S1E12: I Left My Heart in Nebraska w. Dr. Thompson
Nebraska Extension Early Childhood Program Area-Emily Manning, Dr. Holly Hatton, Ingrid Lindal, Erin Kampbell, Linda Reddish, Katie Krause, and LaDonna Werth
Author
01/16/2024
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13
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Description
We welcome guest Dr. Ross Thompson for a discussion on brain development during early childhood and his new book “The Brain Development Revolution”. We cover brain development from birth to five and ways that adults can positively shape children’s cognitive development. Dr. Thompson also provides insight into a revolution in public perception of children's brain development and its ongoing impact on our current understandings.
Resources:
Thompson, R.A. (2023). The Brain Development Revolution: Science, the Media, and Public Policy. Cambridge University Press.
child.unl.edu
Earlychildhood@unl.edu
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Afterparty Review by Sascha Ende
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/2962-afterparty-review
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
"Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Searchable Transcript
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- [00:00:00.072](soft music)
- [00:00:03.090]This is the The Good Life in Early Life,
- [00:00:06.360]a production of Nebraska Extension.
- [00:00:08.730]I'm your host, Emily Manning,
- [00:00:10.410]an early childhood extension educator in Seward County.
- [00:00:14.677]And it's been really cold lately.
- [00:00:16.500]I don't know if it's been that way for you
- [00:00:18.330]from where you're listening, but here in eastern Nebraska,
- [00:00:20.790]it's definitely been cold and snowy.
- [00:00:23.040]And if you have been experiencing that as well
- [00:00:25.590]during this recent round of winter weather,
- [00:00:28.200]I hope that you've been staying safe.
- [00:00:29.970]But you know what?
- [00:00:30.870]We've got a great way for you
- [00:00:32.670]to avoid going outside.
- [00:00:34.080]We've got an awesome episode
- [00:00:35.790]where we dive into brain development.
- [00:00:38.430]So why don't you cozy up, get a blanket,
- [00:00:42.180]get your favorite hot beverage,
- [00:00:44.100]and settle in as we dive into this topic today.
- [00:00:47.620](soft music)
- [00:00:48.660]Our guest today is a distinguished professor emeritus
- [00:00:51.840]of psychology at the University of California Davis,
- [00:00:55.380]where he directed the Social and Emotional Development Lab.
- [00:00:58.320]He is an internationally recognized authority
- [00:01:00.930]on the psychological development of young children,
- [00:01:03.420]parent-child relationships,
- [00:01:05.040]and the applications of developmental science
- [00:01:07.710]to public policy problems
- [00:01:09.390]such as early childhood mental health,
- [00:01:11.370]child poverty and early education.
- [00:01:13.710]His work integrates understanding of the developing brain
- [00:01:16.440]with early experiences in both typical and at-risk children,
- [00:01:20.430]and he consults extensively to legislative committees,
- [00:01:23.280]public agencies, and private foundations.
- [00:01:25.740]In 2023, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award
- [00:01:29.040]from Zero to Three, a national nonprofit devoted
- [00:01:32.070]to the healthy development
- [00:01:33.090]of young children and their families.
- [00:01:34.800]Welcome to the show, Dr. Ross Thompson.
- [00:01:37.620]Thank you Emily, I'm glad to be here.
- [00:01:39.150]Thanks so much for being here.
- [00:01:40.560]Let's get started with a question
- [00:01:42.270]that I ask all of my guests.
- [00:01:44.010]What is a funny memory of you as a child
- [00:01:47.040]or a favorite memory from your childhood?
- [00:01:49.740]Well, Emily, I'm a lifetime professor.
- [00:01:51.870]That's basically what my career has been,
- [00:01:55.077]and that is no surprise when I tell you
- [00:01:58.172]that my father was a college professor
- [00:01:59.157]and so I grew up on campus.
- [00:02:01.350]I enjoyed some of the aspects of campus life.
- [00:02:03.750]One of the things that was true
- [00:02:05.220]of the small college community was that about once a week,
- [00:02:08.730]the band went from their practice rooms at one part
- [00:02:11.032]of campus and marched down the street that was in front
- [00:02:13.890]of our house to the football field
- [00:02:16.350]where they practiced their formations.
- [00:02:18.000]And when I was, I think in third grade,
- [00:02:19.950]I used to march with the band
- [00:02:21.660]and not marching on the sidewalk.
- [00:02:23.490]I'd march in the midst of the band
- [00:02:25.260]and I'd march in the midst of them
- [00:02:27.030]as they did their formations on the field
- [00:02:29.640]until somebody on the megaphone,
- [00:02:31.260]probably the the band director said,
- [00:02:32.940]get that kid out of there.
- [00:02:34.230]And then I'd dash off as quickly as I could
- [00:02:36.240]to the periphery of the field.
- [00:02:38.610]And one time, my father took me to a swim meet.
- [00:02:41.370]First time I'd really seen competitive swimming of any kind.
- [00:02:44.280]And the writer that I was created a mock-up imitation
- [00:02:47.700]newspaper reporting on that event as the reporter
- [00:02:50.250]who was there in residence.
- [00:02:52.061]Oh, fun.
- [00:02:52.894]I'm not at all surprised
- [00:02:53.727]that I've had an academic career
- [00:02:55.470]because you know, I grew up really being immersed in that
- [00:02:57.957]and some of my most pleasant memories are of being part
- [00:03:01.050]of that life at a very early age.
- [00:03:02.673]Yeah, yeah.
- [00:03:03.506]And I was just thinking about your story
- [00:03:05.010]with the band and I used
- [00:03:07.230]to play trombone in the Cornhusker marching band
- [00:03:09.313]when I was in college and there was a really little
- [00:03:13.500]one that would come
- [00:03:14.880]and watch our pre-game show outside of Kimball Hall.
- [00:03:18.390]And there was a little one who would dress up
- [00:03:20.250]as the tuba players and they had like the full costume
- [00:03:23.940]and they had him, they had like a PVC tuba
- [00:03:26.730]kind of like put together.
- [00:03:27.900]So he was like our little mascot.
