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Positive Childhood Experiences Create a Healthy Child
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HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences
Positive experiences during childhood help children grow up to be healthy adults.
The HOPE National Resource Center, based at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, offers training, resources, and research.
The Four Building Blocks of HOPE is an easy way to think about positive childhood experiences that promote health and well-being.
Relationships
Environment
Engagement
Emotional Growth
Four Building Blocks of HOPE
Children need safe and supportive relationships within the family and with other children and adults
Being in nurturing, supportive relationships are critical for children to develop into healthy, resilient adults.
Individuals who recall having these types of relationships during childhood experience significantly lower rates of depression and poor mental health during adulthood.
What kinds of relationships are we talking about?
Foundational relationships with parents who respond to a child's needs and offer warm, responsive reactions.
Adults outside of the family who take a genuine interest in a child and support their growth and development.
Healthy, close, and positive relationships with peers.
How can you promote access to safe and supportive relationships?
Ask a child, “Who is someone outside of your family that really cares about you?
Be a supportive relationship!
Take the time to connect with the children around you.
Share information about after-school activities where they might connect with coaches, mentors, or peers.
Ask parents about the positive experiences they remember from childhood and what made those experiences good.
Celebrate those with them and encourage them to think about which of the components of those relationships they want to offer their children.
Share information about parent-child attachment, validate and reflect back when you see warm reactions between parent and child.
Ask about other positive adults in the child's life - coaches, teachers, pastors, mentors.
Celebrate those relationships and encourage consistent connection with those individuals.
Play and connect with your children regularly!
Be silly, move your bodies together, read a book, watch a movie. The options are endless!
Children need safe, stable, and equitable environments where they can live, learn, and play.
Children who live, learn, and play in safe, stable, and equitable environments are less likely to experience poor mental and physical health as adults.
What do we mean by safe, stable, and equitable environments?
A safe, stable environment secure in meeting a child's basic needs, including adequate food, shelter, and health care.
A nurturing home where a child is emotionally secure.
A stable school environment where children feel valued and receive high-quality education.
A community environment to play and interact with other children safely and equitably.
How can you promote access to safe, stable, and equitable environments?
Ask a child: “Describe a place you love to go and have fun?”
Make sure schools are safe spaces for all students!
Address bullying and teasing, and encourage students to be upstanders, not bystanders.
Make sure that children and families feel represented.
Look at any books, posters, curricula, or handouts. Are all kinds of families, all genders, all races, and people with disabilities represented?
Children need opportunities for social and civic engagement to develop a sense of belonging and connectedness.
Children need to feel connected to their communities, loved, and appreciated.
Children develop into secure and resilient adults by:
Being involved with social institutions and the environment
Having an awareness of cultural customs and traditions
Having a sense that they matter and belong
What are some examples of social and civic engagement?
Being involved in projects, peer mentoring, or community service through one's school or religious organization
Participating in family and cultural traditions
Joining a music, art, or sports group
How can you promote access to social and civic engagement?
Ask a child: “What is your favorite sport or activity?
Delight with a child in their activities.
Work on creative projects and share their favorite activities with their friends.
Have fliers available for Community Centers, after-school activities, and mentoring programs in your community.
Families can volunteer in the community together.
Create new after-school activities
Get involved in a place of worship, if that feels supportive. Many spiritual and religious institutions have youth groups or classes for children and youth.
Children need opportunities for emotional growth where they feel supported through difficult events and emotions.
Children need lots of opportunities to develop their sense of self-awareness and social cognition.
These opportunities allow children to learn how to self-regulate emotions and behavior, and acquire skills needed to respond functionally and productively to challenges.
Many of these skills arise during child-centered play.
Some children will pick up these skills naturally, but others may need adults to help them name and understand their own feelings.
Either way, these skills are critical for children to become resilient, emotionally healthy adults.
What do we mean by opportunities for social and emotional growth?
Developing a sense of emotional and behavioral self-regulation.
Having the ability to respond to challenges in a productive way.
Developing key social and culturally-appropriate communication and interpersonal skills.
How can you promote social and emotional growth?
Ask a child, "Who can you talk to about your feelings?” “How do you take care of yourself when you’re not feeling your best?”
Help children name their feelings as they talk and ask what they feel like.
Remember that disagreements in peer groups are normal.
Show children how to disagree respectfully and productively.
Schools can implement a social and emotional learning curriculum.
Make time for open play with friends and siblings that the children lead.
Encourage social connection the same way you encourage eating healthy foods or exercising.
Games can be fun ways to build positive experiences and learn about each other.
River of Connection Game
River of Connection Game
The questions and activities focus on the four building blocks of HOPE
Relationships
Engagement
Environment
Emotional Growth
These building blocks are key types of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) that all children need to thrive.
Play with your family and friends to learn about each other and our environment.
Created by HOPE Facilitators Beth Crispin and Faith Eakin from the Family Connection’s Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Instructions
Players
Families
Classroom
Work Teams
Any two or more people
The board game is available to download and print (best printed on 11 x 17 paper).
Use small objects such as rocks or crayons for moving pieces.
Half of the sheet is designed to be a coloring sheet.
The questions and activities focus on the four building blocks of HOPE
Creating Moments of Hope: Building Block Game
Building Block Game
The dice represent each of the HOPE Building Blocks
Relationships
Engagement
Environment
Emotional Growth
Each side of the dice has an activity.
Many of the activities are screen-free.
Pick a day of the week or time of day to roll the dice and do an activity together.
Having the entire family participate allows for more face-to-face interactions.
Instructions:
Players: a family, a classroom or any two people.
Look at the PDF Templates and Instructions.
Make your dice by cutting out each building block, following the dotted lines.
Fold it to make a 3D square.
You can tape it around any 3D square object you already own.
The youngest player chooses a Building Block to roll.
Whatever comes up on the block is the activity everyone does together.
If you roll the title of the block (Relationships, Engagement, Environment, Emotional Growth), you create your own activity or roll again.
There is a blank pattern to create your own custom building block.
Resource: Moments of Hope Game
The information and images on this page come from the HOPE Program at Tufts Medical Center.
All activities are available in other languages; follow the link to the HOPE Program website.
Content and images on this page are adapted from the Hope Program at Tufts Medical Center.
All activities are available in other languages at the Hope Program Website.
Information provided by CPCMG Behavioral Health Committee HB M.D., reviewed by CPCMG Patient Education Committee SC MD | 03/2026