With 90 percent of brain development happening before age 5, some of our most important workforce preparation begins before kindergarten. The overwhelming evidence that early learning is the key to our future has led national business organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers to support investment in early childhood.
Connecticut’s academic achievement gap has shed light on a serious preparation gap that begins before our poorest children even walk through the kindergarten door. By focusing the state’s early childhood education efforts — currently residing in multiple state agencies — the state can be more effective and efficient in its efforts.
The time has come to get Connecticut’s early childhood programs on track so that all of our children are prepared for life-long success. Connecticut’s philanthropic community stands poised to help jump-start the process of focusing the state’s efforts. Working effectively and efficiently, a Department of Early Education and Child Development would help our children become successful, contributing members of our state. When our children succeed, our state succeeds.
Paul Wessel
Executive Director, CT Parent Power
Steering Committee Member, CT Early Childhood Alliance
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news17441.html
19.3.11
Early days and months of life are critical
"Early relationships are the foundations on which we build our identity and our future. Everything we do for the rest of our lives is really rooted in the nature of those early experiences and early relationships," he says.
Melmed is executive director of Zero to Three, a national nonprofit, based in D.C., dedicated to supporting the health and development of infants and toddlers. He says recent advances in neuroscience have underscored the importance of early childhood education.
"And what the neuroscience is telling us is that in the early days and months of life, the brain is going at a pace that that far exceeds any other point in our lifetime," he says.
http://wamu.org/news/11/03/17/activists_call_for_enhanced_early_education.php
Melmed is executive director of Zero to Three, a national nonprofit, based in D.C., dedicated to supporting the health and development of infants and toddlers. He says recent advances in neuroscience have underscored the importance of early childhood education.
"And what the neuroscience is telling us is that in the early days and months of life, the brain is going at a pace that that far exceeds any other point in our lifetime," he says.
http://wamu.org/news/11/03/17/activists_call_for_enhanced_early_education.php
17.3.11
Early brain development training helps
March 15, 2011
Researchers of both brain development and child development agree that brain development in children under 3 has the most lifelong impact of any other time in their lives.
On the positive side, very young children’s brains are more open to new learning experiences. On the other hand, young children’s brains are also more vulnerable to harmful environmental influences, such as poverty or neglect.
Early Head Start emerged in 1994 after nearly 30 years of Project Head Start’s success preparing children to learn in public schools and to succeed in life.
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 3- to 5- year-old Head Start graduates outperformed non-Head Start graduates in thinking ability and language development as well as in social skills.
http://cjonline.com/opinion/2011-03-15/letter-good-investment
Researchers of both brain development and child development agree that brain development in children under 3 has the most lifelong impact of any other time in their lives.
On the positive side, very young children’s brains are more open to new learning experiences. On the other hand, young children’s brains are also more vulnerable to harmful environmental influences, such as poverty or neglect.
Early Head Start emerged in 1994 after nearly 30 years of Project Head Start’s success preparing children to learn in public schools and to succeed in life.
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 3- to 5- year-old Head Start graduates outperformed non-Head Start graduates in thinking ability and language development as well as in social skills.
http://cjonline.com/opinion/2011-03-15/letter-good-investment
16.3.11
Where to Go During an Earthquake
Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE'
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene unnecessary.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone's life... The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared! 'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.'
Source: http://www.amerrescue.org
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE'
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene unnecessary.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone's life... The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared! 'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.'
Source: http://www.amerrescue.org
13.3.11
Human brain: with 100 billion cells, each with 7,000 to 10,000 connections.
Research demonstrates that human infants perceive pain, as determined by physiological and behavioral responses, at their earliest developmental stages, even before birth.
A critically important question is: What are the lasting consequences of the early experience of pain? Emerging evidence indicates that neonatal pain can have profound and perhaps permanent effects on development. For example, premature babies receiving painful clinical procedures during intensive care later exhibited a lower reaction to pain. In fact, there was a strong correlation between the number of painful procedures and the resulting reduction in pain sensitivity.
At the March 24 event we will discuss animal research that shows that experience of pain during an early stage of development known as the "sensitive or critical period" permanently alters pain perception in the adult in a manner remarkably similar to that in humans. These studies further show that pain during the critical period permanently changes the way neural pathways and circuits in the brain are organized.
Such studies have only scratched the surface as the human brain is bewilderingly complex, with 100 billion cells, each with 7,000 to 10,000 connections. Further research using modern techniques to map and visualize neurons and their connections will be needed to reveal all the effects of neonatal pain on the brain and behavior.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/mar/12/guest-column-early-experience-of-pain-has/
A critically important question is: What are the lasting consequences of the early experience of pain? Emerging evidence indicates that neonatal pain can have profound and perhaps permanent effects on development. For example, premature babies receiving painful clinical procedures during intensive care later exhibited a lower reaction to pain. In fact, there was a strong correlation between the number of painful procedures and the resulting reduction in pain sensitivity.
At the March 24 event we will discuss animal research that shows that experience of pain during an early stage of development known as the "sensitive or critical period" permanently alters pain perception in the adult in a manner remarkably similar to that in humans. These studies further show that pain during the critical period permanently changes the way neural pathways and circuits in the brain are organized.
Such studies have only scratched the surface as the human brain is bewilderingly complex, with 100 billion cells, each with 7,000 to 10,000 connections. Further research using modern techniques to map and visualize neurons and their connections will be needed to reveal all the effects of neonatal pain on the brain and behavior.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/mar/12/guest-column-early-experience-of-pain-has/
10.3.11
Ventral striatum development during early adolescence is critical to emotional regulation
Scans with fMRI show areas in brain that change in response to emotions as children enter adolescence
Just when children are faced with intensifying peer pressure to misbehave, regions of the brain are actually blossoming in a way that heighten the ability to resist risky behavior, report researchers at three West Coast institutions.
The findings -- detailed in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron -- may give parents a sigh of relief regarding their kids as they enter adolescence and pay more attention to their friends.
In the study, 24 girls and 14 boys from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans twice, at ages 10 and 13, the latter representing when children have moved into early adolescence. Each time, they were presented with photos of faces making neutral, angry, fearful, happy and sad emotional expressions.
Non-invasive fMRI, when focused on the brain, measures blood flow changes using a magnetic field and radio frequency pulses, producing detailed images that provide scientists with information about brain activity or help medical staff diagnose disease.
Researchers compared the fMRI results from age 10 to age 13, finding that activity increased significantly in the ventral striatum and the ventral medial portion of the prefrontal cortex over this three-year period. In addition to the scans, the researchers considered the children's self-reports on their ability to resist peer influences and engagement in risky or delinquent behavior.
The most enhanced response occurred in the ventral striatum, a brain region most frequently associated with reward-related processing. Over time, increases in brain activity there correlated with increases in children's resistance to peer influence.
This study, which researchers believed to be the first to report longitudinal fMRI findings about changes in the way the brain processes emotion during this critical time of brain development, appears to fit into a growing body of evidence that ventral striatum development during early adolescence is critical to emotional regulation carried out by the brain's prefrontal circuitry, the researchers concluded.
