Children’s Brain Development, Healing and the Role of Scotland’s Systems
Exploring the Implications of Neurodevelopmental Research on Law, Policy and Practice
Brains are social – thriving on positive relationships, shared meaning and reciprocity - no doubt about it! Our own Colwyn Trevarthan has been telling us and demonstrating this for many a year (I’m sure he would add joy and laughter into this mix). Now we have the neurodevelopmental research that proves it.
On the 27th May The New Centre (Scotland’s New Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children incorporating SIRCC) in partnership with LACSIG ( Looked After Children Strategic Implementation Group ) hosted this inspirational and aspirational event with Dr Bruce Perry speaking to and with an invited audience of professionals and Scottish Government representatives involved with meeting the needs of Scottish children and families. The delegates included myself as chair of SAIA and also Elizabeth King in her capacity as Principal Psychologist South Lanarkshire Psychological Services and Paul Gilroy in his capacity as Head of Service CrossReach Residential Schools (as you will know Elizabeth and Paul are also both SAIA committee members).
This was an information-packed event, rich in practice implications with respect to meeting the needs of Scotland’s children and families.
The essence of Bruce Perry’s message was clear and is evidence-based. In supporting all children, and particularly in healing those who have faced adversity, we need to consider as a first base the architecture of the brain. Poor outcomes for children can be accurately predicted by taking account of three factors: firstly, adverse in-utero experiences, such as exposure to alcohol and domestic violence that damage brain chemistry; secondly, neglecting or abusive attunement by the primary care-giver that interferes with the infant’s neurological and physiological capacity to deal with stress and change; and thirdly, ongoing stress and trauma that habituates the brain’s stress response system to be on constant alert. If you have read Bruce Perry’s ‘The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog’ and/or visited the website www. childtrauma.org you will already know this. You will also know that the brain is plastic (it can heal) and that effective interventions will be based not on the chronological age of the child but on neurodevelopmental risk (when the adverse experiences occurred), the child’s history of relational health (positive relationships that met the child’s needs in a loving, sensitive and timely way) and by ensuring a current healthy relational environment for the child that offers physical and emotional safety – secure attachment and attunement.
Supporting the child to self regulate – to deal with stress - is vital to healthy physical and mental well-being. In addition the brain needs to practice to change - neurons that fire together wire together – new skills/new ways of behaving/new neurological connections will only be made by rehearsal and repetition.
As Dr Perry informed it is a matter of priority that public health professionals and the systems and other agencies that support their work need to monitor and be proactively involved in supporting all parenting, intervening timeously in parenting that damages brain development
Bruce Perry also reminded us that we need to decide on what we value in our society and want for our children. Impoverished relational environments that do not sufficiently value parenting and family life such as those in the UK and USA (as UNICEF research demonstrates - Children Well-Being Across the OECD, Innocenti 2007) are not going to produce relational, social, emotionally healthy children but self-interested, self-absorbed individuals
What we teach our children and how we educate them needs not only to reflect our values but also to focus on the child’s developmental age which is not necessarily their chronological age – particularly so when children have faced early adversity. A child cannot concentrate until he is neurologically calm and alert; rhythmical activities that create this capacity in the child - massage, drumming, music – must precede more academic learning. In Scotland we have GIRFEC and we have A Curriculum For Excellence both of which have the capacity and processes to teach to each child’s strengths, support brain development and build resilience – we must use it well. We already have examples of best practice, such as nurture groups, that do support healthy brain development.
Distressed children (brains) need stable adult models– parents, residential carers, foster carers, adoptive parents, teachers – who can self-regulate, attune, support and nurture success. To do this the adults must also be afforded safety, support and success or they too will dysregulate.
As Dr Perry states, and Scottish Attachment In Action strongly advocates, we need all professionals involved with children and families to sing from the same song sheet, to be on the same page of the book, that is, to know about neurodevelopmental processes and attachment into practice. The Scottish Government's Children's Workforce consultation is encouraging us down this road as did Professor Susan Deacon’s report ‘Joining The Dots’ (Joining The Dots: A better start for Scotland’s children, 2011, Scottish Government)
Dr Perry reminded us that the processes of social change - whether in organisations or in systems, in law, in policy, in procedure or in practice – are also subject to the nuances of neurodevelopmental forces (to groups of human brains working together!). Decisions made in a hurry or a panic (in dysregulated states) will be fight/flight/freeze responses, not calm and considered. Change is relational and personal – people need time to attune, talk and reflect . The steps in change need to provide sufficient challenge for success but not so much challenge as to create stress or distress which will only lead to avoidance and resistance.
This was an exciting and challenging seminar – the implications and actions for best practice will continue to be unfolded via the Looked After Children Strategic Implementation Group – we’ll keep you posted!
(Chair) |