[Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a three-part series on Created to Heal: How Neuroplasticity Offers Hope for Children and Their Families. You can find the second and third articles here. The introduction is an excerpt from the book.]
This tree is located in Slope Point, New Zealand. Throughout Slope Point, the wind is so strong that the tree’s growth is dictated by it. Although the branches are misshapen, they are not necessarily damaged. Rather, they grew different than expected.
The tree is alive, but not functioning as it was designed. Due to the harsh environment, the tree cannot nourish itself to the full potential it had as a small seed under the earth. The culprit here is the wind. The tree cannot change the fact that it was planted and made to develop against this force. It is susceptible to the environment – much like orphaned and vulnerable children are susceptible to their environment and the influence of the adults in their lives.
Like this tree, vulnerable children are innocent to their surroundings and do not have the power to choose the environment they develop in. Research has found that the external environment and negative experiences often act as direct causes of abnormal brain development.
This is why our children might have mental, emotional, behavioral or physical health problems. They simply haven’t reached their full potential, yet.
Neuroplasticity in Scripture
Thanks to a concept called neuroplasticity, we can help to “straighten the tree” of the brains of the children we care for. When a child is given a supportive environment from parents, caregivers, teachers, and their community, their brains have a chance to redirect toward healthy development.
This is the awesome power of neuroplasticity.
Using the latest research, we now have the ability to tailor a supportive environment that helps “straighten the tree” of a child’s brain. When we place effective supports and fully embrace a child, there’s nowhere to go but up.
As neuroplasticity has become a focus of research and even popular conversation in recent decades, it is another case of science catching up with Scripture. Throughout the Bible, we see many promises of transformation:
- Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 exhorts “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
- Colossians 3:10 encourages us to “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”
God’s Word speaks of our minds and hearts’ ability to be continually reshaped according to His will. The neurological reality of neuroplasticity aligns with this spiritual truth.
For children who have faced adversity, neglect, abuse or other traumatic experiences early in life, neuroplasticity holds both challenges and incredible hope. The challenges stem from how adverse experiences can negatively impact brain development during critical periods of growth.
But neuroplasticity also means there is hope for recovery and healing.
What is neuroplasticity?
At its core, neuroplasticity describes how the billions of neurons (nerve cells) in our brains are constantly forming new connections and reorganizing pathways in response to our experiences, behaviors, emotions, and environments. It’s like our brains are continuously creating new trails through a forest based on where we walk.
Essentially, we are all constantly being formed.
Dallas Willard said, “The human spirit is an inescapable, fundamental aspect of every human being, and it takes on whichever character it has from the experiences and the choices that we have lived through or made in our past. That is what is means for it to be ‘formed.’”
Certainly, the things that happen to us form us – whether we grow up in order or chaos, or safety or threat; whether we have parents who care well for us or who struggle to give us what we need; whether we experience significant adversity or a relatively stable childhood. These things tend to be out of our control.
But we are also formed by the choices we make – the media we ingest, the habits we practice, the character we cultivate, the relationships we invest in. Ultimately, every thought, word, and action serves to form our brains and our being.
The more we practice or repeat certain thoughts, skills, or behaviors, the stronger and more well-trodden those neural pathways become – just like walking the same trail through the woods day after day. Conversely, the less we use particular pathways, the more they can become overgrown and weakened.
How adversity impacts brain development
While neuroplasticity allows for amazing adaptation, it also means our brains are profoundly shaped by our early life experiences – for better or worse. Positive, nurturing environments provide the foundation for healthy brain architecture to develop.
Unfortunately, not all children experience positive, nurturing environments. Those who experience adversity such as abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation are enduring these things during critical periods of brain development. This excessive stress can lead to abnormal formation of neural pathways and disruptions in developing brain circuitry.
Some potential impacts of early adversity on brain development include:
- Hypervigilance and overactive stress responses
- Underdevelopment of areas related to learning, memory and self-regulation
- Poor integration between brain regions involved in emotion and cognition
- Challenges with attachment, social skills and emotional regulation
These effects don’t stop in childhood but can create risk factors that persist into adolescence and adulthood, contributing to academic struggles, behavioral issues, mental health challenges and difficulties with relationships. If we don’t intervene, early adversity can have lifelong consequences.
Why neuroplasticity matters
While the effects of early adversity on the developing brain are concerning, the reality of neuroplasticity is where the hope lies.
Because the brain is continuously changing and reorganizing pathways, we have an opportunity to facilitate healing and more positive development – even well into adolescence and adulthood.
With nurturing caregiving, stable environments, interventions that teach critical skills, and other positive experiences, we can help “rewire” pathways in the brain that have been impacted by trauma and adversity. The neural circuits aren’t permanently fixed – they can be reshaped by promoting new learning and growth.
In simple terms, while we can’t erase the harmful effects of early adversity, we can provide new positive experiences that leverage the brain’s ability to adapt and recover over time. These positive experiences can counterbalance earlier negative impacts. The brain’s remarkable malleability is why nurturing care, supportive relationships, enriching environments and constructive experiences are so powerful.
Just as a warped tree can be gradually reshaped through supporting braces, so too can human brains heal when provided with the right nurturing conditions and relationships. It’s a process of nurturing the brain’s innate ability to heal, not forcing change from the outside.
While the road to healing isn’t easy, neuroplasticity provides a foundation of hope. In the next article of this blog series, we’ll explore how caregivers can leverage the brain’s plasticity to support healing for children impacted by adverse experiences.
Dr. Nicole Wilke is the Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children and Families.
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Interested in learning more? 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.
