Parental care shapes early childhood development. Neglect, the lack of adequate parental care, is a serious threat to early childhood development. Overexposure to stress – “toxic stress” – undermines development, while strong relationships with parents provide protection and build resilience.
1. Mechanics of early childhood development, key concepts
Brain
The human brain, from prenatal It develops continuously throughout childhood development into adulthood. Like the construction of a building, the foundations are laid early. The brain is built from the bottom up in clearly defined developmental stages. This is why early support for development is so important. A stronger foundation not only means that the child is further ahead at a given time, but also means that learning and development can progress more quickly in the future.
Early childhood development sees the brain developing extremely rapidly. Billions of new connections are created every hour between neurons in different parts of the brain. Following this rapid proliferation, brain development shifts towards efficiency. Some neural connections are made stronger and faster, and others are pruned and lost. Meanwhile, the brain forms more complex connections in later childhood and adolescence that are associated with more advanced skills.
Brain development fundamentally shapes early child development stages. More basic capacities such as vision, hearing and touch develop earlier. Next comes the development of more complex capacities such as communication, understanding facial expressions, reasoning, and decision-making. Higher level skills, such as maintaining attention, setting goals, following rules, solving problems, and controlling impulses, begin to develop in early childhood and continue into adolescence.
Children's experiences of the world—how they see, hear, and feel, and how they relate to parents and other caregivers—shape every aspect of the brain's development. This strengthens some circuits and allows others to fade away. Some neural connections are strengthened by experience, while others are pruned.
Genetics and epigenetics
The genes that children receive from their mothers and fathers s give them certain predispositions and sensitivities that influence early child development. For example, some children naturally experience less fear than others, and those who are less fearful may be less prone to long-term anxiety and depression.
Experiences in the world, including relationships within family and society, can influence how genes are activated rather than the genes themselves. Positive and negative experiences result in the production of proteins that regulate gene activity, creating temporary or permanent changes in the “epigenome.” These epigenetic changes in the way genes are expressed can be inherited by the next generation. For example, children of men and women who survived the Holocaust inherited epigenetic changes associated with response to extreme stress.
2.Domains of early child development
Although researchers are still debating how to define the different components of early childhood development, a number of concepts have become mainstream in the field .
The three most discussed areas of development arecognitive (thinking), social and emotional. Research has shown that these are closely interconnected. Their development is associated with neural activity throughout the brain.
Links can also be seen in children's behavior. For example, children develop thinking skills through relationships with caregivers. A child with high social skills will generally develop cognitive skills faster.
3. Basic skills, the foundations of which are laid in early childhood:
Self-regulation
The brain's brain called the amygdala In part, it is an automatic and impulsive response to risk and danger, commonly known as the "fight or flight response." Self-regulation is the ability to bring a more conscious response to a situation and figure out how to respond in the moment. More deliberate responses can counteract the initial fight or flight instinct. The ability to regulate emotion is a vital skill acquired in early childhood, in part, through engagement with caregivers.
Executive function
Executive function is a function of learning and development that occurs in early child development. It is a set of skills that form the foundations of interacting well with others. Researchers have divided executive function into several different skills:
Working memory- storing and using information for short periods of time.
Mental flexibility(or cognitive flexibility) - ability to adapt quickly in response to external stimuli. Self-control(or inhibitory control) - resisting impulsive behavior. Maintaining focus and attention throughout a task.
Solving problems.
To comply with the rules.
Setting goals.
Delaying "immediate gratification" for greater reward later.
Developing executive function is an important part of early childhood development stages. By the age of three, basic executive functions come into play - remembering and applying simple rules. Skills largely develop between the ages of three and five, but continue to develop into adolescence.
These more advanced stages of early child development involve increasing speed and efficiency of neural circuits acting in different parts of the brain.
4.Parental care shapes early child development
Responsive care and experience of the world from parents, the wider family and everyone involved in a child's life shapes children's development . Researchers coined the term “serve and return” to describe reciprocal actions with parents and caregivers.
Multiple relationships enhance social and emotional development by improving the child's ability to maintain strong relationships in the future. A child who has more than one stable, caring relationship has a strong
advantage. Conversely, a child who does not even have a stable and responsive relationship is at a serious disadvantage.
Researchers have used the term "scaffolding" to describe the environment caregivers can create for children to practice their skills. Scaffolding involves establishing routines, modeling social behaviors, enabling imaginative play, facilitating social connection, and encouraging physical exercise. r.
5.Threats to healthy early child development: neglect and toxic stress
Neglect
Worldwide The most common risk to children is a lack of responsive care, known as neglect: 78% of all cases of child maltreatment in the world involve neglect, which can have a more harmful effect on early child development than physical abuse.
Like physical abuse, neglect severely disrupts the development of the brain in early childhood by depriving children of appropriate relationships, thus altering the development of biological stress-response systems. Neglect is associated with a host of poor outcomes in children's later lives – mental health, physical health, social relationships and educational achievement.
Toxic stress
Stress is a normal and important part of early child development as part of learning how to cope with challenges. A threat triggers physiological changes associated with the hormone cortisol, which promotes a rapid response to reduce danger. A child exposed to simple stresses and protected by strong relationships with adults learns to cope with stress and regulate the stress response system. Strong relationships can also mitigate the potentially damaging effects of high stress levels caused by events such as the death of a loved one, serious injury, or a local disaster.
Excessive and prolonged stress, called toxic stress, is not a normal part of early child development. Examples of toxic stress include physical and emotional abuse, chronic neglect, inadequate care due to drugs or mental illness, persistent poverty, and long-term exposure to violence.
Exposure to chaos and constant threat impairs the development of self-regulation, trapping children in an instinctive fight and flight response. Toxic stress that undermines early childhood developmental stages is associated with many adverse outcomes later in life.
Building resilience through relationships
Relationships with caregivers are key to protecting children from the negative effects of stress. Such care early in life can prevent or prevent the harmful effects of toxic stress. It can even reverse.
Resilience occurs when a child exposed to stress also has access to trusting and nurturing relationships. A child's increased physiological response to stress can be restored by establishing a relationship with a caring adult. Exposure to stress in the presence of a caring adult can help the child feel some control in the situation and develop self-regulation.
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