Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
Who does not love the wonderful sound of a baby laughing and squealing? These wonderful sounds happen way before the baby is able to talk. Nature though has it so that when the baby arrives, she or he is ready to engage and interact with us from the start.
Laughter is really a sign of letting go of stress and letting go of worry. Here, one is experiencing things that are surprising, not as unsafe but as pleasurable.
This back-and-forth shared experience between children and the adults around them can profoundly shape early childhood development.
Research has shown that these shared moments of laughter activate reward circuits in children’s brains and increase chemicals that bond a child to an adult such as oxytocin. This is why we see babies at five or six months more likely to smile or laugh in response to a parent smiling or laughing at them. This laughter also promotes calmness and creativity in a child.
With the advent of our digital age, there is a huge threat. For example, if a parent is on the phone (more likely a cellphone), a child experiences less laughter due to a lack of interaction by the parent. Parents become distracted using phones and often experience high stress when carrying out tasks such as responding to text or other information. Such distractions can negatively impact the development of a child, which results in parents and children having less opportunities to engage with one another.
Laughter may be an early sign of normal development that has to be encouraged. Parents of autistic children have reported not understanding the laughter of their children.
We thus need to support our young parents and encourage them strongly to put down the phone and focus their attention on their children.
We are deeply social beings, and this happens by engaging with one another. Laughter is also free and may be just as important an emotional marker as the physical markers of walking and talking.
Researchers have studied correlations between PCEs and adverse childhood experiences (ACE). PCEs are defined as supportive and nutritive relationships, family stability, safety and positive community engagement exposure. ACEs are defined as having experienced violence, abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and household dysfunction.
The researchers also looked at college attendance, household income, smoking, chronic disease and poor physical or mental health as markers. They found that even those with even medium exposure to PCEs were more likely to attend college, earn $50,000 a year and have lower rates of depression regardless of the number of ACEs. They were also less likely to report tobacco use, chronic disease and poor health.
Study results concluded that when a person has positive childhood experiences (PCE), that person also experiences better physical, mental and socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood.
Further research results suggest that maximizing exposure to PCEs could result in preventing depression by 36 percent and mental health cases by 30 percent. Therefore, providing as many PCEs as possible and elimination ACEs is important to one’s physical, mental and social well-being.
Spend time with your children and make sure they know they are very important and well-loved people. Take stock of your digital inclinations, decrease your cellphone screen time you do not inadvertently harm your child. Remember, children did not ask to be here and as such you owe them your best.
Dr. Veita Bland is a board-certified Greensboro physician and hypertension specialist. Dr. Bland’s radio show, “It’s a Matter of Your Health,” can be heard live on Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. on N.C. A&T State University’s WNAA, 90.1 FM. Listeners may call in and ask questions. The show is replayed on Sirius 142 at 5 p.m. on Wed. Email Dr. Bland at ideas@blandclinicpa.com.
