I thought it was interesting how the first two years of life
are so important to a child’s developing brain. This is when the synaptic connections
wire the brain. Motor, sensory, and cognitive skills develop. It is what
Erikson’s theory refers to the stage of ‘Trust vs. Mistrust.’ This is crucial
time when experiences shape the child’s personality. Since infants depend on their
caregiver it is caregiver’s responsibility to provide positive interaction with
the child. Smiling and holding the child helps create a secure connection. This
is very important in connecting synapse in the brain that deal with emotions,
empathy, and cognitive skills. For example if a child is neglected and no one
attends to them when they cry, they become fearful. This has a huge impact on
the child’s later development if these needs are continually not meet by the
time the infant reaches two years of age. It permanently deletes connections in
the brain that deal with trust, empathy, and emotions. It is almost impossible
to reverse these effects later in life.
This made think of how being home with my son the first
years of his life helped develop his emotional stability. I knew that we had developed
a secure connection by his reaction when I first left him with a babysitter.
This was proven by him trusting me to leave him there. He did not cry and was
not mad at me when I picked him up. If secure trust was not there he would have
been angry when I dropped him off or picked him up. This also made me think of daughter who is 8 weeks old. The pediatrician told me to let her cry in the middle of the night, a little longer each night and that would help with her sleeping through the night. I tried it for two nights and made her so upset that it was nearly impossible to put her back to sleep. I now feel like this was misguided information given by the pediatrician and sounds like it could have lead to trust issues with my daughter.
I would like to know more about adoptive children. I now
understand why adoptive parents are presented with more problems, but what can
they do to help rewire the brain?
I agree with you about the trust issues if you would have continued to follow the information provided by your doctor. I have two daughters, one who is 24 and one who is 19. When they were infants I felt it was extremely important to comfort them when they cried (even if you're exhausted and it's 2:00 a.m.). I'm not saying your doctor is wrong, but I feel like we need to trust our "gut" (intuition) as mothers. Usually, (unless something is wrong with the mother) we, as mothers are so in tune to our children's needs, we instinctively know how to respond to them. Keep up the good work!!
ReplyDeleteI would like to adopt in the future, currently I don't have children, but it does make me nervous that I wouldn't be able to create a trusting environment for my child. Maybe through therapy you could start rebuilding trust, but I don't think there is ever a way to rewire the brain. It does make sense that people try and adopt younger children more often but my heart goes out to all of the older children who need homes.
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