Chronic stress and uncertainty, not to mention missed meals and restless nights, make it physically and mentally difficult for children to concentrate or form trusting bonds with adults. They become hypervigilant, prone to emotional meltdowns, with bodies thrown into fight-or-flight mode at the slightest disturbance.
"There's a body of knowledge that is not a hypothesis, it's a fact," says Dr. Pamela Cantor, the founder of Turnaround for Children. "Adversity alters how children develop as learners, and not in a good way."
Along with poverty itself, research shows that children in communities like these are more likely to have "adverse childhood experiences," known as ACES for short. These include the death of a caregiver, the incarceration of a family member, domestic violence, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, or addiction or mental illness in someone close to the child. When a child has more than four "ACEs," the impact lasts for decades. It can be seen not only in mental health but in the incidence of chronic diseases and even cancer.
But, Cantor says, there's a flip side. While the young brain is impressionable to trauma, it can also be resilient. In a safe and orderly environment full of caring adults, she explains, children can find calm. They can build relationships. If they are given a chance to make better choices when they act out, rather than being punished, they learn that they can exert self-control. That, in turn, readies them to learn. "Neuroplasticity," that five-dollar word taught to the second graders at Fairmont, is the term that captures the ability of the brain to grow, change and form new connections into adulthood.
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