The Brain Story Certification: Module 19 – The Gallup Social Work Blog

Module 19: Using the Science of Early Brain
Development to Build Resilient Children, Families, &
Communities

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2016). From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts: A
Science-Based Approach to Building a More Promising Future for Young Children and Families.

Homepage

It is much more effective to do changes early on than later in life – both fiscally and in outcome measures.
Neural pathways specialized for learning, emotion, and self-regulation continue to adapt to experiences throughout the lifespan with engagement and effort.
Positive experiences early in life, along with support from adults and early adaptive skill development, can counterbalance the impacts of adversity.
The foundations of resilience include positive experiences, supportive relationships, and adaptive skills.
8 things to remember about Child Development:
- Infants and young children have also affected adversely when significant stress threatens their family. The disruptions can impact neurochemistry that can last throughout the lifespan. This can impact both psychological and biological health.
- Development is very interactive, and genes are not the sole determining factor in the outcomes. Environment influences genes, changing how they are expressed. How we learn to work in our environment affects our later executive functioning skills.
- Attachments to parents are primary, but there is also a significant benefit in the relationships children have with responsive caregivers in and out of the family. Multiple caregiver relationships promote social and emotional development.disruptions in the care systems and undermine the child’s secure expectations of their needs being met.
- A significant portion of brain architecture is shaped during the first 3 years of life, but the opportunity for healthy changes does not end after 3 years of age. There are other windows of opportunity that open up in adolescence. While earlier interventions may be better, there are ways of working with previous impacts that can take place.
- Severe neglect seems to be at least as significant a threat to health as physical abuse. The more severe impairments of cognition, attention, and language – along with academic difficulties, withdrawn behaviour and peer interactions may be more damaging than physical trauma.
- Children exposed to adversity/violence do not invariably develop stress-related disorders or grow up to become violent adults. Nurturing relationships can have a substantial positive impact if supportive caregivers establish the connection as soon as possible, along with appropriate as needed treatment(s).
- Children are not automatically reversed from the impacts of negative experiences if they are removed from a dangerous environment. Providing responsive caregiving as soon as possible is essential, along with an environment that restores the child’s sense of safety, control, and predictability in their environment. There is typically a need for therapeutic, supportive care in the facilitation of recovery.
- Resilience is built-in relationships, not in rugged individualism. Supportive relationships, biological systems, and epigenetics all play a role. The favourable relations with others to allow for there to be opportunities to develop practical coping skills that strengthen the child’s capacity to do well when facing adversity.
Self-regulation and executive function interventions are two critical considerations in response to adversity. Self-regulation allows us to draw on the right skills when they are needed – allowing us to effectively respond to the environment.
Mental health is also another foundation for the developmental trajectory of an individual. This impacts the friendships, social supports, and ability to cope with the demands placed on individuals in daily life.
Improving the micro (individual) mental health and developing brain has impacted the mezzo and macro-level – creating healthier communities.

“Resilience”
The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative (AFWI)

Different brains respond to adversity differently. Resilience is the interplay of genes and life experiences. Some people are born with more resilience than others, but they can also be built over time. Strong brain architecture may be the basis for resilience. Resilience and positive stress are linked. Ther fulcrum metaphor was used here for predispositions on the scale to resilience or less resilience. Childhood experiences are highlighted here. Adult changes are possible, but not to the same degree of change, and with more support than in children.

Excerpt from “Leveraging Science to Advance the Frontiers of Innovation in Early Childhood Policy &
Practice”
Jack Shonkoff, PhD
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Chair, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Harvard University

Parenting education, good nutrition, stimulating experiences, primary medical care, and health-promoting environments are the building blocks for school readiness. This is usually around age 5-6.
Those who are not quite ready may experience adversity that impacts healthy brain development.
Early experiences affect lifelong health and learning.
Healthy development requires protection and enrichment. We need to look at how we can buffer adversity. It can not be only on the education departments, but also health and human services.
Protection and enrichment for young children require capacity-building in adults—both parents and service providers.
Improved parenting skills can also enhance employability and enhance economic stability.
Building community strengths and capital enhances the environment for children to develop better (from social capital).
Strong communities reduce the burdens that emerge from adversity. Consider what the major sources of adversity are in the community.

