How trauma changes young brains

December 29, 2010

Produced by Eight Forty-Eight

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(WBEZ/Carlos Javier Ortiz)
Trauma can have a profound impact on a young person's brain.

Most of the young people in juvi come from a hard knock life and everyone knows that’s a disadvantage. But now experts say going through trauma can alter a child’s brain.

Violence at home or on the street--neglect, poverty – these things have profound effects on how a kid’s mind develops.

So as part of Inside and Out, WBEZ’s Gabriel Spitzer reported on this emerging brain science. The studies reveal why, for so many kids, the justice system hasn’t worked.