Simon Rowley, paediatrician at Auckland Hospital and Brainwave Trustee, wrote this informative article for the July 2009 Chronicle. How Experience Shapes the Brain (2300)
The message that the first three years of life are extremely important for brain development is becoming more widely known. What may be less clear is how to put this knowledge into practice. Click on this link to read the article written by Keryn O’Neill, a Brainwave Presenter who has a Masters Degree in Psychology.
Researching and understanding the effects of non-parental care on young children is complex. Each child, each family, each situation is different. Data can only speak in statistically significant generalities. Yet once the findings from the research become robust and repeated it is important to report it so that parents can incorporate this information into their decisions, as well as advocate for improved policies and programmes. 
To date, many studies have examined the link between the stress hormone cortisol and the use of childcare in children. Because observed behaviours do not always reliably reflect a child’s stress level, physiological measures are seen as more accurate assessments of a child’s stress response in childcare. Humans produce cortisol even when they are not stressed. However, multiple pathways in the brain respond to threat or challenge by increasing activity of the HPA system that raises cortisol levels over normal baseline. Chronic exposure to stress early in childhood may be a risk for later affective and cognitive functioning……
There are many reasons why parents leave their children in the care of others. Brainwave Trust’s vision is that one day every child in New Zealand will get the best start in life because parents and the whole community understand and value the impact early experiences have on brain development, and ultimately on the healthy development of society.
Our role is to advocate on behalf of children so that all the adults that affect their lives know this science and are able to use this to inform the decisions they take on behalf of those children. What is easiest/best for the adults in the short term – be they parents, teachers, politicians, nannies etc – is not always what is best for the child. Read more
The Press, 19 July 2009
(Original version, before slight sub-editing)
On 9 July Chief Justice Sian Elias gave a speech that ignited national debate on New Zealand’s criminal justice system. Perhaps the speech and the subsequent debate will stimulate some new thinking to guide policy on our responses to criminality. Read more
 |
 |
