Adverse childhood experiences

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is used to describe a wide range of stressful or traumatic experiences that children can be exposed to whilst growing up. 

They can be experiences that can directly harm a child such as:

• suffering physical abuse
• suffering verbal abuse
• suffering sexual abuse
• physical neglect
• emotional neglect

The environment a child grows up in can also affect them, such as:

• parental separation 
• domestic violence
• mental illness
• alcohol abuse
• drug use
• imprisonment