"This is basic research that hopefully is laying the foundation for future studies with even more clinical relevance," said Pfeifer, director of the Developmental Social Neuroscience Lab. "We really have a lot to learn about how the brain responds to really basic emotional stimuli across development."
There was a surprise finding that deserves more study, though, Pfeifer said. Responses in the amygdala -- a small almond-shaped mass centrally located deep in the brain -- showed significant increases during this period only to the sad faces.
The amygdala plays a major role in emotional reactivity and indexing the salience of things in the environment. It's possible, Pfeifer said, that this response to sad faces could somehow be tied to the emergence of depression, especially in girls.
http://www.healthcanal.com/brain-nerves/15136-adolescence-the-power-resist-blooms-the-brain.html
Just when children are faced with intensifying peer pressure to misbehave, regions of the brain are actually blossoming in a way that heighten the ability to resist risky behavior, report researchers at three West Coast institutions.
The findings -- detailed in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron -- may give parents a sigh of relief regarding their kids as they enter adolescence and pay more attention to their friends.
In the study, 24 girls and 14 boys from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans twice, at ages 10 and 13, the latter representing when children have moved into early adolescence. Each time, they were presented with photos of faces making neutral, angry, fearful, happy and sad emotional expressions.
Non-invasive fMRI, when focused on the brain, measures blood flow changes using a magnetic field and radio frequency pulses, producing detailed images that provide scientists with information about brain activity or help medical staff diagnose disease.
Researchers compared the fMRI results from age 10 to age 13, finding that activity increased significantly in the ventral striatum and the ventral medial portion of the prefrontal cortex over this three-year period. In addition to the scans, the researchers considered the children's self-reports on their ability to resist peer influences and engagement in risky or delinquent behavior.
The most enhanced response occurred in the ventral striatum, a brain region most frequently associated with reward-related processing. Over time, increases in brain activity there correlated with increases in children's resistance to peer influence.
This study, which researchers believed to be the first to report longitudinal fMRI findings about changes in the way the brain processes emotion during this critical time of brain development, appears to fit into a growing body of evidence that ventral striatum development during early adolescence is critical to emotional regulation carried out by the brain's prefrontal circuitry, the researchers concluded.
"This is basic research that hopefully is laying the foundation for future studies with even more clinical relevance," said Pfeifer, director of the Developmental Social Neuroscience Lab. "We really have a lot to learn about how the brain responds to really basic emotional stimuli across development."
There was a surprise finding that deserves more study, though, Pfeifer said. Responses in the amygdala -- a small almond-shaped mass centrally located deep in the brain -- showed significant increases during this period only to the sad faces.
The amygdala plays a major role in emotional reactivity and indexing the salience of things in the environment. It's possible, Pfeifer said, that this response to sad faces could somehow be tied to the emergence of depression, especially in girls.
http://www.healthcanal.com/brain-nerves/15136-adolescence-the-power-resist-blooms-the-brain.html
9.3.11
Brain tests show child wealth gap
ISLAMABAD : The brains of children from low-income families process information differently to those of their wealthier counterparts, US research suggests.
Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.
The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.
A UK researcher said it could shed light on early brain development.
The 26 children in the study, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, were measured using an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measured activity in the "prefrontal cortex" of the brain.
Half were from low income homes, and half from high income families.
During the test, an image the children had not been briefed to expect was flashed onto a screen, and their brain responses were measured.
Those from lower income families showed a lower prefrontal cortex response to it than those from wealthier households.
Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."
Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.
[Sam: a more probably reason is because of the difference in exposure and stimulation to social encounters. Rich exposure stimulates more wiring of neurons, develops a larger data base, and a more response prefrontal cortex.]
Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.
Professor Thomas Boyce, another of the researchers, said that talking more to children could boost prefrontal cortex development.
"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens."
His colleague, Professor Robert Knight, added: "This is a wake-up call - it not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status."
He said that with "proper intervention and training", improvements could be made, even in older children.
Dr Emese Nagy, from the University of Dundee, said that it was a "pioneering" study which could aid understanding of how environment could affect brain development.
She said: "Children who grow up in a different environment may have very different early experiences, and may process information differently than children from a different environment.
"The study showed that low socioeconomic status children behaved exactly the same way as high socioeconomic status children, but their brain processed the information differently."
http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=176036
Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.
The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.
A UK researcher said it could shed light on early brain development.
The 26 children in the study, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, were measured using an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measured activity in the "prefrontal cortex" of the brain.
Half were from low income homes, and half from high income families.
During the test, an image the children had not been briefed to expect was flashed onto a screen, and their brain responses were measured.
Those from lower income families showed a lower prefrontal cortex response to it than those from wealthier households.
Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."
Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.
[Sam: a more probably reason is because of the difference in exposure and stimulation to social encounters. Rich exposure stimulates more wiring of neurons, develops a larger data base, and a more response prefrontal cortex.]
Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.
Professor Thomas Boyce, another of the researchers, said that talking more to children could boost prefrontal cortex development.
"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens."
His colleague, Professor Robert Knight, added: "This is a wake-up call - it not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status."
He said that with "proper intervention and training", improvements could be made, even in older children.
Dr Emese Nagy, from the University of Dundee, said that it was a "pioneering" study which could aid understanding of how environment could affect brain development.
She said: "Children who grow up in a different environment may have very different early experiences, and may process information differently than children from a different environment.
"The study showed that low socioeconomic status children behaved exactly the same way as high socioeconomic status children, but their brain processed the information differently."
http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=176036
Learn the rhythm of language
People shouldn't wait to start until kids are in kindergarten, Bardutz emphasized.
"They've missed the critical time. The kids need to hear the language starting at before birth," she said. "The earlier the better."
REGINA — Children start to learn language even before they're born, neurolinguist Holly Bardutz is teaching students in her language acquisition class at the University of Regina.
While still in the womb, babies already start to learn language by hearing the rhythm of the language, says Bardutz.
To recreate what it's like in the womb, and what a baby might hear, Bardutz asked her students to spend class time in the university's pool, with their ears under water, listening to people above ground speaking in various languages, including Urdu (which is spoken in India), Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Korean.
"What we're looking for is the rhythm of the language," Bardutz explained.
Not only does the rhythm vary depending on the language, but also depending on whether the language is being spoken, sung or read.
"And reading from a textbook is different than reading a Dr. Seuss (book), which has more rhythm," she pointed out.
An unborn child's hearing is fully developed by 36 weeks, Bardutz said. A full-term baby is born at 40 weeks.
"So usually the last three or four weeks while they're in the uterus, they have fully developed hearing," she said.
"And the uterus is a watery substance, so that's why we're coming to the pool," Bardutz explained.
"When babies are born — even at four hours old — right at birth, they can already identify their own language," she said. "They can tell if what they're hearing is English or Chinese. They don't know the language, but they can recognize their own language."
http://www.leaderpost.com/life/class+takes+pool+learn+rhythm+language/4398110/story.html
"They've missed the critical time. The kids need to hear the language starting at before birth," she said. "The earlier the better."
