Parenting and the Sensory Ecology of Child Development

When our children err, we have a responsibility to respond in a way that meets developmental need. Yet when my daughters freak out, I freak out. The more I act at the whim of my own anxiety, the less aware and responsive I am of and to my children’s needs. As a therapist, I love to say that to the extent that I fail to go toe-to-toe with my own emotional reflexes, they will go toe-to-toe with the ones I love. Unfortunately, that statement is more descriptive than prescriptive, and I all too often play out the sequence. Our children have basic needs such as hunger and safety, and we must meet them. Their needs are like our own, coded with deoxyribonucleic complexity and teeming with self-interest. If we are to do extraordinarily well in meeting our children’s needs, we must first see their needs through a wide-angle lens that highlights critical processing faculties. Researcher Karen Purvis once said that “if the brain is hungry, it’s going to do some not so smart stuff.” She coaches parents in child development, especially those whose children have endured trauma and those whose brains are hypersensitive to sensory stimulation. Dr. Purvis works with Dr. Cross and others at TCU’s Institute of Child Development to better understand such issues and equip parents everywhere to best care for their children. While the majority of parents do not face post-traumatic stress behavior or severe sensory processing challenges, to parent well is understand or at least leverage ...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Anxiety Caregivers Children and Teens Family General Parenting Psychology Brain Nervous System Neurochemicals Neuroscience Proprioception Sense Sensory System Trauma Source Type: news