min read • Read on X
A THREAD on the #ACES debate.

I watched with interest this week as the ACES debate once again flowed across my Twitter feed. I stepped into Fierce Curiosity, aiming to make meaning of what I was seeing. This thread is about my insights....
2. @DrJessTaylor released a video in which she explained very clearly why she seriously dislikes t Public Health England @phe_uk video on #ACES. With 65K following, lots of people listen to what she has to say. She also started the hashtag #IAmNotMyACEs .
3. Many people responded to @DrJessTaylor observations, similarly criticising the stereotyping & simplicities (amongst other things) of the video. @_LisaCherry was one of them. She later clarified she dislikes the video but not the ACES framework.
4. @DrBurkeHarris in USA also responded, noting that one (poor) video does not represent a whole field of science. She also respectfully disagreed w/ @DrJessTaylor that ACES predict your destiny. Rather, ACES convey your risk.
5. Joycelyn Durk @2JD2 loved being offered this frame for thinking about ACES. She tweeted: "I love this! ACES convey risk, not destiny."
6. Another person who responded was Elizabth Perry @eperryinsights , frm Canada. She is t leading ACES activst in Canada & speaks always frm a lived experience perspective. She wrote a long passionate thread, explaining why she disagrees w/ @DrJessTaylor .
7. In particular, @eperryinsights feels that the hashtag #IAmNotMyACES is misrepresentative of the science. As she puts it "No one with any reputability is saying 'I am my ACES'." She is angry that this misrepresentation is being used to dismiss ACES.
8. @eperryinsights went further. Courageously, she called out t PRIVILEGE that seeps into ths debate. "Maybe you haven't been affected by yr ACES. Maybe you had enough [buffering]....Maybe you were lucky. But some of us grew up believng we were worthless."
9. @eperryinsights is trying to get those of us working w/ trauma to do something similar to what #BlackLivesMatter is doing: Get curious & self-reflective & #CheckOurPrivlege. If you deny you hv any privilege...well, that's t point, isn't it?
10. @paulinescott222 of @ACEAwareNation thn offered a thread ths morn, askng whethr all of us who want to tackle childhood adversity can best spend our effort arguing w/ each othr abt nuances or whthr we cd hv collaborative conversatns based on intention.
11. A private DM was sent to me, putting it more bluntly: "The internal ACES debate is like a broken record. Why are we tearng ourselves apart over nuances? The 'Left' so often does this! Some of these points are really importnt, but t squabbling keeps us frm hearing & thinkng."
12. I recall t origins of t ACES Movement in Scotland. It started in 2004, w/ @vruscotland & @karynmccluskey & @JohnCarnochan & @HarryBurns16 trying to reduce violence. No one can be against that, can they?? THERE WAS NO DEBATE. Mostly, there was silence.
13. But now? Now lots of people know. Tens of thousands of people know abt the effects of ACES/trauma/adversity. They start where they start, many knowng nothing of the history & the effort & the work is has taken to get CHILDHOOD SUFFERING on the agenda of more people's thinkng.
14. This questn goes back a lot further than 2004. As @_LisaCherry put it: "Social workers & others have been talking about this long before we used the language of ACES." Yes, at least 75 years, when attachment theorists tried. Back to children's campaigners of 1800s.
15. Here's the point of this long thread:
Here's what I think is differnt ths time. ACES is about all of us. People *get* that it isn't abt some 'other' group 'over there'. Every single one of us has an 'ACES score'. Even if its 0. Even if you hate scoring. This idea is about ME.
16. And people hv *feelings* abt this idea. Some are grateful for t idea, because it helps thm understnd thmselves. Other ppl reject it, because they don't think it adequately captures their sense of their life. Both responses are legitimate. And valuable. We can talk abt both.
17. I celebrate this debate. I remember the early days when there was no debate, when there was silence.
Now tens of thousands (millions?) of people are trying to figure out how to talk abt t IDEA that our childhood experiences affect every single one of us. This is progress....
18. Should I talk about this on Twitter? Some friends would tell me it is a waste of time to try to have nuanced discussions like this on social media. I should be out in the sunshine. Maybe...But I've given it a shot, because this conversation matters. Children are suffering.
19. A comment on one of our @ACEAwareNation videos has stayed w/ me: "How differnt my life might hv been were ths Movement alive in 1960s....I'm 61, still struggling. I've only recently realised that I've spent my life grieving for who I could have been."
20. The success of ths "movement" will be because it is not in t hands of policymakers & scientists. It will come frm t fact that an *IDEA* has infiltrated deeply enough into a culture: CHILDHOOD MATTERS. Experiences hv a lasting biological impact. For good or ill. On each of us.
21/end. I believe t more fiercely curious we can be, t more we will learn frm each other abt how to approach ths idea: t importance of childhood.
Our human species is in t midst of destroying t planet.
We need each other. Let's keep talkng.
Thanks everyone. Time for sunshine.
Colleagues, you may be interested in t thread above on the #ACES debate. @KeeganSmith_Law @UpstartScot @ACEAwareNL @LisaReagan3 @garywrobinson @RobinCogan @realdcameron @fionalarkin13 @connectionwork1 @ClaireAustin4 @sallycroachy @KevinNeary12 @AcesAyrshire_ed @CraigmillarCAH

