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Picture children who are having a hard time paying attention and are disrupting a classroom. What\u2019s the best way to address their behavior and help them to concentrate? Is it mindfulness training, to help them calm them down and react less to everything going on around them? Or is it cognitive training to improve their capacity to problem solve, making it easier for them to stick with the learning process, rather than giving up and disrupting their peers? The choice may depend on whether they\u2019ve experienced child neglect or abuse and the impact on their brain development.<\/p>\n
Victims of child neglect, or children with few invested caregivers who talk to them and engage them in learning-oriented play, may have a brain that is underdeveloped in areas that support complex thinking. On the other hand, a child who has experienced abuse or violence could have very different biological issues. He or she has a brain that\u2019s been shaped by threat\u2014its biology has been primed to be hypervigilant and overreactive.<\/p>\n
These very different biological histories may manifest as what can seem to be the identical problem\u2014disruptive behavior. But if we understand the very different neurological pathways forged variously by child neglect or abuse, we can explain why the same behaviors need different approaches that are tailored to each child\u2019s experiences and neurobiology.<\/p>\n