- [00:03:29.550]So I'm thinking of you
- [00:03:30.870]and thinking you were probably their little,
- [00:03:32.790]their little mascot.
- [00:03:35.610]Well, except for the band director who saw me
- [00:03:37.470]as simply an annoyance.
- [00:03:38.670]Yeah.
- [00:03:39.630]Oh darn.
- [00:03:41.400]Thanks for sharing that.
- [00:03:42.450]That's so fun and sweet.
- [00:03:44.130]So you are in California now, but you lived
- [00:03:47.940]and worked in Nebraska for several years, right?
- [00:03:50.790]Well, more than several years, Emily.
- [00:03:52.170]I was there for 22 years.
- [00:03:53.670]Oh my, yes.
- [00:03:54.630]And what was your position while you were here in Nebraska?
- [00:03:56.940]Well, I was professor of psychology.
- [00:04:00.030]I eventually became Carl A. Happold
- [00:04:01.560]distinguished professor of psychology,
- [00:04:03.540]which only means that my career
- [00:04:04.890]was undistinguished up to that point.
- [00:04:07.230]And so I was basically doing the same kind of work
- [00:04:11.610]as a researcher into child development as a teacher
- [00:04:15.840]that I that I did at the University of California at Davis
- [00:04:17.910]after I moved there.
- [00:04:18.743]Okay, yeah.
- [00:04:19.576]So very, very close to what your role was,
- [00:04:21.870]what your role is at University of California
- [00:04:24.000]and a long time that you spent in Nebraska
- [00:04:26.790]and kind of the Lincoln Omaha area.
- [00:04:28.740]What were some of your favorite things about
- [00:04:30.450]living in Nebraska?
- [00:04:31.920]Well, Emily, I have said
- [00:04:34.080]on several occasions since we left
- [00:04:36.090]that I left my heart in Nebraska because of the friendships
- [00:04:39.780]and the connections we made during what was for me
- [00:04:43.080]and for my family, a really important period of our lives.
- [00:04:46.530]And I think that feeling
- [00:04:47.640]that I left my heart back there was not only
- [00:04:49.560]because of the relationships,
- [00:04:51.180]but because of the kind of people
- [00:04:53.010]that we encountered in Nebraska.
- [00:04:55.454]I sometimes thought of real goodwill.
- [00:04:58.650]We the term Nebraska nice sometimes
- [00:05:02.016]to kid people in Nebraska about this general affinity
- [00:05:05.670]that you find in them,
- [00:05:07.821]the willingness to be helpful,
- [00:05:08.790]the desire to do good things
- [00:05:11.730]and to work hard for good purposes.
- [00:05:14.250]But kidding aside, that sense of goodwill is something
- [00:05:17.070]that I think we really enjoyed and grew from.
- [00:05:19.950]And when my wife and I were back visiting Nebraska a couple
- [00:05:22.433]of weeks ago, I think we encountered it again in people
- [00:05:26.070]who were going out of their way
- [00:05:27.090]to give us directions when new traffic construction,
- [00:05:29.700]new street construction made us lost on a campus
- [00:05:32.130]that had once been very familiar to us.
- [00:05:34.620]That Nebraska nice really stood out for us.
- [00:05:36.570]Thanks, for sharing about your
- [00:05:38.730]favorite thing about Nebraska.
- [00:05:40.350]And I think a lot of us here in Nebraska will find
- [00:05:43.080]that really heartwarming and validating.
- [00:05:45.870]'Cause I think many of us do try to do good work
- [00:05:49.200]to be helpful, to be kind,
- [00:05:51.330]and it's nice to have that recognized by others.
- [00:05:53.730]But let's talk about brains.
- [00:05:55.770]Let's talk about kids, let's talk about those things,
- [00:05:58.850]the things that you're an expert in.
- [00:06:01.560]Give everyone an overview
- [00:06:03.390]of kind of what happens in brains in the first five
- [00:06:05.797]years of a child's life.
- [00:06:07.650]In some respects, it's both an easy and a hard task.
- [00:06:10.410]One could say simply and most straightforwardly
- [00:06:13.560]that the first five years is when the foundations
- [00:06:15.900]of the developing brain are set,
- [00:06:18.965]when lifelong capacities in all sorts of ways
- [00:06:21.840]are taking shape,
- [00:06:22.800]the basics of language, literacy, numbers skill,
- [00:06:26.520]attachments developed during this time,
- [00:06:28.530]basic social understanding and social skills,
- [00:06:31.440]reasoning capacities.
- [00:06:32.970]It's really fair to say that that who we are
- [00:06:35.160]as adults take shape in the elemental processes
- [00:06:38.730]of brain development that take place
- [00:06:40.080]during the first five years.
- [00:06:41.130]But that's not only why I think a lot
- [00:06:43.980]of people in my field pay a lot
- [00:06:46.290]of attention to the first five years.
- [00:06:47.850]I think the other reason is that brains
- [00:06:50.370]and their development are profoundly shaped during this time
- [00:06:53.250]by the quality of a child's early experiences.
- [00:06:55.803]In a very essential way,
- [00:06:57.930]the brain develops in a way that is tailored
- [00:07:00.990]to the child's experience and that's just as it should be
- [00:07:03.750]because it means that one child is developing a brain suited
- [00:07:07.350]to certain opportunities and challenges
- [00:07:09.750]and another child is developing a brain
- [00:07:11.640]for a very different context,
- [00:07:13.530]presenting different opportunities and challenges.
- [00:07:15.750]That's part of the genius, really,
- [00:07:18.769]of the biological program of brain development.
- [00:07:21.030]The challenge, however,
- [00:07:22.290]is that the brain is not very discriminating
- [00:07:24.390]about what those experiences are.
- [00:07:27.053]So brain can be shaped both by
- [00:07:28.620]positive nurturant supportive experiences,
- [00:07:31.860]those that feed the brain to develop all sorts
- [00:07:34.440]of cognitive skills, but the same brain can be shaped
- [00:07:37.050]by experiences of abuse, neglect, of trauma.
