蜜桃影视

Top Takeaways is a series of recaps from important conversations, town halls, webinars and virtual events about early learning.

On May 19, Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff delivered the spring keynote address via YouTube. Among his many distinctions, Shonkoff鈥擠irector of Harvard鈥檚 Center on the Developing Child and a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Graduate School of Education鈥攚as awarded the 2019 LEGO Prize for revolutionizing the field of early child development. Here are our notes from his remarks.

1. Science is opening the black box. We鈥檙e beginning to understand how experiences get into our bodies at a molecular level. This isn鈥檛 nature versus nurture; it鈥檚 about how genetics and experience interact. Adversity sets off biological stress responses that take a toll on brain architecture as well as immune and metabolic systems. Resilience also has a biology, with early experiences building strong circuitry. Unlike learning to walk, core life skills are not automatic. They are modeled and scaffolded. 鈥淭he field needs resources and space to try things,鈥� he declared. Responding to introductory remarks by Paul Reville, founder and director of the Education Redesign Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education, who called this a 鈥淪putnik moment,鈥� Shonkoff said that education research should emulate the culture of biomedical research, where 鈥渇ailure is the road to success.鈥�

2. The COVID crisis makes our work more urgent. Coronary disease, stroke and diabetes may not manifest until the later years, but these factors, which make Coronavirus deadlier, originate early in life. They are preventable, and we鈥檙e not making enough progress to prevent them. To tackle this challenge, Shonkoff called for 鈥渁n authentic partnership between science and on-the-ground expertise.鈥� He went onto call mental health the biggest threat of the crisis and 鈥渁 ticking time bomb.鈥� He predicted a massive increase in overall disparities and a cycle of disruptions that send the stress response into overdrive.

3. Variation is a given. Take any two siblings. Their genetics and environment may be similar, but whether it鈥檚 cancer, COVID or behavior, the outcomes differ. Consequently, researchers need to stop asking What is the best program or curriculum for children living in poverty? The variability is where the answers are, not the average. Just as responsive, individualized, relationships are essential for building strong foundations, research needs to develop better sensitivity to individuals and outliers.

4. Timing is everything. We鈥檙e born with most of our neurons, but the synapses come later. Connections are built over time, but especially rapidly in the first few years after birth: as many as million a second. We鈥檙e getting better at predicting the timing of when certain functions first develop. It鈥檚 critical to take advantage of these windows of opportunity because 鈥測ou can鈥檛 go back and rewire a brain. You can only adapt.鈥� That is, while it鈥檚 never too late to intervene, intervention isn鈥檛 as good as if you got it right the first time.

5. Pre-K is great, but it鈥檚 too late. According to Shonkoff, public investments in the education of 3- and 4-year-olds are important but don鈥檛 start early enough when it comes to brain development. The prenatal months and the first two years need more attention and investment, he said, 鈥渙r we鈥檙e playing catch-up.鈥� This is especially true for most the disadvantaged children. If we get those early years right, he argued, 鈥淧re-K will do better, K-12 will do better, we鈥檒l all do better.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.