Thompson's Article Summary

In the case of many inner city youth who are often confronted with numerous external stressors (i.e. low-income urban setting) and developmental stressors, they

Perry’s cases address issues in which traumatic experiences has on human development. In his first case, Tina, a seven-year-old girl, was molested by her babysitter’s son at the age of four and ended when she was six. Tina’s school had insisted that she be evaluated due to her aggressive and inappropriate behavior at school among her classmates. She had attacked her classmates, exposed herself, used sexual language as well as tried to engage her classmates in sexual play. Tina also failed to pay attention in class and refused to follow directions (Perry & Szalavitz, 2006). As Dr. Perry continued to work with Tina, he came to believe that like the rats in his experiment, Tina’s stress response systems was being repeatedly activated due to the trauma in which she endured while her brain was still developing, which “caused a cascade of altered receptors, sensitivity and dysfunction in her brain, resulting in developmental trauma” (Perry & Szalavitz, 2006, p.24). Dr. Perry felt that Tina’s attention and impulse problems were a result of the change in the organization of her stress response system. Tina’s overactive stress system caused her to pay more attention to people’s faces, thus, watching for threatening situations, therefore, paying less attention to the lessons being taught. Her alertness to potential threatening situations also made Tina more prone to fights. Over the course of three years, Tina learned how to control her impulsive behavior as well

Throughout life, both children and adults experience varying amounts of stress in their everyday lives. For the most part, this has been proven to be healthy and crucial in strengthening their response to such stimuli later in life. This paper will focus on the findings of various studies in which researchers have found links between stress exposure and childhood development. Specifically, this paper will focus on the effects of what is known as toxic stress and its effects on the development of a child and its role in the development of mental disorders as the child transitions into adulthood.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct library research on early childhood trauma and its effects on brain development. This paper will discuss the consequences of early childhood trauma, specifically the manner in which it impacts brain development. Included will be a discussion of What tends to happen to people who experience early childhood trauma. Within the paper will be a description of the consequences of this type of trauma for the urban individual, family, community, or culture. This paper will then identify two of the most effective, evidenced based practice treatment models utilized for survivors of this form of trauma.

In today’s world, many people witness all these mass shootings, through their local news or through their own reliable source, and all these things that could easily make someone become very depressed. Unfortunately when some people become depressed or when things in life start to go severely downhill, alas, they turn to suicide instead of trying to get help from a dependable person. This happened to Hunter S. Thompson who committed suicide on February 20th, 2005. He was killed by what was diagnosed as a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Hunter S. Thompson was a penman and a politician, born in Louisville, Kentucky, who would go on to adventure all throughout the world, run for Sheriff in a Pitkin county, in the state of Colorado.

However, to understand the impact of adversity on young children’s development and learning, our genes supply the basic blueprint for brain development. “Thus, toxic stress in early childhood not only is a risk factor for later risky behavior but also can be a direct source of biological injury or disruption that may have lifelong consequences independent of whatever circumstances might follow later in life (Shonoff and Garner, 2012, page 238). Poverty, neglect, or family stress can make it especially difficult for young children to develop the self-discipline and habits of mind they will need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Researchers have found that chronic, sustained stress, such as that caused by neglect, abuse, or deprivation,

The article discusses how that adversity and harsh conditions during the early childhood can have strong psychological effects that can harm an individual causing throughout their life. The article discusses how early environmental influences can affect an individual’s learning abilities as well as having a permanent effect on the individual’s adult behavior.

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 ACE Study was designed to answer the question: “If risk factors for disease, disability, and early mortality are not randomly distributed, what early life influences precede the adoption or development of them (preventchildabuse.org)?” Adverse Childhood Experience does not evoke preconceived notions or biases about the perpetrators or victims of child abuse, domestic violence, or persons with mental health or substance abuse issues. The term “adverse” implies stress. However, the biologic stress response is largely responsible for the negative impact of ACEs on brain development. “Experiences” was the term chosen rather than “Environment” because the latter term can imply exposure to environmental toxins. As framed by the study, “Childhood” refers to the first 18 years of life (preventchildabuse.org).

