Consequences of Children's Development

Children all around the world have to face stressors every day, but the level of severity can be very different for each child.  Thankfully, I have not had to deal with any major stressors in my own life, but I have a cousin who I believe has.  When my cousin was 4 years old, he was found walking to his neighbor's house asking for a piece of bread.  The only thing he was wearing was his underwear.  He was living in deep poverty, with a mother on drugs, and he had nothing to eat.  Child protective services was called and he was then sent from foster home to foster home when he made it to my aunt and uncle's house when he was 8 years old.  My cousin had already seen so much chaos and felt so isolated, he had lived in poverty and had been to points of starvation all by the time he was 8 years old.  My aunt and uncle did not adopt him until he was 12 years old, but by this point my cousin had been through so much in his life that it was difficult for him to develop typically.  He left home when he was 16 years old and he has greatly struggled.  He continues to struggle with love, and hope, and sometimes even drugs.  He has a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone.  Although he doesn't have a lot of money, he still finds young teenagers who are struggling and gives them money for food.  His life has been extremely difficult from the stressors he was faced with as a young child, but somehow he still continues to make it today.  He is definitely a strong example to me of someone who is doing all they can to cope with what life gave them.

I chose to study about stressors in Thailand because my older sister lived there for a year and a half and during that time, I loved learning about the country and culture. My sister was there ten years ago when a very large tsunami hit the country.  I was surprised to see that most of what I was looking up still had to do with the tsunami in 2004.  When this tsunami hit, my family was so worried about my sister and we weren't able to contact her for a couple of days.  Luckily for us, she was not hurt and the tsunami was far enough away that it didn't impact her, but she was able to do service for those that it had affected.  I found an article about a girl who witnessed the tsunami when she was 13 years old.  She said that it still affects her life today.  Her home and family business was destroyed, but all of her immediate family survived and went to live in a refugee camp where she helped the younger children try to cope with what happened.  Her school was severely damaged and didn't reopen until years later.  She talked about the chaos that this natural disaster brought to her life and she still recalls the memory today with a shaky voice she says, "Ten years have passed, but the memory of tsunami never goes away" (Nong Bee, 2014).  It really hit me that the stressors that children go through stay with them for a lifetime.  When working with young children, it is important to help them cope with any struggles they might have and help them have the best possible outcome in life.

References: Keenapan, N. (2014). Tsunami +10: Life is back to normal, but memories remain fresh. Unicef.  Retrieved from http://unicefeapro.blogspot.com/2014/12/tsunami-10-life-is-back-to-normal-but.html