The Health Day – Tara Haelle
“Childhood traumas of various sorts can cause kindergartners to struggle in class as well as life, new research contends. A study of more than 1,000 urban children showed those with difficult experiences up until age 5 had math and reading difficulties and difficulty focusing in kindergarten, and were also more likely to have social problems and to be aggressive toward others. The experiences included neglect or physical, sexual or psychological abuse. They also included living in a household with domestic abuse or with a household member who was in jail or prison, had a mental illness or had an addiction or substance abuse problem. “The first five years of a child’s life are an incredible time of opportunity and vulnerability,” said study lead author Dr. Manuel Jimenez, director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics education at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. “Combined with previous work documenting how early traumatic experiences are tied to poor health, these findings illustrate how early adversity can place children at risk for poor outcomes across multiple aspects of life.” The findings were published online Jan. 14 in the journal Pediatrics.”(more)