“Recently, there has been a lot of focus on the idea of toxic stress, in which a young child’s body and brain may be damaged by too much exposure to so-called stress hormones, like cortisol and norepinephrine. When this level of stress is experienced at an early age, and without sufficient protection, it may actually reset the neurological and hormonal systems, permanently affecting children’s brains and even, we are learning, their genes.
Toxic stress is the heavy hand of early poverty, scripting a child’s life not in the Horatio Alger scenario of determination and drive, but in the patterns of disappointment and deprivation that shape a life of limitations.”
A new report from the American Pediatrics Association Task Force on Childhood Poverty recommends expansion of Head Start and Early Head Start as one component of addressing child poverty:
[gview file=”https://whsaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/APA_Task_Force_Strategic_Road_Mapver3.pdf” height=”900px” width=”100%” save=”1″]
