Children aren’t born with these skills—they are born with the potential to develop them. Some children may need more support than others to develop these skills. In other situations, if children do not get what they need from their relationships with adults and the conditions in their environments—or (worse) if those influences are sources of toxic stress —their skill development can be seriously delayed or impaired. Adverse environments resulting from neglect , abuse, and/or violence may expose children to toxic stress, which can disrupt brain architecture and impair the development of executive function.