Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

 

Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

     Sadly, some young children experience tragic life altering events that stems from adult problems. This unnecessary stress can cause unhealthy and delayed development for the child.

This problem hits close home for me because I am an example of this type of unfortunate stress on a young child. My stress was chaos, and this is one reason why I don’t like to talk about my childhood as I mentioned in an earlier assignment. Many events and details I just don’t remember, but I recall having three brothers and a big sister and we lived with our Mom and Dad. One day I realized that they were gone and my Dad was gone before them. It was just me and my Mom and I don’t know for how long, but before I knew it I was gone from my mother, but I was with my Dad and brothers in Michigan. Our older sister was in La, with our grandmother. I never understood what happened and to this day I am still not sure. After my mother died in late summer 2009, my Mom’s youngest sister told me a little of what happened. She told me that our father had taken us from our mother. When my brothers were taken I screamed, kicked and cried so much they thought that I was having a seizure, and our Mom cried and pleaded not to take the children and my Mom fell to the ground, and my aunt said that she was never the same after that. I was not taken that day he came back for me in one maybe two years after that I am not sure. After studying this course, I learned that from a stressor such as what I experienced as a child, my limbic system could have been damaged. This would cause learning and memory dysfunctions, and developing major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Berger, 2012). This could be an explanation as to why my learning is slower than others and my memory isn’t too strong, or why I’m sometimes antsy. I have always had to work a little harder than others, but I claim only good and positive things and thoughts about my abilities. I don’t know how I coped with this experience maybe because I chose to put it for back in my memory which is why I don’t remember the incident, and I’m sure my family loved me through the rest of it. My father is a wonderful person who looked after us well. He may have been advised incorrectly because I was also informed that he did not act alone. My father only wanted the best for each of his children, and I understand that, but sometimes the decisions that are made for the child may not be the best for that child and can cause the child more damage than the possible danger the adults are trying to shield the child from.

     Poverty, racism, isolation, noise, disease, hunger, violence, and so many other stressors is what many young children experience daily right here in the United States. We don’t have to look at other countries to find these problems and unfortunate circumstances they are lived out before our eyes. This is some children’s reality, so I want to know more about the children in my country. How do I help these children? They are the reason I am an educator. I want to help in every way I can. Some of the children right in our schools that we teach daily try to save some of their lunch for later in order to have something to eat at home. These problems can cause unhealthy development in the children’s biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial well-being. Maybe this is the main cause of students who are not making the grade and are not graduating which is a huge problem in our country and the fight has been on for years to find a solution. Maybe this is one of the open doors to how young teens drop out of school and join gangs continuing the life of violence they grew up seeing everyday a form of scaffolding because this is what they have to model (Berger, 2012). With such a problem, how could anyone not understand the importance and the urgency of need for early childhood education? Feed the Children Corporation, Early Childhood Education, and Head Start are a few tools to aid this problem that pelage us all, but are they fully supported? Is there more we could do to help the children because they aren’t the only persons affected by this destroyer?    

 

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood. (6^th Edition). New York NY.

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