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- 1. 2 children are conceived today, [date]
- 2. At just 16 days the neural plate develops
- 4. The weight of the brain increases the most immediately before and after 40 weeks of pregnancy/development
- 5. Basic brain architecture: development of essential neural pathways for different functions peak in the first year
- 6. Brain development at different stages
- 8. Long term toxic stress changes brain architecture …and the expression of genes PET Scan
- 9. Developmen t Age 0 5 10 15 20 25 -9 mo Our 2 children’s development Child that is receiving more than sufficient love security and stimulation Child that is receiving less than sufficient love security and stimulation
- 10. Chances for developmental delays when exposed to a certain number of risk factors Risk factors: poverty, single parent househole, low education of mother, caregiver substance abuse, abuse, teenage mother, more than 4 children in the household, caregiver with serious psychological problems, part of a minority group.
- 11. 48 Million words 13 Million words Number of words toddlers have heard by the time they are 3 years old Professional parents Parents claiming welfare (Hart and Risley, 1995 Development of language is a critical part of the development puzzle
- 12. Bron: www.wordworks.org.za Comprehension Various studies show that toddlers with a larger vocabulary read better when they go to school Source: Wordworks: Narrowing the Literacy Gap
- 13. Developmen t Age 0 5 10 15 20 25 -9 mo Thus, the differences between our 2 children grows and increase in significance over time
- 14. GRADE 3 Sources: SA: Dept of Basic Education Annual National Assessments 2012 28% GRADE 6 46% Proportion of children that scored less than 40% for their home language
- 15. Proportion children that scored less than 40% for basic numeracy GRADE 3 Sources: SA: Dept of Basic Education Annual National Assessments 2014 GRADE 6 48% 80%
- 16. Developmen t Ouderdom 0 5 10 15 20 25 -9 mo Has plenty life options and the ability to create own opportunity More or less impossible to make up the difference. This one of the ways that we are perpetuating inequality in our society Various life options are no longer possibilities and the ability to create own opportunity is greatly reduced
- 17. Developmen t Ouderdom 0 5 10 15 20 25 -9 mo Has plenty life options and the ability to create own opportunity More or less impossible to make up the difference. This one of the ways that we are perpetuating inequality in our society Various life options are no longer possibilities and the ability to create own opportunity is greatly reduced
- 18. The best return on investment in human resource is in early childhood
- 19. Simple programmes and resources- design for mass implementation and high impact Motivate and equip adults to help children to read because they enjoy it. A playgroup‘social franchise’ that provides structured ECD in circumstances with limited Connect high risk pregnant/early mothers with another mother for support and sharing during the first 1000 days.
- 20. What will happen if many of us start to do simple things to ensure that more children stay on a growth path that allows them more life options and the possibility of living out their life potential?
- 21. The “ordinary magic” that can change a child’s future: 1.A loving parent/caregiver 2.Another caring adult in their lives 3.Modest access to opportunity at crucial times in a child’s life
- 22. Children has the potential to change this country – and right now that potential is in our hands. Who will bring about the next REAL change in this country? Each and all of us.
Editor's Notes
- We can say with some certainty that somewhere in South Africa 2 children will be conceived. The way that things are in South Africa at the moment, statistically we can with reasonable confidence predict a little of these children’s futures – and we will be exploring that throughout this presentation. As a start, imagine that the one child will be born to relatively well-off, reasonably well educated parents who have been planning to get pregnant and who will be delighted to learn in a month or so that this is the case. The other will be born to a teenage girl who took a risk, hoping to somehow feel better about herself and her prospects. She is Grade 9 and lives with her family in a one bedroom room shared by a few of them – a baby will certainly complicate things. It’s the day of conception.
- In just 16 days on the 9th of December the neural plate will start the develop which will be the basis for the baby’s brain and spine. From here the brain will continue to rapidly build upon itself.
- Millions of neurons are developing and making connections at about 700 connections per second.
- The weight of our babies’ brains increases the most immediately before and after birth at about 40 weeks of development.
- And together with the development that takes place before birth we see that critical development in terms of the basic architecture of the brain takes place in the first year after birth. The development of essential neural pathways peak during this year: the development of sensory pathways for vision and hearing peaks by about three months, language around 8-9 months and higher cognitive functioning around a year.
