Research

Research shows that:

1. Human development hinges on the interplay between nature and nurture.
• How humans develop and learn depends critically and continually on the interplay between nature (an individual’s genetic endowment) and nurture (the nutrition, surroundings, care, stimulation and teaching that are provided or withheld).
• The impact of environmental factors on the young child’s brain development is dramatic and specific, not merely influencing the general direction of development, but affecting how the intricate circuitry of the human brain is "wired".
2. Early care has important and long-lasting effects on how people develop and learn, how they cope with stress and how they regulate their own emotions.
• Babies thrive when they receive warm, responsive and early care.
• Warm and responsive care plays a vital role in healthy development.
• Individuals’ capacities to control their own emotional states appear to hinge on biological systems shaped by their early experiences and attachments.
• A strong, secure attachment to a nurturing adult can have a protective biological function, helping a growing child withstand the ordinary stresses of daily lives.
3. The human brain has a remarkable capacity to change but timing is crucial.
• The brain can be altered or helped to compensate for problems with appropriately timed, intensive intervention. In the first decade of life, the brain’s ability to change and compensate is remarkable.
• There are optimal periods of opportunity - "prime times" - during which the brain is particularly efficient at specific types of learning.
4. The brain’s plasticity also means that there are times when negative experiences or the absence of appropriate stimulation are more likely to have serious and sustained effects.
   • Early exposure to nicotine, alcohol and drugs may have more harmful and long lasting effects on young children than previously suspected.
   • Many of these risk factors are associated with or exacerbated by poverty. For children growing up in poverty, economic deprivation affects their nutrition, access to medical care and safety and predictability of their physical environment, the level of family stress and the quality and continuity of their day-to-day care.
5. Evidence amassed by neuroscientists and child development experts over the last decade support the wisdom and efficacy of prevention and early intervention.
   • Well-designed programs created to promote healthy cognitive, emotional and social development can improve the prospects and the quality of life of many children.
   • The efficacy of early intervention has been demonstrated and replicated in diverse communities across the nation.

Where Do We Go From Here:

1. First - plan ahead
   • The principle that guides medical practice should also apply to practices that affect children.
   • Kiddie Kollege encourages parents to fulfill their all-important role in providing and arranging for sensitive, predictable care for their children. Parents need more information about how the kind of care they provide affects their children's capacities.
   • Kiddie Kollege implements practices that support parents in forming strong, secure attachments with their infants in the early months and make a concentrated effort to improve the quality of early care and education.
2. Kiddie Kollege provides warm and timely care to overcome developmental problems
   • Warm, responsive care cushions children from the occasional bumps and bruises that are inevitable in everyday life.
   • If children are given timely and intensive help, many can overcome a wide range of developmental problems. To have greatest impact, interventions must be timely and must be followed up with appropriate, sustained services and support.
3. Kiddie Kollege promotes the healthy development and learning of every child of every age, every demographic description and every risk category.
   • If we miss opportunities to promote healthy development and learning, later remediation may be more difficult and expensive and may be less effective.