REGINA — Children start to learn language even before they're born, neurolinguist Holly Bardutz is teaching students in her language acquisition class at the University of Regina.
While still in the womb, babies already start to learn language by hearing the rhythm of the language, says Bardutz.
To recreate what it's like in the womb, and what a baby might hear, Bardutz asked her students to spend class time in the university's pool, with their ears under water, listening to people above ground speaking in various languages, including Urdu (which is spoken in India), Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Korean.
"What we're looking for is the rhythm of the language," Bardutz explained.
Not only does the rhythm vary depending on the language, but also depending on whether the language is being spoken, sung or read.
"And reading from a textbook is different than reading a Dr. Seuss (book), which has more rhythm," she pointed out.
An unborn child's hearing is fully developed by 36 weeks, Bardutz said. A full-term baby is born at 40 weeks.
"So usually the last three or four weeks while they're in the uterus, they have fully developed hearing," she said.
"And the uterus is a watery substance, so that's why we're coming to the pool," Bardutz explained.
"When babies are born — even at four hours old — right at birth, they can already identify their own language," she said. "They can tell if what they're hearing is English or Chinese. They don't know the language, but they can recognize their own language."
http://www.leaderpost.com/life/class+takes+pool+learn+rhythm+language/4398110/story.html
Infant artificial language learning and language acquisition
Rebecca L. Gómez and LouAnn Gerke
Infant language researchers have begun by examining four aspects of the language learner’s task. The first involves identification of word-like units in speech. The second involves encoding and remembering the order in which words occur in sentences. The third involves generalization of grammatical relations. The last involves learning at the more abstract level of syntactic categories (e.g. determiner, adjective, noun and verb). This fourth sensitivity is at the root of our unique human ability to produce and comprehend novel utterances.
[Sam: The fundamental flaw to this approach is that we are taking an adult approach to understand how infants acquire languages.]
How does our growing understanding of infant learning abilities bear on the highly constrained language learner described in the introduction? We can identify at least three ways.
First, all of the artificial-language-learning studies discussed have examined infants’ sensitivity to linguistic form in the absence of semantic content. In so far as these studies are tapping sensitivities used in real-language acquisition, they challenge many accounts in which language development is driven by a mapping between meaning and form. This is not to say that learners do not ultimately need to map the syntactic forms they encode during infancy onto meaning. Obviously they do. However, the fact that infants are able to acquire certain aspects of form prior to acquiring the meaning of these forms changes the nature of the language acquisition problem in a fundamental way.
[Sam: Baby's world of language has no meaning. They are just playing with sounds.]
A second implication of the research on infant artificial language learning concerns the specificity of the constraints on the learner. On many accounts, these constraints have been construed as being language specific, such that for every aspect of language to be acquired, the child is born with a specific constraint or parameter that guides him/her to the correct representation. Data showing that infants can use transitional probabilities to segment grammatical tone sequences contrasts with this view, suggesting that they apply statistical learning to linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli alike.The application of statistical sensitivity to the problem of word segmentation is admittedly far from the constraints discussed by linguistic nativists (involving such language-specific notions as whether or not declarative sentences in a particular language must have an overt subject).
[Sam: Chomsky has over complicated the issue by imposing meaning when baby is just playing with sounds.]
A third implication of both the infant artificial-languagelearning studies reviewed here and the myriad studies of infant language perception preceding them concerns the relevance of children’s early utterances as evidence for theories of language acquisition. One of the key observations of linguistic nativists involves errors that children do not make. As noted earlier, children never erroneously transform a statement like ‘The man who is tall is Sam’ into a question like ‘Is the man who tall is Sam? ’ The lack of such errors, along with logical arguments concerning the poverty of the stimulus, have been taken as evidence that children never consider rules based solely on linear order in sentences. Although researchers have begun to address the question of a how a statistical learner might begin to negotiate impoverished input, it is equally important to note that if the studies of infants’ early linguistic abilities tell us anything, it is that they have become sensitive to many aspects of linguistic form a year or more before they ever begin to produce multiword speech. This is not to say that all of language is acquired by the age of 12 months. However, if infant language-perception studies have one theme, it is in demonstrating the extremely complex (and often contrasting) relationship between aspects of their native language infants and young children have tacitly discerned and those they actually produce. Thus, we must exercise caution in interpreting children’s early utterances as evidence for or against the linguistic representations they do and do not entertain.
[Sam: the research has overlooked the different stages of brain development.]
A final comment is in order. Given the vast differences in artificial grammars and natural language, how do we ensure that the learning observed is representative of language learning in the real world? First, in using this approach it is important to design experiments capturing key linguistic phenomena. If we can isolate a phenomenon of interest experimentally, we can go on to test it using a wide range of manipulations, where, presumably, such manipulations are driven by our knowledge of natural language acquisition. For instance, the finding that 18-month-olds, but not 15-montholds track grammatical dependencies separated by one to three intervening syllables, suggests that we should see the same pattern with an artificial grammar designed to investigate such learning Indeed, studies in our joint laboratories show that we do. Another approach, currently being investigated by Saffran and colleagues, is to test whether the output of statistical learning can be used as input to natural language.
Ultimately, however, as with any scientific endeavor, the proof of this approach will depend on the extent to which it generates new ways of understanding the mechanisms involved in natural language acquisition. Its real promise lies in the precision it affords with respect to investigating infant learning.
http://www.ehu.es/ehusfera/neurolengua/files/2011/03/Gomez-and-Gerken-2000-TICS.pdf
Infant language researchers have begun by examining four aspects of the language learner’s task. The first involves identification of word-like units in speech. The second involves encoding and remembering the order in which words occur in sentences. The third involves generalization of grammatical relations. The last involves learning at the more abstract level of syntactic categories (e.g. determiner, adjective, noun and verb). This fourth sensitivity is at the root of our unique human ability to produce and comprehend novel utterances.
[Sam: The fundamental flaw to this approach is that we are taking an adult approach to understand how infants acquire languages.]
How does our growing understanding of infant learning abilities bear on the highly constrained language learner described in the introduction? We can identify at least three ways.
First, all of the artificial-language-learning studies discussed have examined infants’ sensitivity to linguistic form in the absence of semantic content. In so far as these studies are tapping sensitivities used in real-language acquisition, they challenge many accounts in which language development is driven by a mapping between meaning and form. This is not to say that learners do not ultimately need to map the syntactic forms they encode during infancy onto meaning. Obviously they do. However, the fact that infants are able to acquire certain aspects of form prior to acquiring the meaning of these forms changes the nature of the language acquisition problem in a fundamental way.
[Sam: Baby's world of language has no meaning. They are just playing with sounds.]