Skill-building for parenting and economic self-sufficiency points to the foundational role of executive function and self-regulation. The core dimensions of adult competence begin to develop in childhood. This includes the ability to focus and sustain attention, set goals, make plans, follow roles, solve problems, monitor their actions, and defer gratification/control impulses.
Brain plasticity decreases over time. The hard it is to change and adapt. This is not a motivation issue, it is just harder to partake in. The energy cost to the brain increases with time to make those changes. This is why later-in-life remediation programs are more costly in changing skills.
From ages 3-5, there is the most significant change in the period of brain plasticity for executive function development. The second window exists from 15-25/30 years of age. Coaching and practice allow for individuals to develop better in this 2nd window – this is a strengths-based approach.

Building caregiver capacity as a means to build the foundations for school success in children have a more significant impact on child outcomes than programs that are child-centric. Parent-building skills are more impactful of an intervention.

Excerpt from “Interventions for High-Risk Children: The Bridge from Science to Action”
Melanie Berry, PsyD
University of Oregon

Explored interactions in the home at a micro-level between parent and caregiver. A relational problem was strongly associated with problems in parenting – poor monitoring and harsh discipline were strongly associated with behaviours. Shifted focus from child intervention to parent intervention. This is related to the PMTO (parent-management training) interventions, such as skill development of behaviour management. Factors include skill encouragement, limit setting, monitoring and supervision (appropriate to age and stage of development), problem-solving, and positive involvement.

Excerpt from “Interventions for High-Risk Children: The Bridge from Science to Action”
Melanie Berry, PsyD
University of Oregon

Theory of change – first, consider intervention targets. What skills and behaviours are we wanting to target (increase/decrease). Can we operationalize the changes from pre/post-intervention? What do we hope to change?
Underlying processes or capacities that we want to change. What underlying cognitive/emotional/social processes that create change. This can help us be more informed about how we create change and how we measure change. Can also see why some change while others do not.
Consider the outcomes we look for in the parent, child, and parent-child dyad.
FIND theory of change
- Serve & Return – 5 FIND elements
- Underlying Cognitive processes – attention, tantalizing, self-monitoring, and inhibition and regulation. These processes are engaged to partake in serve and return.
- Parenting – increasing skills and a sense of competence.
- Child developmental status improves, decreases in internalizing/externalizing symptoms, increased functioning at home and school.
Parent’s confidence in their abilities ultimately impacts the child’s development.

Excerpt from “The Progressive Nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Building Self-Healing
Communities”
Robert Anda, MD, MS
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

We can build self-healing communities. We need to trust the people impacted by adversity to create change and know the issues – providing support for healing adversity.
Are we acting in ways that make adversity worse? Our systems can do that.
The population affected by ACES is the largest community that can contribute to healing communities. Healthcare, education, justice, and child welfare systems can work together.
Trauma-informed is not “what’s wrong with you,” but rather what has “happened to you.” This shifts the narrative.
The ACE Score allows individuals to have an opportunity to see the story of their life and create a different path for the future.
Rewriting the narrative moves the client from shame, confusion, and adaptations with a downside to creating a different path for the future that is focused on hope, meaning, and purpose.
The healthcare providers in the self-healing community have patients who already have the basic information.
The public can drive the change by creating the demand for change.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017). Three Principles to Improve Outcomes for
Children and Families. http://www.developingchild.harvard.edu

To maximize the capabilities of outcomes for child and family development, policies and service providers need to:
- Support responsive relationships for children and adults
- Strengthen core life skills
- Reduce sources of stress in the lives of the child and family.
Progress in any one of the listed above domains, it is likely to improve the other domains as they are often interconnected.
Putting principles into action:
- Explore how the current policies and procedures promote or hinder responsive relationships. Look at both front-line work and observe the engagement process.
- Look at proposed legislation/policy changes for how they may have impacts beyond economic and budgetary impacts – examining the potential for the proposals to positively influence responsive relationships and capacity building in parents and children. Do the proposed changes help produce more positive impacts?
- Developing new organizational policies and program strategies can emerge from observations and conversations with both workers and clients. Individuals in leadership positions can advocate and create programming that promotes responsive relationships between parents and caregivers. How to transitions in systems roll out in manageable steps that workers and clients can begin their journey on with a vision for long-term change.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply