The effects of trauma in early childhood can have a staggering affect on a child’s development. …show more content…
It can also come as a result of injuries not seen by the naked eye in the form of physiological maltreatment. “Physiological maltreatment occurs when parents or other caregivers harm children’s behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or physical functioning” (Feldman, 2014, p. 257). It can be the result of mental, physical, or emotional abuse. Although the signs are sometimes not as visible as they are with physical trauma the effects are just as damaging. Physiological maltreatment has been associated with low self-esteem, lying, misbehavior, underachievement in school, criminal behavior, aggression, and murder (Feldman, 2014). Additionally, it can lead to reductions in the size of the amygdala and hippocampus; thereby negatively affecting memory, decision making, and emotional …show more content…
In the same respect positive experiences can have contradictory affects on the brain’s development. The plasticity of the brain during these critical developing years is very susceptible to external forces; thereby enhancing the probability of positive development. The predisposition of faith based practices has been proven to significantly impact brain development in children. According to authors Roehlkepartian, King, Wagener, and Benson (2006), the faith development theory provides a general understanding that faith is perceived as a foundation to social relations, personal identity, and personal and cultural meanings. Consequently, faith is a foundation on which our cognitive skills, social skills, and emotional development can be built from.
Although the process of brain development and faith development are not necessarily parallel, as the brain develops and strengthens neurologic connections it also solidifies faith influenced perceptions of the outside world. Through the various stages of faith development children develop a sense of meaning based on an emotional perceptual ordering of experience that evolves into a permanent meaning by middle child hood (Roehlkepartian et al, 2006). Faith based activities, in turn, have the probability of encouraging positive behavior by creating positive experiences that are permanently etched in a child’s