A second implication of the research on infant artificial language learning concerns the specificity of the constraints on the learner. On many accounts, these constraints have been construed as being language specific, such that for every aspect of language to be acquired, the child is born with a specific constraint or parameter that guides him/her to the correct representation. Data showing that infants can use transitional probabilities to segment grammatical tone sequences contrasts with this view, suggesting that they apply statistical learning to linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli alike.The application of statistical sensitivity to the problem of word segmentation is admittedly far from the constraints discussed by linguistic nativists (involving such language-specific notions as whether or not declarative sentences in a particular language must have an overt subject).
[Sam: Chomsky has over complicated the issue by imposing meaning when baby is just playing with sounds.]
A third implication of both the infant artificial-languagelearning studies reviewed here and the myriad studies of infant language perception preceding them concerns the relevance of children’s early utterances as evidence for theories of language acquisition. One of the key observations of linguistic nativists involves errors that children do not make. As noted earlier, children never erroneously transform a statement like ‘The man who is tall is Sam’ into a question like ‘Is the man who tall is Sam? ’ The lack of such errors, along with logical arguments concerning the poverty of the stimulus, have been taken as evidence that children never consider rules based solely on linear order in sentences. Although researchers have begun to address the question of a how a statistical learner might begin to negotiate impoverished input, it is equally important to note that if the studies of infants’ early linguistic abilities tell us anything, it is that they have become sensitive to many aspects of linguistic form a year or more before they ever begin to produce multiword speech. This is not to say that all of language is acquired by the age of 12 months. However, if infant language-perception studies have one theme, it is in demonstrating the extremely complex (and often contrasting) relationship between aspects of their native language infants and young children have tacitly discerned and those they actually produce. Thus, we must exercise caution in interpreting children’s early utterances as evidence for or against the linguistic representations they do and do not entertain.
[Sam: the research has overlooked the different stages of brain development.]
A final comment is in order. Given the vast differences in artificial grammars and natural language, how do we ensure that the learning observed is representative of language learning in the real world? First, in using this approach it is important to design experiments capturing key linguistic phenomena. If we can isolate a phenomenon of interest experimentally, we can go on to test it using a wide range of manipulations, where, presumably, such manipulations are driven by our knowledge of natural language acquisition. For instance, the finding that 18-month-olds, but not 15-montholds track grammatical dependencies separated by one to three intervening syllables, suggests that we should see the same pattern with an artificial grammar designed to investigate such learning Indeed, studies in our joint laboratories show that we do. Another approach, currently being investigated by Saffran and colleagues, is to test whether the output of statistical learning can be used as input to natural language.
Ultimately, however, as with any scientific endeavor, the proof of this approach will depend on the extent to which it generates new ways of understanding the mechanisms involved in natural language acquisition. Its real promise lies in the precision it affords with respect to investigating infant learning.
http://www.ehu.es/ehusfera/neurolengua/files/2011/03/Gomez-and-Gerken-2000-TICS.pdf
8.3.11
Learning starts early
One of the earliest indications was the finding that newborns prefer
their mother’s voice to that of another female.
Newborns also distinguish sentences from their native language from sentences from another language. Passages read in French produced higher sucking rates (as measured by an operant sucking procedure) in French newborns than passages read in Russian
http://www.ehu.es/ehusfera/neurolengua/files/2011/03/Gomez-and-Gerken-2000-TICS.pdf
their mother’s voice to that of another female.
Newborns also distinguish sentences from their native language from sentences from another language. Passages read in French produced higher sucking rates (as measured by an operant sucking procedure) in French newborns than passages read in Russian
http://www.ehu.es/ehusfera/neurolengua/files/2011/03/Gomez-and-Gerken-2000-TICS.pdf
Create a world by naming things
When he was over for Christmas, he was 15 months old and enthralled with naming things. Funny how it really is true that giving names is creating a world (from Genesis onwards), making it your own. He would go around for hours pointing at things and saying their names. “Tee” he would say and point at the Christmas tree. “Gocky!” would accompany a prod to our faithful pet. 15 seconds later, he would rediscover the tree with the same excitement; 15 seconds after that, it was the dog again. Apparently before going to sleep each night, or even in the middle of the night, he would list every word he knew. Is that to make sure he knows his whole world, to feel comfortable that everything is in its place? To make sure that what he experienced during the day exists?
A month passed and I could already hear the difference in how he expressed himself. Earlier it had been just the words; now, there were connections between the words. The “cocky ca” was now owned by “Daddy” = his father’s coffee mug. “Choo choo train kye!” now expressed the fact that a metro train had passed by outside (anything that is outside or a big, open space, is ‘sky’).
In the month that passed, he’s added adjectives to his repertoire. The streets are now filled with ‘gay ca” = gray cars. Most other things, however, are ‘gee’ = green. Is that because it’s his favorite color, so that’s the color that he wants things to be, or has the concept of colors just not registered yet? He also knows the concept of ‘two’ which encompasses all plurals. One doggie, two doggies, two doggies, two doggies… But what this kid does have is a pretty awesome command of phrasal verbs, that bane of every non-native English speaker. He definitely knows when to get out of the stroller, get out the calculator from the vent he’s stuffed it in, and when the train goes away.
Every day is a new adventure when you’re discovering the world and creating logical links between known and unknown things. A piece of spinach puff pastry is dubbed “boki tee” due to its resemblance to a piece of broccoli with its tree-like stem. And sometimes, you see two ‘itty ats” (kitty cats) where all other, older and supposedly wiser people, see nothing.
http://whereismysuitcase.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/enthralled-by-yet-another-language/#comment-72
A month passed and I could already hear the difference in how he expressed himself. Earlier it had been just the words; now, there were connections between the words. The “cocky ca” was now owned by “Daddy” = his father’s coffee mug. “Choo choo train kye!” now expressed the fact that a metro train had passed by outside (anything that is outside or a big, open space, is ‘sky’).
In the month that passed, he’s added adjectives to his repertoire. The streets are now filled with ‘gay ca” = gray cars. Most other things, however, are ‘gee’ = green. Is that because it’s his favorite color, so that’s the color that he wants things to be, or has the concept of colors just not registered yet? He also knows the concept of ‘two’ which encompasses all plurals. One doggie, two doggies, two doggies, two doggies… But what this kid does have is a pretty awesome command of phrasal verbs, that bane of every non-native English speaker. He definitely knows when to get out of the stroller, get out the calculator from the vent he’s stuffed it in, and when the train goes away.
Every day is a new adventure when you’re discovering the world and creating logical links between known and unknown things. A piece of spinach puff pastry is dubbed “boki tee” due to its resemblance to a piece of broccoli with its tree-like stem. And sometimes, you see two ‘itty ats” (kitty cats) where all other, older and supposedly wiser people, see nothing.
http://whereismysuitcase.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/enthralled-by-yet-another-language/#comment-72
Language acquisition is a dynamic interaction
The caregivers actually used simpler language the closer the boy got to grasping a word. At the point they sensed he was on the cusp of getting it, all three primary caregivers – Roy, his wife and their nanny – simplified their language to guide him to the word, then gently brought him into more complex language once he passed the hump.