- And so we build connections on connections until about 90% of brain development is completed by the time the child is 5 years old. The brain keeps on changing throughout life, but it tends to strengthen and prune on the basic architecture that has already been established. I always say at this stage you can change the curtains add a sofa, but you cannot built another room.
- What is needed to help a child to develop optimally? Only 4 things. Love, security, and sufficient nutrition and stimulation. When some or all of these are not provided it causes what is called toxic stress. Research has shown that long term exposure to toxic stress has a negative impact on the development of the brain.
- A typical neuron with many connections and below is a damaged neuron from someone that has been exposed to toxic stress. You can clearly see how much fewer neural connections there are. On the is a PET scan of a child whose brain is busy developing normally and next to it is a scan of a child that has been exposed to environmental stress. The field of epigenetics teaches us that that our circumstances also changes the expression of genes to allow as to cope better with our environment. So instead of being primed to learn and thrive, children exposed to hardship and violence there will be an increased tendency towards fight or flight (thus more aggression or helplessness. Unfortunately this is a permanent change which will also affect future generations.
- So looking into the future, it is now [9 months later] and both babies has been born. Because of how differently the two mothers behaved during pregnancy, these two children are already on slightly different growth paths which is dictated by the development of their brains. The child with better nutrition, stimulation, sense of safety and security already has more connections in his brain than the child that is not receiving these sufficiently. Without intervention– by early childhood development for example, by the time these babies will be one year old the one child’s life options will already be significantly reduced compared to the other one. And the gap between them will only grow as the get older.
- Harvard University studied the chances for developmental delays to occur. They found that if you are exposed to 7 risk factors chances are 100% - 6 about 90% etc. And you can think for yourself how many risk factors some of the children you know are exposed to. Let me show you what is going to drastically increase the gap between these children:
- Overseas research has shown that there is a 35 million gap in the number of words that children with professional parents hear by the time that they are 3 years old compared to the number of words that children with parents receiving welfare benefits hear.
- At the same time various studies show that toddlers with a larger vocabulary read better when they go to school. Why? Language and communication is central to comprehension. If you don’t understand you ignore information. In other words you don’t learn because you are not motivated to concentrate.
- Between 6 and 10 years old children are learning to read – which is a lot more difficult for children whose brain circuitry is not as well developed, but from about 11 years old children start reading to learn. The gap thus keeps on widening -initially it might not be that clear, but as they progress in school years it becomes more and more apparent.
- For example –data from the ANAs. This shows the proportion of children that scored less than 40% for their home language. About 28% in Grade 3 – in Grade 6 it is almost half.
- With numeracy it is much worse. In grade 3 more or less half scores less than 40% - in grade 6 it is 80%. So at this point people start saying – these kids need to play led and learn harder. The teachers are so bad. Or they are not being educated in their home language – that is what is wrong… but they forget
- There has been fundamentally different growth paths which has enlarged dramatically over time because the ability to comprehend and learn has never been well developed. At this stage things stands as follows: one of our children has plenty life options and the ability to create his/her own opportunity. While various life options are no longer possibilities for the other child and his/her ability to create their own opportunities has been greatly reduced. It is more or less impossible to make-up the difference between these two growth paths at this stage and this is how we perpetuate the inequality in our society.
- This is why we believe the best place to invest is here – in early development. The stage gets set for so much of what determine our lives as adults and as a society in such a short period of children’s lives very early on.
- There is proof that this is a good investment. The well known Heckman Equation Project conducted by prominent economists has shown that investing in early childhood development offers the best return on investment that a country can make in human resources. Research has sown that it leads to greater equality – better health, better education, a stronger economy and better society in general with less crime and greater social cohesion.
- The American Psychologist, Ann Masten, tried to understand why some children manage to thrive, despite their poverty. Her conclusions, from long-term studies across the world, were so simple, so unremarkable, yet so profound and hopeful. A caring parent or caregiver; Another caring adult standing by the child; and Connections to opportunity – even modest opportunities - at crucial times in a child’s life. She calls this the Ordinary Magic that can change a child’s future.