[Editor’s Note: This is the third article in a three-part series on Created to Heal: How Neuroplasticity Offers Hope for Children and Their Families. You can find the first and second articles here.]
The brain’s regenerative abilities are remarkable, but translating the principles of neuroplasticity into real practice takes intention and commitment from the caring adults in a child’s life.
Neuroplasticity is not a quick fix.
Our neuropathways are established through thoughts, words and experiences across time. (Yes, thoughts create actual physical matter!) Repetition and time are required to remodel or reshape our neuropathways, cultivating new ways of thinking and being.
A quote attributed to Mahatma Ghandi outlines this process well: “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”
7 Simple principles for promoting neuroplasticity
Whether you are a parent, caregiver, teacher, social worker, therapist or someone who works with vulnerable children, there are many ways to create experiences and environments that promote neuroplasticity and healing. Here are some key principles and practices:
1. Caregiving makes the difference
The single most important factor in whether a child will overcome adversity is a healthy relationship with a secure, nurturing parent or caregiver.
Practical Action Step: Create opportunities to build positive memories with children.
Relationships are built not only through a parent meeting a child’s needs, but also through positive experiences that build a catalog of memories together. In order to promote brain recovery from adversity and trauma through a stable caregiver relationship, interaction needs to go beyond behavior management.
2. Stability promotes growth
For children who have experienced early adversity, an unexpected or urgent event can trigger an unhealthy stress response. Over time, this can prevent appropriate brain development and lead to developmental and behavioral concerns. Helping children know what to expect can minimize unnecessary stress hormone production.
Practical Action Step: Develop consistent structure and routines.
Use visual and written routines to help children know what to expect throughout their day. Offer reminders in advance of transitions to minimize surprises. Use timers and calendars to help children know what is coming.
3. Play is children’s work
Play offers a low-risk, low-stress environment in which children can encounter and overcome challenges. This gives them confidence in their ability to face new or challenging situations, without triggering an excessive stress response.
With an increasing societal emphasis on academics and technology, it is important to remember that free play is the training ground for appropriate developmental progress in young children.
Practical Action Step: Release stress through physical movement.
Physical play and exercise release stress from the body and help to regulate hormones involved in the stress response. Ensure children have time and space for plenty of outdoor and physical activity.
4. Nurture changes behavior
Science has broken down the mechanisms behind nurture and attachment, and teaching these to parents and caregivers can empower them to improve their children’s brain development. It is well established in the science community that caregiver nurture reduces high cortisol levels in infants & young children. This allows developing brain architecture to proceed as intended.
Practical Action Step: Tailor the type of nurture to a child’s age and stage.
A toddler may connect best through playing on the floor together, but a teenager may feel connection through conversation or shared hobbies. Remember that, for children who have experienced early childhood adversity, maturity may not match chronological age. Aim to meet the child where they are at developmentally.
5. Learning results from practice
The interactions of genes and experiences shape the developing brain. Although genes provide the blueprint for the formation of brain circuits, these circuits are reinforced by repeated use.
Practical Action Step: Practice new skills in low-stress environments.
Children need to be taught skills, like emotional regulation or self-control, and given the opportunity to practice them with support before they are able to perform it on their own.48 Do not expect children with a history of early adversity to improve their behavior based purely on verbal instruction. Practicing skills that improve regulation sets a child up for success when they are next exposed to a high-stress event.
6. Caregiver health matters
Children experiencing stress without the support and nurture of an engaged caregiver are at risk of compromised brain development. A child will often reflect a caregiver’s reaction to stress, whether positive or negative. Supporting the health of parents and caregivers is intimately tied to a child’s well-being.
Practical Action Step: Invest time and energy in caregiver health.
Caring for children who have experienced adversity is both full of joy and challenges. It often requires more attentiveness and patience than caring for biological children.
Keeping ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and socially healthy is not selfish, rather it allows us to show up for our children in the ways we would like to. Prioritizing sleep, physical activity, time with the Lord and times of rest are all good ways to be filled so that the Lord can work through us.
7. Resilience can be taught
Some children experience early adversity and quickly develop harmful feedback loops in their brains. Some children experience early adversity, and while they certainly feel hurt, they do not exhibit the same level of devastation as others.
Resilience – or the ability to overcome obstacles – is not a fixed asset, but can be developed with practice over time.
Practical Action Step: Teach children to learn to cope with manageable stress.
Withstanding and overcoming minor to moderate stress, such as taking a test or talking through conflict with a friend, builds awareness of how to work through tense situations. It builds confidence for successfully encountering challenges. This can be done by breaking stress management down into actionable, buildable steps that a child can absorb and complete one step at a time.
Taking your next step
This blog series has covered many foundational aspects of neuroplasticity, including what it means for children who have experienced adversity, the critical role of parents and caregivers, core foundations that can set the stage for recovery, and practices for supporting positive changes through neuroplasticity.
It’s all very good and very hopeful, but we can’t do it all at once. I encourage you to identify just one key practice as your one next step.
What is one action you could make or change with the child or children you love? Once you have implemented that practice enough to become a habit, you can add another one and repeat the same process. Starting small is best, and we grow from there.
The brain’s remarkable ability to heal
The path of recovery from early adversity is neither quick nor easy. But the remarkable neuroplasticity of children’s brains offers real hope for changing long-term outcomes when they consistently experience nurturing care and supportive experiences.
You have a powerful role in activating the regenerative pathways of a child’s brain simply through your day-to-day relating, attunement, structure and presence.
While it can be overwhelming, remember that each smile, snuggle, routine, and moment of attentive guidance is literally reshaping your child’s neural circuitry towards greater wholeness.
Dr. Nicole Wilke is the Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children and Families.
Learn more through Created to Heal: How Neuroplasticity Offers Hope for Children and Their Families, a newly published book from the CAFO Research Center, explores how brains form, how they respond to their environments, how they heal, and practical steps we can take to promote brain recovery in people who have experienced early adversity.
