Little Children Most Vulnerable to Violence
October 26, 2012 6 Comments
Early experiences have formative effects a child’s developing brain. We often imagine that little children are resilient and that they don’t remember early experiences. We are learning that resilience is developed through consistent, patterned, repetitive interactions with a loving and safe care giver. Even though little children may not remember early experiences, these experiences inform brain development. Violence can activate the stress response in small children, particularly if there is no loving caregiver to soothe them. Caregivers are the “mitigating influence” that can prevent a toxic stress response in the brain. It is not the event itself that is necessarily traumatic, but rather the ability of the child to tolerate the stress.
Children cannot tolerate stress on their own. They depend upon the calming and soothing capability of their primary caregiver.
So when that caregiver is the source of threat (by spanking or yelling at the child), or the caregiver is threatened themselves (such as domestic violence), the child cannot effectively self soothe. If the child is subjected to situations where they cannot self soothe, it can put the child’s brain in a constant state of arousal. This state of arousal, if prolonged, can be toxic. Because small children’s brains are developing at such a rapid pace, a toxic stress response has a much greater impact. This is why spanking/hitting small children is so incredibly dangerous. This runs counter to the cultural belief that a little smack on the diaper isn’t a problem. The younger the child, the greater the developmental risk.
What may seem like just a tap or a smack,
is experienced by the brain as a threat.
Preschool age children cope in large part through sensory soothing – touch, smell, movement, sound/music, taste/eating/sucking and facial expressions. Their ability to sooth with words can be highly dependent upon how upset, hungry, overstimulated or tired they are. The more upset, the more dependent they become on somatic soothing. Any threat to their somatic experience fundamentally undermines their ability to cope. Spanking is a serious threat to the somatic equilibrium of the child. The negative effects are not readily seen in the moment, but can show up later on, days, months and even years later – sometimes as late as adolescence.
The bottom line is, we must prevent violence early on. Negative experiences and toxic stress alter brain development the most pervasively in younger children, and these neurological changes are enduring and can be extremely difficult to change later on.
Understanding how important early experiences are, consider these alarming facts:
A third of all parents spank babies under one years old
Over half of all toddlers are spanked three or more times a week
On average children are spanked until age 12