Professor Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center of the Developing Child at Harvard University, and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, has been talking about the profound effects parents have on their young children when he mentions the "Still Face Experiment". Done by developmental psychologist Edward Tronick, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, the tests illustrate how a parent's interactions with his or her child can have a powerful effect.
In one of the YouTube videos on Still Face Experiment viewed by millions, a mother is seen cooing, talking and laughing with her one-year-old child. But when the mother suddenly stops responding, the child immediately registers something is amiss and with increasing desperation tries to win back the mother's attention. When all else fails, the baby collapses in tears.
In one of the YouTube videos on Still Face Experiment viewed by millions, a mother is seen cooing, talking and laughing with her one-year-old child. But when the mother suddenly stops responding, the child immediately registers something is amiss and with increasing desperation tries to win back the mother's attention. When all else fails, the baby collapses in tears.
Professor Shonkoff refers to these experiments to explain "toxic stress"--- a term he famously coined in the last decade to describe the chronic stress suffered by children who face various adversities in childhood. Just like in the earlier part of the video, when the interactions between a mother and child are positive, it helps fuel an explosion of neural circuits in the infant, linking disparate parts of the brain and growing stronger as learning and experiences reinforce connections.
The child's interactions with her parents--- being fed, hugged, cooed at, sung to--- send electrical impulses shooting through the developing circuits of her brain, strengthening pathways and inciting new synapses to grow. At its peak, the cerebral cortex region of an infant's brain can produce two millions new synapses every second. All this develops the child's capacity to think, learn and process emotions. A whole host of problems arise when interactions between parent and child are poor, or worse, non-existent.
Referring to the second part of the video, when the child is stressed by the mother's sudden unresponsiveness, Prof Shonkoff says: when a young child's stress response systems are activated within an environment of supportive relationships with adults, these psychological effects are buffered and brought back down to baseline. The result is the development of healthy stress response systems. But in situations of chronic neglect or abuse, where there is no adult presence to comfort and calm the child, her stress response can stay elevated. And, over some time, this turns into toxic stress, which research has shown can impair a child's capacity to learn, and even her physical and mental health. The effect can last a lifetime! Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood (reference: The Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE, Study in US, 2014).
Prof Shonkoff says toxic stress affects the learning capacity of children, which subsequently leads to under-performance in school, and stunts growth in parts of the brain. It affects the prefrontal cortex. the area of the brain most closely associated with "executive function" skills, which are not the same as intelligence but encompass abilities crucial to learning, such as paying attention and following directions. Neuroscience has shown that emotional experiences, the quality of relationships that children have with the important people in their lives and the interactions and feelings that go with those relationships actually influence learning.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining. Research has found there are ways to lessen toxic stress. The best and most effective way is to reduce the chances of young children being exposed to extremely stressful conditions, such as recurrent abuse, chronic neglect and violence at home. It is also critical to intervene early, in the crucial window when the brain is developing. There's a lot of research that suggests that we must start early, even before a child is born. That means telling about-to-be mothers about the dangers of drug use, alcohol and tobacco.
Studies have found that mothers rated as being particularly responsive and nurturing had babies whose cortisol patterns were much more likely to be normal, regardless of whether they lived in poverty or chaos. Having a nurturing mother almost completely mitigated the developmental damage that, in other children, correlated with stress. However, it is not required for mothers to respond to their children 100 per cent of the time or be constantly "in sync" with their children, responding to their every move, as they say. Moving in and out of sync with their babies is not only normal, but can also be a positive learning experience for both parent and child.
Therefore, parents of young children or parents-to-be should be aware of the toxic stress and its detrimental consequences on the brain development and learning process, to enable their children to grow into emotionally and socially stable individuals.
The child's interactions with her parents--- being fed, hugged, cooed at, sung to--- send electrical impulses shooting through the developing circuits of her brain, strengthening pathways and inciting new synapses to grow. At its peak, the cerebral cortex region of an infant's brain can produce two millions new synapses every second. All this develops the child's capacity to think, learn and process emotions. A whole host of problems arise when interactions between parent and child are poor, or worse, non-existent.
Referring to the second part of the video, when the child is stressed by the mother's sudden unresponsiveness, Prof Shonkoff says: when a young child's stress response systems are activated within an environment of supportive relationships with adults, these psychological effects are buffered and brought back down to baseline. The result is the development of healthy stress response systems. But in situations of chronic neglect or abuse, where there is no adult presence to comfort and calm the child, her stress response can stay elevated. And, over some time, this turns into toxic stress, which research has shown can impair a child's capacity to learn, and even her physical and mental health. The effect can last a lifetime! Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood (reference: The Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE, Study in US, 2014).
Prof Shonkoff says toxic stress affects the learning capacity of children, which subsequently leads to under-performance in school, and stunts growth in parts of the brain. It affects the prefrontal cortex. the area of the brain most closely associated with "executive function" skills, which are not the same as intelligence but encompass abilities crucial to learning, such as paying attention and following directions. Neuroscience has shown that emotional experiences, the quality of relationships that children have with the important people in their lives and the interactions and feelings that go with those relationships actually influence learning.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining. Research has found there are ways to lessen toxic stress. The best and most effective way is to reduce the chances of young children being exposed to extremely stressful conditions, such as recurrent abuse, chronic neglect and violence at home. It is also critical to intervene early, in the crucial window when the brain is developing. There's a lot of research that suggests that we must start early, even before a child is born. That means telling about-to-be mothers about the dangers of drug use, alcohol and tobacco.
Studies have found that mothers rated as being particularly responsive and nurturing had babies whose cortisol patterns were much more likely to be normal, regardless of whether they lived in poverty or chaos. Having a nurturing mother almost completely mitigated the developmental damage that, in other children, correlated with stress. However, it is not required for mothers to respond to their children 100 per cent of the time or be constantly "in sync" with their children, responding to their every move, as they say. Moving in and out of sync with their babies is not only normal, but can also be a positive learning experience for both parent and child.
Therefore, parents of young children or parents-to-be should be aware of the toxic stress and its detrimental consequences on the brain development and learning process, to enable their children to grow into emotionally and socially stable individuals.
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