“For each of the primary caregivers we found the same trend,” Roy said. “We’re getting longer sentences when he doesn’t know the word, and then they start getting shorter, and they’re pretty much at their shortest as he starts to get the word…. Was I consciously doing that? I can’t imagine anyone consciously doing that.”
Roy says it’s evidence of a “continuous feedback loop” that shows caregivers modifying language at a level never reported or suspected before. It’s not just that his son was learning from his linguistic environment, the environment was learning from him, he told the TED audience.
The finding has changed his thinking about causality.
“I now think looking for linear cause effects —where the environment causes certain effects in my child — is a bad formulation,” he says. “Because … as soon as you have feedback loops, it’s a chicken and egg kind of problem to say what was the original cause of something. What you’re actually doing is studying a dynamical system.”
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/deb-roy-at-ted/
“For each of the primary caregivers we found the same trend,” Roy said. “We’re getting longer sentences when he doesn’t know the word, and then they start getting shorter, and they’re pretty much at their shortest as he starts to get the word…. Was I consciously doing that? I can’t imagine anyone consciously doing that.”
Roy says it’s evidence of a “continuous feedback loop” that shows caregivers modifying language at a level never reported or suspected before. It’s not just that his son was learning from his linguistic environment, the environment was learning from him, he told the TED audience.
The finding has changed his thinking about causality.
“I now think looking for linear cause effects —where the environment causes certain effects in my child — is a bad formulation,” he says. “Because … as soon as you have feedback loops, it’s a chicken and egg kind of problem to say what was the original cause of something. What you’re actually doing is studying a dynamical system.”
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/deb-roy-at-ted/
The German Debate
03/07/2011
During his visit to Germany, Turkey's prime minister said children of Turks living here should learn Turkish first. His comment sparked a contentious debate. Petra Schulz, a professor for German as a second language, discusses the issue with SPIEGEL.
SPIEGEL: During a visit to Germany last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "Our children must learn German, but they must learn good Turkish first." Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says: "Children who grow up in Germany must learn German as the very first thing." Who's right?
Schulz: If Mr. Westerwelle means that Turkish parents in Germany should, as a matter of principle, speak German with their own children, he is wrong, at least from the standpoint of language acquisition research. What sort of German would it be? Probably very broken German, in many cases. This sort of a role wouldn't do anyone any good.
SPIEGEL: So is the order Erdogan proposes better?
Schulz: With this type of family, yes, but German should be added as early as possible, even before the first language is completely developed. The human brain is very well equipped to learning more than one language at the same time.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,749442,00.html
During his visit to Germany, Turkey's prime minister said children of Turks living here should learn Turkish first. His comment sparked a contentious debate. Petra Schulz, a professor for German as a second language, discusses the issue with SPIEGEL.
SPIEGEL: During a visit to Germany last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "Our children must learn German, but they must learn good Turkish first." Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says: "Children who grow up in Germany must learn German as the very first thing." Who's right?
Schulz: If Mr. Westerwelle means that Turkish parents in Germany should, as a matter of principle, speak German with their own children, he is wrong, at least from the standpoint of language acquisition research. What sort of German would it be? Probably very broken German, in many cases. This sort of a role wouldn't do anyone any good.
SPIEGEL: So is the order Erdogan proposes better?
Schulz: With this type of family, yes, but German should be added as early as possible, even before the first language is completely developed. The human brain is very well equipped to learning more than one language at the same time.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,749442,00.html
7.3.11
Would a language be forgotten after prolong disuse?
Language development involves two processes in the brain, (1) an operating system of voice recognition and (2)a data base of vocabularies and contents.
The voice recognition system is developed during a critical period in the first 9 months after birth, with the automatic wiring of language neurons. As an operating system, like the CPU, it is kept for life.
The data base of vocabularies and contents is like a hard disc. You can input data any time. But you can easily lose it after prolong disuse.
How do we know that the voice recognition system is kept for life?
We can only recognize sounds that are found in our voice recognition system. When the brain receives an alien sound not found in the system, it will be directed to the nearest sound in the system. Japanese cannot distinguish between L and R. Indians will say "dan giu" instead of "thank you".
For people who have completely forgotten a particular language, they can pick it up much faster than people who have never been exposed to that language. They can imitate and pronounce the words like a native speaker. This ability is not found in people who have never been exposed to the language.
Multi-lingual speakers are far more gifted in learning new languages than monolingual speakers. Multi-lingual speakers have a voice recognition system far more powerful than that of a monolingual speaker. When you can recognize a sound, you can say it. When you cannot recognize a sound, you can't.
So, don't worry if you have forgotten a language because of prolong disuse. Spend a little time on it in building up the necessary vocabulary, the language will come back quickly.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201103/language-forgetting
The voice recognition system is developed during a critical period in the first 9 months after birth, with the automatic wiring of language neurons. As an operating system, like the CPU, it is kept for life.
The data base of vocabularies and contents is like a hard disc. You can input data any time. But you can easily lose it after prolong disuse.
How do we know that the voice recognition system is kept for life?
We can only recognize sounds that are found in our voice recognition system. When the brain receives an alien sound not found in the system, it will be directed to the nearest sound in the system. Japanese cannot distinguish between L and R. Indians will say "dan giu" instead of "thank you".
For people who have completely forgotten a particular language, they can pick it up much faster than people who have never been exposed to that language. They can imitate and pronounce the words like a native speaker. This ability is not found in people who have never been exposed to the language.
Multi-lingual speakers are far more gifted in learning new languages than monolingual speakers. Multi-lingual speakers have a voice recognition system far more powerful than that of a monolingual speaker. When you can recognize a sound, you can say it. When you cannot recognize a sound, you can't.
So, don't worry if you have forgotten a language because of prolong disuse. Spend a little time on it in building up the necessary vocabulary, the language will come back quickly.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201103/language-forgetting
40 weeks of pregnancy
Just how long is pregnancy supposed to be? It's not exactly the nine months you may have thought of.
"It's 10 four-week months, or 280 days," Dr. Kurt Finberg said. That's 40 weeks of pregnancy. But again, too many babies have been born weeks before that.
"Keep your baby in as long as possible, it can mean the world to them."
"About 40 percent of the brain development occurs in the last two weeks," Johah said. "Their lungs may not be property developed."
http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/health/117284358.html
Data from a National Vital Statistics report shows the national rate of pre-term births has shot up nearly 36 percent in the last 20 years.
Some reports say much of that has been due to scheduled C-sections, and the concern is the number of those procedures where there was no medical need, called "low-risk." The Kern County Public Health Department provided some data.
For the years of 2005 through 2007, in Kern County the low-risk C-sections accounted for an average of eight of every 100 births at San Joaquin Hospital. In that time, these births accounted for 10 of 100 births at Delano Regional and Bakersfield Memorial, and eleven per 100 births at Kern Medical Center. Mercy Hospital had an average of 14 of these births per 100, and it was 22 at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital.
Experts say C-sections pose risks to mothers, even death. The numbers in Kern County are also troubling. We tracked down local statistics from the Office of State Health Planning and Development.
