Understanding Brain Development & Brain Based Behaviors

Things We Know

ONE

We know that the brain is not born fully developed!

TWO

We know that the brain must move through a specific trajectory of development.

THREE

We know that stress can impact the brain.

FOUR

There are changes that happen in the body as a result of stress that can impact the way a child moves through development and/or processes their world. Our clinical approach looks for these changes.

Facing Brain Development & Behaviors

We know that the brain is not fully developed at birth. We know that the human brain must go through a very specific trajectory of development and growth. From the moment we are born, our brain embarks on an extraordinary and complex journey of development that shapes our behaviors, thoughts, and emotions throughout our lives.  Brain development begins during pregnancy and continues well into adolescence and even early adulthood. During this time, the brain goes through significant changes, forming new neural connections, pruning unnecessary ones, and building the tools we will use to process, connect, and learn from our world. The brain develops from the bottom to the top, back to the front, inside-out, and right to left. And we say it develops like a flower.  The first few years of a child's life are especially crucial for brain development. During this period, the brain is remarkably malleable, and life can play a pivotal role in neurological and structural development.

Different Type of Stressors

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PHYSICAL

  • Birth trauma
  • Missed milestones
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Increased screen time 
  • Reduced outdoor play
  • Irregular eating habits 
  • Sports and physically demanding activities
  • Falls and accidents
  • Sleep deprivation
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CHEMICAL

  • Environmental toxins
  • Body care and home cleaning product chemicals
  • Chemicals ingested from processed foods and food additives 
  • Poor nutrition
  • Medications 
  • Substances
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EMOTIONAL

  • Academic pressures
  • Bully and cyberbullying
  • Family issues
  • Social media 
  • Social and peer relationship pressures
  • Anxiety about the future

But we also know that it isn’t just the presence of stress that impacts the body and brain but an individual's ability to adapt and handle stress. Too much stress or an inability to adapt to stress can negatively impact our health and brain.

When we are unable to adapt and handle stress, we FEEL it! We feel the physiological changes in our body as it shifts into a more sympathetic state in our nervous system: increased heart rate, muscle tension, shallow breathing, sweating, digestive changes, nervousness, visual changes, headaches, and more. 

An inability to adapt to life’s stressors can cause dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (dysautonomia). Our autonomic nervous system is unable to appropriately shift between a sympathetic state (fight, flight, or freeze) and a parasympathetic state (rest, digest, heal, grow). This causes an individual to live in a more sympathetic state, which is not an optimal state to grow, learn, or heal.

Too much stress that an individual is unable to handle causes compensations and physiological adaptations in the body.

Two examples are:

1) Neuro-structural shifts
2) Negative gut changes.

These physiological changes impact communication between the brain and the body and cause stress. 

We know that stress can impact the brain!

This means stress can also impact development!

As our brain develops, they move through a specific trajectory of development. From the bottom to the top, the brain develops, and as it develops, we gain more sophisticated tools for processing, connecting, and learning from our world.

How we are able to use those tools and the efficiency of those tools is determined by how we move through development. Behaviors are then windows into an individual's brain and help us understand how they are primarily processing.