What does this brain research mean?
The implications of this research are far reaching. It should be used to educate parents and caregivers about the critical window of opportunity in a child's life that can ensure a child's healthy development. Parents play the most important role in providing the nurturing and stimulation that children require, but many parents need information and support to develop good parenting skills. There is much that communities can also do to help families promote their child's healthy brain development, through programs like Parents As Teachers.
PARENT EDUCATION Parents benefit from learning about the importance of proper early experiences. The little things that parents do, like talking to an infant, reading to him at an early age and helping him play simple games, have many lasting effects.
CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT PREVENTION It is important, as always, to stress the prevention of child abuse and neglect during the developmental years. Greater attention must be given to preventing maltreatment before it starts. High-quality home visitation programs which start working with families as soon as the child is born have proven to be effective in preventing abuse and neglect. These programs help parents manage the stresses of raising children and prevent unhealthy patterns from developing.
PROPER PRENATAL CARE Many studies have shown the devastating effects on intelligence and brain development from a lack of basic nutrients at the prenatal stage, in infancy and early childhood. Educational and outreach campaigns to alert women to the importance of nutrition during pregnancy would also be helpful in preventing problems that can arise in this critical period when brain cells begin to form.
CHILD CARE PROVIDER EDUCATION Consistent, healthy care from child care providers is another factor affecting proper brain development. An increasing number of infants and toddlers are spending most of their day in child care arrangements so parents can work. This relationship is one of the most important a child will ever form. Nationally, however, too often child care providers are poorly trained, underpaid, and do not provide children with appropriate stimulation. Research has shown that in the majority of infant care arrangements in the U.S., children are not talked to and played with enough, and they do not have the opportunity to form the kind of comfortable, secure relationships with a caregiver that will promote their healthy emotional development. In North Carolina, the number of child care providers with college credit coursework has more than doubled since Smart Start began. (Child Care Services Association, 2002) Programs like T.E.A.C.H. and professional development supplement programs can assist in educating and compensating child care providers.
CHOOSING QUALITY CHILD CARE Parents can request and should be given information about how to choose high quality child care for their children, as is available from many child care resource and referral offices around North Carolina. In addition, special attention must be given to the development and enforcement of child care licensing standards that promote high-quality care.
More info: http://ncchildcare.dhhs.state.nc.us/parents/pr_sn2_cqcfaq.asp
Our increasingly technically and socially complex society cannot afford to continue to allow large numbers of children to miss out on the positive experiences they need in infancy and early childhood; the costs in terms of lost intellectual potential and increased rates of emotional and behavioral problems, are too high. The new developments in brain research show us what children need; our challenge is to ensure that every child receives it!