03 February 2011
Children can overcome even dire situations with the right guidance and loving parents.
By, Jeremy Cox | Posted: January 30, 2011 | www.Jacksonville.com
Natasha Jackson's daughter has faced more troubles in her six years than many people do in a lifetime. She was molested as a toddler by her uncle, grew up to a soundtrack of gunshots and sirens at a Northside apartment and was raised by a mother who once believed children should be reared "belt in hand."
Jennie Jusa's young girl has seen her share, too. She spent a quarter of her life inside a downtown Jacksonville homeless shelter, wedged into a single room with her mother and four older brothers.
And there's Tawanna Wright's boy, who witnessed the unthinkable: his mother being raped while he was cradled in her arms.
They can be found all over Jacksonville - young lives warped by the toxic trio of poverty, stress and a poisonous environment. Often these "stressors" mold children like a "Baby Einstein" video in reverse, leaving them ill-prepared for the rigors of formal education and scarred down to the cells inside their brains.
It is rare a family faces only one of these obstacles. They more commonly come as a package. An example: Needy families may be able to afford to live only in neighborhoods where violence and crime are commonplace. So their financial problems become enmeshed with an environment of fear, which generates lots of stress.
From the womb to age 5, when the developing brain is most vulnerable, the effect of an unstable upbringing can be devastating and lifelong.
Researchers, armed with advanced brain-imaging technology, have learned over the past 15 years that early experiences and environmental exposures can derail the brain's wiring. Among some low-income children, for example, the part of the brain responsible for problem- solving and creativity, the frontal lobe, showed patterns similar to adults who had suffered brain damage. A highly stressful childhood can even lead to the development of a smaller brain.
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