Earlier Nurture for Young Minds
A Times series concluding today depicts a revolutionary leap in our understanding of the 100 billion neurons, or brain cells, that govern our feelings and thoughts. Consciousness, scientists conclude, is not so much a place as a process, a narrative flowing from the interplay between all of those neurons. One of their key discoveries--that the brain is largely unformed at birth--has much to tell us about how we ought to raise our children.
Most of us tend to see infants as little people with genetically endowed personalities, if not the means to express them. In fact, new research shows that about 1,000 trillion neural links are made in the first few years of life. And it is experience, not genetics, that determines how most of these neurons will be wired.
Noting that a child’s brain quadruples in size from birth to age 3, thus laying down the architecture that will structure mind and mood for life, developmental psychologists and psychiatrists have begun to argue that traditional forms of child care fail to provide the kinds of challenging experiences that stimulate brain growth.
Their arguments rest on solid evidence. A recent study by psychologist Craig Ramey, for instance, revealed that infants raised in traditional care environments scored 15 to 30 IQ points below those raised in specialized child care. The specialized program consistently challenged the infants with building blocks and other exercises; exposed them to music, pictures and language; and reinforced their learning with close, affectionate attention.
Such “early intervention” programs are rare and extremely expensive, typically costing $10,000 yearly. Some promising solutions, however, are beginning to surface. In 1993, President Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act. Child care experts say the law, which requires most companies to give employees up to three months of unpaid, job-protected leave, has allowed many parents to give their infants a kind of close attention that would otherwise be impossible in our dual-income age.
Two more fundamental solutions are worth considering:
Offer public school programs beginning at age 3. Such programs, advocated most vocally by Yale University neurologist Edward Zigler, have a strong record of success in many European countries, particularly France.
Expand the flagging Early Head Start program. Currently, Head Start provides preschool programs to low-income children ages 3 and 4. Partly in response to new brain research, Congress created a pilot program in 1994 to provide education and day care to youngsters from birth to age 3. Support for Early Head Start, however, is proceeding at a painfully slow pace. Under the Clinton Administration’s budget for the 1997 fiscal year, for example, only 7,400 infants and toddlers will be added to its rolls between 1995 and 1997 budget years.
American universities are world models of excellence in higher education. It’s time for us to use this same expertise to educate our children when their minds are most open.