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Suzanne Zeedyk

Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @suzannezeedyk

Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
Aug 26
On Sunday, I did something unusual for me: I went to the shops & bought a *hard copy* of @heraldscotland because I wanted to read @NeilMackay Big Read in print & sit with its message: "Adults, we need to step up." A THREAD
Image
Image
2. "They fuck you up, your mum & dad. They may not mean to but they do." @NeilMackay cited the same Larkin poem in his article with me earlier this year. I'm glad. We hide from this idea. We are ashamed, offended, askance. We are overwhelmed. So we leave our children to suffer. Image
@NeilMackay 3. "One of the most important things we can do for our childrn is validate their feelings." Yes. When human children feel heard, their stress-biology changes. So does their behaviour. @garethkthomas said this all last week on Twitter. Lots of teachers felt offended & overwhelmed. Image
Read 9 tweets
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
Jul 28
Yesterday I talked about the links between childhood fear/distress and the appeal in adulthood of authoritarians like Trump. Some respondents thought this was a silly idea. I'm far from the only one talking about this, tho. So I thought I would keep talking about it. THREAD Image
2. Here are researchers Milburn & Conrad talking about their recent studies. Quote: 'We talk at length about childhood punishment and its effects on the development of authoritarianism along with its negative impact on the political system."
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/authoritariani…
Image
3. Here's more:
- "Our research points to a distortion of adult political attitudes as an addition to the list of negative outcomes from spanking."
- "The effects of childhood punishmnt on authoritarianism remained significant after controlling for parents' political ideology." Image
Read 13 tweets
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
Jul 27
I hear many people asking: "WHY do people support Trump? WHY are so many Americans willing to support his extreme positions (like the collapse of democracy)?" That willingness begins with childhood experiences. Let me remind us what happens in many American childhoods. A THREAD
2. Corporal punishment. It is still legal in state schools in 17 of America's 50 states. It is actively practiced in 12 of them, mostly in the South. Approximately 100,000 children & young people (mostly African American boys) are subjected to paddling every year, by this: Image
3. What about private schools in America? Corporal punishment remains legal in private institutions in 46 states. Only New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland & New York have banned it for all children. Lots of Christian parents send their children to private schools. @no2hitting Image
Read 11 tweets
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
May 9
"What is it that we still don't get?"
This is t title of an insightful article writtn by Cliffe & Solvason in 2022 an academc journal called 'Power & Education' @PowerandEd . That quote is frm me.
This is a THREAD highlightng the important qstns they ask.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.11…
Image
2. "In t opening speech for @TIGERSEYAcad 2017, Zeedyk asks 'what is that we still don't get?' Her point is that EY educators are often still not gettng the importnce of relatnshps, at policy or practice level."
Yep. I still think this. Well done @TIGERS_UK for opening up debate. Image
@TIGERSEYAcad @TIGERS_UK 3. "The dilemma Zeedyk alluded to emerges clearly when human development is closely scrutinised....Relatnshps are key to a child's learning, developmnt & resilience - inside & outside EY provision."
Delighted to see the theorists cited: @grahammusic1, @MoralLandscapes, Trevarthen Image
Read 7 tweets
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
Jun 25, 2023
A #BabyThread about the sophistication of baby teasing.
This latest post from @DanWuori has been getting lots of shares & many of you have tagged me. I thought I would highlight some of the nuances so noone misses its fabulous complexity. THREAD.
2. So what can we see? Well, first, there aren't just 2 of them in on this joke, but 3! I am guessing that Daddy is filming the interaction, because there are two points when the baby looks directly at the camera as he says 'Dada'. With that look, he pulls Daddy into the joke.
3. Second, this is an example of what developmental psychologst Vasu Reddy calls 'infant clowning'. These are "acts which infants repeat deliberately in order to re-elicit laughter from others". He's learned something of emotionally managing his mama.😀
https://t.co/6gB4L1QBWKcairn.info/revue-enfance1…
Read 10 tweets
Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
May 28, 2023
How the new challenges faced by women footballers help us in thinking about responses to increased “school violence”. An analogy I didn’t have time to draw on today in my intvw w/ @Fionasstalker on @BBCRadioScot . THREAD. Image
2. A piece in this weekend's @guardian describes the increased hamstring injuries faced by top female footballers. Playing more often in elite matches places new demands on them. "Coaching methods are failing to keep up." The article explains how coaching has to adapt & change. Image
3. The @guardian article explains clearly how hamstrings work. We get a helpful schematic drawing & a Quick Guide. "Injuries tend to occur during sudden movements. Footballers are at high risk." So we've linked t biology (physiology) of hamstrings to real life (football). Grand! Image
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(