Investing in Child Wellness

Fostering Families Magazine

The Early Years

The future prosperity of our society depends on its ability to foster the health and well being of all children. Young children with strong mental health are prepared and equipped to develop important skills and capacities that begin in early childhood.

Mental health is the foundation for how children socialize, learn and meet their potential. The basic structure of the human brain is constructed through a process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Just as a solid foundation is critical when building a house, it is also fundamental for a child. Early experiences literally shape how the brain gets built.

One way to think about mental health for children is that it is like the levelness of a piece of furniture, such as a table. The levelness can depend on a table, the floor it’s on, or both. Just as levelness allows a table to function properly, the mental health of a child enables him/her to function in many different areas. 

Young children’s mental health is different from adult mental health and the determinants are multiple. Children develop in different environments; some balanced and others unbalanced. Balanced environments include supportive relationships, and access to things like good nutrition and health care. Those young children developing in unbalanced environments, such as extreme poverty, abuse, and chronic or severe maternal depression, may experience the effects of toxic stress.

When children’s brain structure develops in an environment of toxic stress, it’s like a table on an uneven floor- resulting in lifelong difficulties in learning, memory, self-regulation, and social and emotional functioning. Tables cannot make themselves level; they need attention from experts who understand levelness as well as stability and can work on both.

Our job, as a society, is to work toward the levelness necessary by creating and sustaining environments that foster brain development, reducing exposure to toxic stress and creating buffers of support to make stress more tolerable. Many states have instituted effective policies and programs that provide young children with the attention they need from experts who understand levelness. When we collectively ensure the healthy development of the next generation, they will pay back through productivity and responsible citizenship.

Previously published in Fostering Families Magazine, by Noelle Hause, EdD, LPC.  Noelle is the Program Director for Project Launch, a prevention program that provides education, screening, and workforce development regarding infant and young child mental health.

SEE MORE INFO on Project Launch offered at NRBH's Littler Prevention Campus.