In 2005 there were no "maternal deaths" linked to C-section deliveries. But in 2006, one of these deaths was reported at Kern Medical Center, and in 2007 there was one death at each KMC and Mercy Hospital.
In 2008, two maternal deaths related to C-section happened at Delano Regional Medical Center. No deaths like this were reported in 2009 in Kern County. During these years the total number of local births ranged from 13,326 to 14,591.
"As you can see, the death totals are small and for some years none occurred at all," OSHPD spokesman David Byrnes responded in an e-mail.
With the risks to mothers and babies, why do early births happen? Local doctors see a variety of reasons.
"There's a common feeling in late pregnancy that, yes they're tired of being pregnant, and they want to get delivered sooner," Finberg said.
Some doctors say expectant mothers may have friends or relatives who scheduled a C-section or induced labor early, and so they think it's OK.
"Maybe there's family members there at a certain time," Jonah added. But, she also mentioned a more troubling possible reason for more C-sections. "There's also concerns that possibly because maybe the reimbursement for a surgical delivery rather than natural delivery is a little bit more, that could play into it."
Some reports show C-sections cost twice what regular births do.
The March of Dimes is focusing strong efforts on reducing the number of early births, particularly deliveries from 37 to 39 weeks of pregnancy. Eyewitness News discovered hospitals in Kern County are already taking action.
"You have to have a medical condition that would dictate that you need to be delivered earlier, in order to deliver before 39 weeks," Finberg said. Jonah said that is now also the policy at Mercy, San Joaquin, KMC and Ridgecrest Regional.
Some doctors already see results.
"Our rate of pre-term births are much reduced," Bhogal said. She added that before the policy change at Memorial, she'd hear from parents who had decided on an elective, early birth. "They'd say, 'I wish I had waited.'"
In some cases, mothers may not be exactly sure how far along their pregnancy is. Bhogal said they have four criteria to determine gestational age, and that's more important now with the hospital's policy on no elective births before 39 weeks.
One criteria is referring to an ultra-sound test. But, it's important to have an ultra-sound early in the pregnancy.
Finberg agrees. "Early ultra-sounds are much more accurate than late ultra-sounds in terms of defining maternal age," he said. And Finberg stresses it's important for many reasons to get medical care as early as possible in a pregnancy. The goal is healthy babies and mothers.
Bhogal is glad more information is going out on the dangers of early, elective deliveries. It's much better for mothers to wait.
"I know it's hard when you're late in pregnancy, and you want to just get the baby out," Bhogal said. "But it's important to stay, because mom is the best incubator."
Jonah says even the final few weeks of pregnancy are vital. "Those extra couple weeks, when you end up with a healthy baby, is well worth it."
And Gonzalez didn't have a choice on when her baby could be delivered, but she had a message to mothers who might consider an early birth.
"It's 10 four-week months, or 280 days," Dr. Kurt Finberg said. That's 40 weeks of pregnancy. But again, too many babies have been born weeks before that.
"Keep your baby in as long as possible, it can mean the world to them."
"About 40 percent of the brain development occurs in the last two weeks," Johah said. "Their lungs may not be property developed."
http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/health/117284358.html
Data from a National Vital Statistics report shows the national rate of pre-term births has shot up nearly 36 percent in the last 20 years.
Some reports say much of that has been due to scheduled C-sections, and the concern is the number of those procedures where there was no medical need, called "low-risk." The Kern County Public Health Department provided some data.
For the years of 2005 through 2007, in Kern County the low-risk C-sections accounted for an average of eight of every 100 births at San Joaquin Hospital. In that time, these births accounted for 10 of 100 births at Delano Regional and Bakersfield Memorial, and eleven per 100 births at Kern Medical Center. Mercy Hospital had an average of 14 of these births per 100, and it was 22 at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital.
Experts say C-sections pose risks to mothers, even death. The numbers in Kern County are also troubling. We tracked down local statistics from the Office of State Health Planning and Development.
In 2005 there were no "maternal deaths" linked to C-section deliveries. But in 2006, one of these deaths was reported at Kern Medical Center, and in 2007 there was one death at each KMC and Mercy Hospital.
In 2008, two maternal deaths related to C-section happened at Delano Regional Medical Center. No deaths like this were reported in 2009 in Kern County. During these years the total number of local births ranged from 13,326 to 14,591.
"As you can see, the death totals are small and for some years none occurred at all," OSHPD spokesman David Byrnes responded in an e-mail.
With the risks to mothers and babies, why do early births happen? Local doctors see a variety of reasons.
"There's a common feeling in late pregnancy that, yes they're tired of being pregnant, and they want to get delivered sooner," Finberg said.
Some doctors say expectant mothers may have friends or relatives who scheduled a C-section or induced labor early, and so they think it's OK.
"Maybe there's family members there at a certain time," Jonah added. But, she also mentioned a more troubling possible reason for more C-sections. "There's also concerns that possibly because maybe the reimbursement for a surgical delivery rather than natural delivery is a little bit more, that could play into it."
Some reports show C-sections cost twice what regular births do.
The March of Dimes is focusing strong efforts on reducing the number of early births, particularly deliveries from 37 to 39 weeks of pregnancy. Eyewitness News discovered hospitals in Kern County are already taking action.
"You have to have a medical condition that would dictate that you need to be delivered earlier, in order to deliver before 39 weeks," Finberg said. Jonah said that is now also the policy at Mercy, San Joaquin, KMC and Ridgecrest Regional.
Some doctors already see results.
"Our rate of pre-term births are much reduced," Bhogal said. She added that before the policy change at Memorial, she'd hear from parents who had decided on an elective, early birth. "They'd say, 'I wish I had waited.'"
In some cases, mothers may not be exactly sure how far along their pregnancy is. Bhogal said they have four criteria to determine gestational age, and that's more important now with the hospital's policy on no elective births before 39 weeks.
One criteria is referring to an ultra-sound test. But, it's important to have an ultra-sound early in the pregnancy.
Finberg agrees. "Early ultra-sounds are much more accurate than late ultra-sounds in terms of defining maternal age," he said. And Finberg stresses it's important for many reasons to get medical care as early as possible in a pregnancy. The goal is healthy babies and mothers.
Bhogal is glad more information is going out on the dangers of early, elective deliveries. It's much better for mothers to wait.
"I know it's hard when you're late in pregnancy, and you want to just get the baby out," Bhogal said. "But it's important to stay, because mom is the best incubator."
Jonah says even the final few weeks of pregnancy are vital. "Those extra couple weeks, when you end up with a healthy baby, is well worth it."
And Gonzalez didn't have a choice on when her baby could be delivered, but she had a message to mothers who might consider an early birth.
Language bootstrapping the brain
Language is one of the most demanding cognitive tasks faced by humans early in their development.
The classic language areas have their own developmental biases emerging from the functions of nearby cortical areas. The frontal cortex area immediately rostral to Broca's area develops earlier as a center for processing action sequences. Other areas involved in language processing lie usefully near auditory and association areas. The visual cortex seems like it should be outside the loop.
