@MultiLevelRecord Abror Rahmatullayev
Reading Part 3
Read the text and choose the correct heading for each
paragraph from the list of headings below.
There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use
all of them. You cannot use any heading more than once.
______________________________________________________
List of headings
A. The controversy around the word “toxic”
B. Effects of different types of stress
C. How to protect children from toxic stress
D. An association of adverse experience with health problems and
unhealthy habits
E. Body’s reactions in response to the perceived harmful event
F. Signs of being under sustained stress
G. Negative impacts of toxic stress on children’s mental health
15. Paragraph 1 …….
16. Paragraph 2 …….
17. Paragraph 3 …….
18. Paragraph 4 …….
19. Paragraph 5 …….
20. Paragraph 6 …….
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@MultiLevelRecord Abror Rahmatullayev
1. Our bodies are built to respond when under attack. When we sense
danger, our brain goes on alert, our heart rate goes up, and our organs
flood with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. We breathe
faster, taking in more oxygen, muscles tense, our senses are
sharpened and beads of sweat appear. This combination of reactions to
stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved
as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react
quickly to life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet
near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal changes and physiological
responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to safety.
Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressors that are not life-
threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family difficulties.
2. That's all fine when we need to jump out of the way of a speeding
bus, or when someone is following us down a dark alley. In those
cases, our stress is considered "positive", because it is temporary and
helps us survive. But our bodies sometimes react in the same way to
more mundane stressors, too. When a child faces constant and
unrelenting stress, from neglect, or abuse, or living in chaos, the
response stays activated, and may eventually derail normal
development. This is what is known as "toxic stress". The effects are
not the same in every child, and can be buffered by the support of a
parent or caregiver, in which case the stress is considered "tolerable".
But toxic stress can have profound consequences, sometimes even
spanning generations. Figuring out how to address stressors before
they change the brain and our immune and cardiovascular systems is
one of the biggest questions in the field of childhood development
today.
3. In 1998, two researchers, Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, pioneered
in publishing a study demonstrating that people who had experienced
abuse or household dysfunction as children were more likely to have
serious health problems, like cancer or liver diseases, and unhealthy
lifestyle habits, like drinking heavily or using drugs as adults. This
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@MultiLevelRecord Abror Rahmatullayev
became known as the "ACE Study," short for "adverse childhood
experiences." Scientists have since linked more than a dozen forms of
ACEs - including homelessness, discrimination, and physical, mental,
and sexual abuse - with a higher risk of poor health in adulthood.
4. Every child reacts to stress differently, and some are naturally more
resilient than others. Nevertheless, the pathways that link adversity in
childhood with health problems in adulthood lead back to toxic stress.
As Jenny Anderson, senior reporter at Quartz, explains, "when a child
lives with abuse, neglect, or is witness to violence, he or she is primed
for that fight or flight all the time. The burden of that stress, which is
known as 'allostatic load or overload,' referring to the wear and tear that
results from either too much stress or from inefficient management of
internal balance, eg, not turning off the response when it is no longer
needed, can damage small, developing brains and bodies. A brain that
thinks it is in constant danger has trouble organising itself, which can
manifest itself later as problems of paying attention, or sitting still, or
following instructions - all of which are needed for learning".
5. Toxic is a loaded word. Critics say the term is inherently judgmental
and may appear to blame parents for external social circumstances
over which they have little control. Others say it is often misused to
describe the source of stress itself rather than the biological process by
which it could negatively affect some children. The term, writes John
Devaney, centenary chair of social work at the University of Edinburgh,
"can stigmatise individuals and imply traumatic happenings in the past".
Some paediatricians do not like the term because of how difficult it is to
actually fix the stressors their patients face, from poverty to racism.
They feel it is too fatalistic to tell families that their child is experiencing
toxic stress, and there is little they can do about it. But Nadine Burke
Harris, surgeon general of California, argues that naming the problem
means we can dedicate resources to it so that paediatricians feel like
they have tools to treat "toxic stress".
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@MultiLevelRecord Abror Rahmatullayev
6. The most effective prevention for toxic stress is to reduce the source
of the stress. This can be tricky, especially if the source of the stress is
the child's own family. But parent coaching, and connecting families
with resources to help address the cause of their stress (sufficient food,
housing insecurity, or even the parent's own trauma), can help. Another
one is to ensure love and support from a parent or caregiver. Young
children's stress responses are more stable, even in difficult situations,
when they are with an adult they trust. As Megan Gunnar, a child
psychologist and head of the Institute of Child at the University of
Minnesota, said: "When the parent is present and relationship is secure,
basically the parent eats the stress: the kid cries, the parent comes, and
it doesn't need to kick in the big biological guns because the parent is
the protective system". That is why Havard's Center on the Developing
Child recommends offering care to caregivers, like mental health or
addiction support, because when they are healthy and well, they can
better care for their children.
