From a Pediatrician

Courant.com

Pediatrician: Life's Tracks Set By Age 3

Early Child Care's Importance Stressed

By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER

Courant Staff Writer

January 16, 2008

Comment: As we focus in on the child at earlier and earlier moments in his life, it can only be a a good thing. Too often we think children are formed when they can think more like we do -about age ten. A psychologist once told me that a child is mostly formed by age ten. If we wait to age ten, we are beginning at the finish not at the beginning. Children watch us and copy our behaviors right from birth.

Jack P. Shonkoff, a Harvard pediatrician, was only sort of joking when he referred to 3-year- olds as middle-aged.

By then, much of the basic circuitry of a child's brain, a series of connections not yet formed at birth, has already developed.

A child whose parents interact with her will probably have well-formed brain circuits and a strong foundation to build on. A child raised in an abusive environment may have damage to his brain architecture that sets him on a path to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and mental and physical health.

"Things are happening early on in the lives of young children that are either going to set a strong foundation for high economic achievement and high economic productivity ... or can build a foundation that's going to be the beginning of failure, of school failure and economic dependence and criminal behavior," said Shonkoff, a professor of child health and development and founder of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

Shonkoff spoke to policymakers, educators and other professionals Tuesday as part of the Governor's Early Childhood Summit.

"Every child gets one chance at their first 1,000 days," Gov. M. Jodi Rell said. "We don't want to squander that."

The summit came as many states, including Connecticut, work to expand and remake early childhood programs, spurred in part by research that links a child's earliest experiences to key brain developments. Studies have shown that focusing on the most disadvantaged children as early as possible can lead to significant savings in special education, welfare and prison costs, Shonkoff said.

The summit was also held as state lawmakers consider changes to the prison system, a response to last summer's home invasion homicides in Cheshire.

Beginning with early childhood "is economically right, morally right, workforce right," said Janice Gruendel, the governor's senior policy adviser for children and youths and a chairwoman of the state's Early Childhood Education Cabinet. "It makes for a very good argument in a year when you're talking about let's put all our resources into the prisons."

The Early Childhood Education Cabinet is developing a plan to support children from birth to age 3, designed to link to its plans for children in preschool and beyond. The recommendations include improving maternal health and access to prenatal care, fatherhood initiatives, home visits for infants, and increasing slots for care for infants and toddlers.

Shonkoff praised the proposals and said they reflected state-of-the-art science. The science Shonkoff presented stemmed from decades of brain research in neuroscience, developmental psychology, molecular biology and economics.

Stable, safe relationships and rich learning experiences are key to brain development, Shonkoff said. Children can get them at home and in child-care programs, but they must be evidence-based, quality programs, he said. Child care must be treated as something to facilitate child development, not just to allow parents to go to work, he said.

Shonkoff recommended making basic health services and early care and education available to all children, targeting interventions for children in poverty, and providing specialized services to children experiencing significant stress.

"Forget the school budget and even forget the prison budget," he said. "The health budget would be helped even more by helping children when they're young."

Contact Arielle Levin Becker at alevinbecker@courant.com.