Early Childhood Intervention
Socio-economic status & Brain activity
Researchers at UC Berkeley have shown for the first time that the brains of poor kids function differently than those of well off kids.
In a study recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.
But the good news is that early intervention can change this deficit.
Kishiyama, Knight and Boyce suspect that the brain differences can be eliminated by proper training. They are collaborating with UC Berkeley neuroscientists who use games to improve the prefrontal cortex function, and thus the reasoning ability, of school-age children.
“It’s not a life sentence,” Knight emphasized. “We think that with proper intervention and training, you could get improvement in both behavioral and physiological indices.”
The Bush Administration cut funding for Head Start, exactly the place where the intervention could take place. This needs to be a true priority of the Obama administration to make sure both the funding and the training for teachers in the Head Start program is available.
I imagine that Head Start funding amounts to as much as maybe 0.01% of the spending on the wars and the bailouts.
I imagine that Head Start funding amounts to as much as maybe 0.01% of the spending on the wars and the bailouts.
I imagine that Head Start funding amounts to as much as maybe 0.01% of the spending on the wars and the bailouts.
Not just Head Start but Early Screening and Intervention programs have been cut drastically, and schools have had IDEA (which mandated levels of supports for early intervention) crippled by BushCo interpretations of “free and appropriate” educational supports.
Mandating No Child Left Behind, while not funding it, has been a sad expensive shaggy dog joke where the punch line is small rural school districts Special Ed having their budgets pushed to the wall and individual support plans being seen as areas for cost savings.
All this while the research proves time and again, dollars spent on early intervention save disproportionally larger amounts on later care costs for adults.
As a (now retired) manager of a programs overseeing services for the developmentally disabled, I saw a very large sample of people who were made environmentally disabled by deprivation of services in early childhood and school years. I have also seen young adults whose parents and foster providers refused to settle for low expectations form the skills necessary to be able to live in the community with minimal supports, while individuals with significantly higher IQ test scores require one on one just to go outside their (expensive) care setting.
It’s the classic doctrine of maximizing profits in the short run, while ignoring future costs that has dominated in this country for so long. “Why should I pay taxes to give some kid, who is never going to amount to anything, extra attention; hell, I’ve got to use that money to pay for my kid’s private schooling because the schools are so terrible.” (Rough edit of actual conversations I have been part of soooooo many times).
You pay now, or you pay later. And if you defer the payment, there will be interest charges. End of story. Delay too long, and you dig a hole you can’t climb out of.
True of infrastructure. True of education. True of care services for vulnerable populations. Especially true when young brains are still “plastic” and able to develop actual neuronal mass and density of interconnections needed to learn independence.
But tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy stimulate (cough Madoff cough) the economy. And who cares if a environmentally retarded kid has to make a living giving blow jobs, or stealing? Who cares if the v. v. expensive ($$$$$$$$) jails and prisons are the services we provide borderline intellectual functioning folks, it gets them out of sight.
Now about coupling those propositions to curb taxes with the ones to increase mandatory sentences…… oh, yeh baby, that’s the way to run a county.
Damn you Reagan and all the leeches you spawned. I spit on your grave.
Not just Head Start but Early Screening and Intervention programs have been cut drastically, and schools have had IDEA (which mandated levels of supports for early intervention) crippled by BushCo interpretations of “free and appropriate” educational supports.
Mandating No Child Left Behind, while not funding it, has been a sad expensive shaggy dog joke where the punch line is small rural school districts Special Ed having their budgets pushed to the wall and individual support plans being seen as areas for cost savings.
All this while the research proves time and again, dollars spent on early intervention save disproportionally larger amounts on later care costs for adults.
As a (now retired) manager of a programs overseeing services for the developmentally disabled, I saw a very large sample of people who were made environmentally disabled by deprivation of services in early childhood and school years. I have also seen young adults whose parents and foster providers refused to settle for low expectations form the skills necessary to be able to live in the community with minimal supports, while individuals with significantly higher IQ test scores require one on one just to go outside their (expensive) care setting.
It’s the classic doctrine of maximizing profits in the short run, while ignoring future costs that has dominated in this country for so long. “Why should I pay taxes to give some kid, who is never going to amount to anything, extra attention; hell, I’ve got to use that money to pay for my kid’s private schooling because the schools are so terrible.” (Rough edit of actual conversations I have been part of soooooo many times).
You pay now, or you pay later. And if you defer the payment, there will be interest charges. End of story. Delay too long, and you dig a hole you can’t climb out of.
True of infrastructure. True of education. True of care services for vulnerable populations. Especially true when young brains are still “plastic” and able to develop actual neuronal mass and density of interconnections needed to learn independence.
But tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy stimulate (cough Madoff cough) the economy. And who cares if a environmentally retarded kid has to make a living giving blow jobs, or stealing? Who cares if the v. v. expensive ($$$$$$$$) jails and prisons are the services we provide borderline intellectual functioning folks, it gets them out of sight.
Now about coupling those propositions to curb taxes with the ones to increase mandatory sentences…… oh, yeh baby, that’s the way to run a county.
Damn you Reagan and all the leeches you spawned. I spit on your grave.
Not just Head Start but Early Screening and Intervention programs have been cut drastically, and schools have had IDEA (which mandated levels of supports for early intervention) crippled by BushCo interpretations of “free and appropriate” educational supports.
Mandating No Child Left Behind, while not funding it, has been a sad expensive shaggy dog joke where the punch line is small rural school districts Special Ed having their budgets pushed to the wall and individual support plans being seen as areas for cost savings.
All this while the research proves time and again, dollars spent on early intervention save disproportionally larger amounts on later care costs for adults.
As a (now retired) manager of a programs overseeing services for the developmentally disabled, I saw a very large sample of people who were made environmentally disabled by deprivation of services in early childhood and school years. I have also seen young adults whose parents and foster providers refused to settle for low expectations form the skills necessary to be able to live in the community with minimal supports, while individuals with significantly higher IQ test scores require one on one just to go outside their (expensive) care setting.
It’s the classic doctrine of maximizing profits in the short run, while ignoring future costs that has dominated in this country for so long. “Why should I pay taxes to give some kid, who is never going to amount to anything, extra attention; hell, I’ve got to use that money to pay for my kid’s private schooling because the schools are so terrible.” (Rough edit of actual conversations I have been part of soooooo many times).
You pay now, or you pay later. And if you defer the payment, there will be interest charges. End of story. Delay too long, and you dig a hole you can’t climb out of.
True of infrastructure. True of education. True of care services for vulnerable populations. Especially true when young brains are still “plastic” and able to develop actual neuronal mass and density of interconnections needed to learn independence.
But tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy stimulate (cough Madoff cough) the economy. And who cares if a environmentally retarded kid has to make a living giving blow jobs, or stealing? Who cares if the v. v. expensive ($$$$$$$$) jails and prisons are the services we provide borderline intellectual functioning folks, it gets them out of sight.
Now about coupling those propositions to curb taxes with the ones to increase mandatory sentences…… oh, yeh baby, that’s the way to run a county.
Damn you Reagan and all the leeches you spawned. I spit on your grave.
By the way Jon, the UC@B study is hardly the “first time” the connection has been made. Prior ones just got buried or ignored.
By the way Jon, the UC@B study is hardly the “first time” the connection has been made. Prior ones just got buried or ignored.
Who here wants to grow old in a country run by under-educated, pissed off young adults? That’s what we’re going to get. And they might just be voters, too.
Democracy only works with a decently educated, informed, and engaged population. That’s not been the trend under the past administration.
Who here wants to grow old in a country run by under-educated, pissed off young adults? That’s what we’re going to get. And they might just be voters, too.
Democracy only works with a decently educated, informed, and engaged population. That’s not been the trend under the past administration.