From the desk of: Sandy Block-Hansen
To: Entrepreneur
Re: Children’s Mental Health
Date: Monday, September 17, 2018 at 10:58 p.m.
Dear Entrepreneur,
You have a golden opportunity to help your child’s brain develop. Connections between brain cells are formed intentionally.
Your child adds them as he or she grows, observes what goes on around him or her, and becomes actively involved in his or her world.
The following metaphors adapted from Frame Works Institute are intended to create a clear picture in your mind about what develops, how development happens, what disrupts it, and what positive results may look like.
These metaphors accentuate how learning social and emotional skills are just as important as cognitive skills toward a joyous, fulfilling life.
What develops? A metaphor for brain architecture:
Evidence-based research tells us that the basic architecture of a human brain is constructed through a process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Like the construction of a home, the building process begins with laying the foundation, framing the rooms, and wiring the electrical system. These processes need to happen in the exact, right order. Early experiences shape how the brain gets built. A strong foundation in the very early years increases the prospect of positive mental health. A weak foundation increases the odds of later challenges. Research validates using a “System of Care” approach to providing support for children’s mental health when they are young improves the likelihood of life-long success for your child.
How does it happen?
A metaphor for serve and return:
The interactive influences of genes and experience shape the developing brain. The active ingredient is the “serve and return” interactions that children have with parents and other caregivers in their family or community. Like the process of serve and return in a game such as volleyball, your child naturally reaches out for interaction through babbling and facial expressions. If you and other adults do not respond back to them by doing the same vocalizing and gesturing, your child’s learning process is incomplete. This has negative effects impacting later learning.
What disrupts it?
Metaphor: toxic stress
Neuroscientists state that certain kinds of stress in a child’s environment can lead to mental wellbeing concerns. Toxic stress in early childhood is caused by experiences such as extreme poverty, abuse, and chronic or severe maternal depression, of which can disrupt the developing brain, especially when children lack supports to protect against these harmful experiences. It’s vital to eliminate the stressors in children’s environments to forgo toxic stress that will affect their mental well-being.
Metaphor: resilience scale:
Just as the weight sitting on a scale affects the direction it tips, the risk or protective factors that a child is exposed to affect the results of his or her development. A child’s scale is placed in a community and has spaces on either side where environmental factors get placed. These factors influence which direction the scale tips and the result of the child’s development. Development goes well when the scale tips in the positive direction.
Positive factors, such as supportive relationships, all add up on one side, while risk factors such as abuse or violence, add up on the other. These factors are not of equal weight. Resilience occurs when the scale tips positive even though it’s piled up with negative weight. This happens when communities counterbalance the scale by adding protective factors like supportive relationships and opportunities to develop skills for adapting and thriving.
The fulcrum part of the scale also plays a considerable role in how the scale tips. Different scales have different places where this fulcrum starts, just like children who have different genetic beginning points. The fulcrum position influences how much positive weight it takes to tip the scale toward positive or negative results. Research shows the fulcrum is adjustable.
Your child’s experiences can cause the fulcrum to move in either direction, affecting how the scale tips. It’s necessary to remember that there are specific phases during development, where the fulcrum is especially adjustable. During these times, it’s vital that your child have positive experiences so his or her fulcrums can tip in the direction that will make him or her more able to bear negative experiences later in life.
To Your Child’s Success,
Sandy Block-Hansen
Article Content Contributor
About the Author:
Sandy Block-Hansen is the St. Francis Healthcare Campus Family Footprints Coordinator. A Catholic Health Initiative Mission and Ministry program created to support, inform, and offer resources to parents in the role of parenting. She can be reached at [email protected] or 218-643-0475.
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