ACEs and Beyond- Introducing the DOVE ACEs Framework for Understanding Developmental Adversity, Movement, and Fall Risk Across the Lifespan v1.0

ACEs and Beyond: Introducing the DOVE ACEs Framework for Understanding Developmental Adversity, Movement, and Fall Risk Across the Lifespan What if some of the most influential experiences of early life are not remembered as events, but expressed as adaptations? The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework transformed our understanding of how childhood adversity influences lifelong health. Yet many formative developmental experiences occur before the maturation of autobiographical memory and may therefore remain invisible to conventional ACE assessments. This paper introduces the DOVE ACEs Framework—Developmental Overwhelm, Vulnerability, and Exclusion—as a conceptual extension of traditional and expanded ACE models. Drawing upon developmental neuroscience, attachment research, somatic trauma theory, biomechanics, and biotensegrity, the framework proposes that early developmental experiences may become embedded within procedural, autonomic, emotional, and sensorimotor systems, influencing posture, gait, balance, movement behavior, and fall risk across the lifespan. The paper advances a central hypothesis: that movement may serve as a repository of developmental adaptation. Rather than viewing posture and locomotion solely as biomechanical phenomena, the DOVE ACEs framework explores the possibility that certain movement patterns reflect long-term adaptive strategies shaped by early experiences of regulation, safety, vulnerability, and social connection. Topics explored include: • Developmental adversity occurring before explicit autobiographical memory• Procedural and somatic memory as mechanisms of adaptation• The relationship between developmental experience and movement behavior• Fear of falling, locomotor efficiency, and gait adaptation• Biotensegrity and whole-body force regulation• Vaulting Gait, Gliding Gait, and the Constant Velocity Index (CVI) as candidate models for future investigation• Implications for rehabilitation, trauma-informed care, fall prevention, and public health The DOVE ACEs framework is presented as a theoretical and hypothesis-generating model rather than an established empirical theory. Its purpose is to stimulate interdisciplinary research and dialogue among investigators in developmental neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, trauma studies, rehabilitation science, biomechanics, kinesiology, gerontology, public health, and movement science. Whether ultimately supported, modified, or refuted, the framework raises a fundamental question: To what extent might the body remember developmental adversity through patterns of regulation, posture, gait, and movement that persist throughout life?