Language has sharp elbows. It muscles its way into the brain, crowding out other neural functions. Language has the most powerful weapons at hand -- a baby's first word prompts an entire language community to pull the dopamine and serotonin levers of emotion and attention.
A function that was strongly specified by genetics, patterned early in brain development, would not plant itself in spare neurons like a weed in a vacant lot. Only a system that bootstraps itself upon experiencing language inputs could have such plasticity. The structure of the language environment fosters the development of the classic language areas, biased to appear in those particular places by prenatal developmental trajectories, but not built according to a genetic blueprint.
The blind subjects tell us that the ground for language processing is almost as fertile elsewhere in the cortex. Many brain areas have the genetic equipment to recruit and organize neurons into useful circuits for language processing.
Language development is developmentally robust because it can rely on a rich language environment, not because of genetic standardization. The basic problems of language evolution must be explained by showing how robust language communities emerged. I don't preclude genetics, far from it -- weaker language environments may have become stronger because of evolutionary change. But that evolution must have been substantially domain-general, because language processing is not specifically canalized by genetics.
I like this scenario because it means we shouldn't be looking for lots of language-specific genetic changes in the last few hundred thousand years. The Neandertal genome suggests that there may not have been any at all.
My second speculation: If the language environment determines the instantiation of language processing, then brains must be substantially different in the way they process language.
Children experience different language environments -- not only different languages, but different microenvironments within language communities. Only strong genetic controls could canalize brains despite the differences in their language environments. In brains where language processing emerges readily in the visual cortex, genetic controls cannot possibly synchronize brains in the face of environmental variation.
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/brain/language/bedny-blind-visual-cortex-language-2011.html
The classic language areas have their own developmental biases emerging from the functions of nearby cortical areas. The frontal cortex area immediately rostral to Broca's area develops earlier as a center for processing action sequences. Other areas involved in language processing lie usefully near auditory and association areas. The visual cortex seems like it should be outside the loop.
Language has sharp elbows. It muscles its way into the brain, crowding out other neural functions. Language has the most powerful weapons at hand -- a baby's first word prompts an entire language community to pull the dopamine and serotonin levers of emotion and attention.
A function that was strongly specified by genetics, patterned early in brain development, would not plant itself in spare neurons like a weed in a vacant lot. Only a system that bootstraps itself upon experiencing language inputs could have such plasticity. The structure of the language environment fosters the development of the classic language areas, biased to appear in those particular places by prenatal developmental trajectories, but not built according to a genetic blueprint.
The blind subjects tell us that the ground for language processing is almost as fertile elsewhere in the cortex. Many brain areas have the genetic equipment to recruit and organize neurons into useful circuits for language processing.
Language development is developmentally robust because it can rely on a rich language environment, not because of genetic standardization. The basic problems of language evolution must be explained by showing how robust language communities emerged. I don't preclude genetics, far from it -- weaker language environments may have become stronger because of evolutionary change. But that evolution must have been substantially domain-general, because language processing is not specifically canalized by genetics.
I like this scenario because it means we shouldn't be looking for lots of language-specific genetic changes in the last few hundred thousand years. The Neandertal genome suggests that there may not have been any at all.
My second speculation: If the language environment determines the instantiation of language processing, then brains must be substantially different in the way they process language.
Children experience different language environments -- not only different languages, but different microenvironments within language communities. Only strong genetic controls could canalize brains despite the differences in their language environments. In brains where language processing emerges readily in the visual cortex, genetic controls cannot possibly synchronize brains in the face of environmental variation.
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/brain/language/bedny-blind-visual-cortex-language-2011.html
No screen time for kids under age 2
By Mary Klute
Based on a review of the literature, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a set of recommendations back in February 2001. There is a long list of recommendations, including:
no screen time for kids under age 2 limiting older children’s screen time to 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day. However, 2001 was 10 years ago—a lot has changed since then. More research has been conducted on this topic in the last 10 years and children’s programming has changed (in part based on the results of the research).
I came across two recent research articles about children and TV. The first was an article by Suzy Tomopoulos and her colleagues that was published last December in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. She and her colleagues examined a group of six month olds from low-income families. Their research was innovative in that they didn’t just look at how much screen time children were exposed to, they also looked at the content. They divided media into three types: educational programming aimed at young children, non-educational programs aimed at young children, and media aimed at older children or adults.
On average, these 6 month olds viewed about 2.5 hours of media per day, and about 60% of it fell into that last category—media aimed at older children or adults. They found that 6 month old children who viewed more minutes of media per day were likely to have lower cognitive and language skills at age 14 months, supporting the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations.
The researchers wondered if the impact of amount of media exposure would vary depending on the type of media kids were watching. Indeed they found this to be true. When children were exposed to more minutes of older child/adult oriented media, their cognitive and language skills were lower when they were 14 months than children who had been exposed to fewer minutes. They found no association for the other two types of media.
This research has two main take-home messages. First, exposing your baby to media not designed for them can be harmful. I doubt too many parents are seeking out shows like Law & Order or Hannah Montana for their children to watch intently. It is more likely that babies are exposed to this type of media while being held by an adult or because they are doing something else (playing, eating) in a room where the TV is on.
I’d also venture a guess that many of these parents assume that their children aren’t paying much attention to what’s on the TV—and they are probably right, at least some of the time. However, the authors hypothesize that time spent watching TV together is harmful because time spent watching TV is time that adults are not spending playing with and interacting with babies…and face to face, responsive play does wonders for babies' cognitive and language development.
The second take home message is that there is no evidence from this study of a positive effect of so-called “educational” media for children this young. Why is that? Researchers have done a lot of experiments in recent years to try to sort that out, and that was precisely the topic of the second research article I came across recently. I’ll write more about that next month…but in the meantime, what are your ideas for why “educational” media for children don’t seem to have a big impact?
http://www.claytonearlylearning.org/blog/?cat=21
Based on a review of the literature, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a set of recommendations back in February 2001. There is a long list of recommendations, including:
no screen time for kids under age 2 limiting older children’s screen time to 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day. However, 2001 was 10 years ago—a lot has changed since then. More research has been conducted on this topic in the last 10 years and children’s programming has changed (in part based on the results of the research).
I came across two recent research articles about children and TV. The first was an article by Suzy Tomopoulos and her colleagues that was published last December in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. She and her colleagues examined a group of six month olds from low-income families. Their research was innovative in that they didn’t just look at how much screen time children were exposed to, they also looked at the content. They divided media into three types: educational programming aimed at young children, non-educational programs aimed at young children, and media aimed at older children or adults.
On average, these 6 month olds viewed about 2.5 hours of media per day, and about 60% of it fell into that last category—media aimed at older children or adults. They found that 6 month old children who viewed more minutes of media per day were likely to have lower cognitive and language skills at age 14 months, supporting the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations.
The researchers wondered if the impact of amount of media exposure would vary depending on the type of media kids were watching. Indeed they found this to be true. When children were exposed to more minutes of older child/adult oriented media, their cognitive and language skills were lower when they were 14 months than children who had been exposed to fewer minutes. They found no association for the other two types of media.
