Children's mental health affects how they socialize, how they learn and how well they meet their potential. Mental health is important at ever stage in life. Certain kinds of stress in a child's environment can lead to mental health problems. Toxic stress in early childhood is caused by experiences such as extreme poverty, abuse and chronic or sever maternal depression, all of which can disrupt the developing brain, particularly when children lack supports to protect against these harmful experiences. So just like we have to limit the negative substances in our environments to avoid harm, we need to eliminate stressors in children's environments to avoid the toxic stress that will affect their mental health.

Children's mental health affects how they socialize, how they learn and how well they meet their potential. Mental health is important at ever stage in life. Certain kinds of stress in a child's environment can lead to mental health problems. Toxic stress in early childhood is caused by experiences such as extreme poverty, abuse and chronic or sever maternal depression, all of which can disrupt the developing brain, particularly when children lack supports to protect against these harmful experiences. So just like we have to limit the negative substances in our environments to avoid harm, we need to eliminate stressors in children's environments to avoid the toxic stress that will affect their mental health.