"Babies' brains grow and develop as they interact with their environment and learn how to function within it. When babies' cries bring food or comfort, they are strengthening the neuronal pathways that help them learn how to get their needs met, both physically and emotionally. But babies who do not get responses to their cries, and babies whose cries are met with abuse, learn different lessons. The neuronal pathways that are developed and strengthened under negative conditions prepare children to cope in that negative environment, and their ability to respond to nurturing and kindness may be impaired (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
"Brief periods of moderate, predictable stress are not problematic; in fact, they prepare a child to cope with the general world. The body's survival actually depends upon the ability to mount a response to stress (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Children learn to deal with moderate stress in the context of positive relationships with reliable adult caregivers. Greater amounts of stress may also be tolerable if a child has a reliable adult who can help to buffer the child. But prolonged, severe, or unpredictable stress—including abuse and neglect—during a child's early years is problematic. In fact, the brain's development can literally be altered by this type of toxic stress, resulting in negative impacts on the child's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social growth...."
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/brain_development/effects.cfm
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