What do we want for our children? What's our goal? Our goal is to have productive citizens that are going to be part of thriving communities. So how do we get from here to there?
As we grow up and as we Move into becoming functioning members of society. Our mental health is an important part of how we perform our responsibilities as adults. Mental health can't be separated out from cognitive development and language development and social competence. And they all have their roots early on in either a very sturdy or a weak foundation.
We certainly know that infants and very young children can exhibit behaviors, emotional behaviors, motor behaviors, which are predictive in certain cases of subsequent... mental illness. What are the early signs of mental health problems? I think that when people look at children and think about mental health problems, what they have in mind often is that the kinds of mental health problems that we see in adults.
They're looking to see the equivalent of a depressed adult in a child or the equivalent of a schizophrenic adult in a child. And I think that because of the nature of development, that when children have mental health problems, they just look different. Some of the early signs of greater risk for mental health problems are usually not called mental health problems by people.
They're usually called, you know, things like behavior problems or a child who has difficulty controlling his emotions. Some of these may be early signs of what might be a mental health problem later, and some of which may be just differences among perfectly healthy children. So what does good mental health look like in a child? Good mental health looks like a child who's curious and interested in the world and wants to learn and can sit and reflect at times about what's going on.
It's the ability to experience love, affection, emotions, get upset when things are upsetting, and bring yourself back into levelness without needing intense intervention. How do mental health impairments develop in early childhood? 21st century science at the molecular level is very clear that all aspects of brain function are the result of an interaction between genetics and experience. Mental illness, as most people think about it, has a very heavy genetic component.
Mental health, behavior, personality also has a genetic component, but it's much more malleable in the face of environmental influences. Genes and experiences, as far as nature is concerned, are just different ways of setting up operating systems, brain systems, neurons. What happens when a child experiences what we call toxic stress?
Severe experiences that can be damaging to its developing architecture. Those toxic experiences essentially create this unstable environment, this unstable foundation. If sound mental health provides a foundation of stability for a child's development, mental health problems can be thought of like a wobbly table. With a child or a table, there may be many reasons for instability.
Identifying which factor is causing instability is the first step towards solving the problem. So how do we restore stability to a child's mental health? We can detect the early signs of instability.
Recognizing what these signs are provides the child with the opportunity then to be placed with health care professionals who are trained to develop a more balanced set of skills on the emotional control side. The prescription is to provide support for parents and in that environment in order to reduce conflict. And that, in turn, will lead to a reduction in dysregulated behavior in the infant and young child.
Most potential mental health problems will not become mental health problems if we respond to them early. Providing the right kinds of supports and intervention early on will reduce the extent to which this will be a potentially more serious problem later.