Child Maltreatment and Brain Development

Understanding the Effects of Abuse on Neurological Development

Sep 20, 2009

Maltreatment can impair brain development and intellect, delay development of skills such as walking and speaking, and cause physical disabilities.

Neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse have profound and long-term effects on a child's development. In a 2003, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry article entitled “Long-term effects of childhood abuse on brain and neurobiology,” it was reported that early emotional abuse can distort the processes of attachment and affective development. Child abuse and neglect could also impair the individual’s capacity to develop appropriate emotional responses, leading to lifelong emotional and social difficulties.

Neurological Effects of Abuse and Neglect

The effects of experiences during infancy and early childhood on brain development create the basis for the expression of intelligence, emotions and personality. When these early experiences are primarily negative, children may develop emotional, behavioural and learning problems that persist throughout their lifetime, especially if targeted interventions are lacking.

For instance, children who have experienced chronic abuse and neglect during their first few years may live in a persistent state of hyper-arousal or dissociation, anticipating a threat from every direction. Their ability to benefit from social, emotional and cognitive experiences may be impaired. In order to learn and incorporate new information, whether from the classroom or a new social experience, the child’s brain must be in a state of “attentive calm” – one that the traumatized child rarely achieves (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry).

Children who have not been able to develop healthy attachments with their caregivers, and whose early emotional experiences, through their impact on the brain, have not laid the necessary groundwork for positive emotional development, may have a limited capacity for empathy. The ability to feel remorse and empathy are built on experience. In the extreme case, if a child feels no emotional attachment to any human being, that child cannot be expected to feel remorse for hurting or even killing someone.

Early interpersonal experiences have a profound impact on the brain because the brain circuits responsible for social perception are the same as those that integrate such functions as the creation of meaning, the regulation of body states, the regulation of emotion, the organization of memory, and the capacity for interpersonal communication and empathy. Stressful experiences that are overtly traumatizing or chronic cause chronic elevated levels of neuroendocrine hormones. High levels of these hormones can cause permanent damage to the hippocampus, which is critical for memory (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry).

The effect of early abuse and neglect on the child can be seen in several critical areas of development. These areas include emotional regulation, behavioral regulation, attachment, biology, response flexibility, a coherent integrated sense of self across time, the ability to engage in affect attunement with significant others (empathy and emotional connectedness, self-concept, cognitive abilities and learning, and conscience development).

Provocative Behaviours

If maltreated children are unable to experience relief through numbing, they may exhibit more provocative behaviors in order to initiate the numbing process that can quiet their fears of more maltreatment. Some of the provocative behaviors include aggression and inflicting harm to others, inflicting harm to themselves such as mutilation and suicide, and behaving in antisocial ways that result in harsh punishments.

The effects of early maltreatment on a child's development are profound and long lasting. The major providers of early childhood experiences are parents. Supporting and strengthening the family will increase the likelihood of optimal childhood experiences. It is important to understand that the brain altered in destructive ways by trauma and neglect can also be altered in reparative, healing ways. Exposing the child, over and over again, to developmentally appropriate experiences is the key. With adequate repetition, this therapeutic healing process will influence those parts of the brain altered by developmental trauma.

The copyright of the article Child Maltreatment and Brain Development in Abuse is owned by Kimberley Powell. Permission to republish Child Maltreatment and Brain Development in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.