Two factors correlating mental health and child development are abuse and neglect. All forms of abuse from physical, sexual, and emotional have a great impact on the consciousness of a child. Due to the damage abuse causes in their psychological development, children express themselves through their emotions and behavior (Mondal & Das, 2014). The physical aspect is the first thing that comes to mind when we come across the word abuse. It does not only stop at the visible scars and bruises, children can also be abused emotionally. Naturally, a child gravitates their biological mother, when the love and nurturing is absent and instead the void

Collectively, these factors of his childhood could have derailed the healthy development of Chikatilo’s body and brain, because they provided toxic stress that excessively stimulated his stress response system (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child [NSCDC] 2014, p. 1). This can change the architecture of the brain because the fear, anxiety, and impulse regions of the brain may overproduce neural connections, while the regions dedicated to reasoning, planning, and behaviour control will consequently be able to produce fewer connections (p. 2). Persistent fear and anxiety also has the potential to affect learning, and health across the lifespan (p. 1), as well as how people solve problems and relate to other people (NSCDC, 2010a,

Jack P. Shonkoff, argues that high levels cortisol in the brain result in a high-stress childhood which prepares the child for a high-risk environment. “The cortisol affects brain structures so that those individuals are on a fight-or-flight hair trigger throughout life” Dr. Shankoff calls this “toxic stress” he describes it as one way that poverty regenerates. “Moms in poverty often live in stressful homes while juggling a thousand challenges, and they are disproportionately likely to be teenagers, without a partner to help out. A baby in such an environment is more likely to grow up with a brain bathed in cortisol.” Overall if we give poor families necessities and not just money and increase the accessibility of birth control we can decrease the poverty rate tremendously.

Poverty and how it can affect a child’s education and how attachment with a parental figure can affect a child’s education are two major claims made by Tough. Tough believes in general children who come from stressful environments and insecure attachments tend to do worse in school in comparison to others. Children who are surrounded by stressful situations in their home environment tend to be distracted emotionally, thus leading to their poor performance in school. In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, stress psychologists described how the part of the brain that is critical in self-regulatory, cognitive and emotional responses is the part that is mainly affected by early stress. Using this information, Burke Harris conducted a study where she assigned ACE scores to thousands of patients based on childhood trauma including growing up in an abusive home. Based upon these results, Burke Harris found a powerful correlation relating ACE scores and people’s performance in school (17). In order to make sense of this information, McEwen described

Vulnerability and resilience among children continues to be a popular topic in research of developmental psychology. The two definitions are closely tied together as they are considered both sides to the spectrum. Schaffer (2006) defines vulnerability and resilience “as the susceptibility to develop malfunctioning following exposure to stressful life events, as opposed to the capacity to maintain competent functioning stress”. If stressful life events are the trigger here, why is it that some children are far more vulnerable, yet others are more resilient? The three studies discussed in this paper will attempt to explain why these differences occur and what can we do to enhance protective factors.

According to the article, “Stress and Child Development” (2014) by Ross Thompson, stress is defined as “a complex psychobiological process with biological, emotional, mental, and behavioral consequences, all of which influence one another” (Thompson, 2014, p.46). Thompson’s research provided insight into helping children who suffer from stress, and cope with this stress through neurobiological processes, including two-generation and multi-generation intervention, which includes parents, teachers, relatives and grandparents or anyone who provides care for these children. Thompson’s research found that children who grow up in a loving environment are less stressful, and when confronted with stress, these children cope with stress better than children who live in a non-loving environment. Thompson suggested that stress is brought on when an individual feels threatened or when her or she feels surrounded by, or in immediate danger, thus, emphasizing how a child’s social experiences plays a key role in the development of a child’s neurological systems as well as his or her biological system (Thompson, 2014). Thompson’s research of Hurricane Katrina found that children whose parents could no longer provide care for their children faired much worse than children whose parents provided care, as it relates to stress. Thompson’s study of a Romanian orphanage found that the sooner a child was adopted into a loving environment, the sooner a child learned how to cope and