importance of the early years

Just attended a conference sponsored by the First 5 Commission of Ca. in LA. The focus has been on early brain development of children and how parents, pediatritions and the community can best support families. There is a lot of work to do on many fronts. Much is being done already but there are so many places we "fall down" as a society, a community. For instance, the way the Justice System determines how many prisons to build for the future is by measuring third grade achievement in our elementary schools! I was a appalled to learn this as we are doing a less than perfect job getting our young children prepared for school in the first place.

Too many children, mostly from the lower socio-economic level, are not given the same preschool opportunities and advantages as those from more affluent families. This could be a good argument for pre-school for all children. However, I don't thing that's where we should start. We need to eliminate poverty, which is part of the cycle I'm alluding to......But to do that, babies need to come into this world healthy and well.

Research tells us that an infant's brain has millions of opportunities to grow EACH day. But if we aren't giving that infant proper nutrition, nurturing and stimulation from the beginning, in fact, from the time before birth, than those millions of "firings" that build the brain won't happen. I actually saw a slide, during Harriet Myer's keynote address, that showed two infant brains, same age, side by side. One was lit up in all the areas of his/her brain but the other, the child that had had little or no nurturing, stimulation and poor diet had big dark spaces throughout! Harriet is the CEO of The Ounce Foundation, an entity dedicated to making sure that all children in America have an equal start in life, through proper education of child and parent.

There is so much further to go with this dialog, this mission. Much has been recently written and can be found on the internet by googling "early brain development." Even economists have pointed out that as a nation we would spend much less in the beginning to have healthier children, emotionally and physically, than ignoring the issue until later and dealing with the consequences of such neglect.

That of course, would include health care for everyone......an obvious support for this issue. When children are allowed the opportunity to engage in their world fully, they are much better equipped to care for themselves later, to be contributing members of society and to raise their own healthy families. Rather than be afraid of others in our communities, gangs, criminals, impoverished, homeless, the mentally ill, let us all work together to provide an equal "playing field" from the start of our children's lives.

Well, I guess I got more out of the conference than I expected. See what a little focus will do???

Have a great holiday weekend,

Cheryl