- [00:07:40.260]That is one of the reasons why coming out
- [00:07:42.450]of the brain development research in part,
- [00:07:44.520]we now have the concern
- [00:07:46.050]that we do about children facing adverse childhood
- [00:07:49.200]experiences or ACEs in the early years.
- [00:07:51.360]And now that we know, and this is exactly
- [00:07:53.340]what the brain development research has shown us,
- [00:07:55.440]that the cumulation of ACEs early in life can have
- [00:07:59.220]lifelong physical and mental health challenges.
- [00:08:02.220]And that's reflecting the brain susceptibility
- [00:08:05.310]to experience beginning early on.
- [00:08:07.772]You nailed that because that was a hard task to do,
- [00:08:10.530]to dial down everything
- [00:08:11.820]that happens within the first five years
- [00:08:13.830]of brain development.
- [00:08:15.567]And what stood out to me was that quality of experiences
- [00:08:18.690]and that sense of wonderment of the way that our brains
- [00:08:23.340]specifically tailor our development
- [00:08:25.140]to the environment that we're experiencing.
- [00:08:27.030]It's just really neat that we do that as a human.
- [00:08:30.600]So I just wanted to highlight that in your response.
- [00:08:33.600]And I have so many questions in my head now,
- [00:08:35.700]I'm trying to figure out which one to go with next.
- [00:08:38.190]But I heard the word attachments
- [00:08:40.590]and I'm familiar with it
- [00:08:41.850]from my background and my education.
- [00:08:43.920]But for the listeners who may not be aware
- [00:08:45.780]of what that means and how that,
- [00:08:47.970]how attachments are so important for children,
- [00:08:51.150]can we talk about what are attachments?
- [00:08:53.490]I came to the study of brain development through
- [00:08:56.700]my lifelong work on attachment theory.
- [00:08:59.860]And I think the research in looking at infant-parent,
- [00:09:04.410]child-parent, even adult attachments,
- [00:09:07.230]has really been one of the foundational fields
- [00:09:09.450]of developmental psychology.
- [00:09:10.830]The short story, Emily,
- [00:09:12.090]is that infants are biologically motivated
- [00:09:14.760]to form deep emotional ties to those who care
- [00:09:17.880]for them beginning early in the first year.
- [00:09:19.860]The way I explain it often is that,
- [00:09:22.290]among the fundamental questions a newborn has to answer is,
- [00:09:25.410]first of all, is the world safe or danger?
- [00:09:27.360]And babies developed biologically,
- [00:09:29.370]including their brains, are shaped by the cues
- [00:09:31.980]that they get about danger in the world.
- [00:09:33.720]But a second question is, who can I count on?
- [00:09:36.330]Who has my back, who's gonna help me face whatever
- [00:09:38.850]challenges or dangers that I have to face?
- [00:09:40.860]And that's where attachments are important.
- [00:09:42.660]Animals of different species develop these kinds of ties.
- [00:09:45.540]Humans do so in a uniquely human way.
- [00:09:47.790]And by the end of the first year, we not only know
- [00:09:50.640]that the overwhelming majority
- [00:09:52.260]of babies growing up in human environments
- [00:09:54.780]develop emotional attachments,
- [00:09:56.820]we also know that they vary in their security,
- [00:09:59.520]with some babies having learned
- [00:10:01.260]that there are certain people
- [00:10:02.730]and maybe one special one in particular who has my back,
- [00:10:05.910]who is gonna be there if I face situations
- [00:10:09.000]that are a little bit overwhelming.
- [00:10:10.230]And that motivates that baby to be able to go out
- [00:10:12.990]and go where no toddler has gone before.
- [00:10:15.360]To explore boldly
- [00:10:16.830]and confidently knowing that somebody is there.
- [00:10:19.020]By contrast, other infants,
- [00:10:20.910]fortunately not as many, develop insecure attachments.
- [00:10:24.360]Their confidence in the caregiver having their
- [00:10:26.910]back is much less.
- [00:10:28.470]As a result, they are less motivated to explore,
- [00:10:31.770]to learn, to boldly go off into that world
- [00:10:34.200]and become some of them more self-reliant,
- [00:10:36.780]some of them more cautious and hesitant.
- [00:10:38.670]And it is the enduring consequences of those security,
- [00:10:43.680]those early attachments that has motivated my work
- [00:10:46.737]and the work of many, many other people.
- [00:10:48.780]And of course the effects
- [00:10:50.130]of these can also be seen in the developing brain.
- [00:10:52.560]Your answer just highlights
- [00:10:54.360]how important early childhood is,
- [00:10:56.610]and the experiences that children have
- [00:10:59.070]and the role of adults in children's lives
- [00:11:01.410]for setting them up for success.
- [00:11:03.570]You ready to have some fun?
- [00:11:05.040]Oh, sure.
- [00:11:05.873]Alright, well good.
- [00:11:06.990]Me too, awesome.
- [00:11:08.220]We have a segment planned called myth or truth,
- [00:11:11.820]and I'm gonna read some statements about development
- [00:11:16.680]and you can tell us if it's a myth
- [00:11:18.570]or if it's true about a child's development.
- [00:11:21.450]All right, so first one, myth or truth.
- [00:11:24.840]Real learning starts in preschool.
- [00:11:27.510]Well, real learning starts prenatally.
- [00:11:30.451]So that would be a myth.
- [00:11:32.040]In fact, one of the other things
- [00:11:34.200]that we have known about brain development
- [00:11:36.330]for a long time is that the brain is being shaped
- [00:11:38.760]by prenatal experiences as well.
- [00:11:40.920]And as a result, there has been new concern emerging
- [00:11:44.490]from the scientific community
- [00:11:46.080]about the effects of the quality
- [00:11:48.630]of maternal nutrition on the fetus's body
- [00:11:51.750]in brain development.
- [00:11:53.070]We also know that that fetuses can hear the sound
- [00:11:56.280]of the adult voice
- [00:11:58.496]and learn some of the cadences
- [00:11:59.940]of adult speech even before they're born.
- [00:12:02.250]So it doesn't begin in preschool.
- [00:12:04.380]It begins prenatally.
- [00:12:05.580]Yeah, they're already getting messages about what kind
- [00:12:07.680]of environment they're gonna be born in.