This research has two main take-home messages. First, exposing your baby to media not designed for them can be harmful. I doubt too many parents are seeking out shows like Law & Order or Hannah Montana for their children to watch intently. It is more likely that babies are exposed to this type of media while being held by an adult or because they are doing something else (playing, eating) in a room where the TV is on.
I’d also venture a guess that many of these parents assume that their children aren’t paying much attention to what’s on the TV—and they are probably right, at least some of the time. However, the authors hypothesize that time spent watching TV together is harmful because time spent watching TV is time that adults are not spending playing with and interacting with babies…and face to face, responsive play does wonders for babies' cognitive and language development.
The second take home message is that there is no evidence from this study of a positive effect of so-called “educational” media for children this young. Why is that? Researchers have done a lot of experiments in recent years to try to sort that out, and that was precisely the topic of the second research article I came across recently. I’ll write more about that next month…but in the meantime, what are your ideas for why “educational” media for children don’t seem to have a big impact?
http://www.claytonearlylearning.org/blog/?cat=21
Critical period of language acquisition
Bringing children up in a bilingual home provides many benefits and learning opportunities, and can be a real gift to them. Not only do they learn the two languages they are exposed to, but they also assimilate an understanding of grammar and how sentences are made across different languages.
Further, early exposure to two languages is advantageous to toddlers and preschoolers when there is a critical period of language acquisition, making it easier for them to learn new languages at a later age within the formal setting of schools and college.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/0301/1224291075281.html
Further, early exposure to two languages is advantageous to toddlers and preschoolers when there is a critical period of language acquisition, making it easier for them to learn new languages at a later age within the formal setting of schools and college.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/0301/1224291075281.html
3.3.11
Will Cheryl Cole's Newcastle accent work in America
Marina Tyndall, a voice coach specialising in accent and dialect, rejects the notion that some vocal styles are intrinsically clearer to American listeners than others.
Cole, she says, could quite easily accommodate her accent to unfamiliar Stateside ears without abandoning it. Techniques she suggests include "chunking" words into shorter phrases with brief pauses, allowing listeners time to catch up - and using facial expressions and pitch changes to signpost key words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12619718
Cole, she says, could quite easily accommodate her accent to unfamiliar Stateside ears without abandoning it. Techniques she suggests include "chunking" words into shorter phrases with brief pauses, allowing listeners time to catch up - and using facial expressions and pitch changes to signpost key words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12619718
Graduates - the new measure of power
At the beginning of the last century, the power of nations might have been measured in battleships and coal. In this century it's as likely to be graduates. There has been an unprecedented global surge in the numbers of young people going to university. China's plans are not so much an upward incline as a vertical take-off.
In 1998, there were only about a million students in China. Within a decade, it had become the biggest university system in the world. Figures last month from China's education ministry reported more than 34 million graduates in the past four years. By 2020 there will be 35.5 million students enrolled. The president of Yale described this as the fastest such expansion in human history.
Inextricably linked with this expansion has been another phenomenon - the globalisation of universities.
"Much like in the renaissance in Europe, when the talent class and the creative class travelled among the great idea capitals, so in the 21st century, the people who carry the ideas that will shape the future will travel among the capitals.
Mr Sexton sets out a different kind of map of the world, in which universities, with bases in several cities, become the hubs for the economies of the future, "magnetising talent" and providing the ideas and energy to drive economic innovation.
According to the OECD, in the 1960s South Korea had a similar national wealth to Afghanistan. Now it tops international education league tables and has some of the highest-rated universities in the world.
"Universities are being seen as a key to the new economies, they're trying to grow the knowledge economy by building a base in universities," says Professor Altbach.
If there are parallels with economic and political rivalries, the US remains the academic superpower, not least because of the raw wealth of its top universities. Harvard sits on an endowment worth $27.4bn and spends more than $3.5bn a year. It means that for every one dollar spent by a leading European university such as the London School Economics, Harvard can spend almost $10.
Even the poorest Ivy League university in the US will have an endowment bigger than the gross domestic product of many African countries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12597811
In 1998, there were only about a million students in China. Within a decade, it had become the biggest university system in the world. Figures last month from China's education ministry reported more than 34 million graduates in the past four years. By 2020 there will be 35.5 million students enrolled. The president of Yale described this as the fastest such expansion in human history.
Inextricably linked with this expansion has been another phenomenon - the globalisation of universities.
"Much like in the renaissance in Europe, when the talent class and the creative class travelled among the great idea capitals, so in the 21st century, the people who carry the ideas that will shape the future will travel among the capitals.
Mr Sexton sets out a different kind of map of the world, in which universities, with bases in several cities, become the hubs for the economies of the future, "magnetising talent" and providing the ideas and energy to drive economic innovation.
According to the OECD, in the 1960s South Korea had a similar national wealth to Afghanistan. Now it tops international education league tables and has some of the highest-rated universities in the world.
"Universities are being seen as a key to the new economies, they're trying to grow the knowledge economy by building a base in universities," says Professor Altbach.
If there are parallels with economic and political rivalries, the US remains the academic superpower, not least because of the raw wealth of its top universities. Harvard sits on an endowment worth $27.4bn and spends more than $3.5bn a year. It means that for every one dollar spent by a leading European university such as the London School Economics, Harvard can spend almost $10.
Even the poorest Ivy League university in the US will have an endowment bigger than the gross domestic product of many African countries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12597811
1.3.11
Wal-Mart bans sale of flame retardant
According to researchers, PBDEs leach out of household products and end up in dust, air, food and human bodies. As a result, PBDE levels in the environment, human blood and breast milk have drastically increased over the past two decades.
The largest U.S. retailer advised suppliers recently that beginning June 1 Wal-Mart would test products to ensure that the goods do not contain polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs. These are a class of compounds in use since 1976 as flame retardants for electronics, furniture, sporting goods, pet supplies, curtains and toys.
Wal-Mart based its planned ban on studies that linked PDBEs to problems with the liver, thyroid, reproductive systems and brain development in laboratory animals.
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90036684?Wal-Mart%20bans%20sale%20of%20flame%20retardant#ixzz1FKtXVBwb
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90036684?Wal-Mart%20bans%20sale%20of%20flame%20retardant#ixzz1FKtDlOua
The largest U.S. retailer advised suppliers recently that beginning June 1 Wal-Mart would test products to ensure that the goods do not contain polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs. These are a class of compounds in use since 1976 as flame retardants for electronics, furniture, sporting goods, pet supplies, curtains and toys.
Wal-Mart based its planned ban on studies that linked PDBEs to problems with the liver, thyroid, reproductive systems and brain development in laboratory animals.
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90036684?Wal-Mart%20bans%20sale%20of%20flame%20retardant#ixzz1FKtXVBwb
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90036684?Wal-Mart%20bans%20sale%20of%20flame%20retardant#ixzz1FKtDlOua
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