Our youngest children deserve more acknowledgement and support in dealing with domestic violence and trauma
The first 1,000 days have a life-long effect
By exposing your child to language from birth, he/she will be able to say “I want” by the age of 20 months and “I am drinking my juice, mom” by 3 years of age. The first 1,000 days – or the time between conception and the third year of life - provide the foundation for tremendous potential and optimal growth throughout the child's lifespan. However, during this time, the developing infant is the most vulnerable to external exposure and experiences. Trauma, due to neglect, malnutrition or domestic violence, weakens the foundation of ‘programming’ organs, tissues and body structures, leading to poor health and substantial loss of neurodevelopmental potential.
Conditions such as heart disease and diabetes were once thought to be solely a product of behaviour and lifestyle, but are now seen as linked to processes and experiences occurring in infancy. This is because all bodily systems function as an integrated unit. A child’s first years are game changing for healthy development and well-being. Like language learning, there is also a critical period for learning to reason, to communicate and to cope with emotions. Once these critical moments have passed, we can still learn other languages, but they will rarely, if ever, replace the fluency with which we speak our first language. Similarly, we will reason, communicate, and cope with our emotions in certain ways when we grow up, but these might be far from healthy or ideal in cases of children who did not receive a secure base, or were abused or neglected in their early childhood.
Trauma has a phenomenal impact on development. A human brain continues to progress and change throughout a lifespan, but the most rapid period of brain growth lies within those 1,000 days when the brain is the most malleable and adaptable. The basics for the ongoing development of brain and body, emotional life and cognitive capacities are laid down in early childhood. If these foundations are weak and fragile, or even flawed due to early traumatization, all later development will be hindered and affected. Infants depend on their parents and caregivers for survival and protection, both physical and emotional. As such, parents and caregivers carry a crucial responsibility.
The wicked problem of trauma
Problems such as poverty or domestic violence are not new, but have become more of a concern as knowledge has increased on the life-long consequences of adverse experiences during child development. For instance, the combination of financial stress, uncertainty about the future and social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic created more anxiety among children and increased the incidence of violence at home.
“Young children are protected from being traumatized by their age”, “they won’t remember anyways” are common misunderstandings about trauma. An Infant's reaction to trauma may differ from an older child’s, and they may not be able to express the experiences of stressful or dangerous events. However, a growing body of research has acknowledged that infants are affected by events that threaten their integrity, and their symptoms have been well-documented.
The brain has multiple ways of recalling an experience, which is why we might feel calmed by the touch of a loved one, or feel our hearts racing when walking alone at night, even though we do not tie it to a specific experience. All incoming sensory information creates a pattern of activity which is compared to previously-stored experiences. New patterns can thus become new memories. Most of our infant experiences are stored as non-cognitive and preverbal memories. These "memories" are used for the basic organisation of our neural systems, which we will use for a lifetime. The longer, more intensely and more frequently infants must endure stressful situations, the more likely that experience will impact their further development.
Experiencing neglect or abuse, and witnessing domestic violence in infancy, affects the developing brain in an even more profound manner than trauma suffered as an adult will affect the already-developed central nervous system. Infants are deeply impacted by the world around them. They may not understand what is happening, but like sponges, they absorb and are affected by the caregivers they rely on. Systematic negative experiences take a toll on a child. That is why we can say, with certainty, that infants are more vulnerable to traumatic stress.
Childcare professionals are essential caregivers
Anything that can decrease the nature, the duration or the frequency of the source of acute stress within the infant has the potential to decrease the probability of that infant developing emotional, behavioural, social or cognitive problems. Structure, predictability and nurturing are three key elements that contribute to a safe and successful environment for an infant. As such, we are slowly realizing that childcare professionals can play an essential role in countering the infant traumatization caused by domestic violence.
Childcare professionals are a daily, reliable contact for infants. They can offer the infant a safe and nurturing environment, regardless of the experiences the child is exposed to at home. They are uniquely placed to support infants in their recovery by providing a calm, stable routine, and a chance to express their emotions and feel connected. Many childcare professionals deal with infants who have experienced or will experience traumatic events, such as domestic violence or poverty that harm their long-term health, but not all professionals know how to support these children. Despite the impact of traumatic experiences and the high incidence of domestic violence in the first 1,000 days, there are very few reports of child abuse.
This article is a call to support and acknowledge infants dealing with trauma, especially when the trauma arises in the home environment. Often they must rely on secondary caregivers to be comforted and feel safe. The faster we act, the more human potential can be preserved. We know that interventions within our critical windows of opportunity have the potential to exert a profound impact on child development and functioning. Countries that are not investing in the first 1,000 days lose billions of dollars afterwards in low economic efficiency and high health costs.
As James Heckman, Nobel laureate in economics, highlighted: “The highest rate of return in early childhood development comes from investing as early as possible, from birth through age five, in disadvantaged families. Starting at age three or four is too little too late, as it fails to recognize that skills beget skills in a complementary and dynamic way. Efforts should focus on the first years for the greatest efficiency and effectiveness.”
ECLIPS is a European project that wants to use modern technologies to stimulate awareness and skills in childcare professionals concerning the detection, referral and care of trauma symptoms after exposure to domestic violence. Children often remain invisible on their path to recovery from domestic violence trauma. The ECLIPS project is therefore an important milestone in tackling domestic violence among its youngest victims. Find us at www.eclipsproject.eu
ECLIPS has received funding from the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union, under grant agreement No 101005642. This communication reflects only the author’s view. It does not represent the view of the European Commission and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.