- [00:12:09.510]Yes. Thanks for that one.
- [00:12:10.890]Our next one for myth or truth is,
- [00:12:14.190]children learn through relationships.
- [00:12:16.650]Well, they certainly do learn through relationships.
- [00:12:18.630]They learn in many ways,
- [00:12:20.070]but interaction in relationships
- [00:12:22.440]is one of the most important.
- [00:12:24.360]That's even true of language development.
- [00:12:26.490]We think that babies perhaps can learn words
- [00:12:30.000]through things they're watching on the media,
- [00:12:32.760]but it turns out that one of the most profound catalysts
- [00:12:36.330]to early language development is social interaction.
- [00:12:40.140]And that's because children are not only hearing the words,
- [00:12:42.900]but they're hearing them in the context
- [00:12:45.210]in which those words are used.
- [00:12:47.070]They're learning therefore what the words refer to.
- [00:12:50.040]And more importantly, they're learning them
- [00:12:52.860]in interaction, usually with a beloved partner
- [00:12:56.310]that enhances motivation
- [00:12:58.230]and interest in what that partner is doing
- [00:13:00.120]and what they're communicating.
- [00:13:01.230]Yeah, we're so social.
- [00:13:02.970]So that one sounds like it's true.
- [00:13:04.954]It's true, yes. Very true.
- [00:13:06.540]Okay, next one.
- [00:13:07.920]Myth or truth, babies do not remember
- [00:13:10.800]their first year of life.
- [00:13:12.600]Yes, that is true.
- [00:13:13.530]We generally find
- [00:13:14.790]that autobiographical memory, that is,
- [00:13:17.250]a memory for your experiences from your own life,
- [00:13:21.840]we typically don't see people
- [00:13:24.270]remembering autobiographical events much
- [00:13:27.210]before the age of two and a half or three.
- [00:13:29.970]And so when language comes in,
- [00:13:31.650]autobiographical memory follows,
- [00:13:33.900]not because there's something magical
- [00:13:35.400]about language except for how it enables a child
- [00:13:38.520]to share those memories,
- [00:13:40.320]to share those experiences.
- [00:13:43.163]And that becomes a real assist to remember them.
- [00:13:45.840]That's so neat.
- [00:13:46.673]Thanks for sharing that, that theory behind that.
- [00:13:49.410]And our final one, myth or truth?
- [00:13:52.050]Educational videos like Baby Einstein
- [00:13:54.900]are beneficial for baby's brain development.
- [00:13:57.750]Oh, wow.
- [00:13:58.860]I was afraid you're gonna ask one that it's hard
- [00:14:01.320]to answer myth or truth.
- [00:14:02.760]It turns out that the Baby Einstein claims
- [00:14:05.970]were so overstated that at one point the Disney corporation
- [00:14:11.640]needed to offer full refunds to the purchases
- [00:14:14.700]of Baby Einstein product before a certain time,
- [00:14:17.760]because the advertising
- [00:14:21.700]that these videos could promote
- [00:14:23.160]baby's brain development was undocumented.
- [00:14:26.640]That is the evidence behind those claims did not exist.
- [00:14:30.600]So from that point of view, we certainly do not expect
- [00:14:33.810]that even videos deemed educational videos are going
- [00:14:37.560]to promote brain development.
- [00:14:39.480]But the one reason that I hesitate here, Emily,
- [00:14:43.110]is that there are some materials out there,
- [00:14:45.900]some videos that are meant
- [00:14:48.000]to promote parent-child interaction.
- [00:14:51.018]Oh.
- [00:14:51.986]They're not meant for a child
- [00:14:53.220]to be watching by themselves,
- [00:14:54.960]certainly not as a babysitter while the parent goes off
- [00:14:58.290]and does other things, but are meant to draw the parent
- [00:15:01.380]and the child together in interaction,
- [00:15:04.087]in activities that are promoted by the video.
- [00:15:08.160]Yeah, so basically the passive activity of sitting
- [00:15:12.660]and watching a video without anyone else
- [00:15:14.610]around isn't gonna promote cognitive development
- [00:15:18.000]or brain development, but videos that promote
- [00:15:21.300]that interaction and that social bond
- [00:15:24.210]and the relationships, those will,
- [00:15:26.400]because you're helping promote the things
- [00:15:28.560]that help babies learn.
- [00:15:30.682]Exactly, that's exactly right.
- [00:15:33.265]So I hear you have some good news.
- [00:15:35.370]I hear you have a new book out, right?
- [00:15:38.040]Yes, yes, the book is called,
- [00:15:39.397]"The Brain Development Revolution."
- [00:15:42.011]The subtitle is "Science, the Media and Public Policy."
- [00:15:44.160]It came out in September
- [00:15:47.143]and has been in many respects,
- [00:15:49.085]books that I have wanted to write for most of my career.
- [00:15:51.686]And so completing it, getting it published,
- [00:15:54.275]was one of the last tasks before I retired this last summer.
- [00:15:56.640]Well, congratulations.
- [00:15:58.290]You achieved that milestone and you got a book out.
- [00:16:00.990]Not everybody can say they have published a book.
- [00:16:02.880]So congratulations on that.
- [00:16:04.289]Thank you.
- [00:16:05.122]And you said this was a book
- [00:16:06.240]that you've always kind of wanted to write.
- [00:16:08.490]Why is that?
- [00:16:09.690]What compelled you to write this book?
- [00:16:11.460]I became a grandfather two times over this year,
- [00:16:14.820]once in January and again in September.
- [00:16:17.190]And like other young parents, I watched my sons
- [00:16:20.430]and their wives approach the task
- [00:16:22.920]of parenting their newborns
- [00:16:25.442]with an interest in.
- [00:16:26.275]One might also say a preoccupation
- [00:16:27.960]with that child's developing brain.
- [00:16:29.820]And that consciousness of brain development,
- [00:16:32.760]the kind of questions you've been asking me about
- [00:16:34.650]what happens to the developing brain
- [00:16:36.210]in the first five years, has not always been with us.
