Early relationships characterised by abuse and neglect have lasting effects on children. Overreacting to potential threat cues can cause one to miss positive social cues like a playful nudge, making it more difficult to negotiate stressful interactions and acquire confidence in new people, even in enjoyable situations like joining a new sports team.
These responses may make it more likely that further stressful occurrences will occur.
When a child lacks self-assurance and anxiety, they may struggle to meet the demands of daily life, and he or she may also have trouble forming and maintaining healthy relationships with others. This can lead to the premature loss of friends and the guidance of adults, which in turn can challenge the child’s personal development.
All children need care and encouragement from adults who value them and show them attention and love. These positive experiences shape a child’s brain development while traumatic experiences like abuse and neglect impact regions of the brain that are involved in emotion regulation, impulse control, and memory formation. These changes can increase the risk of mental health problems in later life. Hyper vigilance, in which the brain responds more to threat, may result from exposure to domestic violence or physical abuse.
It seems that after experiencing trauma, bad memories become more salient than happy ones, and daily recollections might become less detailed. This is a difficulty since we rely on our prior experiences to guide us through social settings.
Changing our perspective on children’s actions may lead to new responses, but there is still much to understand before we can create strategies that effectively foster resilience and healing. As adults, we may facilitate the development of children’s social skills and provide them with chances for their brains to learn and grow in new ways.
