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
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