- [00:16:38.670]And as one who has been always interested in
- [00:16:41.370]how science gets into public awareness,
- [00:16:44.130]I was interested in what was the revolution
- [00:16:46.800]that has caused parents
- [00:16:48.540]of young children to see their child through the lens
- [00:16:51.900]of the developing brain.
- [00:16:53.010]And it turned out that this revolution
- [00:16:54.810]really was revolutionary.
- [00:16:56.130]It took place in a relatively short period of time.
- [00:16:59.070]Before that time,
- [00:17:00.210]parents were concerned about lots of things,
- [00:17:02.010]but the brain did not loom large.
- [00:17:04.080]After that time, you would've had to have been
- [00:17:06.030]living in a cave not to be thinking about
- [00:17:08.220]child development from the view
- [00:17:09.690]of the developing brain.
- [00:17:10.920]It all happened in 1997.
- [00:17:13.170]The month was April.
- [00:17:14.280]And during a particular period,
- [00:17:16.650]a couple of weeks during that time,
- [00:17:18.510]parents across America,
- [00:17:20.804]and to some extent throughout the world,
- [00:17:22.200]were presented with all sorts of messages
- [00:17:24.630]about the importance of early brain development.
- [00:17:26.820]There was a primetime TV special on ABC TV
- [00:17:30.630]that was repeated again in August.
- [00:17:32.730]There was a White House conference on early childhood
- [00:17:35.520]development featuring the developing brain.
- [00:17:37.470]There were special broadcasts on the early morning programs
- [00:17:41.730]Today and Good Morning America
- [00:17:44.250]for each of five days during that week.
- [00:17:46.920]It was a fascinating campaign.
- [00:17:48.570]And part of the story of the book,
- [00:17:50.100]besides talking about the developing brain,
- [00:17:53.617]is documenting the campaign for readers
- [00:17:55.710]and talking about what its effects are,
- [00:17:57.270]because its effects have really been long lasting.
- [00:17:59.460]In some respects, how people,
- [00:18:02.040]most people in the world understand early brain development
- [00:18:05.130]comes from what happened in 1997.
- [00:18:07.440]So really looking at how we message
- [00:18:10.890]to the audience about science
- [00:18:13.710]and how we are able to get that information out.
- [00:18:16.950]'Cause it's really hard.
- [00:18:18.120]I'm thinking recently,
- [00:18:19.410]like the parallels with COVID
- [00:18:20.820]and trying to educate the public about the science behind it
- [00:18:23.910]and trying to get wide acceptance
- [00:18:25.770]and adoptance of practices.
- [00:18:28.350]And that's hard.
- [00:18:29.700]That's really hard.
- [00:18:30.930]And so this was a really successful campaign in a short
- [00:18:33.960]amount of time it sounds like.
- [00:18:35.220]So it is something that is worthy
- [00:18:37.620]of shining a really bright light on
- [00:18:39.330]and saying like, how did they do that?
- [00:18:40.740]How are they so successful?
- [00:18:42.750]Well, in this case, they were so successful
- [00:18:44.610]because the media celebrities
- [00:18:46.710]who were in many respects at the cornerstone
- [00:18:49.650]of this had contact.
- [00:18:51.060]And a lot of it goes down to Rob Reiner.
- [00:18:53.550]Those who are of my generation may remember him as the one
- [00:18:57.240]who starred in the situation comedy "All of the Family,"
- [00:19:01.410]as the character known colloquially as Meathead,
- [00:19:05.370]who was always a foiled Archie Bunker.
- [00:19:07.230]But people since that time know Rob Reiner
- [00:19:12.103]as the producer who created movies like,
- [00:19:14.227]"The Princess Bride."
- [00:19:15.270]Oh yeah, I love that movie, so good.
- [00:19:18.117]And many others.
- [00:19:19.110]He was a fabulously successful producer.
- [00:19:21.840]Reiner was convinced that this message needed
- [00:19:24.870]to get out there.
- [00:19:25.703]That parents needed
- [00:19:26.536]to understand the importance of nurturing their young babies
- [00:19:30.495]and that that message simply was not out there.
- [00:19:32.220]So the long and short of it, Emily,
- [00:19:34.020]is that this campaign worked the way it did
- [00:19:36.780]because it had all the media connections
- [00:19:39.240]and unfortunately also the connections to the science
- [00:19:41.880]to make sure that the message
- [00:19:43.020]that was getting out there was generally accurate.
- [00:19:45.720]That sounds fascinating, it really does.
- [00:19:48.180]Why do you think it was so significant?
- [00:19:51.480]What would you say are the lasting impacts
- [00:19:54.150]of that campaign today?
- [00:19:55.680]You mentioned a few,
- [00:19:57.240]but I wanted to highlight maybe a little bit more about
- [00:19:59.520]how it was so significant.
- [00:20:00.900]That was really part of my goal
- [00:20:02.070]of the book was to point out
- [00:20:03.540]that this is something that happened in 1997,
- [00:20:05.520]but what difference does it make for us today?
- [00:20:07.830]And I think that the really,
- [00:20:10.110]the absolutely signal accomplishment
- [00:20:13.020]of the I Am Your Child campaign,
- [00:20:14.910]which is what the campaign in 1997 was called,
- [00:20:17.730]the most central accomplishment
- [00:20:19.560]was that it made people appreciate
- [00:20:21.960]that there is something really important going on
- [00:20:25.314]in a child's development in the earliest years.
- [00:20:27.720]Believe it or not, that wasn't much
- [00:20:29.760]of the thinking that preceded the mid 1990s.
- [00:20:33.120]Parents believed that the child's mind
- [00:20:35.460]developing was important,
- [00:20:36.660]but most people thought that was something
- [00:20:37.950]that happened when kids went off to school.
- [00:20:40.380]The early childhood years are a period of carefree play.
- [00:20:43.770]They really don't make much difference
- [00:20:45.540]in terms of how the child will develop.
- [00:20:47.460]The serious stuff happens when kids go off to kindergarten
- [00:20:50.340]or first grade and that's when the serious stuff
- [00:20:52.920]of growing mentally,
- [00:20:54.270]and presumably their brains, are also happening.
