Child Development
Research has recently shown that children who suffer from neglect or abuse early in their lives are likely to have intellectual and social deficits later in life. There is also a direct correlation between the duration of abuse and the degree of impairment – the longer a child is abused the greater her deficits will be. Conversely, the sooner a child is removed from a neglectful or abusive environment, the greater the chance for improvement. Furthermore, abused children’s brains are smaller than those of non-abused kids and males are more adversely affected by these size disparities than females. Decreased brain size signals increased incidence of prost-traumatic and behavioral symptoms. In fact, neurons in the brains of some abused children have been found to look like those of late-stage alcoholics and adults with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Besides brain development, there is yet another critical process that must take place in infancy if a child is to grow up to be a mentally and physically healthy adult. An infant’s ability to build a stable, positive sense of self and to recognize social norms and values hinges on the quality of his early relationships – especially the one he shares with his mother.
