Stress And Cognitive Development

The author gives exemplary examples of the short term and long term effects of stress. The author goes on to state that the short term effect is beneficial but the long term is not. “Mild stress can be beneficial. It can help you

In article How Kids Learn Resilience, Paul Tough argues that stress can push a child into a cycle of failure in school, harmfully impacting a child’s education and outside life. He claims that stress is apparent in every student’s life; however some have more and this stress has a direct connection on the child’s success both in school and out. Stress can be caused by many things, such as economic, family, or even social problems. The stress prevents a student from staying focused in school because they are distracted by other problems. Since they are not able to focus, they do not perform well at school, leading to bad grades, which leads to more stress. This cycle continues and the student is unable to learn as the workload gets more complicated.

Stress is a big factor in everyday life. It influences how we approach life and events. Stress is why people run tight schedules and diet regularly. The power stress has is a negative effect over our brain and our body. Many people do not understand how to cope with stress. Therefore, people suffer from physical illness due to stress. Learning is not taking place when someone undergoes stress.

There are three main types of stress that exists in childhood. These are positive stress, tolerable stress, and toxic stress. Positive stress often caused by brief events experienced by the child, such as disappointment or frustration, and is crucial to developing a healthy response to stressful environments. Tolerable stress is caused by an event which has a profound impact on the child’s life, such as losing a parent or a serious medical condition. Tolerable stress

By 24 weeks the vital organs of the fetus are well-formed and the brain has nearly its full complement of billions of neurons. Premature or full-term, at this age, the brain faces a lot of challenges. For that reason, a controlled environment helps them manage the world around them considering that what surrounds us affects the developing brain. The environment formulates on the developing brain but does not formulate on a blank slate. This also tells about the plasticity of the brain; how a developing structure is modifiable due to experience. I could tell that the special treatment baby Elizabeth received, made a difference to her brain. It influenced her reactions, sensations, and reflexes. The experiment the doctor did with her and a toy was an example of it when the toy really captured her attention. I think the doctors did a remarkable job with her and it was wonderful to see how connected they were. It is very interesting that the intensive care unit mimics the womb and that thanks to that the babies are able to confront the world and handle all these new stimulations a little bit better. They also emphasize the skin contact with the mother so they can feel close to her and relaxed at the same time which does her good because once the mother has the baby on her breast the brain and body connect and makes them feel

Such toxic stress can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan. Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development. The most effective prevention is to reduce exposure of young children to extremely stressful conditions. Research also indicates that supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults as early in life as possible can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of toxic stress response (Center on Developing Child, nd). By establishing clear lines of communication between adults and children, and home and school, parents and teachers can help to shape children’s perceptions in informed ways. During times of trouble, when emotions run high, parents and teachers can help children develop the skills necessary to manage their feelings, to confront unpleasant or adverse realities, and to acquire greater emotional stability. In order to support children in better understanding their world, adults may have to help them come to terms with circumstances that are frightening, confusing, overwhelming, or possibly unrelated to their past experience. By providing a safe and supportive environment and a healthy acceptance of all that is good in life, a calm and ready-to-listen adult can facilitate children’s well being, and help to alleviate the fear, dismay or confusion they may feel. In doing so, it is important to honor and nurture children’s sensitivity. Although parents and teachers cannot shelter children from all adversity, they are well positioned to help children learn about the imbalances in the world, to better comprehend their impact, and to find thoughtful ways to strike a comfortable and meaningful balance of their own (Foster & Matthews,

Talge, N. M., Neal, C, Glover, V., & the Early Stress, Translational Research Prevention Science Network: Fetal and Neonatal Experience on Child Adolescence Mental Health. (2007). Antenatal maternal stress and long-term effects on child neurodevelopment: How and why? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 245-261.

The neonatal unit is a unit that is designed to take care of premature infants. The nurses are not only taking care of the infants but also the parents. While parents have children in the neonatal unit their stress level is much higher. When a mother gives birth to her and her spouse’s child, she is experiencing

It has been documented that children undergoing surgery and their families experience high levels of distress and perioperative anxiety. Stress and perioperative anxiety have the potential to cause more harm on post-surgical healing, in consideration of both physical and mental health, if not addressed promptly and properly. Child Life Specialists are pediatric healthcare professionals who are able to provide interventions to help reduce anxiety and increase developmental growth within pediatric patients, provide family centered care, and facilitating therapeutic play interventions for pediatric patients, all the while in the hospital environment (Child Life Council, 2014). Child life specialists are able to meet these values and missions to create a standard of practice that the American Pediatric Association recommends in all pediatric healthcare settings (Child Life Council, 2014). Typically, when child life specialists are working with pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures they are able to participate as a part of the multidisciplinary health team to provide family centered care and increase a patient and their families understanding on the medical procedure at hand. A common intervention for pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures include medical play and medical preparation sessions.

A child’s early experiences have a lasting impact on their response to stress in their adult life. Early Childhood is a crucial time of a child’s life, from the age of conception to five years of age. Children are constantly growing and developing, physically and emotionally. A child that experiences prolonged or excessive stress become harmful and can lead to emotional distress and serious health effects.

It has been said that exposure to prenatal maternal stress can have lifelong consequences resulting in problems with child cognitive development and motor skills as young as the age of 16 months. The researchers that conducted this study hypothesized that the severity of objective hardship and subjective stress reactions would predict different aspects of child development.

It is well know that foster Children have a very hard time finding a permanent home and adjusting to their new home. The majority of foster children go through this process of finding a home at a very young age. For most of these children it occurs during very young age which is the most important time for develop mental processes. Therefore foster children are at risk of cognitive and social- emotional development delays. (Jacobson et. al 2013). As mentioned in the article “research has underscored the importance of early, nurturing caregiver environments on brain development, and the importance of positive brain-environment interaction during the first 2 years of life has also been documented by research on foster care and adoption”(Jacobson et. al 2013). The article currently looks at, specifically the issue of foster children’s cognitive development and social- emotional functioning specifically of children ages between 2 to 3 years of age. There has been previous research done on this article. A research done to look at this issue was one done in Romanian were 136 institutionalized children were randomly selected. These children were selected to continue to be institutionalized or placed in foster care. In this study, the foster parents were selected and trained,

Infants are very helpless and extraordinarily dependent. Their earliest behaviors are goal driven for gaining a caregiver to focus and engage reciprocity in their behavior (Sroufe, 2011). The infants task is to gain their survival needs and regulate fear and stress by creating contingent responses so that the world may be predictable and comprehensible (Sroufe, 2011). Regulating emotions can only occur in relationship with the parents; an infant is ill equipped to reduce arousal on their own (Seigel, date, Sroufe, 2011, cite.) The infants work is most effective when circumstances and contingent responses are anticipated and more challenging when they encounter unpredictability and transitions (Hughes, 2014).

We can have focused on bringing on by Cataclysmic occasions which, as indicated by Feldman are occasions that can influence numerous individuals in the meantime and are "calamities, for example, tornado and plane accidents, and terrorist assaults". Different components are close to home hassles and can be created by occasions, for example, a separation, passing or a friend or family member or the departure of a vocation. The other class is the thing that Feldman alludes to as foundation hassles and are the things that affect our everyday life. (Feldman, 2009)

Phillips, R. (2010). How Firm is Our Foundation? Current Play Therapy research. International Journal of PLay Therapy, 19(1), 13-25.