- [00:20:56.970]And what the I Am Your Child campaign really did
- [00:20:59.340]was completely shift everybody's thinking.
- [00:21:02.070]So much so that some parents just became unduly concerned
- [00:21:05.040]about doing all the right things for fear
- [00:21:07.110]that their baby's brains would be impaired.
- [00:21:09.240]But outta that, for example,
- [00:21:10.590]came the movement toward a pre-kindergarten education
- [00:21:14.370]and an enhanced interest in preschool.
- [00:21:16.800]The idea that if the brain is developing so rapidly,
- [00:21:19.470]maybe we should take advantage of this potential
- [00:21:22.110]and really help build the school readiness,
- [00:21:24.810]a term that came into parlance in the wake of the campaign.
- [00:21:28.830]Maybe we should build school readiness so that kids are able
- [00:21:31.500]to benefit more from their entry
- [00:21:33.630]into kindergarten and first grade.
- [00:21:35.130]And in fact, one of the effects of that is more
- [00:21:37.140]and more children are in pre-K programs,
- [00:21:39.180]more and more children are in preschool
- [00:21:41.280]and they're having to shift,
- [00:21:42.840]the teachers have had to shift upward the curricula
- [00:21:46.110]that they use in the early elementary school years
- [00:21:48.540]because kids are coming in already knowing letters
- [00:21:51.180]and numbers and many other concepts
- [00:21:52.860]that previously these were the things they had
- [00:21:55.320]to learn in kindergarten and in first grade.
- [00:21:57.720]So that has really been good,
- [00:21:58.980]but there were also some negative effects of the campaign.
- [00:22:01.800]Oh, there was?
- [00:22:03.664]Well, one of the things
- [00:22:04.497]that I point out is that the coverage of the science,
- [00:22:08.220]the communication of the science was selective.
- [00:22:10.680]And there were some important ways in which we had science
- [00:22:13.680]in those days that could have done a lot of good,
- [00:22:16.650]but never became part of the messaging.
- [00:22:18.570]Hmm.
- [00:22:19.403]Central to that is that we all knew those
- [00:22:21.300]who were doing research on early brain development
- [00:22:23.517]and children's behavioral development,
- [00:22:25.710]we were well aware of the ways in which poverty
- [00:22:28.530]has devastating effects on the developing brain in ways
- [00:22:32.430]that carry lifelong consequence and yet poverty,
- [00:22:35.610]and the effects of poverty on brain development,
- [00:22:38.400]never became part of the I'm Your Child campaign,
- [00:22:41.130]a fantastic opportunity that had existed
- [00:22:43.890]to really use the brain development messaging
- [00:22:46.440]to create significant, to create the public will,
- [00:22:49.680]to create significant inroads in poverty.
- [00:22:52.470]Never happened.
- [00:22:53.303]And that I think was a loss.
- [00:22:54.630]The other thing that happened, I think that was a loss
- [00:22:57.030]was that a lot of the interest
- [00:22:58.680]of the brain development messaging
- [00:23:00.810]to promote early preschool and pre-kindergarten,
- [00:23:04.470]never made its way into improving childcare quality.
- [00:23:07.680]And so even today we have networks
- [00:23:10.140]of pre-kindergarten centers,
- [00:23:12.910]we have very good preschool programs,
- [00:23:15.450]but we still have not transformed
- [00:23:18.060]our thinking about early childcare to recognize
- [00:23:20.730]that brains are developing there too in children
- [00:23:23.270]of the same age as the other kids
- [00:23:25.440]who are in a really good preschool
- [00:23:27.030]or pre-kindergarten program.
- [00:23:28.950]There are some reasons for that,
- [00:23:30.630]that I talk about in the book,
- [00:23:31.800]but even to this day, we often see childcare as a place
- [00:23:34.920]where we put kids while their parents are working
- [00:23:37.470]and we see preschool as a place where we go
- [00:23:39.810]for feeding children's brains and minds.
- [00:23:42.120]That was a loss.
- [00:23:42.960]Yeah, and it sounds like we really lost an opportunity
- [00:23:47.064]to campaign for, advocate for,
- [00:23:48.930]equitable access to high quality
- [00:23:51.180]early childhood experiences.
- [00:23:53.130]And that's a big, big loss.
- [00:23:55.350]When you have like a big campaign like that
- [00:23:57.207]and a lot of motivation and momentum,
- [00:23:59.550]that's definitely an opportunity lost.
- [00:24:01.740]I think it is.
- [00:24:02.573]And especially when thinking about brain
- [00:24:05.490]development in terms of early childhood investments began
- [00:24:08.280]to take hold in the early 2000s,
- [00:24:10.812]you often were hearing the expression
- [00:24:13.680]or the phrase that children are a social benefit,
- [00:24:16.920]rather, children are a collective benefit.
- [00:24:19.080]Oh yeah.
- [00:24:20.099]Which should also mean a collective investment.
- [00:24:22.260]And the idea is that this is not just my child who ought
- [00:24:25.200]to receive the investment of everything I can do to promote
- [00:24:29.430]that child's early brain development, but all children are,
- [00:24:33.461]and we miss out on opportunities when we don't,
- [00:24:35.818]when we don't see children, all children,
- [00:24:37.560]as being worthy of investing everything
- [00:24:40.290]we can in helping to ensure
- [00:24:42.120]that they develop their best selves.
- [00:24:43.860]Yeah, and I agree with that,
- [00:24:45.240]but I'm sure there are some listeners
- [00:24:47.310]who may not agree with that.
- [00:24:48.570]And I guess just what would you say to people about
- [00:24:54.130]the benefit of investing in all children in the early
- [00:24:58.050]childhood experiences that they receive?
- [00:25:00.270]How does that benefit them later?
- [00:25:02.730]I think that the evidence is very clear
- [00:25:06.534]that when we provide young children early in life
- [00:25:08.880]with the kinds of tools
- [00:25:10.860]and experiences that promote developing brains and mind,
- [00:25:14.910]those children are launched much more competently
- [00:25:18.510]and successfully into the school years.
