The Effects of Child Abuse Maltreatment and Neglect

The Effects of Child Abuse, Maltreatment, and Neglect on language development. Focus is on Damage to the Brain and Language Delay.

Child abuse, neglect, and trauma are global problems. Abuse has been defined as when "a person willfully or" unreasonably does, or causes a child or young person to do, any act that endangers or is likely to endanger the safety of a child or young person or that causes or is likely to cause a child or young person (a) any unnecessary physical pain, suffering or injury; (b) any emotional injury; or (c) any injury to his or health or development" (Chan, Elliott, Chow, & Thomas, 2002, p. 361).

Damage to the Brain “Our brains are sculpted by our early experiences. Maltreatment is a chisel that shapes a brain to contend with strife, but at the cost of deep, enduring wounds. ” Teicher, 2000.

Babies and children who suffer abuse may also experience trauma that is unrelated to direct physical damage. Exposure to domestic violence, disaster, or other traumatic events can have long-lasting effects. Some of the specific long-term effects of abuse and neglect on the developing brain can include (Teicher, 2000): • Diminished growth in the left hemisphere, which may increase the risk for depression. • Irritability in the limbic system, setting the stage for the emergence of panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Smaller growth in the hippocampus and limbic abnormalities, which can increase the risk for dissociative disorders and memory impairments.

Generally the left hemisphere of the brain is the site of language, motor activity on the right side of the body, and logical thought based on language. The left orbitofrontal cortex is responsible for memory creation. The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for motor activity on the left side of the body, context perceptions, and holistic perception. The right orbito-frontal cortex is responsible for memory retrieval. The orbito-frontal cortex (the part of the brain directly behind the eyes) is responsible for integrating emotional responses generated in the limbic system with higher cognitive functions, such as planning and language, in the cerebral cortex’s prefrontal lobes. The orbito-frontal cortex is sensitive to face recognition and eye contact. Abused and neglected children frequently have disorders of attachment because of their birthparents lack of sensitive responsive interactions with the child.

Healthy functioning requires an integrated right and left hemisphere. A substantial number of synaptic connections among brain cells develop during the first year of life. An integrated brain requires connections between the hemispheres by the corpus callosum. This poor integration of hemispheres and underdevelopment of the orbitofrontal cortex is the basis for such symptoms as difficulty regulating emotion, lack of cause-effect thinking, inability to accurately recognize emotions in others, inability of the child to articulate the child’s own emotions, Abused and neglected children have: -smaller corpus callosum than non-abused children. and -have poorly integrated cerebral hemispheres.

led by Bruce D. Perry, M. D. , Ph. D. (Reprinted with permission. ) "These images illustrate the negative impact of neglect on the developing brain. In the CT scan on the left is an image from a healthy 3 -year-old with an average head size. The image on the right is from a 3 -year-old suffering from severe sensory-deprivation neglect. This child's brain is significantly smaller than average and has abnormal development of cortex. "

Early interpersonal experiences have a profound impact on the brain because the brain circuits responsible for social perception are the same as those that integrate such functions as the creation of meaning, the regulation of body states, the regulation of emotion, the organization of memory, and the capacity for interpersonal communication and empathy

Language Delay

Babies need to experience face-to-face baby talk and hear countless repetitions of sounds in order to build the brain circuitry that will enable them to start making sounds and eventually say words. If babies' sounds are ignored repeatedly when they begin to babble at around 6 months, their language may be delayed. In fact, neglected children often do not show the rapid growth that normally occurs in language development at 18 -24 months (Scannapieco, 2008). These types of delays may extend to all types of normal development for neglected children, including their cognitive-behavioral, socio-emotional, and physical development (Scannapieco, 2008).

Language input may play an important role in an individual’s rate of acquisition of specific syntactic structures. Ever since initial descriptions of the ‘battered child syndrome’ (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemuller & Silver, 1962), clinicians and researchers have noted that parent–child interactions in maltreating families appear to be different. There is ample evidence that maltreating parental language input differs in quality or quantity (Rogosch, Cicchetti, Shields & Toth, 1995). Maltreating parents are less likely to be guided by developmentally appropriate expectations (Pianta, Egeland & Erickson, 1989).

The negative impact of maltreatment on language abilities is potentially long lasting. Elmer (1981) studied performance on a picture narration task in 9 -year-old maltreated children, and found that their expressive language skills were impoverished compared to a group of nonmaltreated hospitalized children and a low SES comparison group. Examining spontaneous language in a sample of maltreated adolescents, Mc. Fadyen and Kitson (1996) observed that their language was more repetitive and less self-descriptive than in a comparison group.