The Impact of Homelessness on Children's Development

1. The Impact of Homelessness on Children's Development Nedra Robinson and Joy Johnson Senior Early Childhood Specialists Simpson Housing Services

2. "The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him" -Pablo Casals

3. What do you think of when you hear the word "homeless"?

4. Homelessness in Minnesota • Major causes of homelessness for children in Minnesota include: • High poverty rate • Lack of affordable housing • Continuing impacts of the Great Recession • Racial Disparities • Challenges of single parenting • The ways in which traumatic experiences, especially domestic violence, precede and prolong homelessness for families (The National Center on Family Homelessness, 2013)

5. The Cycle of Homelessness

6. Parenting While Homeless • The cycle of poverty and homelessness may affect parenting practices. Many parents experiencing homelessness as adults, have experienced homelessness as a child.  A parent who has been adversely affected by trauma may have a dysfunctional relationship with their child who is experiencing trauma resulting in problems with the parent-child relationship.

7. Impact of Homelessness on Development • https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/539-starting-life-without-a-home

8. Impact of Homelessness on Development • Attachment and Relationships • Emotion Regulation • Behavior • Physical Responses (Cognition, Body, Architecture of Brain)

9. Attachment and Relationships • “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou • "Young children experience their world as an environment of relationships, and these relationships affect virtually all aspects of their development" such as intellectual, emotional, moral, social, and behavioral. - National Scientific Council on the Developing Child "Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships", 2004

10. Attachment and Relationships: Impact of Homelessness • Children experiencing homelessness may: • Be separated from parents • Not have reassurance of secure base and safe haven • Have detachment that looks like adjustment

11. Emotion Regulation • Core of secure attachment is regulation, yet core of trauma is dysregulation. • Learn affect regulation from caregivers. • Young children's emotional health is interconnected to the emotional and social characteristics of their environments (e.g. family, home, school).

12. Emotion Regulation: Impact of Homelessness • Trauma inhibits reflective functioning • Homeless children tend to demonstrate higher rates of externalizing behaviors (e.g. hostility, conduct disorder, temper tantrums) and internalizing behaviors (e.g. depression, anxiety) than their housed peers. • Dysregulated parent ---> dysregulated child ---> dysregulated parent/child relationship • "In terms of basic brain functioning, emotions support executive functions when they are regulated but interfere with attention and decision-making when they are poorly controlled" - National Scientific Council on the Developing Child "Children's Emotional Development is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains", 2004

13. Physical Body and Brain • Trauma is not the event itself; rather, trauma resides in the nervous system. • Trauma is defined by its effects on a particular individual’s nervous system, not the intensity of the circumstances itself. • Early traumatic experiences can have profound effects on the brain architecture of young children that lead to altered brain size and structure leading to impaired cognitive skills, memory, emotional self-regulation, behavioral problems, coping, and social relationships. Traumatized children frequently suffer body dysregulation, meaning they over- respond or under-respond to sensory stimuli. • http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/toxic-stress-derails-healthy-development/

14. Behavior • A child with a trauma history may be easily triggered or “set off” and is more likely to react very intensely. The child may struggle with self-regulation (i.e., knowing how to calm down) and may lack impulse control or the ability to think through consequences before acting. • As a result, traumatized children may behave in ways that appear unpredictable, oppositional, volatile, and extreme.

15. How to Support Children Experiencing Homelessness • Strengths-based approach • Patience vs. Understanding • Routines • Provide Choices • "Serve and return" interaction – affirming a child's experiences, and nurturing their new abilities. - National Scientific Council on the Developing Child "Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships", 2004 • Unconditional relationship with your students • For many children, relationships with caregivers may be conditional (e.g. "If you sit and watch T.V we'll do_____) • Involve children in "reciprocal learning interactions" • Balance attention on literacy and cognition skills with a strong focus on social and emotional development

16. Thank You! Joy Johnson – jjohnson@simpsonhousing.org Nedra Robinson – nrobinson@simpsonhousin.org

17. References • Bassuk, E.L., DeCandia, C. J., Corey, A, & Berman, F. (November, 2014). America’s youngest outcasts: A report card on child homelessness. The National Center on Family Homelessness. • Family Housing Fund "Homelessness and its Effects on Children" http://www.fhfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Homlessness_Effects_Children.pdf • National Scientific Council on the Developing Child "Children's Emotional Development is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains", 2004 http://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2004/04/Childrens-Emotional-Development-Is-Built-into-the-Architecture-of-Their-Brains.pdf • National Scientific Council on the Developing Child "Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships", 2004 http://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2004/04/Young-Children-Develop-in-an-Environment-of-Relationships.pdf • Starting Life Without a Home: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/539-starting-life-without-a-home • Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/toxic-stress-derails-healthy-development/ • Minnesota Early Childhood Risk and Reach Report https://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/MN_Early_Childhood_Risk_and_Reach_Report_2015.pdf