- [00:25:21.540]And if we then follow that up with good quality school,
- [00:25:25.230]we are in a position to develop the kinds of citizens
- [00:25:30.581]who can really power the kind
- [00:25:33.060]of information focused economy that we currently have.
- [00:25:37.709]Now in the book, I caution that we need
- [00:25:39.390]to be careful about this investment language,
- [00:25:41.820]because children are worthy of our care
- [00:25:45.180]and our concern independently
- [00:25:47.160]of whether they power our economy when they get older.
- [00:25:50.130]And sometimes when child advocates
- [00:25:52.770]have made the argument to policymakers
- [00:25:55.620]that early investments in childhood pay off decades later
- [00:26:00.540]in an improved economy,
- [00:26:02.190]those arguments don't carry much weight with legislators
- [00:26:05.782]because those decades later are long
- [00:26:07.140]after the next election.
- [00:26:09.873]That's true.
- [00:26:12.141]And I think that's a wrong way
- [00:26:12.974]to think about our investments in children.
- [00:26:15.525]As a society, we care for people
- [00:26:17.520]who need care without expecting a return.
- [00:26:19.920]We provide enormous services, for example,
- [00:26:22.200]to seniors like myself without expecting that we're going
- [00:26:25.140]to be able to provide a return on
- [00:26:26.970]that investment at some point in the future.
- [00:26:28.950]And so we should have the same attitude
- [00:26:30.750]with respect to children.
- [00:26:31.860]Nevertheless, the evidence is clear, Emily,
- [00:26:34.560]that the investments that we do make in early quality care
- [00:26:38.520]and education do make a difference on children,
- [00:26:41.040]especially if we follow up those investments
- [00:26:43.620]by building on in high quality schools
- [00:26:46.140]and in other kinds of experiences that compound,
- [00:26:48.870]if you will, the benefits children have acquired early on.
- [00:26:51.840]That's a really refreshing take on that message
- [00:26:54.690]because I think so often we hear that that investment piece
- [00:26:57.750]that it's gonna pay off later,
- [00:26:59.400]but you're saying that everyone deserves it
- [00:27:02.310]because they're a human.
- [00:27:03.630]I think that is what has been the foundation
- [00:27:06.210]of a caring society.
- [00:27:07.440]People merit the benefits of the society in which they live.
- [00:27:11.820]In fact, the remarkable thing is that,
- [00:27:14.430]as I was writing the book,
- [00:27:16.170]I was trying to grapple with the arguments
- [00:27:19.440]you often hear that we couldn't possibly significantly
- [00:27:22.470]reduce the poverty rate.
- [00:27:23.700]It would take too much of an investment
- [00:27:25.440]of our national income and energy.
- [00:27:27.720]And sure enough, partly as a result
- [00:27:30.510]of the government's efforts
- [00:27:32.310]to address the economic consequences of the pandemic,
- [00:27:35.430]parents of children around the country were
- [00:27:37.770]provided an additional financial benefit to help
- [00:27:40.980]in the care for children.
- [00:27:42.927]And as a result, the poverty rate in this country nosedived.
- [00:27:47.598]And there was a strong hope that
- [00:27:48.780]that child tax credit would continue beyond the immediate
- [00:27:52.890]duration of the enabling legislation.
- [00:27:55.800]And unfortunately it was not.
- [00:27:56.970]And certainly enough, the poverty rate
- [00:27:59.044]for young children has gone up again.
- [00:28:00.990]So let's talk a little bit about brain development,
- [00:28:04.410]and we're getting towards the end of our time.
- [00:28:06.180]So I just wanna ask for parents
- [00:28:08.520]and caregivers who are currently caring for children,
- [00:28:11.280]what are some practical tips for them
- [00:28:13.950]to support their child's brain development?
- [00:28:16.560]One of the central stories that comes from
- [00:28:18.601]the work in developmental neuroscience
- [00:28:21.690]is that brains grow through their activity.
- [00:28:23.940]That if we think about the brain
- [00:28:28.517]and we have Carol Carol Dweck to thank for this metaphor.
- [00:28:31.230]If we think about the brain in some respects
- [00:28:33.180]as being like a muscle that grows stronger
- [00:28:35.267]through its activity,
- [00:28:36.600]then I think it transforms our thinking about
- [00:28:40.410]how parents can support brain development.
- [00:28:42.960]Because rather than trying to provide
- [00:28:45.060]just the right kind of tools,
- [00:28:46.920]just the right kinds of Baby Einstein videos,
- [00:28:50.490]just the right kinds of stimulation,
- [00:28:53.100]what we can instead do
- [00:28:54.630]as parents is follow the child's lead,
- [00:28:57.390]because that child is going
- [00:28:59.330]to be naturally seeking out experiences, interests,
- [00:29:03.210]opportunities based on where
- [00:29:05.310]that child's brain is ready to grow tight now.
- [00:29:08.130]In a sense, what parents need
- [00:29:09.570]to be is less educators
- [00:29:11.640]and more like tour guides to this remarkable world
- [00:29:14.760]that children are exploring
- [00:29:16.110]and learning about for themselves.
- [00:29:17.910]And therefore what we need to do as parents
- [00:29:21.300]is to provide young children with the right tools
- [00:29:24.034]for their exploration.
- [00:29:26.070]And above all, the most important tool
- [00:29:28.950]to promote brain development is not a curriculum,
- [00:29:31.260]but simply a sensitive, responsive adult partner.
- [00:29:35.130]If you respond to your child by following up their interests
- [00:29:39.180]and trying to make opportunities available for them
- [00:29:41.880]to discover on their own with your help,
- [00:29:44.730]you'll have done what you need to do
- [00:29:47.070]to promote the child's developing brain.
- [00:29:48.900]It helps reduce anxiety for those parents who want to try
- [00:29:52.170]and provide all the experiences, all the activities,
- [00:29:54.810]all the tools, and just lets them know
- [00:29:57.210]that if they're responsive to what
- [00:29:59.490]their child is interested in,
- [00:30:01.020]in providing those experiences, it'll be okay.
- [00:30:04.530]Yes, yes.
