Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

CHYS class 2 July 6
The science of early development/Impact of Adversity
-

-

-

-

-

A significant amount of brain development/growth occurs in the womb and beginning years of
life
o Babies are bombarded with information immediately, and this happens again in the
adolescent and early adulthood years
o The brain is very “plastic” and flexible in terms of learning
Head Start – early research on brain development started by this company/organization in the
60s
Genes and environment interact throughout brain development
o Nature & nurture
o Nutrition is important!!! As well as a reasonable living environment that is calm and
loving
o Environment and experience refines and enhances some connections as others are
eliminated
People require attachment
o Children who have not been able to attach to a caregiver/parent within the first 18
months will be more susceptible to difficulties in many areas of development and
behaviours
 Such as brain processing, communication, fear, connecting,
 We must be able to feel safe to develop healthily and ideally
Key relationships:
o Parents & family, peers, early caregivers and teachers, etc
o All relationships contribute to the child’s development and learning of social norms
o Relationships are very influential throughout the lifespan although are very important in
the early years
Three areas of particular importance:
o Neural development
 Neurons are responsible for message communication and information
processing
 Synapses: connection points between neuron cells to form pathways that are
then remembered and which indicate what needs to be done (smell, sound,
action/feelings = love, safety, as well as movement, etc)
 Reflex system
 Unused neurons decrease the synapses connection known as pruning
 Ex, if surrounded by uneventful, unloving, uneducating, etc
environments you will not build strength in those connections and will

o

o

lose the ability to develop them but they can be reignited but with more
difficulty
 Active and participant based learning to increase and maintain brain
functioning is essential in the early years, as well as movement and
interaction
 Variety in many sensory areas will allows for optimal development
 Early detection and treatment of problem areas results in more
effective recovery
Stress hormones
 Cortisol is a hormone that increases in response to stress & helps the brain
respond to stress and solve problems
 High quality nurturing = attachment provides us with a better chance to cope
with a situation
 Too much stress (cortisol) over long periods of time creates problems with
memory and self regulation
 The mind becomes overwhelmed and won’t be able to cope
 Good stress:
 Consistent parent or teacher security in play environments,
foreshadowing warnings about upcoming changes (routine & consistent
actions mean specific things), supportive changes
 Over stress:
 Unstable home environments, time restricted learning/fast-paced
environments, highly active/aggressive child reduces social success,
when there is an unknown about the outcome of a situation
 Chronic stress actually CHANGES the structure of the brain
 Diminishes attention, impulse control (self regulation), fine motor
control, sleep
 Constant state of hyper arousal
 Extreme deprivation (extreme anything, really) = smaller brains
 Increased production of hormones: adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine
when these hormones are excessively high for extended periods become toxic
to the brain
 Every event is perceived as life or death and even neutral situations are
perceived as threatening
 Toxic stress: one has an ongoing difficulty function when exposed to
‘good’ people – kindness, nurturing, stimulation, etc – it is an unfamiliar
world to them and the brain has not developed the pathways and
memories to this new world
o Children who are immersed to too many bad things cannot
handle good things
Brain specialization

-

-

-

 Self-regulating, problem-solving, language/communication, social bonding
Brain function:
o Most vigorous growth, pruning, connecting, and activity occurs between 1
...
Nurture:
-

Nature = biological
Nurture = environmental
*****ON QUIZ – examples of each



---