Children who react instantaneously to trauma need caring environment and compassionate parenting, suggests a novel study.

The research conducted at various institutes including University of British Columbia, University of California in San Francisco and Berkeley and partly funded by the National Institute of Mental Health revealed that children with extreme reactivity are likely to thrive if bred in supporting and fostering environment.

According to Jelena Obradović, assistant professor, School of Education, Stanford University, “Parents and teachers may find that sensitive children, like orchids, are more challenging to raise and care for, but they can bloom into individuals of exceptional ability and strength when reared in a supportive, nurturing, and encouraging environment.”

338 kindergarten kids studied
The research team examined 338 kindergarteners together with their teachers under family settings. The team aimed to study the effects of unfavorable experiences in the family and natural reactivity on the development of the children.

The team designed slightly demanding tasks that appeared taxing to the kindergartners to record their reactions and how it affected them.

The team found out that children who reacted sharply to such tasks seemed to be more distressed with their family circumstances.

This also led to the conclusion that highly reactive children had higher tendency of developmental problems at the time of maturing in unpleasant family environment.

But the researchers also revealed that such children had a higher propensity of flourishing when brought up in caring surroundings.

Researchers attribute it to the fact that these children, being sensitive, react equally to supportive environment thus maturing into finer individuals.

“The study tells us that when children are highly susceptible to stress, it’s not always bad news, but rather should be considered in terms of the type of environment they live in,” said Obradović.

Details of the study are published in the journal Child Development.

Temperament of the child
Temperaments are innate aspects of individual’s personality, and in kids they play a vital role. A child can be introvert or extrovert in his or her nature but the rearing up can make a great difference in case the child is sensitive and prone to reactivity.

Family surroundings and interactions within the family have a significant role to play where a child’s growth is concerned.

A supportive family setting can change a sensitive kid into a sociable being and mould the kid’s behaviour for the life ahead.