- [00:30:06.480]And it also
- [00:30:07.770]I think helps parents enjoy their children more.
- [00:30:12.240]It can be easy to think
- [00:30:13.710]that there's not a lot going on when you have a newborn
- [00:30:16.740]who you're simply trying to figure out
- [00:30:19.380]what their schedule is evolving into.
- [00:30:22.601]But I think what the brain development research tells us
- [00:30:26.130]is that the nurturance pays off
- [00:30:28.259]and where parents need help, bring in grandparents.
- [00:30:32.640]Yeah, bring in friends, bring in the cousins,
- [00:30:34.800]bring in aunts, whoever's there to support you
- [00:30:37.380]and get that help to help nurture that baby.
- [00:30:39.720]So what does interest look like in an infant?
- [00:30:42.930]So you said sometimes it seems
- [00:30:44.160]like there's not much going on.
- [00:30:45.300]How would you tell that an infant is interested
- [00:30:47.820]in what's in front of them?
- [00:30:49.470]Well, that's a very interesting question, Emily,
- [00:30:51.270]because some of it requires just a little bit of knowledge
- [00:30:55.050]of what the child can see and hear.
- [00:30:57.060]There's an amusing picture of me
- [00:30:58.710]with my newborn granddaughter months ago
- [00:31:02.040]where she must have been just a few weeks old.
- [00:31:04.560]But at that point I was aware of the fact
- [00:31:06.120]that her eyes were sufficiently developed,
- [00:31:08.640]that her interest was being drawn to sharp contrasts
- [00:31:14.202]like the edge of a picture frame against the light wall,
- [00:31:17.880]or in the case of her parents' house,
- [00:31:20.550]the dark colored beams against the white ceiling.
- [00:31:24.147]And I was trying to point out to her, to her parents,
- [00:31:27.660]that this was what she was,
- [00:31:29.370]her interest was drawn to
- [00:31:30.720]and pointed up where she was looking up at the beams
- [00:31:33.750]up in the ceiling.
- [00:31:36.000]That was transformative for them,
- [00:31:37.410]because they began realizing
- [00:31:38.970]that when Betsy was not looking at their faces,
- [00:31:41.850]which is what they were hoping she would do,
- [00:31:44.130]it was because her attention was drawn
- [00:31:47.831]to the picture frame right behind their head.
- [00:31:50.010]The other thing is recognizing
- [00:31:52.100]that kid's hearing is great early on.
- [00:31:54.270]And so oftentimes a child who is not as a newborn
- [00:31:58.560]looking at you or looking at anything in particular,
- [00:32:01.590]is devoting their attention to an unusual sound
- [00:32:04.710]that is not unusual to us
- [00:32:06.690]or we're not paying attention to them,
- [00:32:08.460]but are new to the newborn who are hearing these sounds
- [00:32:12.846]and are processing that as well.
- [00:32:15.540]I think the other thing that parents can recognize
- [00:32:18.630]is that from early on, hearing human voices
- [00:32:21.540]and particularly hearing human voices using language,
- [00:32:25.338]is profoundly important for brain development
- [00:32:27.780]because we know that over the course
- [00:32:29.280]of the first six months, the brain is rewiring itself
- [00:32:32.820]to begin learning the language
- [00:32:34.440]or languages that the child will be speaking for the rest
- [00:32:38.100]of their lives.
- [00:32:38.970]So that by the end of the first year,
- [00:32:41.070]the brain's language developing areas
- [00:32:44.100]are very different from how they were
- [00:32:45.870]when the child was born.
- [00:32:47.430]And that sets the stage
- [00:32:48.810]for that amazing vocabulary explosion
- [00:32:51.810]of the second year when children are learning several
- [00:32:54.420]new words each day and parents are having
- [00:32:56.790]to be very careful about
- [00:32:58.320]what they're saying in the child's presence,
- [00:33:00.445]because that word is likely to be acquired
- [00:33:03.270]and understood in the context in which it's used.
- [00:33:05.940]And that's because of how the brain has been preparing
- [00:33:08.820]itself during the first year,
- [00:33:10.530]because of all the language it's hearing
- [00:33:12.480]to learn those words when it's ready to do
- [00:33:15.480]so in the second year.
- [00:33:16.560]Thanks for that information
- [00:33:18.270]and sharing that with our listeners,
- [00:33:20.310]but we're coming to the end of our time with this episode.
- [00:33:23.580]Thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise
- [00:33:26.250]and wisdom with me and then with our listeners.
- [00:33:29.730]And I really wanna encourage our listeners
- [00:33:31.590]to go and purchase "The Brain Development Revolution,"
- [00:33:35.460]by Dr. Ross Thompson.
- [00:33:37.080]So check it out.
- [00:33:38.070]I know we're a little bit,
- [00:33:38.970]this episode's coming out after the holidays,
- [00:33:40.860]so you can't get it for a Christmas gift,
- [00:33:42.450]but maybe you could put it on the list
- [00:33:43.890]for next year and it will definitely be a crowd pleaser
- [00:33:47.700]and give a lot of good information.
- [00:33:49.920]So thank you once again Dr. Thompson for your time
- [00:33:52.770]and your expertise when being on the show today.
- [00:33:55.200]This is a great pleasure, Emily, thank you.
- [00:33:57.690]This has been an episode of The Good Life in Early Life,
- [00:34:01.860]a Nebraska Extension Early Childhood production
- [00:34:04.500]with your host Emily Manning.
- [00:34:06.030]For more information on early childhood,
- [00:34:07.980]check out our website at child.unl.edu.
- [00:34:11.310]If you like the show, subscribe,
- [00:34:12.930]and tell your friends to listen.
- [00:34:14.310]The show production team is Emily Manning,
- [00:34:16.740]Dr. Holly Hatton, Erin Kampbell, Ingrid Lindal,
- [00:34:19.770]Linda Reddish, Kim Wellsand, LaDonna Werth and Katie Krause.
- [00:34:23.760]See you next time and thanks for listening.
- [00:34:27.885](upbeat music)
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- Tags:
- brain development
- brain science
- child development policy
- cognitive development
- early childhood
- education
- positive relationships
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