Brainwave releases issue four of our newsletter!

You can view or download the file here: Newsletter_4_web.pdf

We know conclusively that:

A baby’s brain is only 15% formed at birth with the majority of the remaining 85% being formed in the first three years of life.

• A child’s early experiences are critical for their brains to form the connections they need to progress.
• The experiences in these early years have a direct impact on how a child’s brain develops.A child’s brain is actually more active than an adult’s brain.

We know that both genes and experience are important. Consistent nurturing and positive rich experiences result in flexible, responsible, empathetic and intelligent members of society. Neglect, chaotic environments, violence and abuse can result in aggressive, remorseless and intellectually starved members of society.

Many of New Zealand’s staggering crime, mental illness and unemployment figures are related to early childhood trauma or neglect.

It is recognised and now scientifically proven that the early childhood years profoundly affect adult life and in turn affect the society we live in.

This website contains information relevant to every person in New Zealand. We have provided targeted information for different groups of people interested in this information and committed to giving New Zealand’s children the best possible start in life.

Attachment is the very essential bonding process that takes place between a baby and initially his mother and later other caring family members and friends. The first year of life is the most valuable for attachment to begin and positive physical touch is the most important of the sensory experiences that build it.

This article is excerpted from ‘Relationships and the Developing Mind’ By Dr Daniel Siegel.

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Health status of New Zealand children in the Auckland and Waikato Regions

An important recent publication by researchers for the Waikato District Health Board, ‘The Top 10 Report’, provides the first significant overview of indicators of child and youth health in the Auckland and Waikato regions based on data from 1995-1999( ).

40% of New Zealanders under 25 live in this area which includes the most deprived (South Auckland) and least deprived (North Shore to Wellsford) regions of New Zealand. Not surprisingly its findings generally confirm the well-established relationship between poor health outcomes, poverty and inequality.

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Backgrounder 20. Published March 2002
Innes Asher, Dee Parks, and Carolyn Dakin

Socio-economic inequalities acting during the foetal and childhood period cumulatively contribute to adult health inequalities. Cumulative disadvantage over the life course, and formal and informal institutional rules that discriminate against less powerful social groups, have been proposed … as the dominant factors in creating a cycle that locks in health inequalities … ” ( ).

” The primary determinants of disease are mainly economic and social, and therefore its remedies must also be economic and social. Medicine and politics cannot and should not be kept apart.” ( )

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