This blog post couldn’t be more timely with what is going on with the migrant children at the border. Severe adversity (trauma) has lasting effects on a child’s brain before the age of 5. Trauma affects children for the rest of their lives. Extensive research has proven that over and over. However, we can be a safe place to land for children.
- How can you help as a community member, parent, or grandparent?
- Provide nurturing opportunities and environments
- Increase your knowledge of parenting and child development
- Support programs like Partners In Learning that provides parent support and education programs.
- Build social connections
- Look for opportunities to form concrete supports for parents
Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect, and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.