How Stress Affects Child Development
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STRESS Stress can affect anyone of any age who feels under pressure or overwhelmed. However, the impact on children can be more significant due to their early cognitive, emotional, and behavioral maturity.
SIGNS OF STRESS Stress can manifest itself when there is difficulty sleeping, changes in appetite, poor school performance, abnormal increase or decrease in physical activity, tiredness, apathy, fatigue, relationship problems, sadness, or irritability. These symptoms, combined with situations of change, can lead to severe stress. When children are very young, they can show their stressful feelings through continuous irritability, crying, and the need to be held. Sometimes nightmares, a phobia of the dark, imaginary friends, or separation anxiety appear.
Harmful Stress Has Physical Response
When we refer to stress, we are talking about the body’s physical response, instead of an anxious state of mind or a worrying feeling. In this context, when a situation that is perceived as threatening is frequent, there is a physical response that involves chemical reactions. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters, and they affect heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, and other functions. Stress symptoms are temporary adjustments that increase or decrease body functions to help us adapt and survive. However, they can lead to lifelong chronic diseases when they are consequent.
SUSTAINED STRESS
Sustained stress can affect all aspects of children’s lives, including their emotions, thoughts, and physical health. Harmful stress impacts all parts of the body, and symptoms of can vary according to these signs:
PROLONGED ACTIVATION OF STRESS HORMONE In the long term, prolonged activation of stress hormones in childhood can decrease neural connections. Harmful stress plays a role in the development of depressive disorders and behavior problems during adulthood. In this sense, it is important to provide the child with a healthy family and social environment.
For further information, call your trusted professionals on Pineville pediatrics or your Ballantyne Pediatrician.
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